What happens when the middle class comes back?
There is a huge and aging population of Cubans in Miami. They want to go back to Cuba. Well not at this very moment, but after Castro dies or is overthrown. Dies is more like it, as the ex-revolutionary has outlived various US Presidents. Should Castro die any time soon (please be my guest) and his aged brother take over, thousands of aged Cubans will wait or, they will come over in a flotilla to take back their Cuba of old. The Cubans already there will be pissed to see them.
What would happen if the black middle class that left DC in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s came back in droves? The ones who stayed would probably, like the above Cubans, be pissed. The returning population may want to retake their houses, remove current renters. They would might want to fix up deserted houses, bringing in an influx of capital that would bump up the housing prices and taxes. They would definately want parking for their 2.5 cars. They would probably want decent schools, NOW! In other words, they’d be a pain, wanting to change things.
My Dream of Shaw
Taking an idea from my church’s reading group that we are constantly changing the world into what it aught (ms) to be, I began thinking about what I would like Shaw to be in the near future.
I want a diverse neighborhood. Diversity meaning a strange balance between rich and poor; black, white, hispanic and asian; poor, lower income, middle class, upper-middle class, and rich; old and young; gay and straight, all these in numbers where one does not stick out like a sore thumb or overwhelm and dictate the nature of Shaw.
Jesus said the poor shall always be with us. As long as there is public housing in Shaw and Section 8, we will have our poor. Yet, I have been reading that poor can be a temporary situtation. I grew up poor, in a lower class neighborhood. Some of my friends grew up the same, working class, or homeless, but have transcended poverty and wander somewhere in the middle class zone. I hope the same for my neice and nephew who are currently on public assistance, that they too may transcend their current economic standing. In order to transend poverty or at least not have it as a permanent designation for a family, there must be opportunities in the form of education, training and jobs; things lacking in areas of concentrated poverty. In order to de-concentrate you have to bring in the other classes. Bringing in the other classes will result in the displacement of the poor but not all the poor.
To balance the economic groupings of Shaw, the area needs a healthy middle class population to deconcentrate poverty. This middle class should range from contractors, plumbers, teachers, police, civil servants, IT, and retirees who invested well. They should provide the tax base to help fund social services and give to socially minded charities. But realistically, their numbers will displace some, raise prices (rent, real estate taxes), and they will make demands that old timers will find annoying.
In an 2001 Washington City Paper article an author, writing about his U Street neighborhood, mentioned that as soon as the area blacks begin moving into the middle class they move out of DC and into PG County, just over the border. He noted how the houses in his immdediate area were being bought by whites. My point, you can’t force black folks to stay, especially when they aren’t convinced that the crap they put up with (drug dealing, crime, trash, etc) isn’t going to go away soon enough. Why wait 5 years for the area to get better if you can buy in a quieter lower crime area today? If blacks aren’t moving in great numbers to replace the ones moving out, and there are whites/hispanics/asians willing to pay top dollar, then logically the racial demographics of the area will change. There are middle class black buying and staying in Shaw, but not in the numbers to maintain an overwelming majority. We come as singles, working married/gay couples, not so much as families with children. We are putting up with the crime, the trash, and all the other reasons of why those who have moved out, moved out, hoping that in a few years it will improve. I hope more black middle class households move to Shaw to make it the gleaming neighborhood it once was before the riots and to maintain the history of the area. But realistically, non-blacks are attracted to the area, and hopefully their numbers ( I’m specifically thinking of the clutch you purse ever time they see a black person population) will not overwhelm making it uncomfortable for blacks.
As far as businesses go, I dream of fewer liquor stores. A few places where I can walk to in 15-20 minutes from the house and grab a pastry, or sit down and eat, or buy a book. U Street has a lot of that with Cake Love (great cakes!!!) the kazillion Ethopian restaurants, the Islander Restaurant, and the other stores along U and 14th Streets. I would live to see some of that along 7th Street and North Capitol. I dream of places where I want to spend my money because they have something I want.
Shaw should be diverse. It should have services and businesses for everyone. It should be low in crime and as clean as a city can be. It should feel like home.
Professional Neighborhood?
I was listening to L. the neighborhood handyman talk to a new neighbor (whose name I have forgotten, but thats what the DC tax rolls are for) about how the neighborhood is becoming one for professionals, working folks with no kids. I think that became obvious with P&J preparing to sell the house. Face it they’re cashing in for something more child-friendly, like a yard, and maybe schools that don’t suck.
***PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY!!!! ***
****Apologies for cross posting***
When? Wednesday, July 30, 2003- 8pm
Where? Velvet Lounge, 915 U St., NW, 1 block from the U St. Metro (green line)
$5 at the door
21 and over please
Please come support the Shaw EcoVillage EcoDesign Corps and Chain Reaction Programs. Listen to bluegrass music by the Rock Creek Ramblers and enter a raffle to win prizes from generous businesses like Coppi’s Organic, Café Nema Restaurant, Oohhs & Aahhs Gourmet Delicatessen, the Warehouse Theater and others! Proceeds go to further the efforts of Shaw EcoVillage.
The Shaw EcoVillage Project trains youth to be creative leaders for sustainable change in our neighborhoods.
In the EcoDesign Corps, high school students participate in internships or fellowships where they apply their critical thinking skills to solve real-life community issues. Participants focus on the following areas: Clean Water, Air and Land; Community Pride & Identity; Health and Wellness; Equitable Development; Public Space; and Transportation.
At Chain Reaction, Youth, ages 9-19, learn how to repair and recycle used bikes so more people in Washington, D.C., can have safe, affordable, and pollution-free transportation.
Shaw EcoVillage is located at 1701 6th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001
For more information please call 202.265.2019 or email sev.noelpetrie@verizon.net
Contributions are accepted and are tax-deductible. Contribute through the Combined Federal Campaign, Designate #7606
Noel F. Petrie
Outreach and Development Coordinator
Shaw EcoVillage
202.265.2019
sev.noelpetrie@verizon.net
www.shawecovillage.com
Neighbors moving
Pam, my next door neighbor has been saying she’s going to sell/rent and move away for a while now. I saw her husband chatting with Sonny (evil, evil, evil African contractor) and I knew, they are serious about selling now. She wants more space, a yard for the kids to run around in, and she wants to get John, who is such a good kid, away from these bad chullun (children) who take advantage of John’s goodness. Yup, no doubt, the kids around the neighborhood act like they have had no home training. Kwan, trouble finds that kid. I have had to pull him out of a fight and have observed him doing wrong. When I call him on it, he pulls the angelic act out and claim it wasn’t him.
I hope they do not sell to an investor. I surely hope they don’t rent it out to Section 8. I hope she doesn’t rent it out, and hopefully she won’t cause she was going off on Section 8 people, about how Drama Momma only pays $30 for rent, and how the children there misbehave.
Of course, the way things are going if she does sell it, most likely a white couple will move in. We have 6 white households on our side of the street already. One Hispanic family, one Howard University student group house with a range of minority students (if we become a student ghetto, I am soooo outta here), one bi-racial household (friends? Lovers? I have no clue), 1 African/Nigerian household (when he’s in the country), and 8-9 African-American household, 2 of which are section 8. I love the diversity.
The bastards next door are painting the house a color close to mine! This screws up the whole light-dark-light sceme. Now I got to pick a new color for the house!
Something ’bout a skate park
The District of Columbia Department of Parks and Recreation invites
Shaw residents, especially young people, as well as the DC skateboarding,
rollerblading, and bicycling community, to participate in the planning
of the Shaw Skate Park at the Shaw Recreation Center, 11th Street and Rhode Island
Avenue, NW.
Input on the design of the park is sought from potential users of all
ages and types.
The meeting will be held on Monday, July 21, 2003, at 7:00 PM at Shaw
Junior
High School, 925 Rhode Island Avenue, NW.
For more information on the Shaw Skate Park or the meeting on July
21st, contact Alexander M. Padro, Commissioner, ANC 2C01.
And this has what to do with living in DC?
The folks at the DC Nightlife Coalition (www.dcnc.org) are at it again, pissing off the Logan Circle folks. I belong to the not so active (compared to other lists) Logan Circle community listserv, and the DCNC have put a few posts that have attacted the ire of some Logan Circle residents on the list. News release titles such as “Anti-Nightlife Fanatics Disconnect With Rest Of City” (DCNC) ain’t gonna win you any friends in the neighborhood.
I remember first hearing about DCNC from my Swing dance group. But the thing is there is not a whole lotta love between bars and swing dancers because a) swing dancers are cheap; b) swing dancers don’t really drink; c) swing dancers will bitch about the floor and being charged for water; d) if you are a bar you are not going to make squat directly off the dancers, maybe off of the people watching the dancers, but not the dancers. A lot of the people in my swing dance calling for Jack Evans’ (Ward 2 Commissioner) head were suburbanites, people who I knew lived in Rockville, Alexandria, in other words not DC. There were two folks of the whole group who lived in the city and one of them made his living off of the nightlife.
