Hello to those people who have taken the time to watch this documentary. I helped make this film nearly a decade ago (mainly filming and editing) ... and from what I have heard / read etc the issue of gentrification continues to strip people of their homes and to negatively impact on the communities in / around DC. I have read some messages outlining the opinion that poorer people in DC should simply accept that the city is changing. From my perspective, and from those of many of the people I met while in DC, local people are not opposed to the new economic opportunities that arrive when the city is developed; The issue is that local people are often forced from their homes when the tsunami wave of gentrification rolls in. Our mission in this film was to bear witness to that process and to demonstrate how it unfolds. I am from London and can no longer afford to live in my uber-trendy city now - the city I consider to be my home. This film is testament to the fact that allowing the free market to run havoc in our world often destroys some of the most tender, beautiful and delicate aspects of our lives ... the very communities that can help to make life liveable, enjoyable and sociable.
So sad I am white guy I was born in DC in 78 moved to PG in 80s but family and I always worked n the city I'm there everyday. And I hate the way the city is now. I hate all the new ppl. What happen to the city I grew up to. I hate the way the city just kicks poor ppl to Side. They destroyed the history of my city. Most of the new ppl have no idea about where they live what that neighborhood use to be like. Just so sad how they, our government treats working poor/poor ppl.
I agree. I was born in 64 in DC. I left in 89 to join the military. Did a lot of my growing up in PG County, but I remember when the Rhode Island Av. Metro station was being built. Lived right on Saratoga Av. I have been home very few times and the city has changed a lot. Change is good but the way change has taken place stinks. Thanks for your post.
Differences between a real Washingtonian and "outsider" Washingtonian --> Real Washingtonians have a great sense of humor and smile even when times are hard and have to fight
pcarebear1 . ✊🏽I feel you. Real Washingtonians also talk about their issues face to face with their neighbors too. These transplants call police over music and bbq...
They remind me of Chicago people i couldn't quite explain the similarities but when i was on the east coast i always felt dc to be closer to chicago and it is the sense of humor and smiling faces despite their living situation
Uptown ain’t uptown no more. The music, the street art, knowing everyone in your neighborhood, sure there were poor people but DC was also where you found all sorts of minorities owning property and businesses and even had entire neighborhoods of upper middle class Latinos,black people and other races. Who likes getting the cops called on them in their own neighborhood of 23 years for simply cleaning your back yard?..... these people today just dial 911 for everything they could simply fix by being a neighbor and opening their cowardly mouths to say their beef.... They even try arresting street musicians now.... but this white boy says the city has life again?.... if you actually target gangs and not just look for petty arrests you DEFINITELY can rebuild the city without kicking the generations of Washingtonians out of the only home we’ve ever known....
If you were complacent with WIC, WELLFARE, FREE HOUSINGS from the GOVERNMENT then you was never a buyer only a borrower. Borrowers don't own anything so you at risk of anything that the owner wants and needs. You must own to make noise but if you own nothing NO ONE LISTENS!
I guess there are a couple of things I just don't understand: 1) Who PLANS to remain below the poverty line for generations to come? and 2) Who would ever WANT to go back to the projects after escaping?
ToniA5555 thank you for pointing this out. I’m from this area and I understand the attachment people have to their neighborhoods but you can’t look at what is in dc now and say it’s not better. What was here first was trash and unsafe. Now it’s beautiful, clean and safe. Only thing now is it’s expensive and the culture has changed but there are downsides to everything. It is what it is
No it wasn’t, it was temporary housing provided by the government funded by taxpayer dollars. It is where they reside, but it is not intended to be a home. Similar to an apartment in this area shown. There aren’t a lot of units in the city that are apartment style condos for sale.
We were told we had to move out of Potomac Gardens after living their for 3 years because my mother was declared over income when she was hired at Housing and Urban Development (HUD). She retired from HUD as a GS15.
