Creative (in)Equality: Creative Economic Development, Misrecognition, and Communal Transformation in the District of Columbia

Paper presented at the Canadian Anthropology Society Conference, 02 May, 2014 Do not cite without author's written permission Creative (in)Equality: Creative Economic Development, Misrecognition, and Communal Transformation the District of Columbia Anthony Angelo Gualtieri Department of Anthropology American University

When she first moved to a condominium in Congress Heights in 2007 Nikki Peele needed to put her

head out a window to acquire a cell phone signal. From her vantage point seated next to the window,

Nikki would lean outside, talk on the phone, and observe the sights and sounds of the alleyway. It was

during one such call that Nikki was reminded by a friend just how irresponsibly she was behaving

(personal communication, March 6, 2014).

Nikki listened to her friend on the phone warning her to remain cautious as an elderly neighbor

across the street saw her, smiled, and waved. The contrast between the pleasantries she experienced

and the perceptions of her friend left an emotional imprint on Peele. It encouraged her to found reSPIN

Publications, a “Washington D.C. minority and woman­owned boutique public relations and marketing

firm based East of the River for East of the River ” (reSPIN 2014). 1

Ms. Peele is an archetypal member of the creative class. Her work adds “economic value

through creativity” (Florida 2004:68). “Creatives” like her are a “type of human capital” that Richard

Florida calls “creative capital” (222). “It/they are the source of economic growth” (222).

In the District of Columbia, governmental and non­governmental agencies strive to attract the

“creative class.” However, current efforts reveal that the urban development policy precepts derived

from orthodox interpretations of creative economic literature continue to be little more than a rebranding

1East of the River, or EOR, is the portion of Washington, District of Columbia that lies east of the Anacostia River.

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of extant policy formulations associated with New Urbanism. It is my thesis that “placemaking” policies

and creative development programs manifest as a boon to commercial interests, select non­profit

organizations, and specific individuals and creative class occupations rather than existing residents or the

larger creative class.

This paper discusses the redevelopment of the Barry Farm public housing project and St.

Elizabeths Hospital, two historic sites that are five hundred million dollar components of larger

approximately decade­long multi­billion dollar projects in Ward 8 of Washington, District of Columbia. 2

It situates two development projects in a sociohistorical ethnographic narrative that weaves the local

gentrification experience, arts­based development, and broader creative economic development.

Solidarity among artists and other residents, as well as power relations and disparities among the

creative class and between members of the creative class and other residents, is examined, making clear

the misrecognition inherent to “creative” economic development.

The ascendance of the creative economy in advanced capitalist nations correlates to rising

income inequality. It is accepted that the middle class is stagnant in the “West” and that wealth is

increasingly concentrated in households at the top of the income scale. Concerning the District of

Columbia, creative class theorist Richard Florida and others have placed the city near the top of

metropolitan statistical areas for income segregation (Florida 2014).

Washington, D.C., the 177km² capital of the United States of America, is a grand city

composed of a monumental core, urban neighborhoods, and semi­suburban communities similar to

those outside the Beltway . Federal and local government offices combine with non­profit organizations, 3

2 The District of Columbia is divided into eight administrative/political divisions roughly equal in population. The boundaries of the wards are not fixed; the decennial United States Census is used by the District government to set the boundaries. 3 The Beltway is the term for the interstate highways in the states of Maryland and Virginia that encircles the District of Columbia.

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universities, and parkland to limit revenue to the city via taxation.Yet, tax revenue is the least of the

problems faced by a city with a $1.75 billion positive account surplus. As anthropologist Brett Williams

wrote in 2001, A River Runs Through Us.

Running north and south, the Anacostia River divides the District of Columbia into eastern and

western landmasses. The western portion of the city is the part familiar to tourists. Six of the eight

wards, including the monumental core in Wards 2 and 6, are located West of the River while only Ward

Eight, is located entirely EOR. The vast majority of Ward 7 is located on the northern half of the EOR

landmass but a small section extends to the west.

