PHOTO/KIMBERLY C. GAINES
By Rev. Dr. Edwin L. Jones Sr., Pastor, Living Faith Baptist Church and International Ministries, Washington DC, and David W. Smith Sr. President, Deanwood Citizens Association
WASHINGTON, DC — The mayor of Washington DC, Vincent C. Gray, presented as his vision for the city the “One City” plan. This plan would insure all of our community’s (citizens) a better quality of life. Our city’s elected leadership has adopted the noble and righteous policy of creating “One City”. The reality, however, is far from this mantra. DC’s west of the river has benefited from city government investments that provide(d) tax breaks, $1 land deals, construction cost related to infrastructure, pre-development funding, and the icing on the cake guaranteed 20 plus years of government leases. These subsidies have cost the DC taxpayer billions of dollars in the last 10 – 15 years. More often than not, investors/developers receiving taxpayer dollars and subsidies agree to provide jobs, low-income housing, and other benefits for DC residents. These promises are often broken or just plain never realized. Inversely, Ward 7 development projects rarely receive comparable investments.
“The Good”: Recently, there have been a plethora of articles in local newspapers using graphic illustrations depicting a grim tale of two cities in our nation’s capital. Often these articles display charts, tables and data that tell a story of two cities divided along color, race, and social economic lines reminiscent of the prejudicial days of the Jim Crow era. The question is; how is this affecting our communities’ quality of life?
“The Bad”: To answer this question, I read multiple articles and reports which provided detailed maps and charts showing drastic population shifts of low income and African American families. These sources did a fantastic job of showing the correlation of demographics in graphic color and the direct relationship between race, income, educational levels, poverty levels, employment rates, health challenges, and the state of education/schools where these shifts were taking place.
“The Ugly”: Projects like the New Communities Initiative (NCI) were designed to model the idealistic goals of the federal HUD program Hope VI in Washington DC (Lincoln Heights and Richardson Dwellings public housing sites) in anticipation of the current economic trends and gentrification effects. NCI was intended to minimize displacement, provide one-to-one replacement housing, help families return and stay, create mixed-income housing and improve the quality of life for families living in and around the targeted communities. However, the Washington Post recently reported that the city’s leadership has considered not continuing with the NCI, despite the large number of families that have been displaced already.
We’re at a critical juncture now. Our community’s quality of life is at risk and in the balance. There is a growing number of Deanwood (Ward 7) residents who are demanding that the fruits of the mayor’s “One City” vision happen for our community as well. They won’t accept excuses and broken promises! They know that what we do now as a city, as a community, as human beings, will define our future, write our history and leave our legacy. We must solve this economic disparity and achieve the objective of realizing “One City” for DC’s Deanwood and Ward 7.
