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Again if you are wondering why so many whites are buying in black neighborhoods it is because the market is operating as it should. Meaning if you have money you are free to purchase on the market without discrimination.
I wonder if that holds true for a younger black professional couple looking at real estate in white neighborhoods.
I wonder if that holds true for a younger black professional couple looking at real estate in white neighborhoods.
If you have the money, you can buy wherever you like, as DS said.
Not to mention, I take offense to the notion in this thread that only white people are able to afford the higher costs of living in this area. In case you haven't noticed, there are also people of color working in the same jobs as these white people some of y'all claim are taking over black neighborhoods (i.e., people like my friends and I )
You do realize things change. Takoma Park went from a streetcar suburb for Seventh Day Adventists, to a hippie haven, and is now a neighborhood being populated by upwardly mobile liberals in nonprofits and politics. It's character already changed already.
This is the nature of places, you cannot preserve populations in amber, you may be able to make a neighborhood historic, but that does not mean the same demographics will live there. This is the thing many people who are anti-gentrification do not get. In fact in some instances that very character is exactly what makes it higher demand. DC and the DC suburbs historic neighborhoods have characteristics which are rare in America, and at this point highly desirable. They are walkable communities, many with historic homes, and access to transit. This is why many are gentrifying, there is high demand for these types of places, but not many places they do in fact exist.
Likewise I should mention, there is a difference between Takoma (which I mentioned here), and Takoma Park, MD. The DC side is taking on significantly more development than Takoma Park, MD. This is largely because DC is more developer friendly. At the same time a few blocks of houses may remain the last corner of metro accessible houses within a mile of the metro in NW which are around the $400k level. These are smaller bungalows and semi-detached houses close to Georgia Ave. Brightwood and Manor Park, also has houses in this category, but further from the metro. That is what I was mentioning, not Takoma Park, MD.
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I agree with the above about the constant change in urban (and suburban for that matter) neighborhoods. Too many people have blown the current gentrification way out of proportion
Moreover, gentrification is not an endless process; it has a carrying capacity. There are only so many upper middle class young white urban professionals, and given the fact that units under construction in DC have begun to slow down for the first time in a decade, that capacity may be not so far off in DC. 7 and 8 will never gentrify beyond Central Anacostia and the area around Minnestoa Ave. Metro, because that area simply isn't very urban and therefore doesn't offer the housing stock, commercial options, or lifestyle that yuppies want.
What city in America is not walkable? I get tired of that dumb, cliché-sounding talking point. That must be something clueless, suburban people made up.
What city in America is not walkable? I get tired of that dumb, cliché-sounding talking point. That must be something clueless, suburban people made up.
You have not spent much time outside of DC. Most American cities lack walkability throughout much of them, they are primarily suburban by design, and autocentric. This is not something clueless suburban folks which is just "made up". On the contrary, there is ample evidence of this. You have clearly never been to Indianapolis, Pheonix, etc. The walkability of DC is an absolute rarity.
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I agree with the above about the constant change in urban (and suburban for that matter) neighborhoods. Too many people have blown the current gentrification way out of proportion
Moreover, gentrification is not an endless process; it has a carrying capacity. There are only so many upper middle class young white urban professionals, and given the fact that units under construction in DC have begun to slow down for the first time in a decade, that capacity may be not so far off in DC. 7 and 8 will never gentrify beyond Central Anacostia and the area around Minnestoa Ave. Metro, because that area simply isn't very urban and therefore doesn't offer the housing stock, commercial options, or lifestyle that yuppies want.
It slowed down briefly in the last couple of years, but has picked right back up this year. Otherwise I agree with you, Wards 7 and 8 are unlikely to see the extensive gentrification process. It will make it through wards 4 and 5, and DT Silver Spring, and likely slow down to a trickle after that. Much of this is happening in middle class neighborhoods and brownfields. It is much easier to develop a warehouse district into a residential and office district, than it is to reconfigure an poorly planned area. Much of the overblown fears in wards 7 and 8, are just that, overblown fears.
You have not spent much time outside of DC. Most American cities lack walkability throughout much of them, they are primarily suburban by design, and autocentric. This is not something clueless suburban folks which is just "made up". On the contrary, there is ample evidence of this. You have clearly never been to Indianapolis, Pheonix, etc. The walkability of DC is an absolute rarity.
I have been there at least once but I have been to a lot of cities besides DC. I have even been to some DC suburbs too. They're not all country roads and horse ranches.
Yes, sure, you could walk if you wanted to in Phoenix, in suburbs, or in poorly planned city neighborhoods like Wards 7 and 8, but it's extremely boring and unpleasant, and almost no one does. No they're not country roads but they're over-wide boulevards designed exclusively for cars frotned by strip malls with enormous parking lots with isolated residential neighborhoods with little connectivity. In places like this almost no one does walk, even if one theorhetically could.
Walkability Walk Score measures the walkability of any address using a patented system. For each address, Walk Score analyzes hundreds of walking routes to nearby amenities. Points are awarded based on the distance to amenities in each category. Amenities within a 5 minute walk (.25 miles) are given maximum points. A decay function is used to give points to more distant amenities, with no points given after a 30 minute walk.
Walk Score also measures pedestrian friendliness by analyzing population density and road metrics such as block length and intersection density. Data sources include Google, Education.com, Open Street Map, the U.S. Census, Localeze, and places added by the Walk Score user community.
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