How to gentrify a neighborhood: Pick yo hood

Okay maybe 1st in a series, or last.

How to gentrify your neighborhood, small suggestions on making the sketchy part of town a suitable environment for twitchy suburban types.

Pick Your Hood

You just can’t randomly pick any part of town. No you need to do research. Asking people on real estate and other on-line boards do not count much as research. Driving through at 30+ mph doesn’t count for much either. No this research must be hands on.

First you must hit the books. Wander over to the library of the city you plan to be in. If the city is big enough and old enough there may have been studies of previous attempts of urban development, or demographic changes, or other things that may hint of possible failure or success of new development.

Somewhere in the DC library system there is a book about gentrification of Capitol Hill and why it came to a sudden halt in certain sections. One of the reasons was natural barriers. I don’t know how natural a freeway is, but it is a barrier. Same thing with large public housing complexes, they can cut off gentrification to certain spots if there is a barrier that keeps gentrification from going around the complex. When looking at a neighborhood, look for barriers.

Another aspect of finding an up and coming neighborhood is it’s proximity to a desirable neighborhood. Shaw is next door to Dupont Circle. When Dupont just got too expensive people moved east into Shaw. Almost same thing for Capitol Hill, except that the definition of Capitol Hill just kept moving east. Adams Morgan hadn’t finished getting gentrified before the trend started going northeast into Columbia Heights. The good things of neighborhood A may migrate over to neighborhood B.

Then the neighborhood itself should have something to offer. Proximity to a “better” neighborhood is one, links to transportation is another. If there is a metro station, easy access to major transportation routes, that is a plus. A movie theater might be another plus, or a decent sized grocery store. There should be something there to make residents happy regardless of what happens or doesn’t happen in the future.

Next walk around the neighborhood. What signs are there that gentrification may occur? Better go to the edges for this. If there are no signs of any migration from neighborhood A to B, then don’t bother. Signs can be a house in B 1 block away from the border, that looks like it belongs in A. Some signs are subtle, too subtle to be seen from a car.

Now back to the realestate or other discussion boards. Keep in mind that many participants live in the boonies. For them the city is a wasteland of sin and crime and they would never let their daughters visit there, much less visit. Try to get the opinion of a city dweller, even if they live in the established parts of town. They may know people who moved to where you’re looking.

Gentrification does not spring on its own. There are several factors and you must be aware of them. The environment around the neighborhood in question is one. Maybe later I’ll write about the others. Also, keep in mind these are just my opinions and observations.

Urban Pioneers

Urban Pioneer

Wandering over to the web wondering what on Earth was an “Urban Pioneer” I sought answers. Well generally, as far as I can tell the main thing about an urban pioneer is that he/she chose the city over the suburbs. The city, however, can be anything from Manhattan to Nutbush (channel Tina Turner, here) city limits, which can take some of the cool hip edge off. It also plays off on the urban jungle which our pioneers are to survive, tame and make their own.

Choice is the key thing though. Urban pioneers choose to live in the city. They choose the places they inhabit. Unlike the poor natives of the locale who are kind of stuck and have fewer options. Like the Wild West or the early American Plains, there are Indians. The areas are inhabited, unless the area is some industrial park that had been deserted, most likely there is already life where the urban pioneer sets up stakes to make a claim.

The other thing about the urban pioneer is the sense of adventure. Unlike their suburban counterparts who get the move in ready home in an established neighborhood there is usually some sort of renovation of the dwelling or neighborhood. Adventure can be found in renovation a 19th century brownstone, or being a part of the urban renewal programs taking place in the neighborhood. There is change. They are part of what is to be.

The hipster set of the urban pioneer group, are young, some college educated, folks maybe with some artistic hipster talent or wicked IT skilz. They typically are lower middle class due to their age/point in their career/ choice of career. In other words, not rolling in dough. So they choose the big Victorian or Craftsman bungalow in the seedy part of town over the Jr. bedroom in the inner ring suburbs. Years of neglect and poverty must be repaired, scraped off, tossed out and replaced, and because of the lack of dough, it’s all DIY. So each pioneer’s talent and creativity is thrown in, making each project unique, sometimes a polar opposite of the cookie-cutter version in the ‘burbs. They ( I would say “I” but I think I’ve aged out of this group) will happily document all of it for the web or indy media. In my case it is just to remember what I did, and how cool it was, and the uncool moments, with the pioneer edge can be viewed with some coolness.

In time, young hipsters move out, sell off or just get older. The houses and neighborhood have been renovated. The native peoples, the original inhabitants, their number reduced or eliminated all together. What was to be, now, is. Non-pioneer types move in. Often with very little tolerance for anything out of order. These non-pioneers have a love/hate with the funky mindset that made the neighborhood attractive in the first place, and seek comfort in the uniform cookie cutter life, bringing it to the urban world.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

a la Bruce Willis

Wal-Mart that beacon of low wages might be coming to the Nation’s Capitol putting itself at the old Brentwood lot, where a Giant and the Home Depot now sit. Now I am a fan of low prices, but not so much of domestic/foreign slave labor. According to today’s Washington Post Business section, right now they are at the ‘talking’ stage of filling in the space that was supposed to be taken up by K-Mart, Wal-Mart’s struggling rival. However, K-Mart fell on hard times before anything was built and so nothing was built on the site. Right now it is just an empty mud lot. Well there are worse things that could go there, the Kit Kat Klub Stripper Emporium.

