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Why are you making this about "owning" DC? It shifts the point of this discussion. Has anyone said that to you?
Did it ever occur to you that everyone has their own reasons for not wanting to move? Is it so hard to understand why poor people might get upset at the idea of gentrification jacking up prices to a point where they can no longer afford to stay in a given place????? Do you really expect them to be happy?? Seriously?
OH BTW, I'm not one of those people, so don't go there.
They are self-centered while looking for pity at the same time. They talk about riots and violence.
I understand frustrations from being priced out of your home town. But we are adults aren't we? You don't always get your way in life. The solution is to try harder to improve your situation. Not to project hatred and blame onto people who are just living their lives but happen to be doing better than you.
Why are you making this about "owning" DC? It shifts the point of this discussion. Has anyone said that to you?
Did it ever occur to you that everyone has their own reasons for not wanting to move? Is it so hard to understand why poor people might get upset at the idea of gentrification jacking up prices to a point where they can no longer afford to stay in a given place????? Do you really expect them to be happy?? Seriously?
OH BTW, I'm not one of those people, so don't go there.
I agree with this. I'm not sure where the "owning" idea comes from. It's more about resentment, much of it misplaced.
I think it's completely understandable why people are upset at being displaced and directing their anger towards people who are not to blame but are accessible punching bags. In the context of Homestead, PA, after the mill was allowed to collapse and the town had to be abandoned (cause there were no jobs anymore), many poor African-Americans began moving in because the prices were cheap and desperate owners who couldn't sell were happy to take Section 8 checks for rent. Needless to say, many people directed their irritation at the African Americans, and it's true that blacks took over the town. But in reality, African Americans were just responding to the economic stimulus put in place by others, and the whites couldn't lash out at the heads of U.S. Steel and the unions, because they weren't accessible.
I think most understand why people are upset at being priced out of a neighborhood they never bought in. There's also the historical instituionalized discrimination at work that makes it falsely seem like a race parallel.
I think what confuses many of us is the lack of understanding basic economics by many posters who see conspiracy or some illicit agenda when in reality it's just supply and demand. Class B housing has actually dropped in rental price as new class A units have been built. People think those shiny new buildings are driving up price but so long as there is high demand for an area, they are lowering rental costs by supplying more housing the wealthier newcomers want and leaving the older stock alone.
Lots of first wave "gentrifiers" who couldn't afford to buy have been priced out of those neighborhoods along with locals. I think what happened is a few generations settled into a certain belief about urban development (suburban rich, urban poor) and were caught off guard when the culture shifted.
This. And this is not even mentioning the widespread rent control on many of those older class B buildings.
The thing is some of the class B buildings where condo conversions, and that is to the owner of the buildings discretion, and there are tenants rights provisions that basically supply mechanisms for either one to buy in, or at the same time buy out the owner and turn it into a co-opt, as well as several other mechanisms that are to the benefit of tenants. DC has far stronger provisions than any other city with regards to this. These conversions have taken some class B buildings off the market, which reduced rental supply, but with the new buildings the rental supply has once again risen, which has decreased inflationary pressures on class B rentals that were coming from the condo conversions and lack of general supply. In fact DC area has been doing something the Bay area has refused to do, add supply in critical places to offset the new demand.
This may be frustrating, but the rented when DC was losing residents rapidly, not gaining them, and the cost of housing was far lower as a result. Now that DC is going from a low tier city like Baltimore or Detroit, to a high tier city like SF or Boston. But you are right, it's simple supply and demand dynamics, nothing more, nothing less. This shift from the bottom to the top is jolting, especially since it happened within a decade.
I also think you are right, the historical institutional discrimination regarding housing, which no longer exists, is being associated with pure supply and demand constructs of gentrification. Those institutional elements no longer exist, one can buy where ever they want as long as they can afford it. Before...there was restrictive covenants and other elements which prevented purchase based on race. For a period there was even real estate agents discouraging people from buying in certain areas...again, based on race. That no longer can happen, real estate agents must show clients houses within their budget, as well as direct them to houses based on the clients requirements. This practice is what allowed areas to become so concentrated, but is now so illegal, that real estate agents not only could lose their license, but pay hundreds of thousands in fines. My agent told me of instances where agents were sued and basically had to pay up for entire houses over this practice. Now RE agents show people places based on their budget and home requirements, and let their clients chose what neighborhoods and houses they want to look for. This one small practice is what is contributing to much of the gentrification, and it is a positive practice, since they can no longer direct white people to white neighborhoods, and black people to black neighborhoods. People choose based on what they can afford, this is why there are now more black residents in Chevy Chase then there were before, and more white residents in Shepherd Park and Takoma, but also more people buying in neighborhoods like Trinidad, that may have not even considered the neighborhood before.
Also there has been research in the past on this, there is only so far that wealth and affluence spreads out before it begins to shift back into the urban core again. This can happen very quickly.
bottom line, its easy to tell the working class locals "hey dont blame us, its just capitalism, it is what it is" to justify pushing out locals by way of gentrification, yet Im willing to bet if the gentrifiers were being forced out in some way shape or form, yall would cry gripe and moan like the spoiled entitled brats a lot of yall tend to be (and yet yall call the locals entitled? hilarious) and that whole "it is what it is" argument....y'all wouldnt try to hear one bit of that.
