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Forum nameGeneral Discussion
Topic subjectForgotten Lessons From a 1970s Fight Against Gentrification (DC)
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=12723080
12723080, Forgotten Lessons From a 1970s Fight Against Gentrification (DC)
Posted by Mongo, Tue Feb-10-15 10:05 AM
http://www.citylab.com/housing/2015/02/forgotten-lessons-from-a-1970s-fight-against-gentrification/385212/

The Adams Morgan neighborhood in Washington, D.C., gets pretty crowded on weekends. If you walk down 18th Street at night, you have to dodge hoards of drunken 20-somethings between their second and third bar of the night. My friends from grad school lived on Calvert Street last year, in the top floor apartment of a beautiful row house—that is, until their landlord raised the rent and they couldn't afford it.

That wasn't a surprise. While pockets of Adams Morgan used to be known for crime, the area is now a fairly well-heeled part of town, with a median income of more than $61,000—too high even to be "eligible for gentrification," according to a recent Census tract analysis. The rents, as my grad school friends sadly know, reflect the changing times.

But there was a time when Adams Morgan battled the most unjust aspects of displacement with strong community activism—and, briefly, won. One chapter from its storied past shows how some of its residents fought to keep and stay in their homes in the 1970s. Their ultimately fleeting victory nevertheless had long-term ramifications in the changing urban landscape in D.C., and offers lessons for taming rising rents all over the country.

CONTINUED IN ARTICLE...
12723094, America is amazing at forgetting lessons.
Posted by initiationofplato, Tue Feb-10-15 10:16 AM
12723130, we LOVE to conveniently forget
Posted by lfresh, Tue Feb-10-15 10:40 AM
absolutely love it
its a national pasttime
the Germans had it correct
back it up with law
people dont forget as easily
~~~~
When you are born, you cry, and the world rejoices. Live so that when you die, you rejoice, and the world cries.
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You cannot hate people for their own good.
12723141, TV plays a HUGE part in this
Posted by Starks dunked on Bulls, Tue Feb-10-15 10:45 AM
>
12723115, I've always wondered why there was no Metro stop in Adams Morgan
Posted by John Forte, Tue Feb-10-15 10:31 AM
I suspect that it may have been an intentional omission an an attempt to push poor minorities out of the neighborhood. The only other "important" DC neighborhood without a train is lily-white Georgetown.
12723132, U Street/Cardozo was the closest one. Then there's that gap...
Posted by Mongo, Tue Feb-10-15 10:42 AM
...of no coverage til you hit Dupont Circle.

Georgetown is similarly isolated, although they put those Circulator buses for rapid transit in as a stopgap.

It's no different than Riverdale or Fieldstone or City Island -- they preserve the 'local flavor' by reducing transit options for the unwanted.
12723145, It's a little different with Adams Morgan, since
Posted by John Forte, Tue Feb-10-15 10:48 AM
"the unwanted" were already there.

12723202, I'm told there was a time when Georgetown was, too.
Posted by Mongo, Tue Feb-10-15 11:26 AM
But that's a mixed message as far as I can tell.

12723939, I've never heard this. Interesting
Posted by John Forte, Tue Feb-10-15 04:22 PM
12723966, Friend of my wife's told me. She...
Posted by Mongo, Tue Feb-10-15 04:29 PM
...was from Alexandria, and said she still had (Black, middle class) family in Georgetown along Q and P Street as late as 1992. Apparently there were quite a few off in the cut, most of whom moved to PG County by the late 90s.

I really only knew Georgetown in relation to the waterfront, movie theatre, Wisconsin Avenue, Dumbarton (Red Planet Comics), and M Street, so I have no idea how real it is.

But she was pretty insistent.