Fort Worth, TX — 2026
Classics become Content
Photography & Poetry Questioning Modern Life and Luxury Living
Project by Ed Cichon, The Mad Habitatter

As a digital nomad, I am implicated in the changing face of gentrifying neighborhoods across the world. In my travels, I’ve seen the same soulless façades in city after city.

I’ve been dropped into the middle of a Fort Worth neighborhood that seems to be developing at a rapid pace. My place is a little old and a little sad, but it’s surrounded by fellow complexes in ruin on the fringes of gentrification.

Over the last two weeks, I’ve tried to bear witness to what I’ve seen with my photography and poetry. It seems there are no good and easy choices left in an era of such rapid change.

I am critical of the options before me because these options aren’t truly what I desire. What I want is unaffordable and impossible: a small house in a cool part of town with a garden.

For now, if I can’t accept the herding and the straight line of life and development, at least I can make art out of it.

00 I feel the desire to belong here
All bikes on balconies and
Ninety degree niceties
Modern day living in luxury
I feel it, too
Imagining an easy life here
The walkability
The squeaky clean fantasy
Absolved of all accountability
I desire an address to inspire
consumed lease today
Fort Worth, TX — Near West 7th — 2026
Gentrified street at dusk under storm clouds, Fort Worth
Coming to a street near you
for lease inquiries resist / persist
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
I am a listless and lost emissary of the wild gods whose domain seems to be eminently shrinking I see vast cityscapes and highways designed to accelerate systems of wealth transfer to the richest among us and to keep the wild world classified as a natural resource Curated conifers and commodity crops pave the road to an empty Eros-less existence Land Rover dealers as harbingers of a hyperborean Hel I long for a past that never was, a wholly different present, and a future that feels impossible Cozy cottagecore fantasies of tending and caring for my local flora, fauna, and fungi from a humble home Not a million dollar monstrosity lined in AstroTurf Synapses flare to connect the dots between what I see as redeemable and what is affordable A late capitalist cost of living nightmare where Cozy cottages are available only to those who are clamoring to construct the hungry ghosts of data centers In the face of encroaching concrete jungles and network necro states, Say I finally and successfully retreat to the forests, Shell out my sad savings to literally buy a few more years for me and some photosynthesizing friends, Go full animist monk mode and surround myself with the web of life, What then? This space intentionally left blank Web willing, May I be a Siddhartha Gautama A Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone Who recognizes the calamity of the concealing creation before him Who turns his back on it all To watch the last living songbird Perch on his fingertip And sing a joyful lament in search of its dead mates, now lost forever to eternity Knowing it was us who wrought this Just so America's Best Contacts and Eyeglasses can have more freedom to move around the world than monarch butterflies
Fort Worth, TX — Near West 7th — 2026
An intersection with buildings in Fort Worth, one of which is broken
Watch it happen in real time
run by our desires
Classics Become Content
I finished Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse this week Reread it Loved it years ago Loved it as return New things opened New highlights A modern classic And as soon as it was over I jumped on Amazon To find my next read The next book Onto the next Kamala and Kamaswami Govinda and Gotama Both Siddharthas Already behind me Onto the next Must give five stars Must find another book Must check boxes Must consume content
Fort Worth, TX — Near West 7th — 2026
CityVet at Night
03 the ads have sunk their teeth into me
Sycophantic Ads
Sycophantic ads stalk me home and harass my attention like hellhounds They stare me down with wide, gnarling smiles Vampiric phantasms on blood moon mornings That swell and swirl within my pocket Statistics from a stroll stitched together like some unholy cyber Frankenstein With the aid of a small dose of Thanatos, I question function And how a circulatory system works when powered by coagulation Sink your teeth into me And drain me dry, CityVet, I don't even have a pet
