We got a quote in this deeply researched investigation of gentrification in our neighborhood – particularly the Edgewood Court Apartment complex, which is hated by developers and yuppies for being some of the only affordable housing in the area.

Other neighbors of Edgewood Court such as Marlon Kautz — one of the more divisive figures in Edgewood due to his affiliation with Copwatch of East Atlanta, an organization that monitors local police activity to prevent mistreatment within the community — are appalled by the thinking of some Arizona Lofts residents.

“The character of this neighborhood is very much defined by the people who have been here for a long time, and I think Edgewood Court is part of that,” Kautz says. “I think the perception of a lot of people moving into this neighborhood is that Edgewood Court is out of place. It’s this weird little enclave of poor black people in a neighborhood that is otherwise kind of ‘upscale and friendly.’ And that’s not my experience at all. My experience is that that is the neighborhood. That’s the neighborhood that I moved into, a mostly working-class black neighborhood.”