By now, we are all familiar with the predominant narrative around gentrification. It's a form of modern day colonialization that ultimately displaces low-income residents to clear the way for cool yuppie havens. To add insult to bad optics, some of the businesses that take up residence in newly gentrified areas across the country, are making a mockery of this transition by appropriating neighborhood culture, glorifying poverty, and commodifying its worst aspects for profit.
So, what happens when this phenomenon runs adjacent to an HBCU? This is the question that has come up in the nation's capital as the area surrounding Howard University has seen the drastic transformation over the past several years. As more and more non-black residents flock to D.C., property values continue to sky-rocket in the neighborhood surrounding the campus, and the university has no qualms about capitalizing on the hot real estate market. Is it wrong for black entities to capitalize off of gentrification?
There are two sides to the gentrification coin. Adjacent to the horrific storyline of displacement, homelessness, and what amounts to a contemporary form of eminent domain, a new narrative is emerging. One that aims to sell the benefits of gentrification. The fact is that as run-down properties and business have been replaced with newer establishments, crime has significantly decreased in the area around Howard. The police department has reported considerably less crime over the 15 years from 2000 to 2015. While certainly, there is tons of nuance and systemic implication to this phenomenon, that doesn't change the fact that gentrification is profitable.
Maybelle Bennett, director of the Howard University Community Association, told NPR that she recalls logging complaints from residents back in the day who said, "Howard needs to clean up its own backyard, Howard needs to fix up these properties." When the university began addressing the upkeep of some of its neglected properties purchased outside of the main campus in the 1970s and '80s, Bennett says another point of contention surfaced – Howard was now helping attract gentrifiers to the predominately black LeDroit Park neighborhood. "So now that we were doing it, it was damn if you do, damn if you don't because of the rise in value and the rise in tax bills," Bennett said.
It's a conflict that Jay-Z addressed with the release of his 13th studio album "4:44." On the track, "The Story of O.J," the rapper encourages this kind of community investment and expresses regret for missing out an opportunity to invest in rising real estate values in one of Brooklyn's trendiest, most gentrified neighborhoods saying, "I could have bought a place in Dumbo before it was Dumbo for like $2 million. That same building today is worth $25 million. And guess how I'm feelin'? Dumbo." We hear you, Jay.
