(I know this isn’t the usual topic of my blog, but this is a “class reflection” for my property class at Howard Law School. This is primarily for my classmates and my professor. I just posted it here because it was easier.)

Right after the presentation on gentrification in Brooklyn, NY, my kids and I took a ride down the 1 mile stretch of construction taking place on Mississippi Avenue, SE in Ward 8’s Congress Heights – long known as the poorest section of the poorest ward in DC. It seems as though someone is in a rush to make Ward 8 look different. We moved here in 2004 into new construction. Whenever we would tell people where we lived, some would look at us like maybe we got the name wrong, others would look afraid for us, some looked at us like, “why,” and others would just look as if they pitied us. We still heard the near nightly sounds of gunshots, but we moved there because you couldn’t beat the space or proximity to the metro for the price. Not much happened as far as construction in the next few years.

I’m not the only one (of course) concerned about the gentrification of Congress Heights: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/housingcomplex/2015/02/02/the-gentrification-comes-to-congress-heights/