You are invited to click on the link to read the entire article and to look at the photo gallery taken from around the neighborhood.
Here is a related tweet from Washington Post reporter Mike DeBonis:
Marc Fisher discovers The Plan lives, in at least one woman's mind http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/most-in-dc-say-neighborhoods-are-better-but-many-say-redevelopment-helps-the-rich-more/2014/01/18/00d8cbdc-7d8a-11e3-93c1-0e888170b723_story.html …
Most in D.C. say neighborhoods are better, but many say redevelopment helps the rich more
By ,
In Bloomingdale, a sliver of a neighborhood in the center of Washington, Murry’s Steaks became a yoga studio, the check-cashing place transformed into a Thai-Japanese eatery, and the liquor store finally opened up the bulletproof plexiglass that separated customers and merchants.
...
Stuart Davenport, who moved to the neighborhood a decade ago uneasy about being the rare white guy in an overwhelmingly black area, says the transformation came about when new residents decided to invest in their adopted home, opening businesses, helping police catch street thugs, and banding together across racial and class lines to open a farmers market where crack dealers once gathered.
[Michele McKenzie's Messianic Covenant Church is located at 80 T St NW.]
Michelle McKenzie, who opened a storefront church that has drawn black congregants in an increasingly white part of town, says the demographic shift is the result of The Plan, a decades-old staple of District folklore — a purported drive by powerful white interests to reclaim the city from its long-standing black majority. Some mayors supported The Plan, McKenzie says, and others fought it but without making much difference. “The Plan is The Plan,” she says.
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Davenport, 40, worries that his employees and customers may not be able to stick around if housing prices keep soaring. “The change is happening so fast, I just wonder if anyone can be in charge of it,” he says. “This neighborhood’s always been in transition. This store was a Jewish Italian corner store originally, and then it was Korean.”
But the transition to affluence left “a lot of the black residents feeling like, ‘Why should I stay when it’s not my neighborhood anymore?’ ” he says. “At first, there was a lot of anger, especially around the time Gray was elected. People felt they were losing something, and Fenty wasn’t doing anything to help.”
“But what can a mayor do?” Davenport wonders. “Do neighborhoods like this have to end up being just for millionaires like in New York? A lot of us moved here because we didn’t want to live in divided places.”
Personally, i think that we are in at a cross-roads. As someone who has struggled to make my way all my life, i've watched with pleasure as my life investment, my Bloomingdale home, has increased in value ....giving me the impression that perhaps at least my kids won't have it as hard. However, when i saw Susan De Marais post this week on two properties (modest ones) that sold over a million, i think my over-riding feeling is one of concern. I'm happy just stopping where we are now. I lived in Mt. Pleasant as a young man when it was on the cusp of gentrification. I saw how folks stopped hanging out on the stoops and the streets became deserted. The life of the neighborhood moved inside and became private rather than public. People stopped saying hi and stopped smiling at each other. I'm sure that the same thing can happen here too. I'm glad that Bloomingdale seems to be make a more conscious effort to maintain it's culture and it's broadly mixed constituency. But i"m not sure we'll succeed. At least i fear we wont. But I hope we will.
ReplyDeleteHi Todd. To clarify, there was only one property posted this week that sold for over a million dollars. What is significant about this sale is that it is the first property in either Bloomingdale or LeDroit Park that was two levels plus a basement (as opposed to some larger properties that have previously broken this benchmark price point). I should clarify that this particular property was completely gut renovated with an addition off the back. We shouldn't expect that every property in the neighborhood from now on will sell anywhere near that amount, but it certainly is timely that this settlement was concurrent with this article.
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ReplyDeleteGreat comment Todd. The restoration of McMillan Park will increase real estate values in the surrounding park side area. The VMP plan will make your houses the next place for the real aestate investors to devalue, grab up, demolish and replace your block with more multi-unit development. A proper balanced park side community will add desirable cool, shady, breezy park side housing. The city will make revenue from healthy McMillan Park activities fees, and amazing indoor agriculture in the 20 acres underground. See amazing indoor farming video: http://youtu.be/ILzWmw53Wwo
ReplyDeleteThis agriculture can produce 5 to 10 times the vegetables and fruit of surface farming, use a tenth water, provide fresh fish in aquaponics, use no pesticides or truck transport from across the continent, fresher riper food. We canhave all the things this neighborhood needs with out 10,000 more cars a day, and a joke for a park. That is a mundane lawn,,,we need world class designs in park restoration,, VMP is just not up to the Olmsted level, and we lose the whole legacy, a great city deserves.
We can make this happen, we can conserve this place, just as Sen. McMillan planned for us, are you so brainwashed that EYA/VMP is the only way to "move forward in DC".
Sorry I just believe the DC govt. has made such a miserable disaster here, the flooding, the waste of tens of millions, and we need parks, we can have the entire 113 acre reservoir site opened up for us, to jog, walk, like a real city. Andexttend this into AFRH, and Howard U. just like a real city where people matter. Richmond, Philly, NY, maybe your home town needs EYA/VMP?
The DC govt. let this neighborhood flood for decades.
Would the flooding of human sewage in the basements in Kalorama have waited 30 years for mitigation? Why in the world would you support this miserable embarrassment, called the DC govt.. go ahead keep supporting them, the ones not in prison yet. You are so scared to do anything for yourself, you let felons, embezzlers, andinbred incumbent hacks, elected by massive fraud to guide the future of DC. With this misguided government support, we are in real trouble here!
We need parks, we have McMillan Historic District Park, it's only you and other VMP supporters who are making this hard. JOIN US,,,why in the world would you let the DC govt. continue destroying the environment, the trees, parks, and taking our taxes to spend on their privileged constituents in upper NW.
Friends, a less SICK govt. would have re-planted McMillan in 1986, not wasted $250,000 a year on pollution for mowing this lawn,and a lush grove of trees would now be 100 feet, shading our picnics, and creating cool breezes as you enjoy a stroll to see the Autumn sunset. You can make this possible or you can help the hacks destroy it with the wrecking ball, and then suffer endless construction(good for the Chesapeake Bay!). Do you like heavy equipment exhaust fumes, with your support of VMP , you'll be breathing heavy equipment exhaust fumes for 15 years, a bargain! You get what you ask for, just get it straight in your yuppie mind and you'll figure it out, just don't wait ,,let''s do this now.