Just Read + Thanks for using my photographs: Twenty Years of Change Since the Revitalization Act, State of Business in the District of Columbia, 2017

Wow, thank you.

This post is a combo thank you and learning more about the city I enjoy so much 🙂 . It’s been wonderful seeing the work of the D.C. Policy Center (@DCPolicyCenter) gain attention over the past year and to be a small part of it through providing some imagery of Washington, DC.

Their analyses, performed by data scientists, and experts in the field continue to provide a steady stream of insight into what I believe is the best learning lab for society in the world, in the most inclusive city in the world.

One of my favorite reports in 2017 was this one: A timeline of LGBT places and spaces in D.C. – D.C. Policy Center – favorite because in Washington, DC, even the elite data scientists remember to respect and represent all humans.

An amazing story in an amazing place

As the report shows, Washington, DC has gone from a place without hope and support to one that’s finding firm footing.

It’s an amazing story if you look at just the population changes – a catastrophic loss of 75,000 residents and 63,000 jobs in the 1990’s to the addition of 114,000 new residents in the last 11 years. The employment base is less government dependent, and we have one of the most educated workforces, (who enjoy biking and walking to work, more biking to work than Seattle or San Francisco, but I digress).

At the same time, visible and palpable inequities exist

The District is whiter and richer – share of blacks is now 47 percent compared to 55 percent in 2000—but racial and economic divides across neighborhoods have also become deeper.Twenty years after the Revitalization Act, the District of Columbia is a different city – D.C. Policy Center

..and there are more people and knowledge per square millimeter working to change the world than any place I have been.

I’m grateful to have the opportunity illustrate what happens here & the analyses that DC Policy Center does add context to what I see on the street (see: Thoughts and photos from the gilded ghetto | Race, Class, and Politics in the Cappuccino City, by Derek Hyra ). The social determinants are not random. I’m not a professional photographer or nearly as good as people I know (& I’m not that smart & my ideas aren’t that unique, either), just a person with unlimited curiosity and an interest in changing everything. It’s what we come to Washington, DC to do.

Here are some of the originals used in the report. I hope the DC Policy Center uses many more, in the interim, please read the report because there’s much to be done and change is good 🙂

PS. Isn’t Washington, DC beautiful?