I love brunch!

Brunch is the best meal of the week. Getting together with family, friends, or just yourself and enjoy everything from avocado toast to a variety of grilled sandwiches makes the bad and bougie in me really come out.

I’m from the DC Metro Area, which if you didn’t know, is home to the best brunch hustles in the nation. Hands down. Fight me. If you’ve stepped foot into Busboys & Poets, Eatonville (R.I.P.), Ted’s Bulletin, or Founding Farmers during brunch then you know no one can beat the urge to clean their plate and empty their glass (or bottomless pitcher…). You’re going to come in for brunch and maybe stay until dinner because the DC brunch scene is on a different level. Think I’m kidding? Check this out.

You know what’s also on a different level in the District? Gentrification.

The Washington DC Metro Area is home to one of the least affordable housing markets in the country. The wage gap between low and middle-class is astounding. As a matter of fact, it’s the largest income gap in the country. It supersedes all income gaps in other states. In the past 50 years, the city has gone from being 70% black to roughly 48%. In 2011, the city’s number of black residents decreased to less than 50% for the first time since the earlier part of the 20th century. Historically black neighborhoods have become infiltrated with transplants and redesigned as “arts and creative corridors” with rent prices beginning at almost $2,000. Even in “low-income” areas, rent could begin at $1,100 for a one-bedroom apartment not including utilities.

When having brunch recently, I took a break from my fried green tomatoes and honey cornbread to examine where I was situating myself in terms of my activism. In one hand, I had my fork that was going in on the food in front of me. In the other, my phone was signaling a news alert that Columbia Heights, formerly one of the most affordable neighborhoods in the city, was now on the list of “Priciest Neighborhoods in DC” with rent averaging $3,000+ per month. In that moment, I shook my head and took a serious pause for self-reflection. As much as I hate gentrification, not only do I benefit from it, I financially endorse it simply by doing things like going to brunch. As great as the food I eat at brunch is, the building I was sitting in was once a black-owned business and an apartment building for low-income residents. There was a ghost of culture surrounding me, but its voice and life couldn’t come out because I was surrounded by the eclectic decor of the restaurant. The spirit of the space locked in silence from the oppressive nature of gentrification.

This realization put me in an interesting space. Realizing you’re contradicting one of the things that you’re passionate about is a hard blow to take. I had to begin to look at the issue critically. While gentrification is a very disgusting and dangerous evil, it’s a benefit in many ways. It creates capital for an area and promotes the safety and upkeep of the neighborhoods in which it occurs. But that increased capital and physical maintenance comes at the expense of residents who have inhabited the neighborhood for years on end. Furthermore, the culture that neighborhoods have formerly held is usually washed away. It’s an exchange of property values with a simultaneous whitening of spaces.

Given my middle class suburban upbringing, I enjoy organic markets, coffee shops, well-manicured neighborhoods, and especially brunch spots. But I also have an appreciation for raw unmediated culture and respect for everyone’s human experience. My taste for honey lavender biscuits and tea out of a mason jar doesn’t prohibit my care for human rights and low-income housing subsidies from existing. For me, there is no dichotomy. It’s not a binary. It’s a collective integration of experiences and interests that can collaborate to create an environment for everyone on all sides. Each of us just needs to know where our part comes in.

For me, I’m a writer. So my job is to sound the alarm. To write. To observe, examine, and analyze in a way that invites others to do the same. But for others, their jobs are a little different. They may be involved in policy work and should shift some of their attention to creating policy-based initiatives that allow culture and targeted-consumerism to coexist. One may be involved in entrepreneurship where they could create ventures that are in under-developed areas that incorporate local residents as partners, employees, and beneficiaries. Educators could train those who lack the knowledge necessary to know how to navigate the systems and processes that come along with fighting gentrification. It’s far more than a tweet or a Facebook rant. It’s action. You can do it while enjoying your eggs benedict but just be sure to do it with the integrity of the people and communities that you serve. One of the things people from DC loved about the late Marion Barry was that he was about the people. Barry served as the Mayor of DC for sixteen years because he cared about the residents first and foremost. The way he cared was the best part about him. He had a love for the city that was empowering and not falsely enabling. He invested in the education and sustainment of the city’s residents instead of band-aid solutions that would not create infrastructural shifts in the preexisting paradigms. He had a deep belief in cooperative economics and effective policies for urban development. Barry was an activist first, and a mayor second. That identity made him the best mayor the District ever saw, granting him the popular title “Mayor for Life”. As individuals residing, working, and occupying major cities we should carry that kind of love in our approach to bettering our communities. Pouring in all that we can before large, million-dollar corporations have the ability to “redevelop” our communities into their personal wallets.

Not too long after the news report was released about Columbia Heights, The Huffington Post published a story that some New York City residents are trying to change the name of Harlem to SoHa, which is short for “South Harlem”. *rolls eyes* Local residents are fighting back to retain the name and identity of Harlem, however it could prove to be difficult as time goes on if there isn’t more involvement from any and everyone who spends time in that section of the city. Harlem is a cultural mecca for African-Americans. A large part of our modern identity comes from the beauty created during the Harlem Renaissance. But what is it to us if we do not try to protect it? Our collective agency, in a capitalistic sense, is quite the bargaining tool. However, it’s up to us to use it. Harlem is another city where posh bars and trendy bakeries are growing in number. I found myself there last week indulging in the unapologetic blackness of a restaurant I was visiting with my friend. While enjoying my experience, I took a moment to look around and examine how the spirit of Harlem was very present in the establishment but it was vanishing in the streets. The same streets that Langston, Ella, Dizzy, and Duke walked were having a metamorphosis before me. These streets now provided a home for a spin studio and boutique clothing stores. While those are two other things make my inner suburbanite happy, I made a silent wish that the latter would not overtake the former, not without a fight. Prayerfully, not at all.

Abigail J. Covington

Writing since March 2017 · 1 story contributed