Gentrification Lyrics

Ryan Harvey

There's cranes inside the city
Standing up tall
Stacking metal and concrete
Like a poverty wall
Investors chose this neighborhood
To market, buy and sell
Now there' condos growing like weeds
Making the rent prices swell

The place that you were born in
The block where you we're raised
The gentrification monster came
And put it in it's grave
They built a big hotel on the corner
To bring the tourist in
And built a new prison wing
For the local kids

There's a difference between development
And gentrification
As there's a difference between a local shop
And a global corporation
Another shopping center
Full of big-box stores
Undercutting local business
They're gonna close their doors

That's gentrification

They saturate the media
With logos and names
You get lost inside that world
And you forget to point the blame
There's a process behind the building
That's based on market-rates
So they're pushing you out of your building
To make a clean-slate

Switching the colors in the neighborhood
By switching the class
Some big developer's getting rich
By sitting on his ass
You gotta back your bags and hit the road
Or maybe hit the streets
Not poor enough for hand-me-downs
Not rich enough to compete

There's a difference between development
And gentrification
As there's a difference between a local shop
And a global corporation
One builds a higher standard
That everyone enjoys
The other picks the pockets bare
And gives you back the coins

That's gentrification

In search of something new
Families moving out
Crossing over the imaginary line
To the next town
Borders defining counties
Borders defining states
Determining who profits
Determining who pays

They call it development
But it starts with destruction
First they demolish the neighborhood
Then they start construction
A violent cycle
Enforced by cops and debt
One manifestation
Of a global human threat

There's a difference between development
And gentrification
As there's a difference between a local shop
And a global corporation
As they market off the cities
Like products in a store
The rich get richer
And the poor stay poor

That's gentrification

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