The Five Horsemen of the (Social) Apocalypse

Pre-Cleansing (West Berkeley, early 1990’s; photo: Hamish Reid).

Those five smooth horsemen of the quiet apocalypse, reliably signaling the social cleansing of a neighbourhood nowadays:

• Vegan restaurants;
• Hipster food trucks;
• Yoga studios;
• Small local coffee chains selling obscure over-priced second world hipster coffees (in the SF Bay Area, think “Philz” or “Blue Bottle”);
• Places with the words “organic”, “boutique” or “artisanal” in their names (see all of the above).

I doubt that these really need any amplification at all to those of you who (like me) have undergone the process.