While not home to the iconic memorials and institutional structures present in Wards 2 and 6,

the eastern section of the District is not devoid of landmarks and other amenities. The Frederick

Douglass National Historic Site is located in the Anacostia Historic District (AHD) in Ward 8. The

largest city­owned park, Fort Dupont Park is in Ward 7. The newest business improvement district in

the city, the Anacostia Business Improvement District (ABID), is located in Ward 8. Even an arts

district is now established in the AHD but this does not prevent the area from being oft­maligned. The

French government in November 2013 cautioned it's citizens, “Le quartier Anacostia n'est pas

recommandable de jour comme de nuit” (Wilson 2013).

Anacostia is the colloquialism used to describe Ward 8, the predominantly African American

southern half of the landmass EOR. However to more accurately locate the field in this paper and

distinguish between development sites located EOR, I use the term Anacostia to refer to the area

designated as a historic district in 1978. Redevelopment there as an arts district is well under way. In

contrast, bordering Anacostia to the south, Barry Farm, a twenty­six acre public housing development,

and Congress Heights, a residential community, are in the midst of a transformation the likes of which

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the city has not experienced since the redevelopment of the Southwest quadrant of the city by the

District of Columbia Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA) in the 1950s. They are the target

communities in which the approximately three hundred seventy five acre five billion dollar projects are

located . 4

Anacostia, Barry Farms, and Congress Heights are statistically characterized by poverty and

other negative indicators, such as high unemployment, violent crime, illiteracy, and poverty. Further, the

greater Ward 8 is the only ward in the District to experience a population decline (Neighborhood Info

DC 2014). Thus, while the District becomes a “boom town” attracting capital in all its forms, Anacostia,

Barry Farm, Congress Heights, Shipley Terrace, and the rest of Ward 8 are a stark juxtaposition to the

monumental core of Wards 2 and 6; Wards 2 and 6 experienced double digit percentile population

growth with Ward 6 average family income growth equivalent to the average Ward 8 household

income. Moreover, in a region where 46.8% of residents are members of the creative class, Shipley

Terrace, Anacostia, Congress Heights, and Barry Farm remain bastions of the service class with

69.5%, 68.6%, 66%, and 66% of residents working in that sector (Florida 2013).

In May of 2010, a team of consultants published a report commissioned by the DC Office of

Planning (DCOP) and the Washington, DC Economic Partnership. This report, the Creative DC

Action Agenda (CDCAA), was created to “quantify and put into context the creative economy of the

District” (DCOP 2010:7). It “intended to provide a blueprint for the public, private, and nonprofit

sectors as well as for residents as they seek to realize” revitalization, the generation of new work

opportunities, the furtherance of a “sense of place” for residents and visitors in communities such as

Anacostia, livelier streets and neighborhoods, more impact for planning, and greater linkages “between

4 Shipley Terrace is another community impacted by the development. It is south of the St. Elizabeths entrance on Alabama Avenue, SE.. It is not discussed as it was redeveloped into a mixed income community under the HOPE VI revitalization Grant Program

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the District’s existing assets and support systems” (7­8).

Tax increment financing (TIF) is discussed in the CDCAA as a strategy to mediate

gentrification. These programs would be designed to combat “the potential for gentrification following

artists moving into a neighborhood” and “provide some protection for the original artists and the arts and

cultural organizations located in a designated Arts District” (49). These early gentrifiers would receive

assistance so that they were not displaced by successive waves.

Concerning the residents of areas targeted for enhancement or the introduction of creative

economic development the CDCAA recognizes “the challenge … that the forces created through arts

and cultural activities are actually so strong that parallel efforts must be made to ensure that low­income

neighborhood residents also benefit from the resulting economic changes” (DCOP 2010:28). The core

of this strategy is related to the provision of parallel services, particularly the improvement of human

capital for employment in the creative sector.

The CDCAA notes that of the 75,352 jobs in the creative sector, 54,212 are held by

non­creative workers (19). The implications of the recommended strategies are that individuals will

benefit from the creative sector through an improved quality of place and employment in the less­valued

service sector. The means through which these residents will manage the rent increases that exacerbate

displacement and the corresponding alterations to the social composition of the developed area are

unaddressed. The circumstances of residents of an area who are not placed within the higher­paying

creative positions is outside the scope of the report.