@@linoperez5816 says the ones the tell their kids to "lighten up" marry whites for status. Why would they associate with blacks when some (Puerto Ricans, Dominicans) hide their African heritage
Hate me for saying this. Hope 6 was an important initiative. A lot of these low income neighborhoods where/are very dangerous and they had to be broken up. A lot of those people where born and raised on the same street their whole life.. They got too comfortable in poverty. I do think better things should have taken place like higher education facilities. It's time for us ALL to rise!
They took the neighborhood because there was so much crime that it was the only way to clean it up. A lot of them moved out to places like Waldorf Maryland and now that place is overcome with crime.
It would be nice if there was an update since the Arthur Cappers Senior Building burned down in 2018. I believe Ms. Debra is still active in the community and she resides in the Navy Yard. Plus the Navy Yard looks nothing like it was presented in this documentary.
Done heard countless stories from pops n his friends man. He lived out Barry farms got to ask exactly where.But thankfully he made it out alive man. Much love to DC crazy how much it's changed
For all the noise and hype this video shows it is only addressing modern history. It fails to acknowledge the previous gentrification "Block Busting " This was a product of the 1957 Equal housing act . My family was forced to move from our Southeast neighborhood to make way for these public housing projects. We owned our homes. We had to move to make room for those that would never own their homes. We moved to Northeast only to have to move again. Finally we moved from our Northwest neighborhood after the riots of 68. Silver Spring was just growing and was a nice place to live.
@@laffiegreen9668 My father has long past away so I could not get it from the horse. I was just a kid then and never thought about that part. My aunts are still alive so I called and asked . Their memory is that all of our homes were paid for . They were told to take their check and git ! The alterative was to take it to court but we still would be removed by eviction and could wait for the court to decide how much they were to be compensated . I am told my dad had to obtain a mortgage for our next home due to the cost difference . I was surprised to learn that it was not my family's first time being displace in DC My great grandfather's home is now beneath Union Station . He was forced out around 1905 for the better good of the city. Thanks for asking . Not much longer and would have never known about that portion of my history. Ray
11:29 idk in which movie/documentary I seen this but there was a great shot zooming off of the White House and showing everything surrounding it, including the inner city/ghetto! This documentary is amazing! Thanks for the great work guys!
BEFORE WE GO THERE.EVEN B4 I LOOK AT THIS FROM THE OPENING.MY FAMILY IS FROM THE DISTRICT.BLACK MEN WHO CAME BACK HOME FROM WW2.THAT GENERATION HAD IT DAMN HARDER THAN WE COULD IMAGINE.THEY CAME HOME,BOUGHT THEIR HOMES,PUT CHILDREN THROUGH COLLEGE.AND STILL NEVER HAD TO GO THROUGH THE LIKES OF WHAT our elders had to go through.So there's NO B.S. EXCUSE-
I´m taking an environmental justice class and have to write a paper about gentifrication so this documentary will help me to understand the issue. Same is happening down here in LA too.
One of the few exceptions is the town of Columbia a planned community created in Howard County, MD in the 1960s. Founder James Rouse wanted not just people of different races and religions to live together, but also varied incomes. That is why the housing was a mix of single family, townhouses, apartments, and subsidized housing, with some in each of the original neighborhoods rather than one type clumped together in just one area. In many ways it actually worked out pretty well. I wish there were many more examples of this.
No Starbucks the agent says, well that's a good thing!! Over priced & once you get a 'blue chip' in, landlords don't want anything less. So, then other big companies come along sweeping out the family ran & ma & pa' shops. All equalling - GENTRIFICATION.
watto. Starbucks coffee sucks. The coffee I used to buy at the old Mom & Pop Grocery stores many years ago when I was growing up in Little Italy in N.W. was the best in the World.
I understand they frustration but they talkinbout the projects something that the state owns if u don’t own shit u ain’t got no say so. We need to own our houses stores and things to build up a community 🤷🏽♂️
i like that lady with the head dress on at 31:20 ..i laughed so hard when she said " the guy on the phone is in god damn ARGEN...FUCKIN....TINA!! LOLOLOL
Disciple of The Way Peace, Brother. No, not bitter. And I understand what you're saying. For a while there all of Black D.C. wasn't "no joke." I'm just say its sad that we Blacks didn't take better care of ourselves. Now, these White folks who weren't dealing drugs and getting killed behind a bunch of dumb shit are now Alive to just take over D.C. like we never did. So, it must be funny to them how we could be so dumb for so long. But again, Peace. And I mean no disrespect.
