Thanks for publishing my photo: How five local businesspeople would tackle gentrification on 14th Street

DC people and Places 46432
DC people and Places 46432 (View on Flickr.com)

Thanks for publishing my photo, Greater Greater Washington (@ggwash), in the attached piece.

As recently as ten years ago, DC’s bustling 14th Street corridor was riddled with crime and blight. Its rapid transformation is one version of the same story you can find all over the District. How can change of this magnitude serve existing communities rather than displace them?

There are a bunch of newer photos of this intersection that I’ve taken. Here’s a composite of 1968 and 2015:

RePhotography 14th and U Street 00752-Edit
RePhotography 14th and U Street 00752-Edit (View on Flickr.com)

The comments on the piece show a diversity of opinions of what people think a changing neighborhood should be and who belongs there. I guess I’d add that the people who believe it’s people wearing pearls on the way to the gym would be well served to walk this neighborhood when I do, at 7 in the morning on many days, to see who is coming and going.

I posted previously about smart growth. I think there are people and solutions that can be inclusive and produce health.

Washington, DC continues to be one the best laboratories for healthy communities there is.

Learning about growing in a way that works for everybody, 2016 Policy Forum, Smart Growth America Local Leaders Council

Ted Eytan, MD