Is DC and its suburbs segregated?

[Anonymous]

Racially or socioeconomically? If you think so, where do you notice it? At work, with neighbors, at social events? If you think that its not, how much do you have meaningful interactions with people of a different race or socioeconomic group?

[Anonymous]

Big time. Not many will admit it, though.

[Anonymous]

I don't mean this sarcastically, but are you not from this area? Because, hell yes is DC segregated. I notice it mostly racially -- I don't know where the poor white people live. But generally, African Americans live in east of 13th St. NW or so, NE, and SE. Exceptions are around Capitol Hill and pockets of gentrification in NW and NE. I don't believe SE has much gentrification at all. PG County vs. Montgomery County.

I notice it when I travel to other neighborhoods (I live in upper NW, and it's very white). I don't travel to those neighborhoods often but have done so here and there. I also noticed it a lot at my big law firm. White people - lawyers and young college grad paralegals; minorities - support staff. Of course this isn't an absolute, but I definitely noticed it. (I heard there was a firm who used to (or maybe still does) have separate cafeterias for lawyers and support staff, and it basically felt like the cafeterias were one for whites, one for blacks.)

I feel like I have meaningful interactions with people from different races daily, as my nanny is AA and there are support staff in my firm that are as well (I'm at a smaller firm now, and there are no minority lawyers). I have maybe a couple of minority friends, but very few.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't believe SE has much gentrification at all.

SE is most certainly gentrified/gentrifying, just not across the Anacostia River. Most of Capitol Hill is in SE.

[Anonymous]

Oh yes, welcome to DCUM. Where people talk about how segregated the DC suburbs are. And in the next post. they complain about how they won't move to Silver Spring, because the black teenagers in the downtown area frightened them when they were walking into Ann Taylor.

[Anonymous]

I just moved to the area from St. Louis (which is VERY segregated) and I don't think it is. But, we don't live in DC proper, so I can't speak to that.

We're in Rockville, and our neighborhood has families from all different backgrounds - black/white/hispanic/asian. My son's daycare is also quite racially diverse.

[Anonymous]

The lady whose meaningful interactions with people of color included her nanny and the support staff pretty much sums the DCUM readership. This board skews white and rich. For me, reading this board is like looking through the keyhole.

But there are those of us who live in diverse communities (and I don't mean living next door to a diplomat from Spain when I talk about diversity). My kids are a few of the handful white kids at his school and we live in a largely African-African neighborhood. Most of DC proper is segregated -- economically and racially. Prices have skyrocketed in the city (and in close-in burbs). Many African-Americans, as a result, have decamped for the burbs (PG County) where I live b/c its cheaper. And DC is becoming an enclave of white wealth. My four bedroom home on a lovely half acre lot in PG is probably worth 230K. We lived in DC before kids and of course, would still want to, but we're priced out. It's a choice, too. I don't work and there are a lot of people out here who've made similar tradeoffs.

[Anonymous]

Every community is socioeconomically segregated to a large extent...how could it not be?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh yes, welcome to DCUM. Where people talk about how segregated the DC suburbs are. And in the next post. they complain about how they won't move to Silver Spring, because the black teenagers in the downtown area frightened them when they were walking into Ann Taylor.

And where Clarendon is apparently the only livable neighborhood when a newcomer asks for recommendations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know where the poor white people live.

Are there poor white people in DC? I'm not talking about folks who only bring in 100K instead of the usual $250K+ on these boards. It seems every other large city has working class white people but this one.

[Anonymous]

The working class white people live farther out of the city, like Charles County, Frederick or hagerstown. At least that is where the white tradespeople I have used for work on my house live.

[Anonymous]

I live in Spring Valley and it seems pretty diverse. A number of different nationalities here. Not socio-economically diverse but I bet if you stacked it up against other high income areas in the region it would be considered diverse.

[Anonymous]

Silver Springer here -- pretty diverse overall.

[Anonymous]

You can still see the affects of redlining, especially within DC itself. So yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every community is socioeconomically segregated to a large extent...how could it not be?

This was my thought, too. Every city has its wealthy suburbs, poorer suburbs, wealthy urban areas, and poorer urban areas. Most (including DC) have some mixed income areas as well, although in many instances those areas are going in one direction or the other - gentrifying (Columbia Heights, Petworth) or declining income-wise (some of the outlying suburbs/counties that formerly were the province of the landed gentry).

What's sad is that the socioeconomic segregation often reflects racial divides, but that's a different discussion.