Reply to Gentrification shaming makes no sense to me.

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[quote=Anonymous]I don't consider myself a gentrifier, but my first condo was in 2000 in a pre-gentrified Southwest DC where daytime muggings were not unknown and drug were openly sold.  I'm white and I bought my condo from a black woman whose condo had been sitting on the market for a year with no takers.  Sure, I "whitened" the neighborhood a tad but I also bought her condo that wouldn't sell.  She got a fair price from me and that allowed her to move near her grandkids in PG County as she wanted to be closer to them.  Am I an evil gentrifier?  I don't think so.  I bought from a black woman who wanted to leave and nobody else wanted to live in that then-crappy neighborhood (it was all I could afford at the time).  But I was another white face and over time the neighborhood has gotten whiter and whiter, and now we have all the gentrifier favorites: a dog park, a wine shop, and small plates galore.

Has gentrification priced some people out?  I'm sure.  However, DC already has the lowest property taxes in the region and has an exceptionally generous tax break for owner-occupant senior citizens.  If a person can't afford their property tax bill in DC, they'd be hard pressed to find a cheaper tax bill unless they move to Delaware.  If you are over 75 and make under $130K/year, you pay a mere 0.32% which is nothing.

People also tend to forget just how bad things were in the District back in the 80s and 90s.  Other than a few nice pockets the city was a total mess and the black middle class was getting out as fast as they could.  The social and local government failures of the time did far more to distrust neighborhoods than white gentrifiers, IMHO, but they are a convenient scapegoat.[/quote]

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