Some DC residents have filed a lawsuit against the city for encouraging gentrification at the expense of poorer residents. The lawsuit alleges that the city’s policies discriminate on the basis of age, income, and race, favoring creatives and millennials at the expense of the city’s historically African-American, low-income residents. Such a policy would violate the DC Human Rights Act.
The Washington Post has done a laudable job reporting on the legion of ways that gentrification is hurting these black communities, a fascinating study in the contradictions inherent in politics on the Left. Bicycle commuters, for example, have pushed for more bike lanes, a liberal pro-green policy if ever there was one. However, more bike lanes in many parts of the city means less parking, a particular frustration for those who attend Sunday church.
As DC transplant and writer Addison del Mastro has observed, few of the young technocratic elites now populating the city attend church, instead preferring to indulge in Sunday brunch bacchanalias. When I related the story of the DC “bike lane controversy” to a coworker—a very successful, liberal graduate of the University of Chicago now living in the district—he had little sympathy for the city’s black churches. Indeed, he complained that their music was far too loud, and said he had issued noise complaints about one in his own neighborhood.
Many blacks whose families have a long history with the city meanwhile can no longer afford to live in the district, so now live in nearby Maryland counties. Many still have to commute into the city for work, which often requires hours on public transportation, oftentimes doing jobs for the technocratic elite that now populate their old haunts.
http://thefederalist.com/2018/07/09...shington-dc-brings-negatives-black-residents/
The Washington Post has done a laudable job reporting on the legion of ways that gentrification is hurting these black communities, a fascinating study in the contradictions inherent in politics on the Left. Bicycle commuters, for example, have pushed for more bike lanes, a liberal pro-green policy if ever there was one. However, more bike lanes in many parts of the city means less parking, a particular frustration for those who attend Sunday church.
As DC transplant and writer Addison del Mastro has observed, few of the young technocratic elites now populating the city attend church, instead preferring to indulge in Sunday brunch bacchanalias. When I related the story of the DC “bike lane controversy” to a coworker—a very successful, liberal graduate of the University of Chicago now living in the district—he had little sympathy for the city’s black churches. Indeed, he complained that their music was far too loud, and said he had issued noise complaints about one in his own neighborhood.
Many blacks whose families have a long history with the city meanwhile can no longer afford to live in the district, so now live in nearby Maryland counties. Many still have to commute into the city for work, which often requires hours on public transportation, oftentimes doing jobs for the technocratic elite that now populate their old haunts.
http://thefederalist.com/2018/07/09...shington-dc-brings-negatives-black-residents/