Variance Hearing

[Verse 1]
You trace the crane's arc on the cold glass of the MARTA bus, Tuesday past.
Past the BP on Campbellton, a future built to never last.
They got the blueprints for your ghost, a new zoning for your grief,
Plotting grids on every memory you kept for your belief.
It's a conditional use permit for the man you're gonna be,
Swapping out the brick-and-mortar for some glass you'll never see.
You map the shadow of the high-rise on the asphalt where you stood,
Eminent domain on the coordinates of your entire childhood.

[Pre-Chorus]
And you keep drafting up the letters that you'll never send 'em,
A thousand-word addendum on the state you found the trends in.
The latency between the groundbreaking and the ground you're ceding,
You can hear the foreman whisper, "it's the progress that you're needing."

[Chorus]
This ain't a skyline, it's a threat assessment in the making.
This ain't a new home, it's a foundation that you're breaking.
They call it 'redevelopment,' you call it a hostile takeover.
Protect the schematics of the city 'fore the game is over.

[Verse 2]
You remember when the block was zoned for families, not for yield,
The after-school cyphers in the West End field.
Now the transit corridor's a weapon, and the tax abatement's worse,
Every coffee shop's a dead drop for a gentrifying curse.
You pay the price of access for a view you can't afford,
A public-private partnership you never voted for.
That building's just a server farm for someone else's assets,
You're just the infrastructure buried under new aesthetics.

[Pre-Chorus]
And you keep drafting up the letters that you'll never send 'em,
A thousand-word addendum on the state you found the trends in.
The latency between the groundbreaking and the ground you're ceding,
You can hear the foreman whisper, "it's the progress that you're needing."

[Chorus]
This ain't a skyline, it's a threat assessment in the making.
This ain't a new home, it's a foundation that you're breaking.
They call it 'redevelopment,' you call it a hostile takeover.
Protect the schematics of the city 'fore the game is over.

[Bridge]
(Beat cuts to a single, fuzzy, distorted guitar chord that hangs with feedback)
YOU THINK YOU CAN REZONE A SOUL?
The paperwork was filed back in 'ninety-six, you know.

[Outro]
Just another variance hearing.
Case dismissed. The motion's clearing.