{"id":1196,"date":"2021-04-14T06:00:53","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T06:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uberlin.co.uk\/gentrification-archives-uberlinuberlin\/"},"modified":"2021-04-14T06:00:53","modified_gmt":"2021-04-14T06:00:53","slug":"gentrification-archives-uberlinuberlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uberlin.co.uk\/gentrification-archives-uberlinuberlin\/","title":{"rendered":"Gentrification Archives : \u00fcberlin\u00fcberlin"},"content":{"rendered":"
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October 25, 2013<\/abbr><\/h5>\n
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Berlin: Love it or leave it<\/a><\/h3>\n

by Guest Blogger<\/span><\/h4>\n
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Sick of all those expats complaining about how Berlin is “so over”? So is\u00a0<\/em>Hannah Graves<\/a><\/strong>, the writer of this heartfelt article, and snapper of the accompanying – hipster\u00a0<\/em>friendly \";)\" – photos. Quit whining and read on…<\/em>
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\"399751_10151011221161736_987169636_n\"<\/a>Last week I stood outside a tiny bar in Milan. It has a basement, which has become one of the last places in the city to put on small gigs. Talk turned to Berlin and, something I hear a lot these days, how it \u201cused to be<\/em> amazing.\u201d Hang on just one moment my Milanese friends…<\/p>\n

You\u2019re standing there telling me how Berlin is \u201cso ten years ago\u201d, while drinking a plastic cup of beer that cost you five Euros? FIVE EUROS?! I\u2019m not going to try and brew the very brilliance of Berlin down to the cost of a beer, but this makes me laugh. I\u2019m tired of being told that I missed the party, or worse, that I\u2019m one of the reasons why the party’s finally over.<\/p>\n

Every day my Facebook feed is filled with embittered articles posted by expat friends that attempt to evaluate exactly why Berlin is no longer the creative, cost-effective centre of liberal attitudes and quality living that it used to be. I read, I yawn, and I wonder what it must be like to fall so out of love with a place that clearly used to inspire so much in these people.<\/p>\n

\"523641_10151083310836736_1947451326_n\"These articles<\/a> read like letters to a lost lover, one that moved on and left the writer feeling, well, left behind. \u201cBerlin, how could you, what happened to you? Why are you spending time with these hipsters, with their money and haircuts? You\u2019ve changed Berlin, you\u2019ve changed. Well I\u2019ve moved on too\u201d. Only they haven\u2019t. Clearly they haven\u2019t. They watch the city grow and evolve and they obviously resent it. The advice I\u2019d give any of these disenfranchised expats? Move with the times or move on.<\/p>\n

If you arrived in Berlin at a time when rents were much cheaper, and you felt like you had a monopoly on the place because you were part of a tiny minority brave enough to move here, then Bravo and Hooray for you. If in your mind you partied here as a pioneer ten years ago but don\u2019t want to now, don\u2019t go blaming Berlin for changing – when, over a decade, it\u2019s pretty certain that you changed too.<\/p>\n

I KNOW I\u2019ve only been in Berlin for a year, but I\u2019ve been through the intoxicating effect<\/a> this city can have and already come out the other side. Admittedly it\u2019s not all amazing all of the time. Berlin isn\u2019t without its problems, and I can understand the importance of being aware of the wider socio-economic impac<\/a>t certain changes are having on the city and the people that live in it. I just don\u2019t feel the need to let it influence my individual experience of the place to the extent that I\u2019d encourage others not to follow me here. That\u2019s not my hipster expat ignorance – it’s my commitment to making the best life I can for myself in an environment unlike any other I\u2019ve personally experienced.<\/p>\n

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Many seem to argue that therein lies the problem – that people like me move here and expect certain things from a city they don\u2019t contribute to, that it\u2019s all about personal experience rather than shared consciousness. My own experience of Berlin is quite the opposite. I moved here to work a job I love<\/a> but that I cannot afford to do in my home country. I have been fortunate enough to meet a huge variety of interesting and creative people,<\/a> all contributing to the diverse culture offered by Berlin.<\/p>\n

I’ve come to realise that If you don\u2019t immerse yourself in the spirit of Berlin then it isn\u2019t any fun to live here, and if all you do is have fun then you don\u2019t REALLY live here. That\u2019s the real appeal of Berlin, that you have to take the rough with smooth just the same as you would anywhere else. Only here, for me, riding out the rough times is ten times more tolerable.<\/p>\n

I have friends who have come and gone, their love affair ended. They had their reasons; it was time to move on. Personally, I no longer feel the need to continually bang on to anyone who will listen about just how AMAZING Berlin is, but I also can\u2019t imagine living anywhere else. If in the future we fall out of love, I hope I\u2019ll have the maturity not to bitch to any other (un)interested party about how Berlin just doesn\u2019t do it for me anymore. I\u2019ll accept that it\u2019s time to move on, and do so graciously. But not to a place where four beers cost me twenty Euros.<\/p>\n

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If you enjoyed this, then you should definitely check out “London: The Break Up” by Marie J. Burrows<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you didn’t, let us know why in the comments below!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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