Witness the Rapid Transformation in Washington DC’s 5 Most Gentrified Neighborhoods
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- Опубликовано: 8 авг 2023
- We explore the most gentrified neighborhoods in Boston. Some of these before and after photos via Google street view are astonishing.
Gentrification occurs when there is a substantial gap between the current value of a place, and its potential value. More capital is invested into the neighborhood and the type of people who live there change over time.
A positive aspect of gentrification is that neighborhoods become much more dense with improved infrastructure like bike lanes and public parks. Who doesn’t love a walkable city?
A negative aspect of gentrification is the potential displacement of current residents due to rising property taxes and house prices. Where is all the affordable housing?
I think it’s normal to only envision the national mall, White House and the nation’s Capitol when you think about DC.
But DC is so much more - there are over 130 neighborhoods in the District of Columbia.
and actually had the highest percentage of gentrified neighborhoods-of any city in the nation between 2000 and 2013, according to a new study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC).
Gentrification in the district started accelerating in the early 2000s when then-Mayor Anthony Williams set a goal of reversing decades of population decline by bringing in new residents. The district then implemented neighborhood investment strategies that would, in turn, attract working adults.
Washington, DC’s population steadily increased between 2000 and 2020, growing by over 120,000 residents
The median home value has gone from $445k in 2015 to $625k in 2023.
With all that said - it is still a tremendous value compared to the high cost of living in Boston or NYC.
5 Most gentrified neighborhoods in Boston
Shaw
Columbia Heights
H Street Corridor
Navy Yard
Logan Circle
Image Credit
flic.kr/p/qvhmQj
flic.kr/p/xdBfYE
Music Credit
Music: Mystics
Musician: Jeff Kaale
Resource Credit
storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/...
www.legalaiddc.org/blogs/new-...
jetsettimes.com/countries/usa...
www.zillow.com/home-values/41...
ncrc.org/gentrification/
www.washingtonpost.com/local/...
www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...
I hope somebody decides to do some Victorian revivalist new builds. Not everything has to look so soulless and cold! Thanks for the video! :)
This is a common take and I tend to agree. But I wonder how we’ll feel 30 years from now. Maybe we’ll appreciate the new/modern homes now as they act as a time stamp. 🤷🏼♂️
@@cities4ppl
Doubt it. Modern architecture is meant to be stale and depressing. A psychological tool to manipulate people
@@cities4pplModern architecture has been around for 50 years already. The only people who seem to love it are modern architecture enthusiasts.
I am sorry, but the zoning laws and building codes don't allow that.
I feel like its just cheaper and easier to design industrial/modern architecture, which is why everyone does it
Besides the rising cost of living, as a dc native I don’t mind the new buildings I just hate the flat box look of some of the new row homes. They stick out and not in a good way. It reminds me of the complaints Californians had a while back about all of the new “white box” homes instead of reviving the old classic styles. Also worked on the Yards redevelopment with the BID and I’m so proud of how it turned out. Great vid!
I’m torn about the new/modern row homes. They certainly look out of place but maybe as the years go on we’ll actually appreciate the diversity as the architecture kind of acts as a Time Machine. I need to get to a Nats and spend a day at the Yard. Thanks for sharing!
I love your content! It’s crazy how much my hometown has changed in the past decade or so. Keep up the great work!
Thank you for the kind words! I wonder how much it will change in the next decade?
At 2:55 wow, that's a lot mid-rise buildings, looks like a high pop density place.
Build build build!
Great selection and video. I loved my time in Shaw in 2019.
Thanks, Gabriel!
the blagden alley development is super cool for upscale evening activities. two of my favorite dc restaurants (the dabney and causa) as well as a pretty cool rooftop bar (they also have a location in nyc) called death and co. while i do have mixed feelings regarding much of the new development in navy yard type areas, i mostly like what dc is becoming
You forgot about NoMa, I would say Navy Yard and NoMa are the most gentrified neighborhoods in DC.
Tough to pick just 5 in cities like DC.
@@cities4ppl very true!
You forgot to mention the H st streetcar line, which was built specifically to encourage development of H st and Benning Rd rather than to actually be useful transit, since it lacks a dedicated lane and is therefore slower than the bus.
