By Liane Scott, on February 8th, 2011 
Integrated Classroom at Anacostia High, 1957
Gentrification has a tendency to spread and as it spreads, communities turn over. Examples of racial and economic integration, which we all hope will be the result of urban development, are truly hard to find. In the 1940s & ’50s Anacostia was white and believe it or not, Georgetown was black. While it may be unlikely that Georgetown will ever be affordable enough to sustain a majority black population again, Anacostia may revert to it’s previous status. For much of the last decade many long-term residents of DC (black, white and Latino) who at one time lived in Northwest have sought more affordable homes east of the river. With the recession still in full force in Wards 7 & 8, a considerable number are heading even farther east, across the border into Maryland. Who will remain?
One black-owned DC business that will not be relocating to Ward 9 (Prince George’s County) is Stewart’s Funeral Home. In an exploration of gentrification and those who are able to survive it, Brenda Hayes and Be Steadwell produced the following audio report: A_Home_Away_From_Home. It’s clear that Stewart’s Funeral Home is part of a legacy within DC’s black communities of taking care of their own that stretches from the Civil War to the Civil Rights movement. But will that tradition last now that the black majority of the District of Columbia is dwindling and will soon cease to exist?
Video producers Judith Hawkins and Valencia Rutledge of Valencia’s It Is What It Is Mobile Talk Show make the case that it is not only African-American business owners who have been established for decades that will survive. The tradition of fulfilling the needs of the community within the community remains, despite the neglect that accompanied the flight of the middle class after integration. Their report on gentrification features a businessman who sells his wares on the street. No, he doesn’t deal drugs, but if you can’t afford a brick and mortar store, then pounding the pavement and taking the product directly to the consumer is one way to go. It may not make him rich, but it will keep him in his Ward 8 home.
The stories featured in this post show the kind of tenacity that’s necessary if native Washingtonians or immigrants from other parts of the country or other parts of the world are to strengthen their roots here and survive gentrification. To rebuild a sense of financial security among the middle class, working class and even low-income residents of DC, we must push for real economic opportunities that extend not only to for-profit developers but also to residents whose investments in the community represents more than just the all mighty dollar but the true wealth of the District of Columbia.
By Liane Scott, on February 5th, 2011 
14th and U Street NW before the Metro.
Gentrification is a funny thing. The developers who bought up all the property along the U Street Corridor staked their fortunes on being able to attract wealthy individuals looking for a central location to live and shop. They capitalized on the history along the corridor and named buildings and businesses after DC’s most famous African-Americans. Ironically, they attracted a whole slew of white folks who seem to think the cultural history of DC is cool, but the low-income and working class black folk who are alive and well today don’t always make the best neighbors. Thus, a neighborhood like Shaw, which was for decades a bastion of the black middle class, who came together to build a sense of stability within a deeply segregated city, remains stable only for those African-Americans who bought and paid for property before the housing bubble or those who are extremely well-heeled.
And so it was with the U Street Corridor. Only three U Street businesses between Georgia Avenue and 16th Street survived the riots of the 60s, the neglect of the 70s, the housing boom and the coming of the U Street/Cardozo Metro Station. Those three businesses are Lee’s Flower and Card Shop, the Industrial Bank of Washington and Ben’s Chili Bowl. How they survived is chronicled in the audio podcast 192 Years of Black B’ness on U Street produced by Brenda Hayes and Be Steadwell. The report makes it clear that although these business owners are thriving now, that was not always the case. For those of us attempting to withstand the harsh winds of gentrification, it is a history well worth remembering.
By Liane Scott, on January 21st, 2011 
On Tuesday, I went to the common security club event that was the subject of the last post. There were many ideas proposed for how individuals and communities can get by during hard times. The speaker, Chuck Collins from the Institute for Policy Studies, pointed out that our economy is designed to funnel money upward toward the wealthy. Those on the right believe that wealth trickles down. Why we believe money conforms to the laws of physics–funneling upwards like a cow caught in a twister or trickling down like soap suds caught in the drain–eludes me.
I’m not a physicist nor am I an economist. I don’t know how money reacts in a physical universe except to say that it does leave my wallet just about as fast as I can put it in there. My sense is, when I go to Walmart (I’ve only ever been once. I bought a sweater.) the money I give them is mostly funneling up. Sure, some small portion of it goes to pay the cashier, the sales associates, stock clerks, etc. A significantly smaller portion (an infinitesimal portion) makes its way back to the factory worker in Indonesia who put together my $12 sweater, but I think the vast majority of my money found its way into the wallets of the Walton Family.
Sure they’ll take my money and yours and build more stores and employ more cashiers, stock clerks, sales associates and managers, but no one is getting rich working for Walmart. Evidence suggests that most Walmart employees are just barely making ends meet. The Walton family on the other hand, well they’ll just keep doing better and better. It’s not their job to make sure their employees get rich. So far as they see it, it’s the responsibility of their employees to see that the Waltons remain rich and become even richer. Do they feel any responsibility to their employees or their suppliers? Or is it in the interest of the Walton’s that their employees be given just enough to get by and no more? After all, if they did make a good living, well … all manner of things might happen to upset that strong current upward.
