When my wife and I bought our house on 11th Street in Columbia Heights eight years ago, our friends and family were skeptical. My suburban parents were diplomatically silent on their first visit. A friend who had spent his whole life in New York thought we were going to get shot.
Dont worry, I told them. This neighborhood is getting better.
We had studied the neighborhoods of D.C. well before moving across the Potomac from Alexandria, and we knew Columbia Heights was on the verge of a renaissance. We expected nothing on the scale of what we got, though: the massive DCUSA shopping complex, the birth of a smorgasbord of upscale eateries, and an alarming number of coffeehouses.
Gentrification is a good problem for a city to have. It means that areas in economic crisis are recovering, and that the tax base is growing. That means more services and more protection against crime, resulting in a safer, happier community.
But gentrification is still a problem. When new people and businesses come in, those who were already there are marginalized, or may be forced out due to rising costs. While some of our early neighbors who owned their houses were thrilled to sell them at $600,000 or more, those who were paying rent were squeezed, and some had to abandon the neighborhood.
When Anthony Williams became mayor in 1999 after 20 years of Barry-Pratt mismanagement, the accountant mayor focused on rebuilding the D.C. economy. Eight years later, Adrian Fenty made a pitch to the those who had been hurt by the rush toward renewal, but in office, he has generally followed Williamss pro-business line.
While both mayors economic policies have been good for the city, critics rightly ask if the focus on growth has been a bit monomaniacal.
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DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
7 comments:
We could only hope that Church St. would experience such a problem. The entire city of Salisbury could use this problem. Lets start with political officials since they put us in this mess.
Washingto D.C. has never been effected by economic hard times.
The suburbs also don't suffer like the rest of the nation. The Feds. are responsible for this.
It's a tough problem, but this is exactly why you prepare yourself to OWN when you are young. Learn a trade or go to college and commit to excellence. Keep in mind these renters got "squeezed" before the recession.
I live in a neighborhood in the Oxon Hill section of PG county(literally right over the border from SE DC). My neighborhood consists of SFH, most of which the same families have lived there since the 1970's. Property values have risen significantly in the past 10-15 years. Outside of literally "one bad house", we have amazing neighbors. And yes, we are the only "white" family in the neighborhood. But we were welcomed with open arms. We bought a place that had been bought and sold many times, and never really taken care of. I constantly get neighbors coming up to me while I'm tending to the yard, thanking me for improving the neighborhood and home values. Anyone who considers the "gentrification" of DC a problem, clearly never saw a city/borough before it. Think about visiting the Chinatown district before the Verizon center was built? I think not. The rif-raf will eventually be the fringe, instead of having free reign.
Why should people be made to feel guilty over gentrification? Obviously the previous residents of the neighborhood didnt give a crap about how bad it declined or they would have turned it around before outside interests had to come in and clean it up.
same problem as here in salisbury
the barries and mike dunns all want to gentrify and push the old businesses and the old residents out, rather than make the slumlords clean up and rent responsibly.
thanks for the oxon hill writer who explained that you don't need an upscale coffee bean and a place devoid of colored folk to make a good neighborhood.
there are good folk on the westside and they aught not to be run off because the limo librals want a boo-tique.
To the writer of the article.... And your problem is?
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