A skyline full of construction equipment has become synonymous with change and displacement.
I’ve been driving in and out of Boston since the 70s. For my whole adult life, Boston's economy is one of the lifelines that has helped me to live in a rural town that values connection, education and community. In recent years I’ve been noticing the increasing ubiquity of cranes in the sky above our fair city.
"... In high-cost cities like Seattle and San Francisco, which have seen income inequality rise along with new development, residents study the cranes like tea leaves.
“You know your neighborhood is being gentrified when … the only thing that outnumbers the construction cranes dotting the skyline are think pieces on where the old San Francisco went,” reads a 2014 SFGate post. San Francisco’s Anti-Eviction Mapping Project’s oral history of Bay Area change, “Narratives of Displacement,” opens with an image of a city besieged by construction equipment: “Today … cranes litter the horizon as the city gains international attention for skyrocketing rents and exponentially growing income inequality.”
Article: What the ‘Crane Index’ Says About Your Changing City