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| Truxton Circle Washington DC streetadvisor.com |
One of the drawbacks about living in the city is you often do not know your neighbors. Sometimes, circumstances (usually a fire or other major event) create opportunities for you to meet your neighbors. Yours truly has often interacted with neighbors in the laundry or mail room of the building. These interactions can be golden moments for people to exchange views about living in a particular neighborhood. Amanda Abrams of CityLab experienced this over the summer at party hosted by her neighbor, a woman named Jess, in the formerly predominantly African-American Washington D.C. neighborhood of Truxton Circle. Ms. Abrams writes, "Her point, I knew, was to ensure that the party wasn't just white people like us, but an actual representation of our Truxton Circle neighborhood..."
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| Evening seen in Truxton Circle Washington D.C. dc.blockshopper.com |
There's always this separation. I don't know how to get around it."
Jess sheepishly admitted to Ms. Abrams that she barely mentioned the party to the longtime African-American residents: I just didn't have people's emails, she said.
Amanda Abrams confesses, It's a phenomenon I've gotten used to seeing." She's lived in the neighborhood for the past four years and has been closely observing it while she has been working on her book about the community. She has seen the newcomers, typically white, young, well-educated arrive excited about the area's diversity, with every intention of joining civic organizations, and plans to get to know the neighbors. However she adds, "But we repeatedly fail to connect with longtime residents and eventually give up, believing it's just not possible. The two communities wind up simply coexisting rarely overlapping in a meaningful way."
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| Historic Truxton Circle Washington D.C. dc.urbanturf.com |
Yet, as deceptively simple as it sounds, Jess's desire to get a more representative of the neighborhood mix at her party in the common alley was difficult to pull off. Had Jess made an effort, she would have discovered that some of her neighbors were not on the email thread and would have had to find another way to invite them to the party. Jess and her fellow organizers would have had to knock on doors and make fliers as a more tangible reminder of the upcoming event. Amanda Abrams writes, "All of that takes intention and effort beyond casually tossing off an email or Facebook message."
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| Big Bear Cafe Truxton Circle, Washington D.C. dc.urbanturf.com |
Living in a low-income community can produce a mountain of guilt for someone with more social capital. John Schlichtman, an assistant professor of sociology at DePaul University and author of a forthcoming book on gentrification told Ms. Abrams,
Sometimes [new] people feel their societal power and privilege is going to so overwhelm the neighborhood that they tiptoe around...Others...ignore the neighborhood's history and existing institution, viewing themselves as "pioneers."
There are some moments when our perspectives and personal biases are brought into the light through actions. Don Edwards, the CEO of the Washington D.C.-based Justice and Sustainability Associates, told Ms. Abrams:
We make our choices, intentionally or unintentionally, to be more accessible to some people...What we have work at is overcoming our tendency to make assumptions.
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| First Presbyterian Church Truxton Circle eckingtoncivicassociation.org |
Amanda Abrams experienced these dynamics in herself. She writes, "I'd thought I was a friendly person, but gradually I noticed that I only said hello to certain people: those who seemed solidly middle class. There was a wide swath of apparently low-income people almost all of them black, whom I simply ignored."
Trying to fit in
Amanda Abrams was not the only one who unintentionally ignored a large segment of her neighbors. Her neighbor Carol, a longtime African-American resident also complained that she and other neighbors also felt ignored. While the long time residents do not hold the newcomers responsible for the changing economic or housing landscape but they do resent being treated as second-class citizens when they are not acknowledged.
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| Truxton Circle Washington D.C. ghostsofdc.org |
However, Ms. Abrams argues, "But that's not just the result of racism or classism." In low-income neighborhoods like Truxton Circle, life has always been lived in public, with people consciously greeting each other on sidewalks or spontaneously gathering in front of houses. For individuals who grew up in more quiet environments, this kind of sociability can seem overwhelming. Ms. Abrams made the conscious choice to try to fit into the neighborhood culture and begin greeting everyone. Some responded warily but others warmed up quickly. People she never spoke to before began smiling in recognition and struck up brief conversations. Slowly, she began to have more substantive discussions with discussions with her neighbors and even got know four generations of Carol's family.
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| Truxton Circle street scene streetadvisor.com |
It seems that more and more, actual face-to-face conversation is going the way of the dinosaur. Actual human interaction is being replaced by emails, texts and posts on the social media sites. Even yours truly sometimes shudders over the prospect of talking to an actual person. Amanda Abrams highlights the drawbacks of the slow extinction of human interaction. She writes, "Neighborhood blogs and email lists are incredibly convenient for those that are comfortable online, but they exclude a big segment of the population, particularly people who are elderly or poor."
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| Social media site logos forbes.com |
And while new residents might identify as well-intentioned liberals, intentions aren't what matters...The result can be growing resentment from low-income people who see their neighborhood appropriated by a very different population.
This kind of appropriation can take place on both a personal and institutional level. For example, in her Truxton Circle neighborhood, Ms. Abrams reports, "civic association agendas are only posted online; if you don't keep up with them, you might miss an important discussion about new development. A more inclusive approach involves old-school methods like posting fliers and knocking on doors.
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| "Old men talking on stoop" Lower, west Buffalo, New York 1969-72 galleryluisotti.com |
Interpersonal communications is one of the most challenging skills to master. This is particularly true in the digital age. However, as Ms. Abrams illustrates in the following example, sometimes all it takes is a simple friendly exchange between two neighbors to remedy a problem. She writes,
When we first moved in, my husband and I called the police on our hard-partying neighbor. Hey, when she kept us up at 2 a.m. It was easier than risking a potentially ugly personal showdown. But after running into each other almost daily for a couple of years, we finally became friends, and one day she said to me, "If I'm a little loud, be honest and tell me. Don't call the cops on me." She was right.
This example illustrates that talking directly with your neighbors, who are different from you is not terribly easy, especial when it is complicated by race and class differences. While making an effort to be more friendly will not alleviate the more fundamental and troubling issues of gentrification: loss of affordable housing and displacement, making an effort to know the long time residents can reduce sometimes formidable tension. Above all else, taking the initiative can go a long way even when you are not sure how far the effort will take you.
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