gentrification firewalls... (low income, crime, neighborhoods)

[stars99]

This election is a referendum. The DC people have said "enough is enough" on their neighborhoods being changed against they're will. What Gray needs to do is create gentrification firewalls in Shaw, Colu Heights, etc. -- huge blocks of low income projects that will prevent this from spreading any further east.

[The Heartbreak Kid]

Originally Posted by stars99

This election is a referendum. The DC people have said "enough is enough" on their neighborhoods being changed against they're will. What Gray needs to do is create gentrification firewalls in Shaw, Colu Heights, etc. -- huge blocks of low income projects that will prevent this from spreading any further east.

I wish you were joking but I know that you are not. Housing projects are a failed idea.

[HurricaneDC]

Originally Posted by stars99

This election is a referendum. The DC people have said "enough is enough" on their neighborhoods being changed against they're will. What Gray needs to do is create gentrification firewalls in Shaw, Colu Heights, etc. -- huge blocks of low income projects that will prevent this from spreading any further east.

great idea, then all the high earners will move out again and DC will really go back to the 90s

thankfully Gray and everybody else is not crazy enough to do something like that. Well, maybe Barry, but he's a crazy old goat

[Avtomat Kalashnikova]

Gentrification is still gonna happen under Gray, but the process will probably slow down a bit.

[Bluefly]

Moderator cut: personal Anybody educated at all in urban issues knows:

1. Projects are a failed model of vertical ghettos and are quickly being destroyed across the country to integrate low income residents into more mixed income areas - with great success.

2. A "gentrifying" area today was a de-gentrifying area 40 years ago that is simply returning to some socioeconomic semblance of what it was before Americans became briefly infatuated with the automobile and abandoned cities. To treat middle class people moving back to neighborhoods with good services and infrastructure as some sort of invaders is pure bigotry lacking understanding of American history.

[paytonc]

Besides, gentrification has a way of finding its way around such "firewalls." Where there's a will, money will find a way. Consider: there's still lots of public housing along the south flank of Columbia Heights, and that didn't stop the cash from flowing north on 14th. The phalanx of projects in Alphabet City hasn't stopped the yuppies from finding Williamsburg on the other side of the East River -- nor have the projects east of Billyburg stopped the hipsters from overtaking Bushwick and now Bed-Stuy. Cabrini-Green is only now coming to an end, after being walled in on every side by Starbucks and Benz dealerships.

Also, I'm pretty sure that no one's in favor of more crime and destitution. Well, except these folks.

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by Bluefly

2. A "gentrifying" area today was a de-gentrifying area 40 years ago that is simply returning to some socioeconomic semblance of what it was before Americans became briefly infatuated with the automobile and abandoned cities.

Well-said.

[Smoke_Jaguar4]

Originally Posted by stars99

This election is a referendum. The DC people have said "enough is enough" on their neighborhoods being changed against they're will. What Gray needs to do is create gentrification firewalls in Shaw, Colu Heights, etc. -- huge blocks of low income projects that will prevent this from spreading any further east.

Yeah, just what the city needs: locked in blocks of permanent poverty. Heaven forbid we make the city attractive for a functional middle class. They can keep on living in the suburbs and just come to DC to work. MD and VA are happy to keep their tax dollars. You want to prevent gentrification? Then just convince all homeowners not to sell out to "The Man".

[lackadaisi]

So, the goal under this plan is to make people not want to live in the city? To lower property value? To keep people with higher incomes from paying taxes into the city? This may be the worst idea - and goal - that I have ever heard! Luckily, I have much more faith in the general population of DC to believe that they would be stupid enough to seriously consider such a masochistic idea.

[nycwind]

I say instead of projects just build a bunch of slums with corrugated metal sheetsand thatched mud. Far cheaper.