Thoughts on Gentrification and Manners
Last night’s debate on gentrification went by with laudable interested discussion. As a moderator, there are a few things that tick me off, and they are mostly a question of impolite audience members. It is amazing to me that people will talk in full voice in a private conversation at an event while debaters on the stage are speaking. I have noticed that during the debate, proponents of the more “left-y” side of the discussion tend to be the more unruly ones, barging in with guffaws and heckling, seemingly unaware that they are not welcome to take part in the act unless called upon. I suppose their extreme democratic notions make them oblivious to the restictions imposed by elitist rules of decorum. The trend of the philosophical and political allegiances of the misbehaved is not a total one, though. The aforementioned yakkers, inconsiderate of the neighbors’ unwelcome attention, were certainly conservatives.