Tag: Gentrification

Gentrification & Me: Article in Washington City Paper

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.

Gentrification ans Me- Issue 5

Gentrification & Me, issue 5

“Unfortunately, many poorer city residents still don’t see the advantages of buying. As the interviews from the Shoreview case show, many residents still mistakenly believe living 20 years in a rented apartment bestows some property right equal or greater than that held by the actual owner. They do not realize the tax advantages of homeownership (through mortgage interest deductions) or the fact that owners realize the benefits of appreciated property while renters do not.” From Gentrification’s flip side — good for rich, bad for poor by Dwayne M. Green.

Homeownership. It is a good thing. It is also a pain in the rear.

But if you can stay ahead of the tax payments it can save a body from being outsted via gentrification.

Gentrification and Me, issue 3

Yuppie Scum save the neighborhood: ABC News
Actually titled “There Goes the Neighborhood?Gentrification May Be Good for Everyone, Some Experts Say,” by Oliver Libaw for ABC news.com. This April 2002 article’s focus is in Brooklyn, NY another gentrifying area on the east coast. The author says despite the opinions of gentrification and attitudes towards the young urban professional, gentrification is actually good for lower income residents. Why? They are less likely to move out and benefit from the improvements gentrification brings. He quotes from Frank Braconi, a co-author in a New York City gentrification study that examined gentrification and low income residents. They do acknowledge that displacement of the poor, one of the major problems of gentrification, does occur. However it must be placed also in the context of general movement of people, as this is a mobile society where people move around a lot.

Gentrification and Displacement, by Lance Freeman & Frank Braconi
A PDF file and article/report from the Citizens Housing and Planning Council’s The Urban Prospect publication volume 8, no. 1. This is a lovely 4 page report regarding the displacement of low income people in gentrifying areas of New York City.
First they get into, “define displacement”. Displacement, could be several things, it could be the government moving people by force (think highway project), it could be people looking for cheaper rent (Secondary Displacement), or it could be people moving out due to social forces (think moving ’cause they don’t wanna live near Puerto Ricans). There are several factors in secondary displacement, which people most associate with gentrification. The desire for lower rents could be pushed by rise of rents or loss of income.

To track displacement they used the New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey to gather data. This allowed them to look at movement in the 1990s. Looking at a chart they provide, except for the period between 1991-1993 the rate of displacement was between 5%-6%, kind of small.

They challenge an assumption that “low income households [are] more likely to move out of gentrifying neighborhoods than other neighborhoods?” with “gentrification could encourage households to stay put.” Right now I’m thinking Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car where the goal is to get out of the lower income environment and “get a bigger house and live in the suburbs.” Well what happens when the nice neighborhood comes to you? Being one who has been poor, and talking with others who have lived in “the ghetto”, there is this goal to get the heck out of the ghetto to live a better life. So in this scenario, the better neighborhood comes to the ghetto in the form of gentrification. Well that’s my theory.

They state that lower income households are faced with a decision when gentrification comes to them. On one hand, stay and take advantage of the neighborhood improvements or move because of higher housing costs. What these families do, depends on which factor is more important. For the authors gentrification makes it less likely that a lower income household will move. They say “poor households residing in on of the seven gentrifying neighborhoods were still found to be 20% less likely to move than poor households residing elsewhere.”

The authors never say that displacement does not occur. Yet, we cannot ignore general mobility among people. They say it best in their concluding paragraph that as vacancies appear in gentrifying neighborhoods, they are filled by middle class households, coupled with loss of affordable housing, it takes an appearance that the middle class is driving out the poor.

The economic cleansing of San Francisco: Is San Francisco becoming the first fully gentrified city in America
Okay, I couldn’t end this without a story of evil gentrification kicking out the poor and defenseless. Despite the above reports of gentrifying being good for a neighborhood, we all know the mainline thinking that gentrification is evil, evil, evil because it forces families on the streets and the anti-gentrification forces have the examples to prove it. This is one such example from a 1998 San Francisco article about 3 poor elderly Latino women in danger of losing their home due to raising rents. Other Latino women are profiled too. Okay no one is kicked out in the story, but they are all endanger of not being able to keep up with the rents.

And for good measure ” Case Study in Displacement on Elizabeth Street Warning: Gentrification in Progress” by J.A. Lobbia in New York City. This covers a NYC building in the process of gentrifying. There are poor immigrants crammed in some units, while other units rehabbed & expanded for 1 or 2 people. The landlord is finding ways to kick out the poorer residents, such as suing them for lease infractions. The truly EVIL part of the landlord is that he sues his Chinese renters and buys off his Latino renters to get them out.

Gentri quote
from http://www.narpac.org/PER.HTM
On PG County….
Furthermore, this issue of declining performance in the public school systems is clearly not one of racial distinctions, but of class distinctions. The last Post article in the series dwells on the divided views of the richest majority-black ZIP Code (20721) in the Washington metro area. Here the average household income of the more than 70% black and minority population has reached $95,700, with 86% home ownership, 75% with two or three vehicles; 45% with college degrees, 61% married and 46% with kids. These upwardly mobile, predominantly young, families are clearly torn between allegiance to their local schools and less fortunate neighbors, and pursuit of the American dream with lower risk to their kids–in private and parochial schools. Many of these are former DC residents, and they are in the main making the same decisions as any other suburbanites faced with the same problems. And the less fortunate class is generally left to fend for itself.

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.

Confessions of a gentrifier

Confessions of a gentrifier

I don’t fit the normal profile of a gentifier…..