Distributive inequalities are a source of misrecognition, the denial of recognition of groups or

individuals as worthy of social interaction (Sayer 2011:88). These inequalities are interpreted as

valuations of individual worth related to individual responsibility. Wealth is attributed to the merits of the

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few rather than the effects of social structures. It is divorced from the absence of opportunity and wealth

for the majority (Sayer 2011:99­100).

Development policies claim to empower individuals but in so doing continue the narrative of

meritocracy and individual responsibility. Alterations to the social composition of the developed area

reconfigures power. Specific individuals and groups benefit through the provision of assistance while

others, gentrifiers, are introduced to the area.

Gentrification in Congress Heights, Barry Farms, Anacostia and the larger Ward 8 resembles

that of the three New York City neighborhoods studied by Jason Hackworth and Neil Smith (2001).

Three successive waves of gentrification with two transitional periods characterized the experience in the

work of the authors. The descriptions of the waves as sporadic, anchored, and expanded with

transitions of property transaction booms and busts relate but the timeline does not.

Second­wave gentrification is characterized by the “presence of the arts community” and

“intense political struggles of the displacement of the poorest residents” (Hackworth and Smith 2001).

The evolution of Anacostia as an Arts District and the restructuring of public housing in Barry Farms and

in neighborhoods near Congress Heights, such as Shipley Terrace, are corollaries to the neighborhoods

studied by Hackworth and Smith. These relationships provide indicators to predict the character of the

gentrification encouraged by placemaking efforts designed to attract the creative class.

Placemaking is a common word that is not in standard English­language dictionaries, such as

Merriam­Webster or Oxford. The term was developed from the writings and work of Jane Jacobs and

William Holly Whyte in the 1960s and 1970s. It “involves the planning, design, management and

programming of public spaces” and “facilitates creative patterns of activities and connections (cultural,

economic, social, ecological) that define a place and support its ongoing evolution” (PPS 2014). The

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Project for Public Spaces defines placemaking as a grassroots process for “building both the settlement

patterns, and the communal capacity, for people to thrive with each other and our natural world” (PPS

2014).

Placemaking strategies manifest in Ward 8 at the intersection of culture and commerce, such as

arts­based creative sector development. Related policies are designed for commercial purposes and are

paired with walkable, transit­oriented, high­density mixed­use, mixed­income, urban communities of the

type advocated by The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU 2014). The outcomes of these

mixed­income redevelopment efforts have been criticized as inferior to existing policies (Ellickson 2010)

or as being imposed on the poor considering the lack of introduction of the poor into wealthy

neighborhoods (Blomley 2004).

Following these intellectual threads, I understand mixed­income communities as being designed

so that the poor benefit from the proximity to the wealthy through the acquisition of social capital and

human capital. These forms of capital are to be converted into symbolic capital and ultimately economic

capital, assisting them in transcending their class status (Bourdieu 1986). Other scholars have been

critical of creative capital placemaking strategies and their work also informs this analysis. For example,

anthropologist David Vine (2003) applied the writings of David Harvey (1990) and Neil Smith (1996,

2002) in the construction of an argument that the labeling of projects as cultural obscured the

commercial aims. The resulting gentrification is made to appear as at best a partially related

consequence.

In Ward 8 placemaking efforts have gained momentum within the last twenty years. New

residents, especially members of the creative class, have been attracted by relatively low property

values and rents, and the availability of programs designed to assist homeownership, financial stability,

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and employment. Once established they have pursued agendas to improve their communities.

After settling in Congress Heights Nikki Peele organized with other new transplants and a few

longtime residents to found River East Emerging Leaders (r.e.e.l.). The fourteen founders of r.e.e.l.

decided that they would form a “Progressive Network Created to Engage, and Empower our East of

the River community” (r.e.e.l. 2014). r.e.e.l. would cultivate the next generation of leaders while

advocating for residential participation in public policy. Through outreach, education, and networking

the members promote a placemaking campaign to rebrand the neighborhoods EOR (Muller 2009).

