Friday, November 18, 2005

Urban Institute Report: 'Housing in the Nation's Capitol'

The Urban Institute released a major report detailing the housing situation in Washington, DC . Basically, affordable housing is disappearing as prices soar. Gentrification is a contributing factor to this major trend. The reports has reccomendations.

5 comments:

  1. I always think it's interesting when people say that the city is much better off now that Barry is gone. Yes, the "city" is if you define the city as the geographical boundaries of DC. But if you define the city as the people who lived in it in 1986, I am not so sure. Many have been forced out as DC has given tax breaks to others to move in.

    However, most of the recent lack of affordability is proably due to the national problem of the housing bubble.

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  2. Nah, I think DC is much better off because there are tons of new theatres, restaurants, clubs, bars, cafes retail stores, cultural events and such. Sure its gentrification, but the people buying are like most people- they want to live close to nice venues/events they can walk to. Forget Ashburn and driving 10 mins to go to Safeway, 1.5 hrs to get to work.

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  3. Yes, DC is nice to an outsider coming in. But my question is, what happened to the people who lived there in 1986? Are they better off?

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  4. I have a hard time thinking of gentrification as a 'bad thing'. No matter how I slice and dice it, the positives seem to almost always totally outweigh the negatives.

    grim

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  5. Again, gentrification is positive for the new people moving in. It's a negative for the people pushed out.

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