Washington, D.C

Opinion | Gentrification is a problem for cities — especially when it ends

Published

1 year ago

January 11, 2024

Opinion | Gentrification is a problem for cities — especially when it ends

For most of my professional career, one consistent societal issue has been gentrification. Even in the depths of the Great Recession, when housing prices were collapsing, gentrification seemed unstoppable. And while there has been a lot to like about the urban renaissance that has occurred as affluent young professionals have poured into urban centers, there has been nothing good about the displacement, the very visible inequalities between old-timers and newcomers, or the racial and ethnic tensions this has exacerbated.

So politicians, policy wonks and pundits have all spent a lot of time agonizing over what to do about gentrification. They have called for reforms to permitting and zoning rules to make it easier for developers to build new housing, or for subsidies to the people being priced out, or both. In hindsight, we spent surprisingly little time worrying about what would happen to cities without gentrification.

Yet here we are in 2024, and I’m much less worried about gentrification than I am about what you might call gentrification whiplash: the uncomfortable conditions that result when a headlong rush into urban real estate suddenly stops, or even goes into reverse.

This now seems like a real possibility in many places, including my own beloved D.C., which is beset with three major issues at once. Demand for office space has cratered thanks to remote work. Demand for residential real estate has shifted outward to the suburbs, as proximity to the office has become less valuable. And crime keeps soaring to new heights; in 2023, homicide hit 20-year highs in D.C., while car theft reached levels not seen since 2007.

If this trend continues, people who have money and options will do what they did in the middle of the 20th century: decamp for places where they don’t have to spend so much time worrying about being robbed or shot.

Yet the response of my local officials has been curiously lackadaisical. Although violence has been a growing problem since 2020, arrests in 2022 were down by almost half from 2019, prosecutions had fallen even further, the D.C. police’s operating budget shrank by almost 13 percent and the number of officers was falling toward its lowest in about 50 years. Only this past fall did Mayor Muriel E. Bowser finally push through a package of reforms aimed at reducing crime.

So let us add a fourth problem to my city’s woes: city officials who have for years been collecting a sort of hidden subsidy from gentrification, which made their jobs easier in many ways — and stands to make the whiplash worse. We are facing the biggest urban crisis in 50 years with politicians who are used to playing on Easy Mode, which is the policy equivalent of driving without a seat belt.

For the past two decades, if you were overseeing a reasonably successful city like Washington, your tax base kept improving no matter what you did, as richer people replaced poorer ones. In 2006, when I moved to D.C., total tax revenue, net of dedicated taxes, was $4.2 billion (about $6.3 billion in today’s dollars). In 2022, the city collected approximately $8.6 billion ($8.8 billion in 2023 dollars). Of course, the population has increased since 2006 — but not by 40 percent.

Meanwhile, the people who were moving in needed less from the government than the people who were being forced out. The newcomers didn’t need subsidized health care or child care, or the city to arrange a tutor for their kid struggling with math. They were also much less likely to suffer from difficulties associated with poverty, including substance abuse and untreated mental illness — or to generate associated problems such as crime and child abuse.

We frequently talk about the government learning to do more with less, but gentrifying cities got to do less with more: It doesn’t take as much money and ingenuity to educate or police the prosperous middle class as it does to provide those services to a marginalized community, so government didn’t have to be nearly as good at many of its jobs. Yet because the population was less needy, it actually looked as if those services were improving rapidly, if you scanned crime statistics or test scores.

Of course, gentrification didn’t actually solve many of those problems; it just displaced them, while tipping some of the most vulnerable onto the streets. But politicians appeared to be solving them, creating an illusion of competence that might have fooled even the politicians themselves.

This went on for so long that people took it for granted, voters and politicians alike. We got progressive mayors, progressive district attorneys and progressive council members who pursued their laudable goals on the assumption that no matter what they did, crime would keep falling and public coffers would keep overflowing.

Now this illusion is punctured. Ever-increasing urban housing demand cannot be taken for granted, nor can any of the benefits that come with it. City officials can no longer count on gentrification to export their problems to another Zip code; they will have to get better at actually solving them.

