October
11, 2016
Does historic district designation lead to gentrification and displacement? Christine Rae Henry, a 19-year LeDroit Park resident, recently finished her dissertation on this topic and used LeDroit Park as her case study. She found the answer is no:
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3 comments:
I read it as prices go up with amenities anyway and you can't place the increased cost specifically on historical designation. I still hate the historic designation for their counter-intuitive and counter productive policies. Even if you can't tease out their level of contribution to displacement. People may be uncomfortable with displacement, but no one is going to stop it, demand will look the other way. But increased regulation for little perceived benefit is aggravating. (for the record I don't rail against "regulation", I want pragmatic and sensible regulation, and doubling or tripling the cost of replacing my windows with a lesser performing material is absurd)
Please provide some facts for you assertion that "doubling or tripling the cost of replacing my windows with a lesser performing material" is based on products available today. This may have been true many years ago, but according to the experts at the presentation organized by the Eckington and Bloomingdale Civic Associations, this is not at all the state of windows today. DC now requires a permit and a certain level of quality for all windows. Historic District guidelines/expectations have changed, as well.
"doubling or tripling the cost of replacing my windows with a lesser performing material is absurd)"
I've attended two historical designation meetings (as a skeptical neighbor myself) and I think this is one of the most widely perpetuated myths. There's no requirement for wood windows, so long as the look conforms and there's plenty of options in the fiberglass, wood composites, metal, and metalclad window world.
The other aspect I understood was that if historic designation really does start moving forward, then you have about 2 or so years to really make whatever changes you like - so if vinyl windows are on your must do list, get it done then.
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