Did anything actually happen in Housing Complex world while everyone was busy recapping the last year and ringing in the next? Not much, but a few stories of note. Herewith, a review.
The Czech company that made D.C.'s first three streetcars has appealed the District's decision to award a contract for the next pair to a [...]
It was a conversation that promised to be interesting, with this headline: DOES GENTRIFICATION MEAN ERADICATION? The office of Councilmember Marion Barry convened a panel of Ward 8 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners and community members last night to chew over the question, and at his behest, a group of interested citizens will continue to chew it [...]
Neighborhood change: It's a tricky topic. People feel different ways about it. But widely-read metro columnists should probably figure out a coherent philosophy before dashing off opinions, right?
Not according to longtime D.C. writer Harry Jaffe, now with the Examiner. Jaffe leads this morning's column:
Change is coming in Washington neighborhoods. It's driven by natural, cyclical [...]
In the (mercifully short) audience question section of last night's at-large Council debate, someone launched into a sermon on social justice, and ended with this awkward double query: How would you 'stop gentrification,' and what's your plan to push for statehood for Washington D.C.?
Given only 30 seconds, the candidates either took one of the questions [...]
Better watch out for those white dudes with sunglasses and cigarettes.
Over at Market Urbanism, Stephen Smith responded to my Height Act story, taking particular interest in our little map suggesting places where it would be most advantageous to allow taller buildings. Smith notices that I didn't include many places in wealthy Northwest neighborhoods, and argues that this is the kind of policy that would hasten [...]
So, I wasn't going to puncture the warm bubble of approval that surrounded the release of A City Divided, a project by American University journalism school students that looks at gentrification across the city. Why snipe at such a well-intentioned effort? Good for them for taking on such a big subject.
But then, my colleague Alex [...]
Welcome to the third installment in our "A Walk With" series, this time with U Street fixture Sandra Butler-Truesdale, whose roles are many and varied.
There are some people in D.C. for whom landscapes have two levels: The current level that they actually inhabit, and a subterranean historical space long covered over.
Sandra Butler-Truesdale, whose family has [...]
You'll probably read lots of responses to Megan McArdle's guilty plea over moving to Eckington. But you may not read one as on point as intern-par-excellence Alex Baca's over at her blog, Good Hope. The thing is, there are ways to mitigate the downsides of bringing in things gentrifiers like, such as cafes and restaurants [...]
On a breezy Saturday afternoon, the only sounds in the Big Bear Café at 1700 1st Street NW in Bloomingdale are the tapping of laptops and some hushed conversation, with the occasional shout of a finished sandwich or coffee order from the counter. Ceiling fans whirr overhead. Large open windows make it feel like an [...]
