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Gentrification, With a Difference
The new community also would benefit from the redevelopment of the streetscape on nearby Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue, which is part of the city's Great Streets initiative to rebuild main thoroughfares.
When the city began talking about its New Communities plan, Malloy said, she jumped at the chance to help her community. "I was listening to the TV, and I saw Northwest One. . . . I said, 'Why can't we be a New Community?' " Malloy recalled.
  When Patricia Malloy heard about the New Communities program on TV, she called her council member and had Lincoln Heights added to the list. (By Gerald Martineau -- The Washington Post) |
She contacted council member Vincent C. Gray (D-Ward 7), and eventually, Lincoln Heights was on the list.
Although many residents are wary, Malloy and others said they believe in the project because they have been going to the meetings.
"You gotta go out to the meetings," said Linda Washington, 43. "Everything's not going to happen overnight, but we've got to be in this together."
Barry Farm
At Barry Farm in Southeast, there is a similar sense of coming together, said Linda Miller, secretary of the resident council there.
"We have four or five committees. We had a good turnout. Each group has about 20 to 25 people," said Miller, 59, who has lived in the public housing community for 26 years.
Residents in Barry Farm also are worried about being displaced and want to make sure they are able to return to the revitalized neighborhood.
But residents are most concerned about keeping the name Barry Farm.
Barry Farm has a rich history that began after the end of slavery, when the Freedmen's Bureau bought land from the Barry family. The bureau built housing for sale and lease to blacks, some of whom were living in the District's alleys at the time.
The housing project -- 432 units spread throughout 66 buildings -- replaced those original homes in 1943, but Miller said the spirit of the historic Barry Farm project remained. "Our people worked and picked cotton and built their homes," she said. "It should be recognized. It should not be forgotten."
Although the name could live on, the buildings would be torn down to make way for 1,296 units. The city owns several parcels near Barry Farm, including the St. Elizabeths east campus and Sheridan Terrace, which would be used for the additional housing, according to preliminary city plans.
The Barry Farm project would be coupled with other redevelopment plans, including a proposed $40 million Anacostia light-rail line, which would stretch 2.7 miles from the John Philip Sousa Bridge at Pennsylvania Avenue SE to Bolling Air Force Base.
Park Morton
Just as Malloy wondered why Lincoln Heights couldn't be a New Community, council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) questioned why Park Morton -- 174 units in 12 buildings off Georgia Avenue -- wasn't included.
The housing complex has been a center of crime for the Park View neighborhood. Graham contacted the city's planning department, and Park Morton was added.
"We've been through some changes, but things are getting better," said Marie Whitfield, president of the Park Morton residents council.
Wearing a yellow apron with red and blue polka dots, she said she had just finished helping with a summer school lunch program. "We feed the kids from Park Morton," she said.
Whitfield hopes the buildings will be renovated in a way that gives residents more control over their lives. For instance, temperature in the units is controlled centrally. "We want to regulate our own heat," Whitfield said.
Residents also fear a repeat of shoddy construction. "We want something that will last -- just better materials," she said.
Because the neighborhood was added to the program just this year, there are few preliminary plans, but the council has approved $500,000 to develop those plans, Graham said.
He said the New Communities program is giving the city a chance to incorporate Park Morton into the revitalization that has occurred in Ward 1 -- without displacing residents.
"To have all the poor people in one area and everyone else in another is wrong," he said. "Is Park Morton better with a greater diversity of economic backgrounds? Would Park Morton be better with workforce housing?"
Graham said it would be, but he wants residents to be involved. "This cannot be a decision that comes from on high," he said. "Stakeholders should have the chance to come together. The process should guide the result."