Some of those areas swung so rapidly from decay to rapid development because developers were actively blackmailing the city into approving their development proposals. In the case of The Wonderbread Factory and the Tivoli Theater these landmark buildings were allowed to decay for decades while they were owned by developers who hope that if they allowed the buildings to be enough of an eyesore, eventually they would be granted permission to tear down the historic buildings. These keystone properties, while they were vacant and in disrepair helped to depress the local real estate market and made it harder for local minority residents to finance necessary home improvements and repairs. So it can be argued that even in the 1980s it was active neglect by absentee landlords and developers that caused a great deal of the urban blight. In areas of the city where smaller businesses owned and operated their own buildings, the swing from "blight" to "gentrification" was much less extreme.
One other comment I would make: a few people here have noted the word gentrification and it's negative connotation, but another one is "urban renewal." It's fallen out of favor lately and doesn't have the same connotation as it used to, but back in it's heyday it was used to describe the destruction of cities to make way for housing projects and highways, what people at the time thought was "progress."
It's mostly fine too use it now, as gentrification has become the bad word in its place, but I just wanted to spread the word on the history of that phrase.
Appreciate your feedback. Funny how certain words trigger certain feelings or thoughts and evolve over time. I wonder what will replace gentrification as the bad word?
Actually, the process of gentrification started much earlier. In the mid-1980s, the Capitol Hill district was already undergoing gentrification, though there was no local government program at the time. The poor black population was being pushed to the east and south, and you saw their townhouses interspersed with those recently bought by rich homeowners or filled with young people who worked as aides in Congress or the Senate. As for the latter group, four or five roommates would rent a townhouse together, but they were pushed out, when the houses they occupied were sold.
I used to spend a whole lot of time in DC when I was in College and the next 10 years when I lived in Richmond. It is hard to believe these places are so gentrified. Prior to the Green Line, you just didn't go anywhere near these places. It was a scary area. With the green line, it looks like that instigated a lot of it. Hell when I was running around up there, Adams Morgan was just starting to gentrify...and look at it now. Not many people could afford to live there now. Logan Circle has always been expensive. DuPont Circle is more the center of Gay life in DC
A poster child for transit oriented development! DC really isn’t talked about enough. I very much enjoyed my time there. Perhaps I got my wires crossed somewhere between Logan & DuPont Circle. Thanks for sharing!
@@cities4ppl If you are going down Mass Ave, Logan is the circle right before DuPont. DuPont is a much bigger circle (and very confusing)
Hell you should see Trinidad and H street now. From 2016 when I first went to now is a complete difference
Yeah, it's amazing. In a lot of these places, there really wasn't much there before, but now there are a lot of things. Hope for DC's sake it continues.
Lol so it’s bad that they’re taking bad neighborhoods and gentrifying them, but what about all the crime there?
Yay DC!! Great video!! There are so many developments happening across the region! I am so proud of all the work being done to increase the supply of housing here to make DC a place of opportunity for all! Rents are high but there are lots of high paying jobs. As you said other cities like Boston, NY and much of the sunbelt have rents spiraling out of control but DC has some good YIMBY energy...Over 5,000 housing units were built in the 0.5 SqMi Navy Yard neighborhood in the last 5 years alone! Lots of work to do of course but I do take a lot of pride in the area! If you ever need some insight for a video I can fill you in on the exciting developments in the area.
I’m jealous you live in DC! I really appreciate all your insight and advice. I want to visit again soon and take it all in. I’m also very interested in the surrounding areas like Arlington and Alexandria.
@@cities4ppl I live in Arlington!
Too crowded...too congested...too transient...it's soul less....love to visit....but it's no place to live...there is minimal quality of life...I lived there for 32 yrs....
You were considering adding Capitol Hill to a feature on recently gentrified neighborhoods of DC? Baby, Capitol Hill has been exclusive for about a century and a half.
Its gentrified post 7th street NE since the mid 90s.
There are a lot of pretty homes that got replaced with soulless buildings but other than that, happy for D.C.
Increasing the housing supply is very much needed but DC still maintains its charm with its classic row and townhomes.
@@cities4pplAt many points in the video I saw beautiful Victorian style homes being replaced with soulless modernist styles. That's what I am talking about. My concern are soulless buildings replacing the beauty of (some of)the older buildings over time.
A lot of modern mixed use developments look like copy and pastes of a each other, while older ones have a unique character to them. I see this in my own city.
Yes there are some built that are nice looking and it's great they're keeping within the type of building and increasing housing supply. I'll take a McMain street over a McMansion any day, however I would take a Federalist rowhouse in a narrow cobblestone street over ANYTHING; because it's gorgeous and walkable. Think the ones in Philly or Boston.