Just say no to the ugly

Okay you may have seen the example of the not ugly house where the 3rd floor addition does not take away from the street view. Well when you add another floor with no regard of how it is going to look in regard to the other houses…. it’s ugly. Trust me.

The problem with a transitioning area where the prices are on crack sometimes are the renovations for sale. Most of the time the damage is limited to the original footprint of the house. But when the square footage can be increased by a coupla hundred feet, sellers/developers ‘throw’ something up and it ain’t always pretty. However it looks good on the MLS when instead of a 2 bedroom 1 bath, one can advertise a 3 or 4 bedroom with 2 bathrooms. Note that one of the bedrooms usually is the size of a walk in closet, with a window.

So if you own a home in Shaw or any other ‘transitional’ area please for the love of all that is good, think of your additions in a hostilic fashion. Think about how it will look with the other houses surrounding it. Don’t be the one with the ugly house.

Open letter to Marion Barry, Ward 8 Candidate

Although In Shaw should really stick to Ward 1, 2, & 5 issues, one cannot help but notice that which is over the river in Ward 8. Besides, it is a COUNCIL seat, which would have an impact on all wards.

Dear Former Mayor Marion Barry,

Dude, you’re like 68. For heaven’s sake retire. No, really this time. Didn’t Walter Washington retire from politics after you defeated him for the mayorial bid?

Don’t think that you can’t serve the people of Washington, DC by retiring. There are other things besides politics. There are non-profits out there that would love your leadership and be a bit less taxing, face it you’re not in the best of health. Volunteer your time to a few causes that are near and dear to your heart. If that doesn’t appeal to you, then how about just being an ANC. It will tax you. It doesn’t really pay. But you get to serve people at the most local level ever.

No, please retire. Todays politics are for the young guns like Adrian Fenty (hubba, hubba). With all due respect you are just too old school. It ain’t 1960, or 1970, or 1980. We’ve entered a new century. The old struggles of your time are still here but they aren’t the same, they’ve changed too. Housing and jobs are still a problem, but the old solutions aren’t the answer.

So once again. Move to Florida or Georgia. Find a 5th wife. Ponder the joys of fishing. Retire.

Sincerely,

InShaw Webmistress

House of the week

I don’t know how often I’ll do this but I have mentioned this house before. I see it as a good example of adding more squarefootage without looking ghetto or butt ugly. On the corner of R and 5th you’ll see a house with the extra floor.
. From the street you can sort of see the 3rd floor addition but when looking at the adjoining houses it doesn’t look too out of place.

Pix 1
Pix 2

Citizen empowerment

Confession time: I used to be a registered Republican. There are moments I feel that I have that are purely Republican moments in Shaw. Usually they are summed up as, taking matters in your own hands when you don’t believe the gov’ment won’t do it right/at all/ on time/ etc.

I have these feelings during community meetings when folks demand that DPW clean the alleys and the sidewalks and other littered areas and keep the bums off their property. With all due respect to the city government of the District and it’s many departments, the City can be disappointing. Yet on the other hand, citizens really need to take some responsibility and take on some burdens to improve their environment and not wait for the government to do it for them.

Now, I am not advocating that people break the law, endanger their lives, or encroach on others rights and freedoms. There are things that only the state/govt has the right to do, such as arrest, tax, and transfer rights and freedoms. No citizen has that right or should. No. What I want people to do is salt their sidewalks when it snows. I want them to volunteer to clean the street gutters when the Weather Service says there might be flooding. I want them to take responsibility for their children and property. I want them to consider working together, neighbor to neighbor, on a one block level to tackle problems and concerns.

I love my block because people do things that others may believe is something for the government to deal with. We have alley cleaning man. Who is he? I dunno? But he takes it upon himself to sweep up the alley, post no dumping signs, and clean up the alley. B. cleans the sidewalks, whenever. Maybe once a week, a month, a quarter, but he helps keep the neighborhood nice. Lem, is the handyman who (possibly with marketing in mind) keeps an eye on repairs that need to be made on the block, helping with the upkeep. For a while the block had an informal Welcome Wagon to help orient new homeowners, providing community information. For my own part I patched a fence of a vacant property to keep out the illegal dumpers. With a neighbor we (I don’t recommend it) confronted a crackhead about smoking in a backyard. Some deal with trees, planting and trimming, things that with the patience of Job, one could wait for the city to do. Some help with enforcement by gently reminding neighbors of infractions. In winter, B. and I shovel, salt and sand the sidewalks.

Now we don’t take on large tasks by ourselves. Just small ones, that add to the livability of the block. So when I hear complaints from folks in other parts of Shaw complaining that the city should do this, or the city should do that when this and that are things a civicly minded citizen could tackle. Citizens should empower themselves, even if they just limit themselves to caring for their little section of the block, they have done a lot.

So if you can, maybe this weekend or next….
Clean out your treebox
Pick up some of the sidewalk litter
Tidy up the front yard
Secure your property
Talk to a neighbor
Check on the elderly down the block
Engage a conversation with some of the neighborhood youths
Try to find the owner of the vacant house on the block

Not the whole list. Pick one. And do it.