Congress Heights, Anacostia, and St. Elizabeths were branded C.H.A.S.E as an outcome of

work related to a Community Planning Challenge Grant awarded to the District of Columbia

Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) in 2010 by the United States

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) (Muller 2014). Ms. Peele and her colleagues

at r.e.e.l. were instrumental in backing this effort. This branding and the development of Barry Farm and

St. Elizabeths was set in motion by earlier, ongoing, creative placemaking in the Anacostia Historic

District (AHD) underway since the beginning of the 2000s.

In the AHD, the District of Columbia Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic

Development (DMPED) and a number of for­profit and non­profit developers are engaged in or have

recently completed redevelopment efforts. One of these organizations is the not­for­profit community

development organization ARCH Development Corporation (ARCH). The work of ARCH influences

communal reconstruction and redevelopment despite the relatively miniscule size of the organization in

physical, human, or financial terms when compared to for­profit developers and even other non­profit

developers operating in the area.

ARCH was founded in 1991 in the AHD as a not­for­profit community development

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organization. The initial focus of the organization was “neighborhood small scale business development

and general business support” (ARCH 2013). It administered job readiness and housing assistance

programs out of the now defunct ARCH Training Center. Today ARCH is engaged in “employing arts

and cultural (sic) and the creative economy as an approach to community revitalization in Anacostia”

(ARCH 2013).

Since 2012 ARCH organizes a yearly placemaking cultural event called LUMEN8 Anacostia.

The activities and symbolic values associated with the event are similar to a cultural event, the Tomato

Festival, studied by anthropologist Richard Lloyd (2011). LUMEN8, like the Tomato Festival in

Nashville, Tennessee, is a metaphor for the actual and symbolic violence related to development.

LUMEN8 2013 featured the intentionally incomplete transformation of an abandoned District of

Columbia Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) evidence warehouse near the AHD. The exterior

remained dilapidated while the interior became spectacle, a temporary performance venue called The

Music Box. The altered warehouse manifested as a new place with new meanings.

In addition to cultural programming, artist representation, and an arts center, ARCH manages a

number of gallery spaces, artist housing, and two business incubators. The incubators are named the

HIVE and the HIVE 2.0. Nikki Peele, who received support from ARCH in the formation of her

company, serves as Director of Marketing and Business Development. The incubators for which she

works, along with the facilitation of the movement of the H Street Playhouse from the Atlas District into 5

the ARCH service area where it changed names to the Anacostia Playhouse, are some of the

well­publicized success stories of ARCH.

Bordering the AHD, the DC Housing Authority (DCHA) and the DMPED are engaged in the

5 The Atlas District is another new arts­district in DC. It is located on the H Street corridor in Northeast DC, west of the Anacostia River. It’s formation follows a similar historical trajectory of disinvestment as the AHD dating to the Washington Riots of 1968.

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roughly five hundred million dollar redevelopment of Barry Farm. Barry Farm was founded in 1867 by

the Freedmen’s Bureau as a community for freed slaves. Today it primarily consists of 432 units of

public housing built during the RLA redevelopment campaign of the 1950s. Now, it, along with the

surrounding residential and commercial property of Park Chester and Wade Road, is to be transformed

under the auspices of a public­private partnership structure called the New Communities Initiative

(NCI); a mixed­income, mixed­use community is proposed to replace the current development.

However, as of this writing the only major component completed is Matthews Memorial Terrace, built

by local Matthews Memorial Baptist Church and the non­profit Community Builders, Inc.

Beginning in November of 2005 the District of Columbia engaged the Barry Farm Advisory

Committee to establish a public planning process (DMPED 2006:2). One outcome of this effort was the

establishment of guiding principles for the redevelopment. These principles include the construction of

affordable housing, a human capital plan, the promise of “real” economic opportunities, and the

recognition of the new community as a place of significance for African American history and culture

(3).

For the physical design of the redevelopment three schemes were presented to the public. Each

plan had four components in common, three of which are related to new urbanism. The sole outlier was

the rebuilding of the recreation center, a project that is currently underway. The three common elements

were the construction of “residentially scaled blocks through … new, mixed income housing,” the

creation of “a vibrant, mixed­use street,” and the enhancement of the “urban character” for the adjacent

Suitland Parkway (35).

