This dual set of images encourages the view to consider how one maps gentrification projects. I am thinking of work by Lindsey Dillon on Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard and the "Breathers of Bayview Point" (see Dillon 2015, 2017, 2018) on gentrification and the toxicity of blowing apart "ruined" buildings to renovate them into something new. Dillon's work examines both the social toxicity as well as the radiactive particles that become airborne. The displacement of BOPIC communities and high rent prices could perhaps be termed "toxic assets" of economic investiment, but the questions of who and what the toxic subject is/subjects are is not entirely clear. Mel Chen's work teases out these multuple implications of "toxic" in economic and ecological contexts. I wonder if this "mapping toxicity" might extend to thinking about the toxicity of the materials destroyed (asbestos would be a likely suspect) as well as the social aspects of toxic relations. The title of the photo essay also summons questions of possibility in ruin as it questions what "renovation" means and for whom. Gastón Gordillo's Rubble (2014) and Anna Tsing's musings on mushrooms and finding life in ruins (2015) might present interesting arguments to either weave as coincident or conflicting arguments for ruins/renovations that come with promises built into the social fabric of the city
