So, the La Times has finally discovered that gentrification is causing conflict...

I might not have picked up last Friday's LA Times at all, were it not for a post by boi From Troy (click on the header above for a link to his blog). While his politics and mine diverge on most points (although we seem to share an obsession with Matt Leinart), he reprinted part of a Column One story by John Glionna on the conflict in the Castro as gays find themselves at odds with new arrivals.

While the article did cover the issue in some depth, I found it kind of sloppy--and about 25 years late. From South Beach to West Hollywood to Greenwich Village to the Castro, changing demographics and the question of whether the ghetto has served its purpose and is obsolete have been fodder for many an argument.

I could go on for days with my own opinion without adding much to the debate. Suffice it to say that people who move to the Everglades and complain about the swamp come in all shapes and sizes (and colors) of stupidity. Decorum servbes a purpose, true, but when straights were reading the obits to get bargains on homes lovingly restored by gay men, the mainstream dailies hadn't yet noticed the issue...