Barry Farm artist and filmmaker Tendani Mpulubusi El is a central figure in the communal

responses to the NCI. His father is a geologist from Botswana, his mother is an artist who worked in the

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federal government, and his grandfather is the late Lloyd D. Smith, a native Washingtonian who held

many titles during his lifetime including that of founder and executive director of the Marshall Heights

Community Development Organization located in Ward 7 (DCWatch 2014). This familial relationship is

a significant source of social capital that assisted Mpulubusi El in converting his acquired human capital

into a number of titles, a source of symbolic capital, which in turn facilitates his acquisition of economic

capital.

On May 8, 2013, Tendani organized a meeting of friends and associates at Tendani Art Place

to discuss potential responses to development. The location is officially named Blank Space SE. It is a

venue founded in 2010 by ARCH as a rental space for artists. He was provided the studio space while

he was an artist in residency with ARCH. Tendani Art Place was an example of Tendani’s personal

creative placemaking (field notes, May 8, 2013). It followed earlier efforts at creative placemaking

linked to solidarity efforts in his neighborhood.

In 2009 Mpulubusi El received funding from the Humanities Council of Washington, DC to

finish his film Barry Farm: Past and Present. This funding came through the Pearl Coalition, an

organization co­founded by his grandfather in 2001, for which Tendani serves as the artistic director.

The funding supported completion of his effort to tell the story of Barry Farm as a living place rooted in

a history of a struggle against oppression. The Barry Farm depicted in the film was created, maintained,

and reconfigured by successive waves of African Americans from the time of its establishment by the

Freedmen’s Bureau in 1867 to the present contestations with the NCI (Mpulubusi El 2010). The

production of the film relied on residents, scholars, elected officials, such as Ward 8 Councilmember

Marion Barry, and other professionals. It incorporated educational outreach to area youth and elders

and outreach to Howard University and other Washington, D.C. institutions.

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Screenings of the film in facilities near Barry Farm included grassroots planning meetings to

“engage in a plan” to “propose a plan for business and workforce development opportunities that come

along with revitalization efforts” and “contribute” to an “open discussion that will help guide community

based economic inclusion principles” (People Past & Present 2014). The film and associated

programming were critical grassroots efforts related to the redevelopment effort. For as one interviewee

expressed to me when I interviewed her about the redevelopment of Barry Farm a few years before

Tendani produced his film, people do not understand what is required to return to the new Barry Farm

(Dorothea Ferrell interview 2007).

Residents of Barry Farm, tired of living in dilapidated, rat­infested housing, did not follow the

format of a recent NCI meeting, shouting out remarks to statements they heard. With the current waiting

list for public housing in the District closed and numbering over 70,000 people, not to mention the

hundreds of homeless families seeking shelter and myriad problems with the larger New Communities

Initiative (DCFPI 2014), residents were and continue to be concerned about displacement. The living

conditions they are made to endure due to the reported lack of funds for all but the most routine

maintenance and upkeep may be horrid but they at least have shelter . They were promised a 6

one­to­one unit replacement of affordable housing in the planning documents and verbally were told

they would have a right­of­return (DMPED 2006:2). These “guarantees” are just words to residents

who have been marginalized and excluded from the economic gains experienced by the District and are

aware of the massive cash surplus which the city holds in trust for them.

To add to the frustrations of the developers there to present, not to mention the civic officials

who attempted to manage the unrest, members of the city­wide grassroots membership organization

6 On March 7, 2014 a DC Superior Court Judge ruled that 23 families must be moved from the two recreation centers where they were being housed into private rooms (Davis 2014).

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Empower DC became vocal, shouting “we shall not be moved!” Developers watched as residents of

Barry Farm argued with each other, members of Empower DC continued their protest, and the police

intervened. The meeting was then ended and rescheduled for a later date during which only Barry Farm

residents and the developers were permitted to attend. Local politicians who represent the residents and

members of the press were barred from attending the rescheduled meeting (Weiner 2013).

Institutional responses to the solidarity efforts of residents rendered them ineffective. The

banned press already established a meta­narrative of internal conflict. Individuals mischaracterized the

membership of Empower DC through omission. Residents who are members of Empower DC were

discouraged from attending the meeting having been wrongfully portrayed as outside agitators.

