Artist
Jaylen Ragudos
Category
Urban
Medium
Photography
Date
November 25, 2023
This set of images depicts the reconstruction and dissolution of a neighborhood that was predominantly inhabited by minorities. Their homes, their businesses, all upended by the rising costs of living due to the surge of tech jobs and people moving to Seattle for high-end jobs, in an area that was both culturally diverse and affordable.
Jaylen grew up in this neighborhood and many of the businesses and homes that he remembered from his childhood, staples of the “Soufend” community, were and are continuing to be torn down to make room for the individuals moving here for jobs that require higher education and pay extremely well.
Before Amazon and Microsoft “took over” Seattle, the Southend of Seattle was full of life, many small businesses where the workers looked like you, people from many backgrounds living in homes their families could afford, as well as being able to live in the close vicinity of your family.
Jaylen’s work shows the effects of gentrification in a once bustling area of life, that is now dark and desolate in many places due to businesses and homes being demolished in order to construct condominiums and apartment complexes to accommodate for all of the people moving to Seattle, “pushing out the native minorities” of the area.
These buildings are demolished and construction sometimes lasts years, contributing to the fossil fuels being put out into the atmosphere, confining more and more people into small places. More and more people are being pushed out of their homes and onto the streets.
Starting fires to keep warm, more and more garbage and debris on the streets. Jaylen has lived his whole life in the south-end of Seattle on Rainier and he has never seen so much garbage dumped everywhere before and there were not as many homeless people wandering around and setting up camp at the local parks.
Assets Used (Citations):
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