First, I’m not rich. On a yearly basis, if not more often my profession’s listserv goes on a tizzy about how we’re never paid much. according to some government tables I make about 1/2 of the region’s adverage income.

Second, I’m black. Of course some may want to take away my black person card because of the crew I hang with and I know I’m never going to win a Blacker than Thou contest. It says black on the birth certificate, so that’s what I’m sticking with.

Third, well there is no 3rd. But I like things to have a begining, a middle and an end.

I do fit some of the gentifying stereotypes in otherways:
I’m new, moving in in 2000
I have a graduate degree
I’m young (sort of)
I’ve improved my yard and house
I attend community meetings and support changes
I have no kids
I am a homeowner

I moved to Shaw because a) it is on the Green Line which will take me to Archives II, where I thought I would wind up working. b) not far from the Yellow line, which would take me to Braddock Road, where I did wind up working, c) near grocery store, laundry and everything else a car-less person needs, and lastly and most importantly d) I could afford it.

I’m a single woman, there is only so much house I can afford. I don’t like huge condo buildings, actually I hate condo buildings. Also I needed to be near the metro, as mentioned previously, I don’t have a car. Not a condo, near the metro, equals expensive. But my Realtor found something in my small measly price range.

All you new people just want to come in and change things!

That’s what I hear everyso often from several of the old timers. Old timers have been in the neighborhood since the Indians were fishing in the Potomac. They’ll lash out against people who have lived in the neighborhood 15 years, which apparently makes you a newbie still. The old timers are typically old retired women, who insult you in that being nice but insulting way.

I didn’t move in with a plan. I was aware of changes and potential and I am supportive of it. Change is going to happen. People who have been here 15 years and want change do see an opening and are acting on it using some of the engery (and naivite) of the new people. So yes, I guess in some ways I do want to change things.

** Cut down on liquor stores Good Lord, how many of these stores do you need. Right where I am there are about 3 stores in a 2 block radius where I can grab a 40, or some Mad Dog 20/20. I’m not against beer and wine. I drink wine but you won’t find me in the neighborhood liquor store, unless they start carrying a variety of foreign and domestic red wines, none of that Boones Farm crap but real wine.

**Do something about abandoned buildings Do old timers like abandoned buildings? It brings joy to my heart so see a house that previously was boarded up getting fixed up to be sold. Now people with the money to fix up houses also are up on the current economic realities and know that they can make some money and they do. They’ll fix up a house and sell it for an outragous price. Usually out of the price range of most lower and middle income folks. Heck even Manna fixed then sold houses that were out of my price range. So fixing up the abandoned buildings come at a price.

** Cut down on crime Can’t we all agree on this? Apparently not. Some newbie neighbors attended a meeting where she was attacked for wanted greater police presence on her street. The attendees told her if she wanted police presence she should have moved to Georgetown!

**Spend money in the community I would like to spend more of my hard earned dollars in the immediate area of where I live but I have 2 questions:
1. Are you selling what I want to be buying?
2. Will I be treated with respect?
One old timer chastised the group for not supporting Black businesses and the businesses that have been here since forever. Well I would support those businesses if they sold something I wanted to buy. See the comment about the liquor stores. They aren’t selling what I want, and I am not going to buy what I don’t want. I want fresh fruit. I want variety. Secondly, I don’t want to be treated like a criminal before I even walk into the store. I know the neighborhood was not and in some spots is not safe enough to remove the plexiglass between the cashier and the customer. But I find the whole experience insulting in some ways, so given a choice, I choose not to but myself through that.

I choose to go to Giant on P Street. They have what I want, they don’t insult me (the cashier may ingore me, but not insult me), and I get to spend my dollars in Shaw. I also support Chain Reaction. The service is good, the prices okay, and most importantly they’re close. I don’t eat at any of the take out joints, this goes back to the not selling what I want. I would like a nice sit down place, and I have yet to try the Italian restaurant on New York Ave, but that is still far. The best I can do is the Wendy’s on Florida, which also is far, but they have the Wendy’s Jr. Cheeseburger. If a store or restaurant that was nice and clean and respectful opened up I may visit it and maybe even patronize it.

They’re are some things that I and my fellow newbies do that are threatening to the old timers and anti-gentrifiers, and I’ll try owning up to them.
***You’re trying to move people out of their homes. Yes and no. Are these the loud drug dealers down the street? They why hell yes, I want them gone. The old timers may remember when Soinso was a cute little kid, but now he’s 20 and is hanging with a dope selling crew. They may feel sorry for them. Newbies show up and they just see the dope selling crew, not the cute kids they were. Sadly, some of these dealers work out of their grandmothers/momma’s/girlfriend’s house and when a community of law abiding citizens set they’re mind to it it becomes “get rid of them all and let G-d, sort them out.”
Even in situations where it isn’t drugs but quality of life issues like noise and trash people look at it as a problem to be fixed and the easiest solution is to get rid of the problem instead of changing the behavior. Section 8. That tends to be synomous with problem house. They’re are some good Section 8 people, but if a house has 12 people running in and out of it at all hours; people putting all their business out there on the street; children running around like they don’t have any home training; being loud; being bad; being ugly, people just call it a Section 8 house. So yes, those people are targeted.
However there are people who are pushed out because of higher taxes and rents. They are not targeted, they are just victims of the changing economic times. Of course, according to Lance Freeman,at Columbia University, and Frank Braconi, at the Citizens Housing and Planning Council people aren’t pushed out (see New York Times 3/26/2002 The Big City; The Gentry, Misjudged As Neighbors by JOHN TIERNEY ). They were bound to leave anyway regardless of what was going on in that particular neighborhood.