I find it astonishing that folks, including our mayor, so gleefully celebrate the idea that Monopoly is creating an edition of the game based on Portland, Maine.

It’s astoundingly tone-deaf. Here we have a city with many, many folks struggling to find affordable housing, many folks unhoused and many folks forced to leave the city they’ve grown up in because they can’t afford housings costs. And then, when Monopoly – a game where one wins by obtaining property, raising rents and taking everyone else’s money – comes along offering to base an edition on our increasingly unaffordable city, we’re somehow supposed to see this as a good thing?

I suppose some folks will say, “It’s just a game.” And that’s true: Monopoly is just a game. But it’s a game that incentivizes obtaining and owning as much as possible in order to maximize returns to yourself at the inevitable expense of everyone around you. It normalizes this concept.

Does this not sound a little too real to anyone else? A little too close to home?

Joe Walsh
Portland

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