I don’t know where your village is, Kat of Magik, but it sounds magical. You wrote about hope when much seems hopeless.

I get what you are saying about homogenized places and people. Our University city once had an eclectic and funky downtown — a feminist bookstore, a crystal shop, a Jamaican restaurant, art galleries, hole-in-the wall bars, a Cuban bakery, and many small shops with huge personalities. Many University students worked in those places. The outer neighborhoods were filled with less-expensive apartments fashioned out of homes built 40 or more years ago. It was a place befitting youth and hope and the future.

Then, corporate America moved into town. Whole blocks were purchased, rents raised, shops closed. Now, about three years after the invasion, our town is tasteless. The personality it once had is gone. In place of all the interesting shops and diverse food-offerings, we now have buildings 4, 5, 6 stories high. The top floors are apartments with sky-high rents that only the wealthy students can afford. The bottom floors are bland chain stores and restaurants.

The older homes that were once apartments have been decimated or gentrified. The students who must work downtown to survive can no longer afford to live there.

Very little remains of what gave our city its charm and charisma. It was once a warm baguette or sweet Massa Sovada and is now Wonder bread.