And of course it bears mentioning that my mere presence in this city—even in the parts of it I’ve long loved—is an act of painting over. Gentrification is undoubtedly a sin that comes with very tangible consequences. I have not loved to watch the way a city shifts at the whims of those with wealth and power. But the corner store I miss wasn’t always a corner store. The basketball courts where I learned to shoot were built upon land that looked different than it did when they were completed. Much of our living is an act of painting over an existence before ours, and my understanding of that
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