The Plan to Gentrify DC
Last week, This American Life featured a segment on gentrification in Washington, DC. Gentrification in DC, residents say, is not led by market forces, but is rather an orchestrated plan to displace blacks from neighborhoods to make way for rich whites.
“The Plan” is incredibly moving and persuasive. It highlights gentrification signs like local government closing public schools, libraries, and hospitals to replace them with condos and, among other things, sushi restaurants. Others, from around the country, discuss how their cities purposely allowed neighborhoods to deteriorate so developers can buy land for cheaper prices.
Is “the plan” a conspiracy theory? Maybe. But the results are striking.
Full Episode: 350: Human Resources
Review: The Camden 28
A film by Anthony Giacchino
First Run Features
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. saw the “war as an enemy of the poor” when asked why he opposed the Vietnam War. Today, President Bush’s latest budget proposal makes that abundantly clear. Social spending would be cut by $2.4 billion while Pentagon spending would rise by $35 billion—not including Iraq war funding.
Sadly, the connection between war and domestic spending has been nearly lost. Luckily, we can learn from those who risked their freedom to show us that poverty here is directly related to war overseas. Read more
