We live in a changed city.
Our specific demographic data will continue to shift every year. But the major change—D.C.’s transformation into a city of the wealthy—has already happened. Any further shifts will simply make this more and more true.
In this article, we’ll discuss this change, its many significant positive implications, and some of the challenges this change has created that we need to solve together.
Washington D.C.—Now the Richest Metro Region in the Country
A recent report by Inman summarizes our city’s recent change succinctly:
“While the rest of the country got hammered by the Great Recession of 2008 and struggled to recover eight years later, a remarkable inversion occurred in Washington, D.C. … As real estate markets receded elsewhere, the District of Columbia blossomed… By some measure, our nation’s capital has become the richest region in the country.”
The report goes on to explain how these changes have made Washington D.C. one of fastest-gentrifying cities in the country:
“In Washington, according to a study by Governing magazine, 52 percent of Census tracts that were poor in 2000 have since gentrified—more than any other city bar Portland, Oregon. Young, mostly white, well-educated millennials have crowded into a district once build for largely for families.”
Reports like this have caused a litany of op-eds about the effects of gentrification. Some of them have approached this change from a negative perspective. Most of these negative pieces rally around a single idea— gentrification reduces poverty by pushing out long-term low-income residents. They argue that D.C. has only become a wealthy city by “pushing out” poor residents.
But, as we’ll see looking at D.C.’s population data, that may not be the case. There might be a more positive explanation for this change in D.C.’s demographics change into a wealthy city.
The Surprising Cause of D.C.’s Change into a Wealthy City
Gentrification of D.C. is nothing new.
As Inman’s report notes, gentrification has been occurring throughout the district for decades. In the early 1990’s it occurred in Dupont Circle, and over the following decade it transformed Logan Circle, then U Street, Columbia Heights, and Bloomingdale.
What has changed is D.C.’s rate of gentrification. These changes have been accelerating in recent years. But this change had less to do with an accelerating number of long-term residents getting “pushed out”, and more to do with an accelerating number of new residents arriving.
In the ten years between 2000—2010, D.C.’s population added about 30,000 people.
In the only the five years between 2010—2015, we added 40,000 people.
As the Washington Post notes:
“What distinguishes gentrification is not who moves out; it’s who moves in. In a gentrifying neighborhood, new residents are more likely to be well-off . As a result, the neighborhood’s poverty makeup can shift, even if no one leaves.”
The author went on to note that “a neighborhood’s poverty rate can drop from 30 percent to 12 percent in a decade with minimal displacement.” Why? Because new wealthy residents—like those who have been flocking to D.C.—shift the demographic data by their presence, and, as the author notes, this gentrification “often leads to new construction or to investment in once-vacant properties.”
More Positive Implications of D.C.’s Change to a Wealthy City
We are not blind to the fact that rising housing costs can create a burden for low-income residents and, yes, cause some people to have to move.
We’re simply pointing out that D.C.’s change into a city of the wealthy may have to do with more wealthy residents moving in, than it has to do with low-income residents moving out.
This is an important distinction. It suggests that D.C.’s overall change into a wealthy city does not mean D.C. has to be a city without many low-income residents at the same time, or one in which low-income residents don’t reap the same benefits as wealthier residents.
In fact, D.C.’s change into a wealthy city has produced many implications that are positive for all of our residents—wealthy and low-income alike. These include:
- An Increase in Tax Revenue. As NPR recently noted, “the city’s tax base improved significantly over the past decade. As more people move into the city, its coffers are in a better position to fund new amenities and services.”
- Improved Public and Private Facilities. Increased city revenues result in better public facilities (such as improved lighting, libraries, and community centers) and new, welcome, private investment (often in grocery stores and other necessary day-to-day retail previously missing from the neighborhood).
- Improved Schools. In a recent article, a long-term D.C. resident made the point clearly, “When I was in fifth grade, my teacher didn’t even show up. The current school system is better than it’s ever been.”
- Upgraded Housing Stock. Often when a property is handed down generation-to-generation, it maintains its original—often functionally obsolete—infrastructure. However, in the process of the development and sale of these properties, their infrastructure gets brought up to a modern standard of living.
- Increased Property Values for Long-Time Home-Owners. Long-time homeowners can see the value of their property skyrocket. In one cited example, a D.C. resident purchased her property in 1981 for $42,00 now saw her property valued at $888,000 in 2017 (in part due to a massive $150,000 valuation jump in 2016 alone).
Looking Forward: Our Shared Challenges
In discussing the positive implications in D.C.’s change into a wealthy city, we don’t want to paint a perfectly rosy picture. This change—and our ongoing shift to an increasingly wealthy city—has raised many challenging questions. These include:
- How can we ensure all of D.C.’s residents benefit from the above positive implications?
- How can we best use our city’s increased tax revenue?
- How can we provide modern, high-quality affordable housing for our city’s low-income residents?
These are important questions to answer.
In future articles, we will bring more of our perspective on how to best answer these questions, and to tackle these challenges.
But for today, we’d like to hear from you.
What do you see as the major challenges and opportunities within D.C’s change to a wealthy city?
Hit reply and let us know. We’d love to discuss your perspective, and (with your permission) share your thoughts in a future article.