I took a look at the DCNC website and saw a call to a January meeting:
Thursday, January 16th 2003
Committee for a Living DC Meeting.
Location: Black Cat, 1811 14th Street NW
Time: 2:00 PM
DCNC officers will be attending this meeting. The agenda will cover the status of a proposed DC statutory amendment to protect music and nightlife, status of the Committee for a Living DC amendments to the liquor license regulations, status of the public hall amendment to the liquor license regulations, plans for reigning in so-called “voluntary” agreements, and publicity efforts to draw media attention to nightlife issues in DC.
Now it is called a living in DC meeting, and I don’t see what aspect of LIVING in DC is addressed. From what I have seen their thing is preserving nighlife culture, fair enough, there should be nightlife. However, I gotta live here. I want to be able to sleep and not get woken up in the middle of the night by club goers getting out at 2AM, or traffic. If I had a car I wouldn’t appreciate having to compete against some suburanite with MD tags, who doesn’t have to pay a commuter tax, for a parking space. The nightlife is great for suburbanites (some of my closest friends are suburbanites) because they can come in, party and then leave. In some ways it is good for the city coffers with sales and revenue. Some businesses are good for residents in that they are places where you can go to unwind, hang with your friends and socialize. But not all businesses. Some businesses are bad neighbors, who blast music during schoolnights when you have to get up the next day to go to work. Yes there are noise regulations, but many a neighbor could tell of times when the police come, noise goes down, later noise goes back up, police may or may not respond, sleep already ruined. And let me say, base, that deep thump, thump, goes through walls and no earplug can lessen it because it is a vibration.
Some clubs and residential areas do not go together. Quick, name some nice neighborhoods you, your parents and your married friends would want to live in? There are neigborhoods that can cater to young people and a young population. What about people who are older and whose going out 1, 2, 3 times a week are behind them? What kind of neighborhoods for them? Why?
Metropolitan Police enforce anti-loitering law this weekend in designated areas of PSAs 312 and 606
Chief of Police Charles H. Ramsey has declared two drug free zones this weekend – one in the Third Police District, the other in the Sixth District – for purposes of enforcing DC’s Anti-Loitering/Drug Free Zone law. The law allows police to disperse groups of two or more individuals congregating for the purpose of illegal drug activity within the designated drug free zone.
The boundaries of the two drug free zones are as follows:
* In PSA 312, the area generally bounded by P Street, NW, on the north; New York Avenue and N Street, NW, on the south; 1st Street, NW, on the west; and North Capitol Street, NW, on the east.
* In PSA 606, the area generally along Anacostia Road and 37th Place, SE, just south of B Street, SE.
Each drug free zone designation is in effect from 12:01 am on Thursday, July 17, until 12 midnight on Monday, July 21. The law permits drug free zone designations for no longer than 120 hours.
Additional information about the Anti-Loitering/Drug Free Zone Act, including details about the two most recent drug free zones declared by Chief Ramsey, can be found on the Metropolitan Police Department website: www.mpdc.dc.gov/info/comm/drugfreezone.shtm.
One of the good things about working with archives is that there is this theory that I can do archival research. These are some of the people in my ‘hood in 1890. They are all Black.
Robert Childs laborer 1618 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Henry H Cox shoemkr 1612 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Isaac S Goin student 1616 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
James Henderson laborer 1611 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Hester Jefferson washing 1618 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Augustus Kent driver 1610 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Maria Kent, widow Joseph 1610 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Rev James H Lee 1612 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Nelson Lomax driver 1614 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Hester Pendleton washing 1618 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Amy Slaughter, widow John 1611 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Grant Slaughter carpenter 1611 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
John S Slaughter laborer 1611 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Daniel Stewart huckster 1614 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Julia Taylor, widow John 1610 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
John Thomas laborer 1614 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Fredk C B Washington student 1616 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Jeremiah Watkins waiter 1616 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
John Watkins laborer 1616 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Silas Carter driver 1614 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1891
James Henson laborer 1611 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1891
Foster Jackson laborer 1618 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1891
Esther Jefferson, widow Raleigh 1618 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1891
William Jefferson laborer 1618 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1891
Grant Johnson laborer 1610 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1891
Rev James H Lee 1612 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1891
Nelson Lomax driver 1614 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1891
Abraham Slaughter waiter 1611 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1891
Amy Slaughter nurse 1611 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1891
Grant Slaughter carpenter 1611 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1891