Let’s stop using soft words for a harsh process.
When people from wealthy areas “discover” a poorer region, we call it “development” or “revitalization.” But I’m starting to call it what it feels like: Domestic Colonization.
It’s a pattern, and it’s a destructive one. Once you see the playbook, you can’t unsee it.
First, the wealthy arrivals bring their high incomes and vast resources. They build infrastructure that can’t be resisted—shiny new condos, high-speed fiber, and trendy cafes. It all looks like progress.
But here’s the part we miss: extraction. The money they make and the profits from their new ventures don’t stay in the community. They’re wired right back to their primary homes. They are effectively stripping the areas they claim to “improve” of the valuable money that could be building real, local wealth.
And for the people who lived there all along? This “development” is a disaster. It prevents locals from progressing themselves.
Don’t take my word for it. Here is a direct account from a lifelong resident of Knoxville, Tennessee—a city experiencing this exact phenomenon:
“I have lived in Knoxville all my life and find myself incapable of getting ahead. Since COVID the cost of living here has skyrocketed. Rent is through the roof. Groceries are through the roof. The cost of goods and services are through the roof.
Adding insult to injury, while prices have increased, income from local businesses and employers have not. Some places pay $15 an hour but realistically, after federal taxes, you are bringing home little to nothing with that on a 40 hour shift. Most Tennesseans pay more than 46% of their monthly salary on rent or mortgage alone.
The folks in charge of this city are doing little to improve the lives of people who live here. Instead of encouraging positive economic development they promise another big company warehouse that pays low wages with few chances of getting a promotion.
Knoxville is changing and I’m not sure it’s for the better.”
This is what it looks like when you’re locked out of your own city.
You get locked into low-salary service jobs—now serving the new, wealthier residents—while your rent, groceries, and basic costs become impossible. Any path to advancement is blocked by the very “development” that was supposed to save everyone.
Now, here’s the conflict: development and economic activity are needed. No one wants their home to stagnate.
But we have to ask the hard questions. Is this model the only way?
We need development without extraction. We need progress that builds local wealth, not siphons it away to another zip code. If we don’t, we’re not “revitalizing” anything. We’re just willingly being colonized.