Shaw, Hot "Gay Ghetto"
We saw the "open house" sign today at the gorgeous 2-unit condo at 5th and Q, so we went in to take another peek. (They've dropped the price by an astonishing amount, BTW; the upper unit with the killer roof deck is now listed at a mere $985K, down from $1.2M! Just in case you were wondering if the bubble has deflated.) But I digress.
Among the hand-outs were copies of the Feb. 21 issue of the Northwest Current (a free paper covering upper NW--content not on-line, apparently), which has an article about Shaw and a website called GayGhettos.com citing Shaw as one of the 20 or so "top emerging gay ghettos" in the country (but in a good way, of course). The site notes that "where the gays go eventually so do higher property values, less crime, better schools, ethnic diversity and growth."
The Current article prominently quotes Alex Padro and Drew Porterfield (partner of a fellow blogger at "Slum Historique"), who put a generally positive spin on neighborhood acceptance of gays, while noting the BeBar controversy. It notes, however, that "some residents are far from warm to the idea of Shaw being recognized by a gay Web site."
The article quotes ANC commissioner Barbara Curtis as saying: "They didn't ask me 'cause I'm not friendly with it...To each his own, if that's the life they want to live, fine. The only thing I object to is them coming in, taking over the property that seniors and poor people have and can't afford once [gay people] come in." She added that "quite a few" of her neighbors share her feelings.
I think I'll defer discussion of that point for another time.
posted by DaddyFiveOh @ 12:50 PM
14 comments
14 Comments:
best thing that could happen if you ask me... why do you want poor people living in your neighborhood? I mean I don;t want housing to go WAY WAYYYY up, but it would be nice to get some of the non-contributing members of society who tax our system out of here.
gee, and here i thought Ivy City was the new emerging gay ghetto, shows what i know.
Before I read your post I had this image of well-groomed men driving Minis with rainbow stickers and AK-47s hangin' out the window...
That condo is awesome. I hope somebody - gay or straight- snatches it up soon. But whoever it is will have to deal with the house around the corner on Q where teenagers camp out at all hours, up to no good. Does anyone know the story with that house? The one with all the garbage and lawnchairs in the front?
Someone should tell Ms Brooks that if the seniors didn't invite their thug grandchildren to live with them and cause havoc, we'd all have a lot more sympathy for their plight.
i was looking at open houses in the area this weekend and saw the "shoe tree" (and accompanying drug crew) between 5th and 6th on one of the streets just north of there - R maybe? Is this well known in that area? Why aren't the police on that block? I live up at 2nd and U and despite my theoretically sketchier address have nothing even approaching that to deal with...
i'm still searching for the northwest current to checkout fully the quote by commissioner curtis. such expressions of fear and anxiety are not new. the saying goes: there goes the neighborhood! she has cambodians, latino's and african american gays in her bldg already.
Maybe we should convince Shaw Main Streets to replace the banners celebrating cult leaders and people who never even lived here with rainbow flags!
A lot of your comments are reinforcing her remarks. You don't care about the history of the neighborhood and the people who live there. You call them non-contributing members of society, thugs, and you want to take down their cultural symbols (banners) & replace them with ours. It is any wonder why they can be angry with us at times. Imagine if your parents were pushed out of the neighborhood you were raised in due to rising rents and a dramatic influx of different neighbors. We need a more collaborative spirit on both sides.
To all the comments about the young guys hanging on q st. what crimes or bad doings have you heard from around there absolutely nothing. No killings no one getting rob or residents getting beat up for that matter. I will note that there are alot of loud fellas out but will not do anything to harm you. You just assume that there up to no good because its young black guys hangin around because they probly don't any other places to go everybody doesn't have money to go out and have fun like some people, it is a low class nieghborhood with people who just makes enough to live.
well i live at that house and i dont have any lawn chairs and we clean the garbage and if youd come up and ask questions instead of assumming all the time youd know that we look out for all the old and so called poor people in the neighborhood oh yeah and we arent up to no good either
I'm not sure which houses the last several comments are referring to, but I certainly agree that no one should jump to conclusions. There's nothing necessarily wrong with folks hanging out as long as they're not threatening anyone or disturbing the peace. I think a lot of misunderstandings could be avoided if everyone would just take a little time to talk to each other. We all want a little respect, and that's one way to show it.
All of us know that there are tensions in this neighborhood being brought about by the changes taking place. Therefore, it's up to all of us--newcomers and longtimers alike--to make the effort to get past that and see each other as neighbors rather than adversaries. One way to do that is to deal with each other as individuals instead of stereotypes. There's nothing so great about a community that's all one "type", anyway. Hopefully, we can learn from each other and get rid of some of the baggage of attitudes and prejudices that all of us carry around. End of sermonette.
Also: please see my post on comment policy.
you people discuss me, hav'nt we learned anything from the civil rights era..it's not hard to see that theres racial tension unfolding..it's obvious that we're just threatend by the quantity and skin color of these young niggers we should just meet shake hands and have a discussion with these young men...
i will just like to apoligize to the africans or black american little community for the unattended racial slur made..my family and i are deeply sorrowed and embarassed because of the incident..we are not a predjudiced family or is'nt affiliated with the klan
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