District Redevelopment Hurts Poor, Voters Say

Jackson said the construction of low-cost housing is only one of redevelopment's benefits. Citing examples in Southeast, he said boarded-up buildings that were a bastion for "prostitution, drugs and stolen cars" have been reborn as townhouses "that are available to low income and working class residents." He defined affordable units as costing between $200,000 and $350,000.

Jackson attributed the negative view of redevelopment to a legacy of large-scale changes in neighborhoods decades ago, when the poor and working class were forced to leave for areas on the city's eastern side.

"Their descendants were part of the Georgetown experience or the original Southwest experience, and what they see is the last bastion of the city undergoing a renaissance," he said. "They ask, 'Does this mean I'm going to be displaced?' And I say that's not necessarily the end result."

Residents focused largely on the present rather than the past to explain why they consider redevelopment harmful to the poor. Constance Laine, 61, of Northwest said the condominiums replacing rental apartments leave the poor and senior citizens with fewer housing options. An increase in commercial property taxes also makes it difficult for small businesses to survive and provide jobs, she said.

"They hire the marginal people, and they end up having to close up shop because they can't afford the rent increases," Laine said.

Jamie Rivers, 38, a Filene's Basement stock clerk who lives in Southeast, said he never expected that he would benefit from the development boom. Although he learned bricklaying, he said, he has not been able to land a construction job.

"It's for the rich folks," he said of the renaissance. "We got no money."

Erica Lindquist, 32, a planning consultant who lives in Shaw, is among residents who believe that the economic boom can aid the poor. One of her neighbors, she said, recently put her house up for sale and moved to Florida.

"She was happy to see the value of her property go up," Lindquist said. "She didn't have much money until she sold."

Assistant polling director Claudia Deane contributed to this report.