"Then a few years ago, white America decided it wanted the cities back again. H Street leaped from despair to displacement without ever stopping for a dream. Now you can't even install the car part you just bought in the Auto Zone's parking lot without someone calling the cops. Someone who doesn't understand that the city isn't only theirs. Someone who doesn't understand that there are people with as much right as they to live near H Street but who would rather go to Cluck-U Chicken than Starbucks. Someone who doesn't understand that what you don't do with decency, you pay for in anger."
The whole point of these "silly" arguments going around is that businesses and people have to be accountable for their actions. If you tell DCRA you are opening a restuarant, and then don't open a restaurant, you're breaking the rules. If they had gone through the proper channels, and done the right thing, I'm sure the neighborhood would have given them their blessing. As it stands, it just looks like they tried to cheat the system.
I would also have to take issue with some of the points the author puts forward. Laws are laws & the city should enforce the laws (the mechanics operating out of the Autozone lot are doing so illegally, just as church goers that doublepark, or block fire hydrants are also breaking the law & showing tremendous disrespect for those around them).
I thought Mr. Smith's personal rememberence of the '68 riots was very interesting. On the other hand, his diatribe against changes in Capitol Hill is about as classic an example of a strawman argument as you will ever see.
Sam Smith is a classic. He has spent the last 20 years writing liberal diatribes from his huge house in Cleveland Park (thanks to a family inheritance, not from hard work), and is now so proud of himself for moving back to the Hill. It was white flight 20 years ago, and now it's gentrification. He is much like the post writer: it's a lot more convenient to break this down into a typical black-white thing, than to actually understand the subtleties of what's going on.
I don't think Sam sounds that deep and thoughtful at all in his commentary. It really drives me nuts to hear someone feel that he or she is the voice of a community. I am sure in Cleveland Park or anywhere else no one wants a bunch of mechanics working in an autozone if you live across the street from it--why is H street any different.
7 comments:
I read it, and I don't get it.
"Then a few years ago, white America decided it wanted the cities back again. H Street leaped from despair to displacement without ever stopping for a dream. Now you can't even install the car part you just bought in the Auto Zone's parking lot without someone calling the cops. Someone who doesn't understand that the city isn't only theirs. Someone who doesn't understand that there are people with as much right as they to live near H Street but who would rather go to Cluck-U Chicken than Starbucks. Someone who doesn't understand that what you don't do with decency, you pay for in anger."
The whole point of these "silly" arguments going around is that businesses and people have to be accountable for their actions. If you tell DCRA you are opening a restuarant, and then don't open a restaurant, you're breaking the rules. If they had gone through the proper channels, and done the right thing, I'm sure the neighborhood would have given them their blessing. As it stands, it just looks like they tried to cheat the system.
I would also have to take issue with some of the points the author puts forward. Laws are laws & the city should enforce the laws (the mechanics operating out of the Autozone lot are doing so illegally, just as church goers that doublepark, or block fire hydrants are also breaking the law & showing tremendous disrespect for those around them).
I thought Mr. Smith's personal rememberence of the '68 riots was very interesting. On the other hand, his diatribe against changes in Capitol Hill is about as classic an example of a strawman argument as you will ever see.
Sam Smith is a classic. He has spent the last 20 years writing liberal diatribes from his huge house in Cleveland Park (thanks to a family inheritance, not from hard work), and is now so proud of himself for moving back to the Hill. It was white flight 20 years ago, and now it's gentrification. He is much like the post writer: it's a lot more convenient to break this down into a typical black-white thing, than to actually understand the subtleties of what's going on.
Sam is a very bright thinking guy. It
sometimes hurts our feelings to hear the truth.
so truth is that
white= starbucks
black = fired chicken.
what truth?
I don't think Sam sounds that deep and thoughtful at all in his commentary. It really drives me nuts to hear someone feel that he or she is the voice of a community. I am sure in Cleveland Park or anywhere else no one wants a bunch of mechanics working in an autozone if you live across the street from it--why is H street any different.
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