We have lived where we are, for a long time, maybe too long. We have no choice really, we have stuck it out as a matter of practicallity, and hope soon to have a chance to be "impractical".

In the meantime, we have seen some changes in the demographics of this complex. In the beginning, it was a mix, mainly white and Hispanic. Then suddenly we found ourselves the only white, English speaking family here. We endured a manager (Latino) who was encouraging the Latino tenants to harass us endlessly, he attempted to keep our kids indoors and away from the Latino kids. We thwarted those efforts and he left the job in the middle of the night.

It has been a long haul since that, and eventually things have calmed, current tenants have realized they were better off leaving us alone. A new landlord has changed things too. He started out mild, and somewhat complacent, but recent times he has become fully fed-up with the group that was here, he knows they are mainly here illegally and also have brought a huge amount of crime to his complex, plus increased city scrutiny.

We have our own little, self-built haven in our backyard. My teen son, and I (while my husband was hard at work), several years back, built a fence to section off our yard. In the middle of the duplex shared yard, there is now a hedge (landlord did this), and two panels for final privacy we put in.

We have a family "tradition" that when it is not raining out (western Oregons winter and spring), we have a fire pit (ok, so it is an old metal washtub on our patio with pea gravel in it) we will have a nice little fire in, after dinner usually, maybe roast a marshmallow or two.

A few nights ago, we were out there, quietly sitting, enjoying the crackle of the fire and the lack of rain, when the group next door came out to sit outdoors too. As they sat, we could hear them speaking in Spanish, but then clear as a bell, in clear English, one guy chimed in "man, we're getting overrun with white people here all of the sudden". We knew he said this for our benefit, but I signaled to my son and daughter to ignore them, maybe even laugh (of course this same guy will turn his vehicle around in a limited area and use our front yard to back into and then peel out leaving muddy gouges in the grass, and he always looks back and laughs).

What this guy was refering to was the current changing demographics of our complex. We have had a sudden unflux of white families moving in. We have wondered if it was in desperation as the apartments, aside from the five duplexes in the back where we are, are just awful. Lack of jobs and evictions I presumed, this landlord does not do credit checks or make reference calls.

Our mouthy neighbor showed me, really what I knew all along, they have wanted this to be a Latino only complex, they cannot stand that their own have been moving out (we have heard many going home) and in those vacancies, Americans have moved in, something they simply cannot stand to see.