Anonymous wrote:A lot of AAs haven’t made out like a bandit, their opportunity for generational wealth via real estate was actually ripped from them. Plenty of forclosures and developer low balls are responsible for the houses transferring ownership. I know of a few cases some years back of elderly people losing their home for not being able to pay their rising property taxes on time because of a limited income. The paper actually did a story on a widow who lost his house due to a tax balance less than $2 in a hot neighborhood.

Anonymous wrote: I know of a few cases some years back of elderly people losing their home for not being able to pay their rising property taxes on time because of a limited income. The paper actually did a story on a widow who lost his house due to a tax balance less than $2 in a hot neighborhood.

Anonymous wrote:I agree with the folks who say that we have to build more/denser housing supply in the form of large buildings, but I think that we also need to find ways to build more housing that's similar in character to rowhouses/small multifamily. Not townhomes that are still in car-dependent separated developments (what's built now), but actual walkable and transit-oriented mixed use urbanism. The problem is that zoning makes it almost impossible to increase density in a lot of suburbs or in more suburban neighborhoods, and there's no land to build anymore of this kind of housing in already-urban neighborhoods. So a lot of lower-income folks, many of whom don't have cars or can't afford them, are displaced into neighborhoods that are built around cars in a way that systematically reduces their access to social services, social networks, etc.

Apartment/large building living is a very poor substitute for even attached home living for a lot of people. Clearly more people will need to choose to live in large buildings in the future if we want to keep close-in areas affordable. Not everyone will be able to afford to live in as close proximity to downtown as they might prefer. But even setting aside the loss of proximity associated with displacement by gentrification, there is a real loss of lifestyle associated with with being displaced from classic rowhouse neighborhoods. Meanwhile, the supply of that kind of housing is actually declining pretty rapidly, leading attached house prices to rapidly outpace inflation with little end in sight. It's not hard to understand why even people who don't appear to be financially harmed by gentrification might be unhappy about that loss of lifestyle.

Anonymous wrote:A lot of AAs haven’t made out like a bandit, their opportunity for generational wealth via real estate was actually ripped from them. Plenty of forclosures and developer low balls are responsible for the houses transferring ownership. I know of a few cases some years back of elderly people losing their home for not being able to pay their rising property taxes on time because of a limited income. The paper actually did a story on a widow who lost his house due to a tax balance less than $2 in a hot neighborhood.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this happens all over the country as areas redevelop and become more desirable

it's really just a class thing

I wish there were more middle class and higher black folks coming back to DC vs PG county to make this less of a racial issue

We are a middle class (250k HHI) black family and would love to come to DC from our hot nova neighborhood. The areas we think are most similar to where we live now are way too expensive in DC.

It still comes down to racial wealth inequality. Its also ingrained in the housing system, down to racist lending practices and house appreciation rates still happening today. I truly hate it all, but have no way to escape it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where did all the African Americans go? I keep wondering this.

Are they going to PGC? Where are they going?

One thing that bugs me a lot about articles about gentrification is when they talk about residents being forced out or displaced and are missing some simple demographics...people are not immortal. When I moved to Petworth the vast majority of my neighbors were African Americans who owned their homes and were elderly. A lot of them had owned their homes solince the 1960s or 70s. Many of those neighbors have since passed away, and some have moved into nursing homes or in with their kids. The gentrification is happening here mainly because of the aging of the neighborhood. Nearly all of these houses are gutted and flipped when they sell.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this happens all over the country as areas redevelop and become more desirable

it's really just a class thing

I wish there were more middle class and higher black folks coming back to DC vs PG county to make this less of a racial issue

We're here! Many of us in the upper 16th St. area. I'd say, however, that residents in that area are trending more UMC than true middle class. Most middle class folks I know, regardless of race, are buying in areas like close-in Silver Spring.

Agree with the article that there is a need for a lot more affordable housing across the city. I wish the NIMBYs would accept that changes in density are necessary so that the entire city doesn't eventually become a rich enclave.

We are getting increased density in my neighborhood by the Potomac Ave metro as is appropriate but what worries me is that it seems as if so little of it is affordable housing. Oh, and you all will find this amusing: A huge project going up right across from the metro is called the Blackbird and its website boasts of "bohemian soul" meeting "button touch access" and it features quotes from Hunter S. Thompson and Biggie Smalls, pictures of Tom Waits, Johnny Cash, Muhammad Ali, and Aretha Franklin. So not only are they trying to make this place look hip (love my neighborhood but it's not Columbia Heights) but they are marketing it to people who consider themselves hip and want luxury at the same time.....eh, isn't that a bit of a contradiction? Here's the website: https://www.blackbirdsedc.com/ This is so weird.

