Two new faces will appear on the D.C. Council at a time when their wards see the promise of massive retail and neighborhood redevelopment projects for the first time in decades. Ward 4 has 19 candidates vying for the seat Mayor Adrian Fenty vacated on the council last January, and in Ward 7, 18 candidates want the seat Vincent Gray vacated when he was promoted to council chair in January.
The differences between Ward 4 and 7 are pronounced. Ward 4, stretching through Shepherd Park and upper 16th Street to the Maryland line, has been home to historically affluent black communities, the so-called Gold Coast.
Development is pushing up the Georgia Avenue corridor in Ward 4, leading to rapid gentrification of formerly lower-income neighborhoods such as Petworth.
Sarah Green, an advisory neighborhood commissioner and a 30-year resident of Takoma Park, which borders Maryland, said she fears too many condominium buildings are being built, robbing the neighborhood of its family character.
Green also fears that the ward will lose young families as they seek better schools across the District line in Montgomery County.
“Schools are a distinguishing quality,” Green said. “It’s a big issue for people moving into the neighborhood.”
Ward 7, once home to upper-middle-class whites and blacks, now has the city’s second-lowest median income at $30,533 annually, according to the U.S. Census data. Residents have waited for change for so long that some now seem skeptical of promises by leaders.
But Ward 7 is also home to affluent, tightly knit historically black communities, including Hillcrest, said Naomi Robinson, an ANC who has lived in the ward since 1951. Robinson said she has seen positive change by mixed-use developments that are replacing public housing.
“A lot of the drugs and all, with their tearing down these old buildings, it’s gotten better,” Robinson said. “[Drug dealers] all seem to be moving away.”
But Charlene Exum, an ANC in Fort Dupont, questions just how affordable that new housing will be. She criticized Capitol Gateway, a development of 759 town houses, duplexes and single-family homes replacing public housing on East Capitol Street.
“They’re starting off at $300,000 or $400,000,” Exum said. “That’s not affordable.”