But goin back and forth on here wont change anything. But I know for a fact Ill be damned if I let some johnny come lately gentrifying yupster look @ me and treat me like i have no business walking through a neighborhood they themselves know jack squat about. Back and forths on here wont bring back the flea market on Florida Ave, but I know darn well that the yupster living in uptown DC either knew nothing of the place 3 years ago or avoided it like an HIV infection, so that person looking @ me like "what are you doing here" is laughable......that yupster come of the side of their mouth to me, they better pray a cops nearby cuz I WILL curse them out and hurt their feelings.....
bottom line, its easy to tell the working class locals "hey dont blame us, its just capitalism, it is what it is" to justify pushing out locals by way of gentrification, yet Im willing to bet if the gentrifiers were being forced out in some way shape or form, yall would cry gripe and moan like the spoiled entitled brats a lot of yall tend to be (and yet yall call the locals entitled? hilarious) and that whole "it is what it is" argument....y'all wouldnt try to hear one bit of that.
But goin back and forth on here wont change anything. But I know for a fact Ill be damned if I let some johnny come lately gentrifying yupster look @ me and treat me like i have no business walking through a neighborhood they themselves know jack squat about. Back and forths on here wont bring back the flea market on Florida Ave, but I know darn well that the yupster living in uptown DC either knew nothing of the place 3 years ago or avoided it like an HIV infection, so that person looking @ me like "what are you doing here" is laughable......that yupster come of the side of their mouth to me, they better pray a cops nearby cuz I WILL curse them out and hurt their feelings.....
But your simplistic view is wrong because gentrifiers are being forced out. I wrote just above your post that early wave gentrifiers - the post grads, waiters, artists, etc. can't afford their old neighborhoods anymore. It takes essentially 6 figures or two decent income to make it in formerly affordable places like logan Circle. Why do you think people of moderate means are now gentrifying Petworth, Trinidad, etc? They've been gentrified out of more central neighborhoods.
Again - this isn't us versus them. It's the same market that abandoned cities decades ago and created a vacuum trapping low income and working class people in them.
The rest is just emotional ranting rather than rational reasoning. Do people actually look at you that way? Keep your assumptions at home.
bottom line, its easy to tell the working class locals "hey dont blame us, its just capitalism, it is what it is" to justify pushing out locals by way of gentrification, yet Im willing to bet if the gentrifiers were being forced out in some way shape or form, yall would cry gripe and moan like the spoiled entitled brats a lot of yall tend to be (and yet yall call the locals entitled? hilarious) and that whole "it is what it is" argument....y'all wouldnt try to hear one bit of that.
But goin back and forth on here wont change anything. But I know for a fact Ill be damned if I let some johnny come lately gentrifying yupster look @ me and treat me like i have no business walking through a neighborhood they themselves know jack squat about. Back and forths on here wont bring back the flea market on Florida Ave, but I know darn well that the yupster living in uptown DC either knew nothing of the place 3 years ago or avoided it like an HIV infection, so that person looking @ me like "what are you doing here" is laughable......that yupster come of the side of their mouth to me, they better pray a cops nearby cuz I WILL curse them out and hurt their feelings.....
Who cares if a new comer "knows nothing about what a place was 3 years ago"? You think you're special because you were here first? What about the native Americans bro?
Who cares if a new comer "knows nothing about what a place was 3 years ago"? You think you're special because you were here first? What about the native Americans bro?
Grow up. No one cares about 3 years ago.
You don't own DC. K?
neither do you. And neither do your entitled brat yupster counterparts. So with that being established, dont give me or any other non gentrifier any dirty looks when you see us around town. Since DC belongs to "no one" we have just as much of a right to walk around the town and enjoy the city as yall do. If we have the money, we have just as much of right to rent there as yall do.
neither do you. And neither do your entitled brat yupster counterparts. So with that being established, dont give me or any other non gentrifier any dirty looks when you see us around town. Since DC belongs to "no one" we have just as much of a right to walk around the town and enjoy the city as yall do. If we have the money, we have just as much of right to rent there as yall do.
Well if you AGREE that no one owns DC.. why you mad bro?
Regarding "dirty looks" and whatnot..You just need to work on your self-esteem. Why do you care who looks at you and how they look at you?
If you don't "own" DC then YOU CAN'T TELL ME HOW TO ACT IN DC.
But your simplistic view is wrong because gentrifiers are being forced out. I wrote just above your post that early wave gentrifiers - the post grads, waiters, artists, etc. can't afford their old neighborhoods anymore. It takes essentially 6 figures or two decent income to make it in formerly affordable places like logan Circle. Why do you think people of moderate means are now gentrifying Petworth, Trinidad, etc? They've been gentrified out of more central neighborhoods.
Again - this isn't us versus them. It's the same market that abandoned cities decades ago and created a vacuum trapping low income and working class people in them.
The rest is just emotional ranting rather than rational reasoning. Do people actually look at you that way? Keep your assumptions at home.
You know how few people get this. There is a cycle generally with gentrification, it is pretty organic in nature for the most part, the only reason it is happening in DC is because DC ended up being a highly desirable city. Many cities try to kick start this process and it usually fails.
You know how few people get this. There is a cycle generally with gentrification, it is pretty organic in nature for the most part, the only reason it is happening in DC is because DC ended up being a highly desirable city. Many cities try to kick start this process and it usually fails.
I'm getting an education on here about how few people get this. I thought it was just common sense. Apparently not.
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