Concurrent and adjacent to the redevelopment of Barry Farm the development of historic St.

Elizabeths Hospital is underway. The site is divided into an eastern and western campus by Martin

Luther King, Jr. Avenue, SE (MLK). The west campus is the largest construction project in the DC

area since the Pentagon was built in 1943. It is a 176 acre site next to the Washington Metropolitan

Area Transportation Authority (WMATA) Anacostia Metrorail Station that is being developed by the

United States General Services Administration (GSA) . The larger 183 acre east campus is next to the 7

Congress Heights Metrorail and is being developed by the DMPED.

Construction on the west campus began in 2010 and will serve as the new headquarters of the

Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This is projected to bring 14,000 employees to the site. The

3,700 employees of United States Coast Guard (USCG) headquarters completed their move to the site

in December of 2013. In contrast, the east campus is under development as a series of mixed­use

public­private efforts.

7 The project was initially supposed to be completed in 2015 for about $3.2 billion. Current projections have increased the budget by one billion dollars and moved the delivery date to 2026 (Riddell 2014).

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The DMPED released The Five­Year Economic Development Strategy for the District of

Columbia in November of 2012. The report called for “incentivizing innovation” to establish DC as a

technology hub (DMPED 2012:64). This vision steered the plans created in 2008 for the development

of St. Elizabeths east towards technology. The DC Tech Incentives program, which extended tax

breaks for technology companies pursuant to the Technology Sector Enhancement Act of 2012 (EOM

2012), was created to further this goal. Having described St. Elizabeths east as a technology innovation

center in 2012 (DMPED 2012:14), the DMPED issued a request for proposals (RFP) for the Phase

One master developer for the site that it later rescinded due to “lack of interest” (Neibaeuer 2013).

The initial development plan for St. Elizabeths east projected two thousand residential units,

200,000 square feet of retail, 1.5 million square feet of office space, 500,000 square feet of institutional

space, 350,000 square feet of hospitality space, and 100,000 square feet of cultural or civic space on

93 acres of the 183 acre site. It was scheduled for delivery in 2015 and included space for an urban

farm and a new headquarters for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) (DCOP 2008;

DMPED 2012). The plan included, among other guiding principles for development, to “capture the

unique identity” of St. Elizabeths “to create a sense of place (my emphasis)” (DCOP 2008).

On October 23, 2013, the $8.3 million Gateway Pavilion became the first project completed on

St. Elizabeths east campus (Wright 2013). The four­month building effort was branded as G8WAY

DC, “an urban park with a diverse set of extraordinary spaces created to welcome experiential &

temporary retail, dining, learning, community & events throughout the year” (G8WAY DC 2014). This

new amenity was hailed as a resounding success and evidence that positive change was underway in the

area. G8WAY DC is a destination that provides a material manifestation of the rearticulation of place. It

supports the creative sector in Congress Heights and enhances the quality of place of the area, attracting

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the key demographic of college­educated 25­34 year­olds identified in the CDCAA as essential to

furthering a “virtuous cycle” (DCOP 2010, 27­28).

While G8WAY DC serves as a symbolic success for the St. Elizabeths east campus

development, the historic chapel adjacent to the facility is a location that reveals the contested synthesis

between the arts and technology. It is here that Ward 8 artists desired to activate the space for their use.

It was here on February 26, 2014 that Mayor Vincent Gray continued to prioritize the redevelopment

of the east campus as a technology hub with his $2.5 million forWard 8 initiative, developed to connect

“residents and local businesses to the innovation and technology economy" and assist with construction

and hospitality employment (DDOT 2014). He declared that the chapel would be used for a $1.75

million technology and innovation “Demonstration Center” (DDOT 2014).

On March 31, 2014, Mayor Vincent Gray announced a second RFP for a master developer for

Phase One of the St. Elizabeths east site (DMPED 2014a). The RFP included the same parcels,

identified as the Innovation Hub, the Continuing Treatment Campus, so named for its former use, the

retail oriented Congress Heights Center, a parking lot, and licensing and management rights for

G8WAY DC. It also included revised figures for the overall east campus development plan. Most of the

numbers were downward projections, such as those for total square feet, five million, and residential

units, 1,300 (DMPED 2014b:4­6).

