Nicole M. Luongo
1 min readOct 3, 2020

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This is simple yet profound. Thank you. You're right to eulogize your neighbourhood before it's transformed through gentrification, during which police will likely become more omnipresent. I spend my time in two very distinct neighbourhoods: Kitsilano, a bougie, mostly-White community in Vancouver, B.C. (physically "home," for now), and the Downtown Eastside, which is referred to by most as a 'war zone' and is also the only space I've ever found true community (real home). Police presence in the latter is ferocious, given that there's an open-air drug market, extreme poverty, and a mostly-Indigenous population, *and* we do everything we can to keep from calling the police. It's wild that so many people can't comprehend that police = danger, especially for marginalized folk, but I've been somewhat heartened by others' willingness to have these conversations when they previously wouldn't have. We owe a debt of gratitude to Black resistance efforts for that.

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Nicole M. Luongo
Nicole M. Luongo

Written by Nicole M. Luongo

Author. Academic. Mad Woman | Critical takes on health and illness | Pre-order my book: https://www.amazon.ca/Becoming-Nicole-Luongo/dp/177133813X

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