D.C. - Out with the Poor, In with the Rich

I'm from the wonderful county of Prince George's, P.G. County Maryland that is. I love it with all my heart because you get the best of both worlds; it's not far from a big city (D.C.) and it's still quiet enough for a suburban area. There is one thing that is bothering me about P.G. though; it's becoming the landfill for D.C.'s "trash." (Disclaimer: I only used the word trash because that's the way the city is treating the people they're kicking out).

Map of Gentrification in D.C.

Our nation's capital is certainly becoming a beautiful city. Of course I am biased because I'm from the area but there aren't too many big cities that are clean like Washington, D.C. They're doing a lot of building and a lot of tearing down in the city, but the buildings they're tearing down are residential buildings, section 8 residential buildings. The number of projects complexes located in the city is slowly decreasing. Also, any area near a Metro stop (that's our subway system) is totally being renovated. Right at the intersection of Central Ave. and Southern Ave., where D.C. and P.G. meet, is where you'll see gutted or torn buildings, which use to house low-income families, being replaced by lavish condos and apartments. The D.C. government thinks they're being slick but we know the deal.

Of course the government claims that they were going to let the people move back in to the refurbished buildings but after years of not living in your home, one would naturally have to find another place to live, some place permanent.

So now you ask, where are these newly-homeless people relocating? Well, to P.G. County, a place where crime has increased and section 8 housing has become more prevalent. P.G. is not the only county who is receiving the exports of D.C., Charles Co. and Montgomery Co. Maryland have been victims as well. Now I'm all for making a city beautiful and a better place to live, but kicking people out and sending them another place for another government to worry about isn't the best way to do it, at least not ethically speaking.

Unfortunately, race factors in to this issue. This is how the osmosis between D.C. and P.G. has worked: long time ago D.C. was majority white as blacks began to move in whites began to move out, to the suburbs (they had the transportation to do so); eventually some blacks started making more money and decided to move to the suburbs as well, property value went down a little bit so whites moved back to the city and are now trying to kick out the black residue that is left behind. So Chocolate City is no more, maybe a Chocolate-Vanilla Swirl City with a few sprinkles here and there.