PP. Ugh. I see what they're trying to do, but not sure I love this co-opting of cool and the city's African American history in the name of a gentrification project.

That is so stupid. At least they could use actually Washingtonians in their imagery... Duke Ellington, Marvin Gaye, Chuck Brown, Henry Rollins, etc. Either way, it's super annoying.

PP again, and yes, I noticed that too!

Anonymous wrote:Where did all the African Americans go? I keep wondering this.

Are they going to PGC? Where are they going?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this happens all over the country as areas redevelop and become more desirable

it's really just a class thing

I wish there were more middle class and higher black folks coming back to DC vs PG county to make this less of a racial issue

We're here! Many of us in the upper 16th St. area. I'd say, however, that residents in that area are trending more UMC than true middle class. Most middle class folks I know, regardless of race, are buying in areas like close-in Silver Spring.

Agree with the article that there is a need for a lot more affordable housing across the city. I wish the NIMBYs would accept that changes in density are necessary so that the entire city doesn't eventually become a rich enclave.

We are getting increased density in my neighborhood by the Potomac Ave metro as is appropriate but what worries me is that it seems as if so little of it is affordable housing. Oh, and you all will find this amusing: A huge project going up right across from the metro is called the Blackbird and its website boasts of "bohemian soul" meeting "button touch access" and it features quotes from Hunter S. Thompson and Biggie Smalls, pictures of Tom Waits, Johnny Cash, Muhammad Ali, and Aretha Franklin. So not only are they trying to make this place look hip (love my neighborhood but it's not Columbia Heights) but they are marketing it to people who consider themselves hip and want luxury at the same time.....eh, isn't that a bit of a contradiction? Here's the website: https://www.blackbirdsedc.com/ This is so weird.

PP. Ugh. I see what they're trying to do, but not sure I love this co-opting of cool and the city's African American history in the name of a gentrification project.

That is so stupid. At least they could use actually Washingtonians in their imagery... Duke Ellington, Marvin Gaye, Chuck Brown, Henry Rollins, etc. Either way, it's super annoying.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this happens all over the country as areas redevelop and become more desirable

it's really just a class thing

I wish there were more middle class and higher black folks coming back to DC vs PG county to make this less of a racial issue

We're here! Many of us in the upper 16th St. area. I'd say, however, that residents in that area are trending more UMC than true middle class. Most middle class folks I know, regardless of race, are buying in areas like close-in Silver Spring.

Agree with the article that there is a need for a lot more affordable housing across the city. I wish the NIMBYs would accept that changes in density are necessary so that the entire city doesn't eventually become a rich enclave.

We are getting increased density in my neighborhood by the Potomac Ave metro as is appropriate but what worries me is that it seems as if so little of it is affordable housing. Oh, and you all will find this amusing: A huge project going up right across from the metro is called the Blackbird and its website boasts of "bohemian soul" meeting "button touch access" and it features quotes from Hunter S. Thompson and Biggie Smalls, pictures of Tom Waits, Johnny Cash, Muhammad Ali, and Aretha Franklin. So not only are they trying to make this place look hip (love my neighborhood but it's not Columbia Heights) but they are marketing it to people who consider themselves hip and want luxury at the same time.....eh, isn't that a bit of a contradiction? Here's the website: https://www.blackbirdsedc.com/ This is so weird.

PP. Ugh. I see what they're trying to do, but not sure I love this co-opting of cool and the city's African American history in the name of a gentrification project.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this happens all over the country as areas redevelop and become more desirable

it's really just a class thing

I wish there were more middle class and higher black folks coming back to DC vs PG county to make this less of a racial issue

We're here! Many of us in the upper 16th St. area. I'd say, however, that residents in that area are trending more UMC than true middle class. Most middle class folks I know, regardless of race, are buying in areas like close-in Silver Spring.

Agree with the article that there is a need for a lot more affordable housing across the city. I wish the NIMBYs would accept that changes in density are necessary so that the entire city doesn't eventually become a rich enclave.

But the density isn't offering affordable housing. Chopping up a row home into 4 individual levels and listing at $700k isn't "affordable".