What does any of this mean to someone who doesn’t have a job? In the current economy, I’m not blaming anybody for working for Walmart or for shopping there. I do believe that if we are ever to get out of this bind of waiting for money to trickle down so we can send it back up through the funnel, we need alternatives and we need to fight for them.
With that in mind, I’m posting here coverage by Luke from the fight to keep DC Walmart Free–Dozens Protest Walmart Outside of Developer’s House posted on DC’s Independent Media Center and his video Walmart’s DC Developer Gets 2nd Protest at his House as posted on LiveLeak.com.
Soon Walmart will intensify a media campaign that insists that those who oppose Walmart would turn down new jobs, stop people from paying lower prices and hinder Walmart’s noble efforts to feed poor folk healthy food. (Oh Michelle, what are you doing?) To get the other side of the story, check out walmartwatch.org and walmartsubsidywatch.org.
If you’re none too fond of sitting in front of a computer screen to get your information and would prefer to be among people, go to the free community film screening of
Walmart: The High Cost of Low Prices Wednesday, January 26, 2011 6:30-8:30 PM Emory Recreation Center 5701 Georgia Avenue NW
To get specifics about the campaign in DC and join the fight go to walmartfreedc.org.
Finally, for all of us out here who want to put food on the table and buy clothes for our kids that we can afford without shopping at Walmart or Target consider forming or joining a common security club. You’ll get all the information you need and more at the Common Security Club Workshop sponsored by the Institute for Policy Studies:
Saturday, January 29, 2011 10:00 am to 4:00 pm Festival Center 1640 Columbia Road NW Washington, DC
By Netfa Freeman, on January 12th, 2011 
A small group approach to building resilient communities in DC during tough times. . . . → Read More: Common Security Clubs Come to DC
By Liane Scott, on January 5th, 2011 
Joint Session of Congress
And so it begins. It’s a new year and we have a new congress. Unfortunately the 112th promises to be as divisive as any session before it. Can we expect better? Unlikely. So far, House Republicans who align themselves with Tea Party activism have promised to either repeal Obama’s health insurance reform or refuse to fund it. They are also planning to cut $100 billion worth of domestic spending from the budget in an effort to bring down the deficit but have no intention of raising taxes, this despite the fact that tax rates for all income levels have reached lows that we haven’t seen since the 1950s. My personal favorite is the promise to read the Constitution aloud on the House floor as a reminder to elected officials of the Founder’s rules regarding limited-government. I’m not certain those rules are as explicit as conservatives think, what with a preamble that charges the government with such broad authority as promoting the general welfare and securing the blessings of liberty, but that may be a matter of interpretation.
Does a rejection of health care reform (well, health insurance reform) and deficit reduction without raising revenue represent a mandate that the electorate demanded when they voted the Democrats out of the majority last November? Should we thank the Tea Party that isn’t really a party for this? Will they be happy with the results?
I suspect that Tea Party activists may be no happier about the results of the 112th Congress as the New Left, energized by Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, was with the 110th or even the 111th Congress. I say this because all of the hip hip hoorays that are chanted when we’re in office and they are out (it doesn’t matter if the “we” here is the Left or the Right) inevitably turns into the same sorry refrain, a refrain that goes something like, “Hold the phone there partner, that’s not what we asked you to do.”
Two years ago, the Left made it clear that we wanted, among other things, health care reform and an end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. What we got was health insurance reform and although we’ve pulled back to a certain extent in Iraq, there can be no doubt that a US military presence will remain in both Iraq and Afghanistan for a long, long time. Last year, when the Right demanded that elected officials stop spending beyond our means, as so many of us have been forced to do in these hard economic times, were they expecting cuts to unemployment and food stamps? According to the latest 60 Minutes/Vanity Fair poll, 61 percent of Americans favor increasing taxes on the wealthy as a way to reduce the deficit while 20 percent prefer cuts to the Defense Department. If we extrapolate those poll numbers, less than 20 percent of the American public has any interest in cutting entitlement programs or social services. [It’s actually much less than that if you read the poll carefully.] Given the choice to increase taxes on the wealthy or increase cuts to programs that benefit the poor and middle class, what do you think the 112th Congress will do?
Behind all of the complaints that we threw the bastards out and the new bastards aren’t any better is one inescapable reality. The new bastards and the old bastards have more in common with each other than they do with any of us.
The nation is divided, perhaps as divided as the Congress. We are divided by race; we are divided by political ideology; we pretend not to be divided by class, but in reality that is probably our most potent divide. To the never ending advantage of the elites in power, the electorate will forever blow out of proportion all the little things that make us different and ignore the issues in which we should be able to find common ground.
Audio Archive from Rallies to Restore Honor and Reclaim the Dream
Riley Abbott’s report on Glenn Beck’s controversial Rally to Restore Honor and Al Sharpton’s response The Rally to Reclaim the Dream makes it clear that in fact there are a number of things upon which the Right and the Left agree. It also points out that neither side seems aware of this reality.
Audio Report from One Nation Rally
Alyssa Schimmel’s report on last October’s One Nation March highlights the demands the Left expected the Democratic Majority . . . → Read More: Divided Congress, Divided Nation
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