To the Editor:

Re “Let’s Subscribe to That Sofa” (Sunday Styles, June 9):

It’s true that moving from place to place feels like a fundamental pillar of millennials’ generational expectations. We can’t help chasing the better job or following the romantic partner or social circle. And the concept of renting clothes and furniture wherever we are, rather than being tied down by formal purchases, may sound liberating and even healthily anti-materialistic.

But it’s also another way for us sybaritic Americans to forget we’re part of a community. Every city, town or neighborhood needs the people who move there to buy from local stores rather than renting from national chains; to care about local issues; to settle in and invest in the place; and to make themselves at home, instead of having an extended hotel stay.

This local investment is what can halt powerful gentrification forces, not the eventual and continuous movement encouraged by a rental economy.

Isara Krieger
Oakland, Calif.

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