In the last election, DC went 92% for President Obama. And the conventional wisdom is that DC is largely populated by trend, progressive-minded cosmopolitan folks. If this is indeed true (and I think it is), then why is it that DC seems to be as racially segregated as any other city in the US? See here for a discussion of the “data” I cite.
I have my own ideas about it, what about yours? Can you tell a Schelling story?
the conventional wisdom is that DC is largely populated by trend, progressive-minded cosmopolitan folks. If this is indeed true (and I think it is),
I believe you are wrong. Most of the residents of D.C. are not trendy nor are they hipsters. See the linked article for details: nearly 60% of the residents are African-American a “large proportion ” of whom are low-income or underemployed.
The real mystery is not why rich white people don’t want to live in poor murder-ridden neighbourhoods, it’s why the African Americans tolerate it. If you’ve ever been to south east DC, it’s not a pleasant place. Sure, the people living there are poor, but surely if they sold everything, they could afford to get out, or at least some of them could.
Northwest DC is populated by rich people who work for the government and those who serve them. Southwest and southeast have been and are being gentrified. The black people who remain are ruled by the House D.C. Committee, who refuse to give black children choice when it comes to schools. This is a disgrace.
I read a few years ago that the District spends upward of 10M per year, enough to employ an Oxford tutor to rent a place in Northwest and educate twenty. The reason why this does not happen is the NEA, and congress, their handmaiden.
The people who vote are in Georgetown and North — A.U., Gergetown University, and the people who live along Wisconsin Avenue, Mass Avenue, Wisconsin Avenue, plus the folks who vote for Marion Barry. Plus the cab drivers from Sudan minus the cab drivers from Afghanistan and China.