That’s the whole thing with the gentrification these are a 20 and 30 something year olds that just made good decisions in life coming in cleaning up this neighborhood. A lot of the same people have had generations after generations of their families in these neighborhoods and took it from something decent safe to raise a family in to a Third World country catastrophic landfill.
This is sad, rents are getting crazy in UK too, no one can afford rent anymore, and not many can afford to buy a house anymore. People born in UK work hard and own shit cars, but immigrants that have come here don't work and drive around in nice new cars, its backward, i hope everyone in this film is still with us and safe and ok
I was born and raised in the United States of Washington DC I had to pay taxes all my life I had to work for what I had and for the Latinos and Mexicans and Hispanics to come to United States and not pay taxes for 7 years is a problem they can have big trucks with 20 inch wheels and rims driving around my tax dollars paid for them rims they got big houses but the one thing that we don't have that they do have is Unity they stick together
T Lenora bulshit. We come to the US to work and we also pay our taxes! You must have us confused with Europen invaders that came to this continent to kill Native-Americans, steal land and enslave African men woman and children.
Jose Luis Meza Torres Uhm you do know Latinos and Hispanics come from Europe right? Your name is Jose dude. How did your family come here bigot? On the Nina the Pinta or the Santa Maria? Latinos are from EUROPE. Either you're a native or you're an Latino invader. Which one bigotc
fucking idiot latinos did not come from europe. Spaniards came from europe which is what you are referring to. Latinos are native americans and they speak spanish because they were invaded by the spanish. Nice try attempting to look smart looks like you didnt pay attention in any history class this is common sense to anyone with an education.
@ I’m from NE Trinidad ave DC native born & raised ...my opinion is its no longer chocolate city brah ..if you don’t see the change wait for it you’ll see what I’m talking about..that’s if you even live in DC
I saw this happening on my last trip to Capitol Heights!!!! I started seeing white folks on the streets I've never seen in the hoods at all. Although I hate what's happening.....It may be good for the future....Folks just gotta want more versus settling!!!!
Kary W., open your eyes then open your mind. Old homeowners who now can't afford the tax on their homes are given 250,000 for a property that with 50,000 of work invested in it will be sold for 900,000 or more. How long do you think families earning 40,000 or less can survive alongside white outsiders who come here to work and take over that earn 100,000 each in the federal government, and they're scared of having Black Americans in D.C.? Not long is the answer, not too long. One other thing, racism is now covert whereas before it was always overt, so don't be fooled by the smile and STOP walking around with your eyes wide shut! Peace Out.
As a Native Washingtonian, a resident of over 30 yrs we've discussed this topic, OLD DC VS NEW DC here isoopa.com/post/82 please view and comment #OldDCvsNewDC
Isnt the goal is to find away out of the projects? Some folks be living in those same run down projects for generations with no intension of doing better. Government is paying yalls rent and welfare is giving you a lil change in your pocket, and food stamps are keeping yall refrigerator fulls monthly. I was glad when they knocked them old drug and crime infested projects down in my hometown. But all housing authority did was build newer projects
I've worked construction in DC I'm from VA and those contractors have to set aside so many jobs for DC residents. I ran concrete unload 53 foot flat bed trucks by crain and working with most those guys not all was a damn shame who the fuck taught you guys how to work mother fuckers lived across the street and couldn't make it to work on time smmfh but at the end of the day if is what it is no more talk 😎
Its crazy that i came home yes my parents and sis still live there but i didnt recognize it my first question when i drove from the airport driving up suitland parkway was where was Barry Farms and my sis said we just passed it. I was like wow. Gentrification is not to make a city safe and make it mixed income its basically to move us out and whites in they didnt like amerikkka's being 75% black
It was never yours if you didn’t buy it, so you can’t complain if you just wanted to run it for as low as you could get it for do nothing to clean up or contribute to the neighborhood and then raise hell when somebody else comes and makes it nice and spends money and now it’s theirs
City folk complaining about things that naturally happen in a city for all historical time. Poor people get moved around in cities deal with it. If you don't like it move to a smaller town or rural areas.
