Sydney is an amazingly well laid out city. The suburbs are integrated into a network of trains and the main lines go through Circular Quay, showing off the harbor bridge and opera house. This serves as a constant reminder that you are in Sydney and no where else. The Central Business District exists in multiple layers, reminiscent of dreams in which rooms progress into more rooms. What you originally thought was an underground food court becomes a shopping mall --> massage studio --> train station. When you finally decide to exit the indoor labyrinth you realize that you are four blocks from where you entered, as if the entire city that takes place above ground also exists below.
My friends out here live in Newtown, the once-bad-neighborhood turned cool-artsy-counterculture-oasis. Newtown was an affordable place until gourmet restaurants bloomed and housing prices skyrocketed due to pure desirability. Even if you have never been to Newtown, I know you know exactly what I am talking about. The other day my friends were jokingly scheming to bring crime back in order to create a catalyst for reverse gentrification.
My friend Daniel once told me his theory of Gentrification by Coffee Shop and I still think about it all the time. This is roughly how he explained it:
So South Berkeley runs into North Oakland right? And South Berkeley used to be the sketchy transition area between nice Berkeley and ghetto Oakland. Then they built Sweet Adeline (this really cool coffee shop-bakery) in North Oakland. Now people bring there kids here, they ride their bikes here, and walk their dogs here. Regulars come here every morning to get coffee. Everyone wants to live walking distance from their local coffee shop so, of course, young couples start to move here. Slowly North Oakland becomes gentrified and the transition area moves further into Oakland, just past Sweet Adeline because Sweet Adeline is the last coffee shop before copious liquor stores and run down buildings, but once they build another coffee shop...
I apologize for the digression. Please forgive me.
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