I blog...because the news is interesting.

Monday, March 19, 2007

The Far Side of Gentrification

A few weeks ago, the Washington Post published a new article about the H street corridor in downtown DC. The article detailed the thoughts and opinions of the historical residents, who had seen H street through riots and a depressed economy, and spoke with the new residents who had moved to H street after the city slated the area for economic revival.

What interested me more than the article was the surrounding chat about gentrification, proctored through one of the Washington Post’s “live online” sessions (linked in the title above). The discussion quickly dissolved into an argument about the events at a local bar, where some new residents picked up some of the sidewalk chalk sitting in a decorative basket and began drawing on the tables.

The black proprietor objected to them using the chalk. The white party at the table asked why they couldn’t draw with the chalk, since you generally use chalk to draw. The proprietor responded, saying you shouldn’t draw on a place where people eat – no one wants a bite of chalk dust.

This is where the story gets a bit blurry. The white kids assert that the proprietor became shrill, telling them that they didn’t belong in her neighborhood. The proprietor states that the white kids became hostile, saying she should be lucky that they were spending money in her “ghetto” neighborhood.

This is the delicate dance we do around gentrification. Class divisions and race divisions tend to pop up, turning neighbor against neighbor. The revitalization of an area isn’t always bad – many people enjoy living in luxury condos, having shops within walking distance, and having a nicer, cleaner neighborhood. Gentrification, however, is revitalization in a different stripe. While revitalization seeks to improve a blighted or run-down area, gentrification aims to attract people with higher incomes to live in the community.

Obviously, when two different world views collide the end result is friction. And while most of us may dream of a day when mixed income communities are the norm, it does not appear that developers seem to think the same way. Revitalizing a neighborhood doesn't have mean that the previous residents are priced out of housing options. The question is how do we reconcille development interests with the interests of a neighborhood?

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