Just recently discovered a new place in an area where vacant lots and beat up 1-story light industrial have been turned into 4story res+1 retails, but it had that scrappy cool shoestring Portland vibe that I’ve been seeing less and less of every year

So I was like hey maybe this’ll work out, maybe like they say in DC and Seattle you can just build enough that the “cool” that was really a function of low rent has a chance to stay

Then I talked to the owner and his backstory was he was a skate punk who opened another place in the building back before the neighborhood changed – a burrito shop (kinda slow for the quality, tbh) that probably played off the local skate punk bars and lunch trade from the light industrial

And I realize that the landlord probably stands to make more off capital gains the more the neighborhood becomes an amenity-full destination than from squeezing every drop of rent

And on leaving I notice the first floor of one of the adjacent newbuilds is a Chipotle, so 🙃