What is the story in your city that no one is covering that you think will make the news this year?
Will Obama cause gentrification in D.C.? The Obama administration will bring thousands of young liberals to D.C. They will be replacing Bush appointees who mostly chose to live in the suburbs or the quasi-suburban neighborhoods of the city. Young Obamaphiles are more likely to want to live in the grittier, up-and-coming urban neighborhoods where young liberals tend to live. Will they exacerbate gentrification and displacement? Or, with the market weakening, will they just keep the neighborhoods steady instead of allowing prices to decline? Will the city become visibly more lively, with new businesses to cater to them? It isn’t just people working for Obama who will have an impact. Left-leaning activists, journalists, etc. are drawn to D.C. right now for the excitement of the new administration. What this will mean for the character of certain neighborhoods such as U Street, Columbia Heights, Mount Pleasant, Logan Circle and Shaw remains to be seen. But once the change becomes apparent, the press will be all over it.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Republican Washington
It's neat stereotype, but was it really true?