Washington, D.C

Snow totals for DC, Maryland & Virginia, after overnight snowfall

Published

2 hours ago

January 11, 2025

Press Room

Snow totals for DC, Maryland & Virginia, after overnight snowfall

Overnight snow across the DC region

FOX 5’s Gwen Tolbart has your weekend weather forecast and what to expect with potential snow.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A winter weather system threatens the Washington, D.C. region this weekend.

According to FOX 5’s Gwen Tolbart, a Winter Weather Advisory until 1 a.m. Sunday for Garrett, Western Highland, Western Grant and Western Pendleton counties. An additional 2 to 4 inches of snow is possible with some isolated amounts up to 6 inches.

How much snow this weekend in DC? Snow forecast, timeline & expected totals

Gusty afternoon winds are expected to reach 40 mph and will cause blowing snow in the advisory area. Poor visibility and slick road conditions are to be expected.

Saturday will welcome some clouds that will eventually thin out to leave us with partly sunny skies. The highs are expected to remain in the 30s. Winds will be gusty from the Northwest region 10-15G30 mph. A very cold night ahead with mostly clear skies of 24F.

More sunshine is expected for Sunday with passing clouds. A cold and slightly breezy day on the horizon with highs again in the 30s. Overnight temperatures will drop to the low 20s and teens.

WeatherWashington, D.C.News

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Washington, D.C

Report: The Trumps are in talks to buy back D.C. hotel lease

Published

14 hours ago

January 11, 2025

Press Room

Report: The Trumps are in talks to buy back D.C. hotel lease

The Trump Organization is engaged in preliminary discussions to reclaim the lease on its former hotel in Washington, D.C., reports the Wall Street Journal.

The hotel is currently operating as a Waldorf Astoria.

The Wall Street Journal said Trump Organization executive vice president Eric Trump met with an executive from BDT & MSD Partners at Mar-a-Lago earlier this week to discuss purchasing the lease rights to the former Trump International Hotel Washington D.C.

BDT & MSD Partners currently controls the property’s lease, following a 2023 default and subsequent foreclosure by previous leaseholder CGI Merchant Group. The Trump Organization sold the hotel’s lease to CGI in 2022, and the hotel was reflagged as a Waldorf Astoria.

The 263-room hotel, which occupies the Old Post Office building, opened as a Trump hotel in 2016.

During President Donald Trump’s first presidency, the hotel was a prominent gathering spot for Republican lawmakers, lobbyists and others with business involving the administration. The property came under intense scrutiny because of ethical and legal concerns.

The hotel has some of the largest guestrooms in the city. Top-tier accommodations include the 4,000-square-foot Presidential One Bedroom Suite and 6,300-square-foot Waldorf Townhouse Two Bedroom Bi-Level Suite.

The hotel is home to restaurants The Bazaar by Jose Andres and the Michelin-starred Sushi Nakazawa, plus 38,000 square feet of event space and a 10,000-square-foot Waldorf Astoria Spa.

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Washington, D.C

Man at the center of Washington DC ‘Pizzagate’ killed during North Carolina traffic stop

Published

1 day ago

January 10, 2025

Press Room

Man at the center of Washington DC ‘Pizzagate’ killed during North Carolina traffic stop

The man who stormed into a Washington D.C. restaurant with loaded weapons during an incident widely known as “Pizzagate” is now dead after North Carolina police shot him during a traffic stop.

Edgar Maddison Welch, 36, was shot just after 10 p.m. last Saturday, Kannapolis Fire and Police wrote in a news release this week.

Welch is the same Salisbury, North Carolina man who in December 2016, showed up to Comet Ping Pong, a pizzeria in Washington DC., with loaded weapons to investigate “unfounded rumors concerning a child sex-trafficking ring” that was allegedly operating out of the restaurant, federal prosecutors said.

He pleaded guilty in March 2017 to a federal charge of interstate transportation of a firearm and ammunition, as well as a District of Columbia charge of assault with a dangerous weapon.

