Welcome to the Northside

Mikey Gonzales is a Chicano young professional who recently bought a home in his rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. His neighborhood, The Northside has a long history of housing immigrants and working class families, and has been a hub of the Latino community since the 1940's. In 1941 Mikey's great-grandparents were the first Chicano family on their block, in what was then, an all Italian Northside. Mikey is a fourth Generation Northside homeowner, but due to rising property values, he only got in by the skin of his teeth. For the last few years, Mikey and his family have watched developers scrape early 1900's craftsman brick bungalows to build modern condos. Taquerias are being replaced with high-end chef-driven restaurants and yoga studios have taken the place of bilingual bookstores. Historic murals are being painted over, renters are being priced out of their homes, and longtime friends are being forced to say goodbye to one another. With new residents comes new perspectives, values, and cultural nuances. Mikey finds himself caught between the nostalgia of his past and the reality of his future. As Mikey navigates the day-to-day in a place that is so familiar but not, we learn valuable lessons about the spirit of the neighborhood, dynamics of neighborhood change, and the innate human need to belong somewhere.