Just two years ago I moved to this magnificent town where I felt more at home than anywhere else I have ever lived. Now I'm here, in San Diego, and although I'm still in the same state in this the year of Corona, just as trapped inside as I have been for the last seven months, nothing feels the same. Oakland vibrates with culture, passion, and beauty. It exists in a difficult transition between the blessing of intersectionality and the curse of gentrification, a state of simultaneous creation and destruction. Leaving now, I say goodbye to friends and family, but also beloved landmarks that are sure to be erased before my next return. I leave a piece of my heart with this Oakland, problematic as it may be, in hopes that one day a less traumatic solution to the Bay Area's housing crisis will be found by The Town.