D.C. has experienced slower gentrification in the last 30 years. White population in D.C. increased from 23% in 1970 to 45% in 2015. Black population in D.C. decreased from 75% in 1970 to 40% in 2015. Not just because of gentrification but because of black flight to the Maryland eastern suburbs due to cheap country housing and subsidization zoning techniques. White folks in know the Washington D.C. is their center. Blacks and ethnic folks will have to play a small role of living and working in D.C. More the D.C. subsidized projects were demolished others were fixed up. But the subsidized requirements for low-income folks is to stay clean, have good credit points and not to hang to welfare and food stamps. Today Black folks in D.C. are getting pushed out. Once they leave their D.C. hoods and gentrification buys their land and their homes to increase property values, low income folks will not come back.
I don't care if D.C. gets gentrified. It's our nation's capitol. It deserves to look beautiful. That being said, I don't want to see ugly buildings. I want to see ones that combine aspects of Federalist, Victorian, and Neoclassical architecture that would bring glory to the city as it did to New York and Chicago. The buildings themselves don't have to be super huge, mind you. They just need to be aesthetically pleasing.
Why she hafta talk like that when she was playing the part of a black woman? Like a slave. I found her to be somewhat intrusive and exploitive of these people's lives. I wonder how much money she made off of this, thanks to the Black residents of DC, and DID SHE GIVE ANYTHING BACK??? Her family probably owns one of the corner stores in what used to be those people's HOMES. Their lives. I question her motives.
No concern for who or what was there before so called "chocolate city"? So public housing was based on race not income? Probably not, but that seems to be the misunderstanding by many in this video.
This is so sad 😭 I use to get my weed from the cappers I went down there a few months ago and didn’t recognize anything just a bunch of white faces 😢 how they forced them out there hood
The amount of poverty and violence in DC is a disgrace for being our nation's capital. Gentrification is the best thing to happen to this city. Of course the people most resistent to this change tend to be the people who caused the problem in the first place.
I am a proud gentrifier that owns property in what was once a gang-filled war zone in Northeast. I could not be happier with my decision and do not regret it at all. I love my blue eyes and blond hair, as well as my sparkling condo building that took the place of an open air drug market.
mrtortfeasor33 Enjoy while you can demon What goes around comes around eventually. your country was built off crimes against humanity ..your false pride and arrogance is going to bite you in your pale pastey ass one day I assure you.
Lol it's funny when I see white ppl in the city like u .. scared to walk every corner lol no culture in your walk .. but u yarn for the culture in the city lol but we butt u out of it so just go home and go to work and live that boring life .. glad u don't represent dc
NEWFL YNATION he's all condescending talking about drug markets. don't white people have an opioid, meth, and heroin epidemic going on in America? lol I call it a plague. Pookie, Ray Ray, and Man Man aint bringing that shit in from Afghanistan.
I think you have DC mistaken for Maryland or Virginia because there’s only about 10 to 13% of a Spanish population in Washington DC and the little bit of Spanish people live up north west this is Southeast which is majority black, also DC was one of the first city to have a black mayor in America and still have a black mayor to this day
@ 31:05, Sista went all the way the fuck in and kept it 100, ya heard?! She's right. Black people blood is in every street in the nation. Only the Native indigenous people of North America can lay claim to that and even their darkest day was centuries ago, even though it's equally as devastating as Black folks. The look on the young Indian sista's face was priceless after my older Sista laid that down like that.
Well, it takes money to buy houses and it’s called the cost cost of living… But it’s OK for y’all to be racist about it because you don’t wanna get up and better yourself and it’s so unfair that somebody else doesn’t come along and do it for you you know the same ones that you’re racist against
