Utilize Your Angst

Dear Editor,
    As we move through the conversion from old, hip, affordable Austin to new, urban, elitist Austin, we encounter many atrocities. Citizens should be on the lookout for real estate agents descending on our neighborhoods, knocking on doors, and offering up big money to locals for their modest yet culturally significant homes. Foreigners are contacting our landlords and buying up our (affordable) homes right out from under us. Newcomers try and disguise themselves by posing as friendly out-of-towners with simple questions in an effort to secure local property. Locals now face serious challenges finding affordable housing in the midst of McMansions and condos. Not to mention during a time our country is headed into a recession. Austinites have experienced a rise in home robberies and crime in general as developers move through our neighborhoods with their demolition and construction crews, which largely consist of undocumented workers. We can thank our lackadaisical city government that is more concerned with the needless insults of an elderly official in a different county than with the city of Austin. Elitists conveniently preserve their own culture by leaving it behind in the interest of capturing and destroying ours. Austin needs real leadership from locals. Right now is the time to act. We shouldn't remain quiet during our home invasion. Even if you've lost hope – utilize your angst.