Pictures on the Wall: Urban Restructuring, Gentrification and the Struggle for Place in 21St Century Washington
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PICTURES ON THE WALL: URBAN RESTRUCTURING, GENTRIFICATION AND THE STRUGGLE FOR PLACE IN 21 st CENTURY WASHINGTON D.C. By Damien Juan Thompson Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Anthropology Chair: Dr. Brett Williams Da. Eileen Finqlay Dean of the College 0- £ ) D ate 2006 American University Washington D.C. 20016 AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 3255088 Copyright 2007 by Thompson, Damien Juan All rights reserved. INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ® UMI UMI Microform 3255088 Copyright 2007 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. © COPYRIGHT by Damien Juan Thompson 2007 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PICTURES ON THE WALL: URBAN RESTRUCTURING, GENTRIFICATION AND THE STRUGGLE FOR PLACE IN 21 st CENTURY WASHINGTON D.C. BY Damien Juan Thompson ABSTRACT When I began writing I wanted to tell a story. The story is about Columbia Heights, a neighborhood in NW Washington. I believe this is an important story to tell because it springs from a concern with the human condition generally and with the condition of children in the inner city specifically. Simply put this dissertation is about three things: Power, Place and History. In terms of gentrification in Columbia Heights it is about the power of the insurance and real estate industries, developers and banks to make decisions which directly affect all of our lives and life chances. It is also about our power as human beings both individually and collectively to gain knowledge and understanding of how these institutions operate and our power to oppose them when they prioritize the accumulation of wealth ahead of human lives. Second, it is about place. In general terms I am discussing Columbia Heights and the way gentrification is changing the neighborhood day by day. More specifically my dissertation is about grassroots organizing that 1 participated in with a group of concerned mothers who wanted to stop The Greater Washington Boys and Girls club from selling ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. clubhouse #10 on 14,h street. Not only do these mothers have children who use the club everyday in a neighborhood with precious little recreation space. Many of these same mothers went to the club when they were children and it is a part of each of their personal histories. Oftentimes in the inner-city we live in communities of fate where we are intimately connected to our neighbors and vice versa because we all lack the material wealth to make it far on our own.. We develop ties to specific places (such as the Boys and Girls club on 14th Street) because they embody our collective history. When these places are threatened we rally around them. iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PREFACE This story is about change in the Nation's Capital. It begins early in the history of the city and traces the ways that the pursuit of profit by the few profoundly altered the lives and life chances of the many. This story sheds light on conventional wisdom that urban America died a slow death through natural decay. Federal policies, especially after the second world war suffocated inner cities in the United States. The move of white residents (who had always lived in close proximity to some blacks) from inner cities to suburbs was not necessarily a natural reaction to more integrated neighborhoods but was facilitated by one of the greatest affirmative action programs and one of the most effective fear/marketing strategies ever conceived in this nation's history. Finally, a significant part of this story is about those black, and eventually, Asian, Latino, African and West Indian people who inherited the city. Popular depictions portray minority groups as both perpetrators and victims in the death of American cities. While it is true the late 1960's “riots" did not help the cause, blacks were reacting to structural processes that had been underway for more than a decade. The depths to which many newly minted black neighborhoods fell can be traced in part to municipal and federal government inaction in terms of rebuilding neighborhoods in the aftermath. I came to Washington D.C. just as conditions in the city were showing signs of improvement in many areas. The optimism that permeated the Central Business District and wealthier Northwest neighborhoods did not reach all areas. I came to Columbia iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Heights as a summer day camp counselor at Calvary Bilingual Multicultural Learning Center. In total I spent 8 years working at Calvary with children ages 8-11. During this time I was both a surrogate father and brother to those children and I have been able to watch many of them grow into precocious teenagers. During the years that I worked at Calvary not only did the children grow up before my eyes, much to my surprise I grew as well. I matured and in many ways Columbia Heights is the neighborhood where I grew up as well. I grew personally through the commitment I showed to Calvary and the community that it served as I returned summer after summer to resume my familiar role. I matured as a scholar as it was my love for the children that attended Calvary and with the children of Columbia Heights in general that led me to conduct the research that led to this dissertation. This is the story of a city—diverse, dynamic and constantly in flux. This is the story of poor residents and how their lives are confined, constrained, grounded and uprooted. This is the story of life cut short, a neighborhood, a struggle; this is my story— our story. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT.................................................................................................................................ii PREFACE.................................................................................................................................... iv Chapter 1. “WHAT A LONG STRANGE TRIP IT S BEEN”.............................................. 1 “a chance”-for Edwin We Have a Biographyand a Geography Merging Structure and Agency in Urban Theory ‘The State Lies Massively...” What is Columbia Heights and Why Study It? Change and Urban Culture 21st Century Urban Political Economy: Theorizing the City 2. URBAN RENEWAL ............................................................................................43 “Funkstown” Old Southwest: “The Island” Early Washington and Alley Housing THE STATE vs. It’s Agents... Planting the Seeds of Restructuring? vi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3. THE HEIGHTS 77 The Trolley and Development Cold War Suburbs 4. BUBBLING CAULDRON 95 The “Uprisings 5. THE GREEN LINE COMETH 118 Chocolate City Gets a Different Flavor Metro Wasteland 6. FOR THE CHILDREN 151 Summer in the City Wake Up! Obstacles Kickoff Building a Movement Maintaining the message Victory? 7. CONCLUSION.................................................................................................. 200 REFERENCES.........................................................................................................209 Vll Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 1 “WHAT A LONG STRANGE TRIP IT’S BEEN” a chance (for Edwin) i want a chance to live in a place that is cool in the summer warm in the winter w here pipes don’t freeze and i don’t have to sleep w ith m y brother i w ant a place to stay that m y fam ily w on’t have to m ove out o f because w e haven’t had any electricity in the m iddle o f a heat w ave i w ant a chance to play in the grass w ithout rolling through litter w alk down the street w ithout kicking cans speaking o f kicking i w antac h a n c e t o l i v e alife w here my negro-morenos k i n o r my Spanish nam e and accent don’t m ean an ass kickingby the police or even w orse bysom eone who looks and talks like m e and lives in the sam e neighborhood so give m e this chance i prom ise i w on't do it again w hatever m ade you so m ad w hether it w as kicking Salvador in the head even though i m eant it or if it w as ju st being born to im m igrants are you listening? Damien Thompson 2002 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 2 The motivation for this dissertation springs from a concern for the urban condition and specifically the conditions of children who grow up in inner city environments. This concern is grounded in an understanding that “In the words of Miguel de Unamuno, There is nothing more universal than the individual for what becomes of one becomes of us all.