Three months later, he was sentenced to four years in prison.

What is ‘Pizzagate’? What happened at Comet Ping Pong?

Welch’s initial reason for making headlines in 2016 stemmed from rumors of a child sex trafficking ring allegedly operating out of the pizza restaurant he stormed into, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia.

Rumors began circulating online that the restaurant was part of a trafficking ring operated by then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton – a fake news campaign targeting Clinton during the general election.

Welch allegedly tried to recruit people to participate in the storming of the restaurant leading up to Dec. 4. He’d texted someone saying he was “raiding a pedo ring” and sacrificing “the lives of a few for the lives of many.”

Prosecutors said Welch traveled from North Carolina to Washington D.C. with three loaded firearms, including a 9mm AR-15 assault rifle loaded with 29 rounds of ammunition, a fully-loaded, six-shot, .38-caliber revolver and a loaded shotgun with additional shotgun shells.

Welch parked his car and around 3 p.m., walked into the restaurant, where multiple employees and customers were present, including children, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the District of Columbia said in a news release.

“He was carrying the AR-15 openly, with one hand on the pistol grip, and the other hand on the hand guard around the barrel, such that anyone with an unobstructed view could see the gun,” the office wrote in the news release.

Once customers and employees saw Welch, they fled the building. Welch was also accused of trying to get into a locked room by forcing the door open, first with a butter knife and then shooting his assault rifle multiple times into the door.

Shortly after he walked into the restaurant, an employee who had no idea what was going on walked in carrying pizza dough, federal prosecutors said. When Welch saw the employee, he turned toward the worker with the assault rifle, which made the employee think he was going to shoot them. The employee then ran out, leaving Welch alone in the restaurant.

Welch spent more than 20 minutes inside the restaurant, then walked out, leaving his firearms inside. Officials then arrested him.

When Welch was sentenced to four years in prison, he was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release, during which he’d have to get a mental health assessment.

He was also ordered to stay away from the Comet Ping Pong restaurant while released and to pay $5,744 in restitution for property damage.

What happened leading up to the Welch’s death?

The deadly traffic stop happened the night of Jan. 4, said Kannapolis Chief of Police Terry L. Spry in a news release.

Around 10 p.m., a Kannapolis Police Officer patrolling North Cannon Boulevard spotted a gray 2001 GMC Yukon. The officer recognized the vehicle because he’d previously arrested someone who frequently drove the vehicle, Welch. He also knew Welch had an outstanding warrant for his arrest, police said.

The officer stopped the vehicle and recognized the front seat passenger as Welch, who had an outstanding arrest warrant for felony probation violation, police said. While the officer was speaking with Welch, two additional officers showed up to help.

As the officer who made the traffic stop approached the passenger side of the vehicle and opened the front passenger door to arrest the individual, the passenger pulled out a handgun and pointed it at the officer.

The initial officer and a second officer who was standing at the rear passenger side of the Yukon ordered the man to drop the gun. After the passenger failed to lower his gun, both officers fired at him, hitting him.

Officials called for medical assistance for Welch who was taken to a hospital for treatment. He was later taken to another hospital, where he died from his injuries two days after the shooting.

None of the officers at the traffic stop were hurt and neither were the driver and back seat passenger in the vehicle with Welch.

The officers involved who fired their weapons were Officer Brooks Jones and Officer Caleb Tate. The third officer at the scene did not fire his weapon, police said.

District Attorney will decide next steps in traffic stop shooting death

An outside law enforcement agency has been requested to investigate the shooting.

“This practice ensures there is no bias during the investigation and the findings of the investigation are presented to the District Attorney without any influence by a member of the department,” the police chief wrote in the news release.

The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is still investigating the shooting and the two officers who fired their weapons are on administrative leave, which the police said is standard protocol.

Cabarrus County District Attorney Ashlie Shanley will decide what the next steps are, police said.

Contributing: Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY

Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY’s NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Follow her on Twitter at @SaleenMartin or email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.

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