Please review this article from the post on H St NE. It brings up interesting points, from different views. What is progress, and how does the history and make-up of an area get woven into the "new and improved" area? I dont want to see H st, or NorthCap become Reston town center. But improvement would be nice, sit down restaurants would be nice.
How do we balance competing interests?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/03/AR2006040301762.html
6 comments:
ha! by following the law, for one.
The Post is a lot less complicated than reality. I highly suggest you read my very long blog entry about the H Street commercial district. The article was facile, and I'll be writing about it soon enough...
From the blog entry:
The vision in a nutshell =
diverse community + diverse, quality independent businesses complemented by chains + an attractive and safe commercial district.
Cluck-U, man. Cluck all U Chickens.
Okay, so the whites are racist because they wants a sit-down restaurant in their neighborhood instead of the cheesy takeouts.
Sit down restaurants are indicative of safe, stable neighborhoods.
I understand that folks may want something affordable, but there will still be takeout, there will still be cheap chinese delivery.
I wonder whether the problem is really low expectations and low standards on the part of black folks. They should aspire to have sit down restaurants in the neighborhood, just like the white folks. There's a neutral nonracial standard here, it's called aesthetics.
The longer black folks hang on to crap out of nostalgia, the more they're going to be forced out... not because they're black but because they've got bad taste!
The black guy who owns the takeout has an economic interest in continuing his business the way it is. But rather than fluctuate with the demographics, he plays the race card. He's a race-baiter and his opinion ought to be condemned as uninclusive and downright segregationist.
hey libertarian republican,
its mostly the reporter of the article thats to blame.
Richard Layman,
Great post. I think you have hit the nail on the head. The question is, how do you draw people in to create that unified or shared vision? it seems that if people realize that all can prosper if the creation is viable is a no-brainer.
It's really about contested spaces. And changes in power relations. It doesn't have to be that way, but it is. Hey, I was essential to the creation of HSMS, and yet I was kicked out. So much for truth...
Do a search in my blog on "contested spaces" and if I do say so myself, you'll get a lot of interesting reading. Plus check out what I wrote today about this very same article, plus the stuff yesterday on churches and squalor.
Post a Comment