Gentrification too close for comfort

I could cover the Bates Area Civic Association: I get bored so you don’t have to- but really who cares (as seemed to be a phrase bandied about)? And besides who really wants to read me b!tching about an obnoxious Jamaican who dominates these meets week after week?

Instead I cover an article in the Washington Post Church’s Plan to Raze Housing Protested Tenants Trying to Buy SE Complex Voice Opposition During Worship Service written by Dakarai I. Aarons which covers the Kesley Gardens on 7th and P and Q St. The residents protested at the church that owns the property, but the church owns it with private investors. There are other problems that make things difficult.

When my neighbor read the article he seemed resigned to the eventual destruction of this community. Apparently several residents signed away their right to buy the property from the owner for a $1000. I mentioned efforts in Columbia Heights that allowed residents to turn their slummy apartments into condos. But still. Ms. Bettye lives there and I hope she will find a home in Shaw.