Monday, February 14, 2011

Anacostia on NPR's Morning Edition - Update

Set your radio dials to NPR's Morning Edition (88.5 in DC) tomorrow morning at 6:20AM and 8:20AM to hear a segment about population shifts in DC, with a special focus on the Anacostia neighborhood. I was interviewed along with Charles Wilson, Natasha Dasher from Uniontown, Stan Voudrie of Four Points development, and others.



I hope the story accurately depicts some of the changes taking place, but also get the feeling it might skew towards "black people are being forced into PG County" ... to which I usually reply, in general terms: 1) Most of the people moving to Anacostia are black. 2) If you can afford to buy in PG, you can afford to buy in Anacostia. Sure, there are trade-offs, but give me a break.

Update, with links: I see that the reporter insisted I "left the neighborhood after a 2009 incident where 15 friends were robbed at gunpoint" -- so not true (I left eight months after the incident for much less exciting reasons), and a fact that I clarified for him multiple times.

Click Here to read the written aricle or listen to the story

2 comments:

Stephanie White said...

Just listened to it, Garber. An interesting story, but definitely a 1-dimensional conclusion on the part of the reporters. I'm sorry your view wasn't more represented to reflect the true complexity of the issues.

Anonymous said...

Glad you mentioned number one: Most of the people gentrifying Anacostia are Black. I don't get why folks want to make this a "race thing." It's an ECONOMIC thing, lol. I personally don't think race should even be mentioned. After all, it's not race that's putting high-end stores in Anacostia or increasing property value. It's economics. I love NPR but I'm surprised at the ignorance. My brother (who is Black) got into Anacostia about seven years ago and purchased a condo in a development where hundreds of other young professional Black gentrifyers lived. He since moved out and bought a house in another DC community (because it took a little long for him to see progress in Anacostia at the time) but most of the others remained.

So thanks a BUNCH for realizing this is about economics, not race. After all, there are obviously far more poor White people in the USA than poor Black people, and if not for the fact that poor Blacks are so visible in popular culture (and because they tend to live in neighborhoods with each other while wealthier Blacks tend to be dispersed among the rest of the 83% of Americans and therefore not as visible) people would realize that the majority of Blacks simply are NOT poor. I'm glad you see what's really going on in Anacostia, which has soooooooooooo much potential and I'm happy to see it rising to that potential.