FALL 2013
DOMESTIC
In Defense of Gentrification
A look at the socioeconomic polarization of the nation’s capital
S
caffolds hang in the air at almost
every street corner. New restaurants
and luxury apartment buildings pop
up all over D.C.’s K Street. Landscaped
and planned to perfection, the area looks
as expensive as it is. A one-bedroom condo
on K Street will cost a buyer anywhere between $369,000 and $429,000. But at 4th
and K Street, in the midst of this development, is a small corner unit; here, K Street
reveals its origins. A few years ago, these
high rises did not exist. Instead, drug dealers and thugs plagued the corner. Where
new buildings rise, complexes’ needs lay
abandoned, left to decay or serve as shelter for the homeless. Painting a stark con-
GarberDC
by CAYLYN PERRY ‘16
trast between the past and the present, 424
K Street has bars on its windows and a
security system worthy of a military facility. Yet when the building was purchased
in 2002, the bars and security were crucial to any business in the area. When the
owner of the unit purchased the K Street
property, people thought he was crazy.
But today, the joke is on them: the property is now worth over one million dollars.
Take a short metro ride to Anacostia
Station in Southeast D.C. and the same
bars mar the faces of buildings, but unlike in the case of 424 K Street, they
are commonplace. Here the streets and
sidewalks lack the freshly-paved look K
Street boasts. A cursory glance proves
that the wealth that has benefited K Street
has not extended to this quadrant. But
in just eleven years, how did two different worlds emerge within one city?
Enter former Mayor Anthony Williams.
When Williams took office in 1999, he had
already served as the city’s Chief Financial Officer and was responsible for rejuvenating the city’s economy. His constituents expected him to do much of the same
as mayor. During his eight-year tenure,
Williams brought in millions in revenue
and oversaw a rapidly falling crime rate.
But D.C. was already primed for this
transformation before Williams entered
office due to former President Bill Clinton’s 1997 Taxpayer Relief Act. The
legislation enticed first-time buyers and
incoming businesses with attractive tax incentives that specifically appealed to single homeowners. The bill, which expired
at the end of 2011, was linked in 2005 by
a Fannie Mae study to the city’s increase
in former suburban residents and boosted
urban home values. Between the Taxpayer
Relief Act giving financial incentives for
businesses to set their roots in D.C. and
Williams steamrolling their path, many
parts of the city once associated with violence and drug use now look like K Street.
At the same time, Williams’ policies
condemned an already struggling lower-class constituency. Instead of spreadin ??????????????????????????]???????d???????????????????????????????)?????????????????M???????? ????)?????e??????????????Q??????????????)?????????????????????????????]?????????????????????????????????((??((