Release of the RFP followed the announcement of a monthy Whole Foods™ market at

G8WAY DC and plans for the construction of a hospital at St. Elizabeths east to replace the only

full­service hospital EOR, the poorly managed United Medical Center (UMC) (EOM 2014). The

construction of a hospital may bring employment and services from the border of Ward 8 and PGC to

Congress Heights. The introduction of a Whole Foods™ market at G8WAY DC may act as a market

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study for the introduction of a boutique grocery store. However, whether these efforts will blend with

existing and planned projects to further establish C.H.A.S.E. is debatable (Weiner 2014).

What is clear is that a Congress Heights Retail Visioning Session (CHRVS) undertaken by

DCOP includes visions of consumers yet to arrive as much as it seeks to serve existing residents who

participated in the process. A member of the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 8

commented on that issue at the session (personal communication, February 20, 2014). She expressed

concern that the consumer­driven responses advocated to attract these new residents reinforces

gentrification.

That contemporary economic development, creative or otherwise, furthers gentrification is clear

in the policies and planning documents reviewed. These New Urbanist transit­oriented, walkable

communities are the proverbial landing strips for the cargo cult of creativity. Mpulubusi El, Peele and

other creatives attracted by the original character of their neighborhoods help construct new

communities in a manner that attempts to address gentrification and the inequality advanced by their

relocation. Subsidies and the establishment of parallel social safety nets for creatives increases

distributive inequalities. The same is true for the subsidies received by service class employers and the

creative sector. The subsidies support the creation of low­wage jobs, increase real estate values through

the construction of New Urbanist developments, and displace the many at the expense of the few

fortunate enough to benefit from support programs. The relationship between creative economic

development and misrecognition crystallizes through the contestation among existing residents and

between creatives to represent specific neighborhoods and EOR as a social construct.

Artists, organizers, and creative sector entrepreneurs compete with each other for distinction

8 ANC commissioners are politicians that are nominated and elected for unpaid two­year terms to represent their single­member districts (SMD). There are 209 SMDs subdivided from 37 larger commissions within the 8 wards of the District.

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(Bourdieu 1984) and the commensurate economic benefits . They join in solidarity with residents and 9

establish positions within commercial markets and use social media and blogs to assist their causes. 10

That each individual begins their journey with different amounts of the forms of capital is obvious but the

success of the second­wave gentrifiers and the rising incomes generated by displacement couple with

the success of the few creatives to lay the foundations for successive waves of gentrification as

Hackworth and Smith discussed. Their success is recognized as proof of the success of policy programs

that in practice have a limited effect to protect the most vulnerable populations. The success of the few

furthers the narrative of meritocracy and individual responsibility and advances policies designed to

engage successive waves of gentrification.

In C.H.A.S.E, municipal efforts that privilege the technology sector herald the third­wave of

gentrification. These projects and the creative class occupations they are designed to attract benefit from

cultural associations. G8WAY DC and the rehabilitation of the historical structures of St. Elizabeths,

particularly the Chapel, are examples. The inclusion of historical features is even present in the Barry

Farm redevelopment plans.

Technology sector creative occupation wages are higher than all but the elite among the

second­wave gentrifiers. Their arrival will ensure that median incomes rise for the area. This will impact

existing residents in numerous ways. Renters will face increases and affordable housing will become

practically unaffordable to current residents or the majority of creatives in the area. The expansion of

9 Although I have only provided a few examples of artists my research reveals that few artists are able to make a living wage on the income derived from their artistic ventures. 10 For examples see Mpulubusi El’s website, Peele’s Congress Heights on the Rise and East Shop Live Anacostia blogs or the r.e.e.l website and associated blog of AHD resident, r.e.e.l. President and founder of the Historic Anacostia Block association, lawyer and ANC8A04 commissioner Charles Wilson http://artofward8.blogspot.com/.

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existing support systems the District government has underfunded for years will be required to mediate

the increased inequality. The concerns voiced by residents of Barry Farm and the commissioner will

manifest. Gentrification will advance.

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References

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