Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

A monumental urban development phase occurred during the late 20^th and early 21^st centuries in the United States (US). With an influx of White residents and capital investments, many urban “no go” Black ghettos were transformed into hip cool places filled with chic restaurants, trendy bars, and high-priced apartment buildings. In several US cities, once impoverished, inner city African American neighborhoods have become mixed-income, mixed-race gilded ghettos. Through an ethnographic case study (2009-2014) of Washington, DC’s Shaw/U Street neighborhood, I uncover the intricate social, economic, and political processes, and associated outcomes, related to the redevelopment of certain low-income communities from places with concentrated poverty, drugs, and violence to neighborhoods where coffee shops, dog parks, wine bars, and luxury condominiums proliferate. While the Shaw/U Street neighborhood in the 1960s was a quintessential iconic Black ghetto, in the 2000s the area dramatically changed to the gilded ghetto, where a gourmet food market replaced an open-air, illicit drug market.

New powerful economic and political forces, the legacy of racial tensions, emerging racial tolerance, and new urban living preferences are driving the transition of the dark ghetto to the gilded ghetto. Through fieldwork, I experience first-hand the transformation of Washington’s Shaw/U Street neighborhood, and explain how these forces collectively facilitate gentrification and its political and cultural neighborhood consequences. My analysis of over 60 interviews with a diverse set of residents and neighborhood stakeholders also reveals the on-the-ground realities of mixed-income living. Specifically, I unpack the tensions between the new and old, white and black, rich and poor, and gay and straight. While tolerance for diversity on many levels is greater than ever, these traditional social divides still help to explain today’s urban community change narrative. More importantly this research uncovers how preexisting inequalities are exacerbated and not alleviated in this mixed-income, mixed-race community. This neighborhood change study offers a compelling argument of how and why resentment builds even among the vulnerable poor who are able to stay in place through affordable housing policies. This research elucidates the comprehensive set of dynamics facilitating 21^st century gentrification and concludes with several novel yet pragmatic place-based policy recommendations, beyond affordable housing, to help promote racially integrated neighborhood development that is more equitable, sustainable, and just.