Photo by rockcreek on Flickr.

Megan McArdle, the Atlantic‘s business and economics editor, has purchased a property in Eckington (after a challenging real estate search). Her latest post, titled “The Gentrifier’s Lament,” is a brief glance toward her contribution to the neighborhood.

It’s laudable to raise the question of one’s location in a gentrifiying neighborhood—those of us who live in or might move into a such a neighborhood should be self-reflexive about our presence. But McArdle simply shrugs her shoulders at the issue, assuming the effects and changes her investment will bring are inevitable. They’re not, and potential gentrifiers need to talk about the real issues and policies that can solve them.

Eckington, McArdle explains, is “euphemistically known as a ‘mixed’ neighborhood, where poor black residents who have lived there for a generation or more exist somewhat uncomfortably side-by-side with more affluent whites who are drawn to the relatively cheap rents and lovely Victorian housing stock.”

She gets to the real lamenting by the post’s end:

“I have no idea how you could stop this process. To keep our neighborhoods the way [Jane] Jacobs and I liked them would involve massive coercion not just of real estate owners, but of merchants, food vendors…everyone in the network of service providers that supports a neighborhood. The more people like me who move into my current neighborhood, the more services the neighborhood will attract—and those, in turn, will bring further waves of gentrifiers who will use their higher incomes to drive up rents, home prices, and the assessed values upon which property taxes are based.

I want the services, but I don’t want this to price out all the people who already live there. Unfortunately, it’s a package deal.”

I’ve complained before that McArdle takes a rather reductionist and simplistic view towards gentrification, and her latest piece is no exception. She boils gentrification down to middle-class (and likely white) buyers moving in, displacing poor (and likely African American) residents. Note that she does not specify whether she believes her neighbors do or do not own their homes. Neighborhood change, whether it’s gentrification or not, extends far beyond this assumed black/white binary — especially in cities other than DC.

McArdle argues that stereotypical gentrifiers move into neighborhoods expecting goods and services to open in their wake, and consequently jack up the cost of living for those who can least afford it. This is a real problem, one that’s been seen in, among other neighborhoods, Shaw, Petworth, and Columbia Heights. But she simply shrugs her shoulders. She seems completely comfortable with accepting the status quo: That because gentrification has almost always traditionally resulted in displacement, there’s no way to stop the process now.

Gentrification doesn’t always have to equal displacement, and there’s no room for lament when the real problem of the latter needs some attention. True, one person alone can’t enact a city-wide inclusionary zoning policy or demand that a developer include a substantial amount of mixed-income units in their next project, but one person can at least change their attitude.

McArdle includes in her post chunks of an essay by her colleague Benjamin Schwartz, which argues that the ideal Jane Jacobean neighborhood possesses the following qualities—and almost certainly does not exist:

“…An architecturally interesting enclave holds in ephemeral balance the emerging and the residual. Such neighborhoods still contain a sprinkling of light industry and raffish characters, for urban grit, and a dash of what [Sharon] Zukin calls ‘people of color,’ for exotic diversity. Added to the melange are lots and lots of experimental artists (for that boho frisson) and a generous but not overwhelming portion of right-thinking designers, publishing types, architects, and academics, and the one-of-a-kind boutiques and innovative restaurants that will give them places to shop and brunch.”

All Schwartz’s essay serves to do is reinforce stereotypical images of gentrification, which distract from the problem at the heart of the process: Displacement. Instead of taking the McArdle approach and throwing our hands in the air, exclaiming that “we have no idea how to stop this,” we should be encouraging our local leaders in policy and government to be prescient and knowledgeable of neighborhoods that might see substantial economic and demographic change in the future.

Housing Complex reported yesterday that Anacostia recently received a $3 million dollar grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Sustainable Communities Funding, via the District Department of Housing and Community Development. DHCD’s intended use for the grant demonstrates precisely the kind of prescience needed from local authorities that can influence neighborhood change:

“This project’s main goal is to anchor the existing residents of Historic Anacostia, which will not be affordable in another decade unless direct, explicit and significant actions and investments are made to ensure a continued supply of affordable housing. This will be accomplished by: 1) Bolstering homeownership, particularly historic properties, and maintaining affordable options; 2) Promoting commercial redevelopment and entrepreneurship and enhancing job readiness, with a particular focus on leveraging the area’s current assets and the developments occurring nearby to create economic opportunities; 3) Expanding job opportunities to help current residents better afford housing; and 4) Enhancing resident participation.”

DHCD is taking a step in the right direction with Anacostia. Time will tell whether or not the grant money shakes out fairly, but in the meantime, let’s be sure to carefully delineate between gentrification and displacement—and quit lamenting.

Alex Baca is the DC Policy Director at GGWash. Previously the engagement director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth and the general manager of Cuyahoga County's bikesharing system, she has also worked in journalism, bike advocacy, architecture, construction, and transportation in DC, San Francisco, and Cleveland. She has written about all of the above for CityLab, Slate, Vox, Washington City Paper, and other publications.