SURVEIL ME,
SAURON
Fort Worth, TX — Near West 7th — 2026
04 out for a slow walk
Slow Walk at Sunrise (Edit)
In a world where we say only individual choices change the system My slow steps and soggy straws Don't seem to be stopping those sequential strikes overseas The leeching leviathans leveling law Are the ones who need to go for a slow walk at sunrise Not me
Slow walk at sunrise staring down West 7th Street
Fort Worth, TX — Near West 7th — 2026
Option A - peering between the curtains at a dying complex
05 which chirps are for you?
Would You Prefer?
Would you prefer The chirps of a choir of crickets in the grass with the sound of a bubbling fountain Or the chirps of an abandoned smoke detector echoing out from the cadaver of a condo The harbinger of the sterile stench of hotel lobbies with their own imitation Chihuly
Option B - a hotel lobby with its own imitation yellow Chihuly
Fort Worth, TX — Near West 7th — 2026
An empty, haggard field behind a brand new build
So this is progress
This Is Development
Gentrified neighborhoods bordered by purveyors of Porsches and Range Rovers The same two-toned apartment buildings with the same angles and lines That could be anywhere Are Everywhere The same wide sans serif typefaces appoint each address The same slathered shades of white and gray That could be anywhere Are Everywhere A goldendoodle Stands sentry on a balcony Looking towards the cold of the north In a city full of change A small house stands in defiance and decay White siding peeling Air conditioner hanging sideways out of a window So this is progress This is development
An alleyway between two new builds
Another alleyway between another two new builds
I GET IT
WE ALL HAVE TO GO SOMEWHERE
AND HOUSING ISN'T GETTING ANY CHEAPER
KEEPING THE COST AS LOW AS POSSIBLE
MEANS MORE FUNDING FOR MORE HOUSING
BUT DOES IT ALL HAVE TO BE SO
SOULLESS?
Fort Worth, TX — Monticello — 2026
07 but not herded just yet
The Missing Middle Happens
The missing middle happens Luxury living in the heart of —— Next to an old neighborhood plaza That likely felt cutting edge sixty years ago Now existing merely out of habit Quaint cottages turned to Pilates studios The new builds, though, All concrete and pavement Four stories high The clanging of steel The voice of large trucks in reverse The sounds of dreams manifesting And collapsing No room left for love Of nature Of grass and of green And it's happening Everywhere But where to put all of us? Mere blocks away Those who got lucky enough to have the true luxuries of lush lawns dotted with stately stone fountains and majestic magnolias Can have them On winding roads named Monticello While the rest of us Are herded into luxury living in the heart of —— Like cattle An endless story Seemingly on repeat And all I can do Is bear witness And be herded
An empty lobby at night, luxury living in the heart of —— Majestic magnolias, friendly photosynthesizer The lucky ones got large mansions
Fort Worth, TX — Near West 7th — 2026
Another popped up street with new builds near West 7th
Yet another popped up street
A Constant Rush
A constant rush To buy and to do To check those boxes Achieve those goals Attack it like a beast Like a boss And I'm no different Classics become content On these popped up streets that all look the same
Fort Worth, TX — Near West 7th — 2026
Peering behind the curtain to the destruction of a complex
Should I mourn a dying complex?
Ecosystem Modifiers
We are ecosystem modifiers Upright beavers not aware of their powers Compelled to build "addresses to inspire" On top of old apartment cadavers Without thought of other occupiers Who may be friendly photosynthesizers Helping not just themselves thrive here
Devouring and destruction of a complex in action
The doomed complex under storm clouds at dusk
A gated dying community
An empty hive-mind board room
LEASING OPPORTUNITIES TODAY
STEP ON IN
JOIN THE HIVE
MOVE. HERE. BELONG.
COME ON JOIN US
JOIN US
JOIN US
Fort Worth, TX — Near West 7th — 2026
A winding street at night with new builds and a typical typeface on a mailbox
The circle continues
/o (Stop the Circle)
It's the straight line of life Forests make way for Farms make way for Single family homes make way for Condominiums make way for Luxury living in the heart of makes way for /o