{"id":433,"date":"2019-07-30T20:51:30","date_gmt":"2019-07-30T20:51:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/?p=433"},"modified":"2019-07-30T20:51:58","modified_gmt":"2019-07-30T20:51:58","slug":"chris-otten-analysis-racialequity-in-words-not-deeds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/433\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Otten Analysis: #RacialEquity in Words not Deeds"},"content":{"rendered":"

*#RacialEquity in Words not Deeds*
\nOn Monday, ground was broken at 4th and Rhode Island for a, “project [that] at full completion will include 1,500 apartment units and 250,000 square feet of retail and significant public realm improvements, including a plaza, new urban grid, dog park, and ample outdoor seating.” www.popville.com\/2019\/07\/ground-broken-bryant-street-development\/#more-223268<\/a>
\n*Most intriguing is Ward 5 Councilmember, Kenyan McDuffie’s comments at the ground breaking.*
\n\u201cIn the District of Columbia, the demand for housing continues to exceed > the supply, that is why we must continue to support and encourage community > driven economic development,\u201d said Councilmember McDuffie. \u201cThe Bryant > Street development will bring additional jobs, retail, and affordable units > to the neighborhood and 1,500 new residential units to the District, > helping to increase capacity and alleviate some of the pressure on our > housing market.\u201d >
\nFirst, McDuffie eschews the fact that housing isn’t like a retail widget that can be similarly based on a simplistic basic supply and demand metric like apples and oranges. Moreover he doesn’t nuance what is being* supplied* in the project versus what is the* known demand *in the District. *See *DC Grassroots Planning Coalition, Known Demand vs. Speculative Demand <www.tinyurl.com\/dc-housing-demand<\/a>>.
\nOf these 1500 new units that were subsidized with public tax monies, little if any will be family sized units (3+ bedrooms) and thus none will be affordable family sized units.
\nThus, here in this public subsidized luxury project <mayor.dc.gov\/release\/mayor-bowser-breaks-ground-new-housing-and-retail-ward-5%E2%80%99s-bryant-street-development<\/a>> next to the Rhode Island Avenue Metro stop there be the bare minimum affordable units (8% as required by Inclusionary Zoning <dhcd.dc.gov\/service\/inclusionary-zoning-affordable-housing-program<\/a>>) with no affordable family sized units. The amenities that exist now serving longtime Edgewood and Eckington families with inexpensive retail goods and services (Forman Mills, Big Lots, Neighborhood Legal Services, and other establishments) are being ripped out and replaced with “amenities” like adults-only movie theatres with bars (The Alamo Theatre).
\nThe Alamo Theatre <www.popville.com\/2019\/03\/dc-drafthouse-cinema-rhode-island-avenue\/<\/a>> represents the perfect title for a neo-colonization of Black DC. For, when its all said and done, this new “livable, walkable transit oriented development” at 4th and Rhode Island Avenue as pushed by the likes of Cheryl Cort of the Coalition for Smart Growth and David Alpert of Greater Greater Washington will indeed serve those in their likeness, young white professionals making lots of money to pay for high-rents and high-priced services and goods.
\nSo, these new “developments” are only livable and walkable if your a single professional making $65,000+ a year. And, there’s no #racialequity in this project.
\nWhich is why its surprising to read Councilmember McDuffie’s comments given his recent touting of edits to the Comprehensive Plan emphasizing racial equity in development here in the District. https:\/\/twitter.com\/kenyanmcduffie\/status\/1108084358982914048
\nHis work on the #DCCompPlan follows on from his Council hearings on #racialequity >> kenyanmcduffieward5.com\/equity\/<\/a>
\n *###*
\n*The above was written by Chris Otten of DC for Reasonable Development <www.dc4reality.org<\/a>>. Chris is a member of the DC Grassroots Planning Coalition <www.dcgrassrootsplanning.org<\/a>>.*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

*#RacialEquity in Words not Deeds* On Monday, ground was broken at 4th and Rhode Island for a, “project [that] at full completion will include 1,500 apartment units and 250,000 square feet of retail and significant public realm improvements, including a plaza, new urban grid, dog park, and ample outdoor seating.” www.popville.com\/2019\/07\/ground-broken-bryant-street-development\/#more-223268 *Most intriguing is Ward […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}