“It’s just changed. It’s a bigger town feeling than it used to be.”

Edited by Rich Elliott.

Transcript for Getting Rich for My Blood

Living in Valpo’s been great. My kids were able to roam the city and skateboard and rollerblade, and they were active in school. So, community-wise it’s been a real positive experience. I’ve lived downtown for probably 30 years, and I love it. I am kind of on an island by myself here, so it’s like, I don’t have, well, until now, I didn’t have close neighbors. Everybody on this block is pretty quiet, you know, they kind of keep to themselves. You know, we say hi and things like that, but I don’t think anybody interacts with each other that I know of.

I think it’s getting rich for my blood. I loved it when there were little shops downtown, and now it’s all restaurants, and for the most part I can’t really afford those restaurants. You know, maybe the coffee shops or the sandwich shops, but to go out for dinner downtown, I can’t afford that. I know that their idea is to have it a very community-based, you know, where lots of people from all over Valpo come downtown, and I think that’s good, I mean, I love Central Park Plaza. It’s just changed. It’s a bigger town feeling than it used to be.

When you have more wealthy residents moving into a neighborhood, I think there’s gonna be a difference, there’s gonna be a break between the neighborhood. Cause like, you know, you look around the street, you know, there are lower-income, middle-income, you know, hardworking people, and then you’ve got a $600,000 house built next door, or down by Campbell where they’re going to build the townhouses that they say is affordable housing, but they’re gonna come in at $300,000 a unit.

So it’s not a conflict as in there’s not especially hard feelings yet, but when the new development, the townhouses and this big house, they didn’t think my backyard was good enough, and rather than coming to me to ask questions about my property, they went to the records and went to Project Neighbors and I felt that was an invasion of privacy. You know, I’m not saying they’re not nice, but I don’t know how it will turn out. And basically, my feelings are, it’s people that have money versus somebody that doesn’t have money.

Respect. You know I think that’s the biggest thing. And the ability to get along, not be critical… I’m trying to think of the word, and I can’t think of it. I think people need to take care of their own property and their own house, but not be so concerned about what is across the street. Sometimes people can’t do what other people can do, and I think that has to be taken into consideration.

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