The store originally opened its doors in
1912, and 100 years later it was closing down.
Two weeks ago, I popped in at The Golden
Plate in Albert Road. It was the first time that I had been
there in almost thirty years.
A few days later I saw a post on the web
that The Colden Plate was closing down at the end of February.
After 57 years they were given a month’s notice to
vacate the premises.
The new owners of the building actually said that ‘They
do not add value to the area.’
All of this is put down to the gentrification
of Woodstock.
Let’s face it, Woodstock, and especially
but not exclusively Lower Woodstock, is a dump.
Dilapidated and rundown buildings are the order of the day
and the place is infested with drug dealers, drug addicted
petty thieves, prostitutes and all nature of lowlife.
I am all for upgrading and improving the
quality of life in such areas, but in my book gentrification
is an ugly word.
Gentrification is purely a matter of the
rich getting richer at the expense of the poor.
Gentrification is the process of investing
in the upgrade of a building or area, with the express purpose
of offering a better standard of life to those who can afford
it.
And these gentrificators don’t give
a shit about what happens to those who can’t afford
it.
Even if they had been there for a thousand years, who cares
what happens to them or where they will go, as long as they
get the fok out of the area.
For years now, people of all races have
been buying up these dilapidated buildings and dwellings
for a song, in the name of ‘investing in property.’
.
Like their predecessors, they had absolutely no intention
of upgrading or improving the quality of life in the area.
They were not even interested in painting the buildings,
let alone fix the plumbing, leaking roofs, rotting window
and doorframes etc.
They were quite content to milk meagre rentals out of desperate
tenants to pay the bond – and in that way actually
pay for most of the building.
These property investors knew that sooner
or later the gentrificators with the really big bucks would
come along, prepared to pay them double or triple what they
originally paid for it.
Right now, the process is speeding up in
Woodstock, and the rich will get richer.
