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@Ken - I understand the parallel and irony. However I think there is a difference between a plan that condemns a whole neighborhood design and hundreds of houses as obsolete and sets out to make people leave homes they currently reside in so those buildings can be torn down along with all the other buildings in the neighborhood, to be replaced by a very different type of bldg that drastically changes the neighborhood design; and groups opposed to a project to update a neighborhood grocery store that includes some new housing that, in design, is in keeping with the nature of the existing neighborhood, like the Cleveland Pk Giant project; or the Tenleytown Janney school & library project; or the siting of a the streetcar barn, etc.

The planners and supporters of those projects don't/didn't see the neighborhood with disdain and seek to wholly change the nature, look and feel of it while forcing people out of their current homes. In fact there are/were neighborhood groups that support(ed) those projects in their own neighborhood b/c they think it will enhance it. Do you think there were organized groups in Shaw saying "yeah where I live is a hell hole. Tear it down"? The fact that Shaw wasn't destroyed is evidence of the opposition as you point out.

In none of the example plans I cited (or any others I can think of that are covered on this blog site) would hundreds of existing homes be demolished and people displaced. Yes there are similarities but as a whole the differences are much greater.

The two that I think may be most similar was the plan that torn down a bunch of houses for the new convention center. I still miss seeing those houses and those city blocks. That plan drastically changed the way the neighborhood looked and felt in those couple of blocks wher the CC is, by drastically changing its form. Was anyone displaced? IDK. And the DC USA development. Was anyone displaced? Or was that all on abandoned bldgs and vacant lots? Can't remember. But even those were small scale compared to this plan and what happened in SW, and most people in those neighborhoods supported those changes, especially DC USA (maybe not so much the CC)

by Tina on Jul 11, 2012 6:59 pm • link • report