Pictures on the wall: Urban restructuring, gentrification and the struggle for place in 21st century Washington D.C

When I began writing I wanted to tell a story. The story is about Columbia Heights, a neighborhood in NW Washington. I believe this is an important story to tell because it springs from a concern with the human condition generally and with the condition of children in the inner city specifically. Simply put this dissertation is about three things: Power, Place and History. In terms of gentrification in Columbia Heights it is about the power of the insurance and real estate industries, developers and banks to make decisions which directly affect all of our lives and life chances. It is also about our power as human beings both individually and collectively to gain knowledge and understanding of how these institutions operate and our power to oppose them when they prioritize the accumulation of wealth ahead of human lives. Second, it is about place. In general terms I am discussing Columbia Heights and the way gentrification is changing the neighborhood day by day. More specifically my dissertation is about grassroots organizing that I participated in with a group of concerned mothers who wanted to stop The Greater Washington Boys and Girls club from selling clubhouse #10 on 14th street. Not only do these mothers have children who use the club everyday in a neighborhood with precious little recreation space. Many of these same mothers went to the club when they were children and it is a part of each of their personal histories. Oftentimes in the inner-city we live in communities of fate where we are intimately connected to our neighbors and vice versa because we all lack the material wealth to make it far on our own. We develop ties to specific places (such as the Boys and Girls club on 14th Street) because they embody our collective history. When these places are threatened we rally around them.