Here's our roundup of must-read posts from the week:
Why do longtime residents end up leaving beloved DC neighborhoods? For one family, it was the housing costs — and the resistance to density that keeps them high.
If you're interested in affordable housing, revisit our explainer on the New Communities Initiative, DC's long-running ambitious plan to turn public housing communities into mixed income neighborhoods.
Another mixed-income neighborhood on the table: the area around Fair Oaks Mall. Read about the opportunities and the challenges involved in making the area vibrant and walkable.
Walkability is a major priority for DC residents who responded to a survey about the District's long-range transportation plan. What's not on the priority list? Cars and parking.
Finally, how did DC become the place we know today? Historian George Derek Musgrove argues that the Black Power movement was one of DC's most important and formative movements, shaping politics and culture for 40 years.
When I first moved to my lovely basement rowhouse apartment on the corner of 15th and Buchanan in the Sixteenth Street Heights in 2012, my then-roommate and I had few criteria on where to live. We were looking for an apartment with high enough ceilings so he could practice the upright bass, and I wanted to be near the S or the 50 bus lines. But when my wife and I decided we wanted to purchase a home, we quickly realized we could not afford to live in the neighborhood we have called home for so many years.
By Douglas Stewart (Contributor) • February 9, 2021
Fairfax County has an opportunity to transform one of its largest shopping malls and the area around it into a walkable community with access to regional transit. Success depends in large part on whether the county changes how it designs its streets.
By Libby Solomon (Writer and Editor) • February 12, 2021
DC residents want more investment in active modes of transportation, rather than prioritizing cars, according to the results of a DC Department of Transportation survey.
By Libby Solomon (Writer and Editor) • February 11, 2021
George Derek Musgrove, co-author of Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital, and a history professor at UMBC, argues that the Black Power movement wasn’t just a force in DC politics. It was the force for four decades. From the Civil Rights movement to DC’s first years of Home Rule to the resurgence of activism in the 1980s and 1990s, these activists were instrumental in shaping the District as we know it today.
