Easter in Shaw
I did not leave the house. At all. Saturday I did venture out. I searched for wood. I searched for white cedar. No luck.
Beyond that and beyond the dumbass ‘bama honking their horn at 4AM screaming “Mom” things were pretty quiet in Shaw.
In February 2001 I read an article that has haunted me for the longest while. I wish I had kept it, torn it out and filed in among the other things I keep regarding gentrification in Shaw. It was written by a black author about how he was moving out of the U Street area because, despite the changes, he couldn’t take it anymore. Yet the thing that struck me was what he said about our own people, demonstrating the riff between the Black middle class and the Black underclass.
“Few buppies–black upwardly mobile professionals–even look in my former neighborhood. When we get a few bucks, we rarely look to live in what we perceive to be “the ‘hood.” Instead, we generally head for the ‘burbs, particularly Prince George’s County.
Ward 1 Council member Jim Graham remarked on the changing demographics of the neighborhood at a meeting I attended along with a neighbor and vice officers last year: As property values rise, the drug dealers will be forced away, he predicted. What he meant, I surmised, was that the homes the dealers used were probably owned by poor folks and that the taxes would eventually climb too high for them. Problem solved, he probably figured.”
It is well worth the money I had to pay to retrieve it from the archives. Just to see it again.
Spring
It’s rainy.
It’s on again off again cold/warm
And the “For Sale” signs are littering Shaw.
I was sad to see the couple on NJ and Q put up their cute little house for sale. I ran into John Bratton, a Realtor who mainly does Shaw, and he said they wanted a lot for the house. He apparently suggested a price below their expectations so they have someone else. Some other houses I pretty much expected to go up for sale, just wondered how long it would take them. These are the houses that have been rehabbed, converted, cleaned up over Winter. Well I can say there is nothing under $200K in the hood. The prices are now in the neighborhood of $300K and $400K. I couldn’t afford to live here. I wonder with this price increase if the neighborhood can maintain it’s economic diversity.
