The 1617U project and policy approach is more inline with SW Urban Renewal than the gentrification seen in the Dupont neighborhood of the 70s and 80s. Dupont was more the residual impact of government social-economic policies; whereas SW Urban Renewal and 1617U are large scale government policy efforts. The difference between SW Urban Renewal and today is the role of large financial markets. The outsized role of financial markets in neighborhoods and local politics is the problem.
The question for us: Should housing and neighborhoods be optimized for people or for investors (financial markets). New Urbanists like Councilmember Brianne Nadeau are more aligned with investor optimization than people. Optimizing for people is not always good because people can be/are biased, selfish and racist.
DC is attractive to investors (not necessarily business) because government policy is to optimize the city for investor return by optimizing housing and amenities around government backed new urbanist white privilege, gentrification and rental housing population turnover. Profit comes to betting on neighborhood destabilization, turnover and churn.
William Jordan, Ward One
* Cribbed and edited from original post on the Adams Morgan online discussion listserv
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