Do you know the urbanist RUclipsr, the Aesthetic City? His video "What Makes Buildings Beautiful (And Why Beauty Does Matter)" is a great one to watch, if you haven't already.
I see. I actually 100% agree with everything you said. I have seen that video and partly inspired me to start my own! I simply love exploring all corners of the world so I enjoy spending hours in google street viewing the beautiful architecture. Cheers!
@@cities4pplCheers! I enjoyed the video! Hope you continue making 'em
@@patriot9487some of the buildings in this video could be any neighborhood could be anywhere in America or Canada. I’m sad local charm is disappearing.
This is great. Gentrification is such a loaded word. I wouldn’t describe this as gentrification. Gentrification is displacement of poor people, and adding all this cool development, especially development on parking lots does the opposite and protects the existing residents from displacement. We also need more public housing and expansion of Section 8, but private developments like this are good and are anti-gentrification.
You’re right - I do intentionally use the word as it’s quite controversial and misunderstood.
@@cities4ppl I guess it’s an open question but personally I think it’s better to convince people that this development *isn’t gentrification* than to try to rework the definition of gentrification to mean a totally different thing.
Washington DC is objectively one of the most gentrified cities in the US. There is a lot of literature on this subject. There has been massive displacement of low income mostly black people in DC.
@@shomardinho14 That’s true and I’m not disputing that. What I’m saying is that the mechanism of displacement is not new development, it’s the lack of new development. Especially when someone is developing a building on a parking lot it’s transparent no one is being displaced by the new building. What causes displace,ent is income inequality and exclusionary zoning. New housing solves one leg of the problem.
Gentrification is wealthier people moving into an area, not necessarily poorer people moving out. More to the point, gentrification is the biggest non-issue ever. Its more common to see the reverse, wherein poor people moving to an area displace wealthier people by undercutting wages, lowering lowering test scores, and raising crime rates. In a racialized framing this is called white flight, and is also usually regarded as a bad thing because it hurts the local economy, even though it also lowers property values. Gentrification and white flight are both regarded as bad things even though they are exact opposite phenomenon. Ultimately what people are really upset about is apparent lack of economic mobility that would otherwise limit displacement in either situation, but people don't understand that so they instead complain about the symptoms.
Metro may be cleaner than NYC, but we dont have express trains or dual tracks. One set of malfunctioning doors and everones commute is f'ed. I'd trade with NYC in a heartbeat (they can keep the crime, tho)
NYC crime is way less 😂
NYC crime isn’t that bad for a big American city
Fair enough. I guess NYC metro is better period. The one thing that DC Metro has over NYC is the internal station architecture, just makes it feel more world class.
is it really "gentrified" if these pre fabricated box constructions are right next to public section 8 housing
I just moved out of Shaw due to my apartment getting shot out. The hotel listed in Shaw also got shot. Navy Yard is one of the areas with the most carjackings, armed and unarmed. DC is great but currently going through massive increases in crime in every area (shootings, murder, carjacking, theft, etc.). Just want to make sure to let people know if they're looking at moving there.
Apparently that gentrification isn’t solving crime. Interesting how the most gentrified city also is one of a few that have seen crime continue to increase, even though it’s fallen overall in most big cities since 2022ish. I doubt it’s indicative of a larger trend though I haven’t looked further.
The hell with DC
Good to see people who actually take pride in their local area and country are taking back what was purposefully being destroyed by people who will probably chose to go against the current the devolving world forever instead of leaving on their own.
Washington dc was founded too look like ancient Rome how our founding fathers saw the city more classical buildings and statues
2:38 bro all the black people just disappear
Of COURSE that was DELIBERATE
@@brucebeamon5460 it’s emblematic of the effects of gentrification
Too bad they're all soft on crime over there.
DC needs to become a state and have Senate representation just like other states.
I’d watch a video about that!
YEA WHEN THE DISTRICT BECOMES MORE WHITE IT WILL HAPPEN
Or just be ceded back to MD like the Virginia side of the original DC border. A much smaller federal district could be kept in tact (downtown) that would still function as the seat of the federal government. To give DC statehood and remove it as a federal district would require an amendment to the US Constitution.
Your WISH WILL PROBABLY COME TRUE NOW that it’s being GENTRIFIED 😒
So many ugly soulless box buildings. We need to bring back Art Deco.
DC never had a lot of art deco buildings. It's traditional building styles are classical revival and renaissance revival.
DC is so pretty but so boring. Wish it had more going on