Since 2004, I\u2019ve gotten off at the New York Avenue Metro station every morning, walking down 2nd Street to my office near Union Station.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a walk that I never would have taken when I was young.\u00a0 A walk I wouldn\u2019t have even imagined taking even in the 90\u2019s.\u00a0 When I was a kid, that section of DC was akin to a dark fairy tale.\u00a0 The stuff of nightmares.<\/p>\n
\nNow, the world changes.\u00a0 Over the last six years, I\u2019ve watched that stretch of 2nd Street transform and revive.\u00a0 Where, even in 04, there was rubble, trouble, fear, there\u2019s now a d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu head-trip that makes the walker and observer think of Eastern Europe in the early part of this decade. The infrastructure is shiny and new — lights and walk signs and clean streets.\u00a0 There are trash cans screaming about the recently created NOMA (North of Mass Ave) neighborhood.\u00a0 No longer is this dreaded Northeast DC, or the long-demolished Irish slum with the comical name of Swampoodle.<\/p>\n
In place of the distinctive DC rowhouses, many dating back a century, the 2nd Street corridor is now rising up with neo-Brutalist government buildings and loft condos that no rational human being would ever want to buy.<\/p>\n
Soon, streetcars will return to DC.\u00a0 The H Street car will zip by this area, spilling people out into Union Station. 2nd Street\u2019s transformation will be complete. And, once, where there were minorities, there are now flowerbeds, well-dressed white people walking well-bred dogs, and the blue-suited clean-up crew slaves keeping NOMA beautiful.<\/p>\n
Recently, a block of rowhouses that have stood empty for a year were fenced off and, today, demolition began. The last of 2nd Street turned into a wasteland to make room for more condos and office buildings.<\/p>\n
I stopped and watched these quaint little homes fall under the grasping arms of machines and wrecking balls for a few minutes today and it occurred to me that they\u2019re killing my city.\u00a0 House by house, brick by brick, they\u2019re pulling it down.\u00a0 Remaking it in an inhuman image.\u00a0 An image driven by contracts, the whims of non-native developers, the self-interest of boards of directors. This 2nd Street walk of mine has shifted to a strange mimicry of a suburban street. This \u201csuburbanization\u201d of the cities is nothing new. Instead of embracing city life, the transplants (and they are transplants because, as late as 2003, you would never have set foot on the cracked sidewalks of old 2nd Street) bring with them the expectations and sensibilities of their caste.<\/p>\n
It is a caste system, as well. We have trouble admitting that when we are members of the caste. The infection of political correctness doesn\u2019t allow us to stop and face the truth of who we really are.\u00a0 Consumers of goods made by slaves and children, and intolerant of those around us who are different.\u00a0 The insidious \u201cwhitening\u201d of DC is a glaring example of the caste system. Over the last decade, we\u2019ve turned the neighboring Prince George\u2019s County, MD into a ghetto.\u00a0 Well, more so than before.\u00a0 We\u2019ve pushed the mongrels, the lesser races, out of DC, out of the surrounding wealthy suburbs.\u00a0 Silver Spring, Bethesda\u2026 Two suburbs now with a whiter face.\u00a0 Wheaton struggles to catch up.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the passive-aggressive version of lebensraum<\/em>.\u00a0 There are no troops that come in the night, no cattle cars to take the unwanted people away.\u00a0 It\u2019s all simply legislation, cost of living, the thin veneer of renewal. No one even thinks about it.\u00a0 There\u2019s no Nazi hydra hiding in the board rooms and government buildings. It\u2019s just\u2026progress.<\/p>\n And why complain?\u00a0 After all, a very short time ago, that 2nd Street walk could have easily resulted in me lying in the gutter, bleeding out. We don\u2019t want that, do we? And there we get into deeper social problems such as education, equality, and so on. We breed the poor to be poor, we keep them in their place. No matter the lip service paid by DC\u2019s armchair liberals, the status quo will always be maintained.<\/p>\n And so the corner stores vanish and Whole Foods and Harris Teeter move in.\u00a0 And so the neighborhood dive bars are shuttered and theme bars and chain bars open their doors. The bakeries fail and designer cupcakes that cost more than a beer become all the rage.<\/p>\n Homogenization.\u00a0 Gentrification.<\/p>\n It\u2019s so easy to argue in favor of these changes. The results are clear. I can walk down 2nd Street. The new Harris Teeter will be a Mecca when it opens.\u00a0 The streetcar will open H Street to the common person.<\/p>\n I\u2019m white.\u00a0 I like to not be stabbed in the face. I go to theme bars and buy $5 PBR\u2019s on tap and call it happy hour. I don\u2019t remember how much my shoes cost.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think about who made my clothes. If my computer at home blows up, I\u2019ll buy another, better one on the credit card and not think twice about it.<\/p>\n A crazy black person screaming on the sidewalk?\u00a0 Hispanic youths watching me suspiciously?\u00a0 I react instinctually.\u00a0 I\u2019m on guard. I\u2019m suspicious.\u00a0 Just like you.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t set myself above the people I condemn as neo-Yuppies or agents of gentrification. I am just like them.\u00a0 I am one of them.\u00a0 But where they defend themselves, and spout empty PC sensibilities from their overpriced aeries, I know who I am.\u00a0 The racist evil in my soul comes from generations of American life.\u00a0 The entitlement of Manifest Destiny and absolute victory on land and at sea festers in me.<\/p>\n I see the soul of the city dying.\u00a0 I see the people changing, and wonder what happens to the poor. But do I really care? Is this just a version of a rolleyes moment with my grandfather when he points at a neighborhood developed in the 50\u2019s and says that it used to be fields?\u00a0 What\u2019s the alternative?\u00a0 Save these condemned homes?\u00a0 Keep the prices down and let the Welfare Caste watch us from their collapsing porches?<\/p>\n Because we\u2019ll never correct those larger social problems.\u00a0 America has always been this way. We will never reach a helping hand down to those who need it.\u00a0 That\u2019s not what this country is about. We are a capitalist nation, and we are all here (those of us who came by choice) because our families wanted to carve out their individual lives.\u00a0 We were, from day one, motivated by avarice. From before there was a Bill of Rights, a Constitution, a rebellion.<\/p>\n Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.\u00a0 But nowhere does it say that we should help our fellow Man.\u00a0 Those pursuits are an individual responsibility.\u00a0 And for those who come here expecting streets paved with gold but fail to achieve such goals, the old consumer rules always apply \u2013 buyer beware.\u00a0 And, of course, no money returned.<\/p>\n Does a city have a soul?\u00a0 Does it matter what happens? These old buildings are rattraps. Poisoned by lead paint and asbestos.\u00a0 Good riddance. These old neighborhoods need uniformity. This is the new Manifest Destiny. We will expand.\u00a0 We will conquer.\u00a0 And, rooted in this new Manifest Destiny, as in the 19th Century version, is a variation of White Man\u2019s Burden. We must clean up this town.\u00a0 Bring nobility to the savages. Even if it kills them.<\/p>\n So, one of these days, I\u2019ll meet you at the chain bar next to Harris Teeter.\u00a0 We can drink seven dollar beers and look out at the old Woodie\u2019s warehouse, now converted to office condos.\u00a0 We can raise a glass to the scantily clad yuppie-girl and her small dog power-walking down the street with an iPod blaring in her ears and not a care in the world.<\/p>\n It\u2019s good to be king, ain\u2019t it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Since 2004, I\u2019ve gotten off at the New York Avenue Metro station every morning, walking down 2nd Street to my office near Union Station. It\u2019s a walk that I never would have taken when I was young.\u00a0 A walk I …<\/p>\n