Gentrification: the process of turning a delapidated crime ridden garbage infested hell hole into a reasonably nice place to live
Before my inner sense of How Much To Quote got to me, I thought of quoting up to that line.
Yes, it's a gay partner, and the fact does get mentioned later on as a reason why Kopff And His Partner moved there:
[...] Kopff and his partner bought the house after considering a wealthier and whiter Oakland neighborhood they found too elitist.
"We're a gay couple. We can be discriminated against as well. We wanted to find a place where we could kind of melt in a little better," Kopff said.
I'm not totally clear on what he means.
Is he afraid of neighborhood discrimination? Never having being part of a gay couple that moved to a wealthier and whiter part of Oakland, I don't know for certain, but I'm a local and doubt that they'd get much systemic local discrimination if they'd moved uphill. This is a progressive and tolerant region, and if anyone doesn't like it, we'll drum them out of the city.
Or does he mean (and "elitist" makes me think so) that he expects more solidarity and shared purpose in an area where other people have experienced discrimination?
Oh, he got his wish.
I don't have a small vocabulary, especially when it comes to food, but I had to look up "patisserie."
And actually having been historically closer to Berkeley, where I've lived, worked, and gone to college, I could've easily told him that "undiscovered" has Colonialist Overtones and shouldn't be used like this by a Privileged White Person.
(But on the other hand, "food desert" is a well-known term at the White House, where no one is privileged.)