Viva Mount Pleasant

Can the Heart of the District's Latino Community Survive Gentrification?

About 30,000 people will converge on Mount Pleasant today for the "Fiesta DC" Parade of Nations. Local Latino businesses will get a big boost, but they are by now well accustomed to the need for visitors' dollars. That's because Mount Pleasant, long home to one of the region's largest and highest-profile Latino communities, is in danger of becoming a hollow ethnic enclave, increasingly dependent on nostalgic outsiders to sustain its Latino culture.

Of Mount Pleasant's 83 businesses, 70 percent cater primarily to Latinos, said Cristina Fandino, general coordinator of Fiesta DC. But the Latino businesses rely heavily on customers who have moved away to more affordable parts of Maryland and Virginia. A walk through the neighborhood on any Sunday illustrates this dynamic. Starting just before noon, traffic backs up at Park Road and 16th Street for the Spanish Mass at Sacred Heart Church. For the people in these cars, the rest of the day offers shopping, haircuts, money transfers and food on Mount Pleasant Street, where some businesses report that half of their clientele comes from outside the neighborhood.

Sounds like business is good, right? Unfortunately, trends are working against Mount Pleasant's Latino businesses.

First, their neighborhood customer base probably will keep shrinking. Two large apartment buildings recently underwent condo conversions and are selling one-bedroom units for upwards of $300,000. That means dozens of affordable-housing units have been lost in a place where home prices have nearly tripled in a decade. Most likely to be driven out are Mount Pleasant's Latinos, who earned just over $12,000 a year on average as of the 2000 Census, compared with more than $35,000 for non-Hispanic whites.

Second, commercial rents face upward pressure. The $140 million DC USA shopping complex will open next year in nearby Columbia Heights and has already attracted chains, franchises and high-end restaurants. Such establishments may soon eye Mount Pleasant's increasingly affluent population.

Third, suburban Latino neighborhoods, once merely lower-rent refuges for scattered Latino populations, are themselves growing into ethnic enclaves. In a telling sign, the Latino Economic Development Corporation (LEDC), which aids Latino small-business owners, has ventured beyond its Adams Morgan headquarters to add a satellite in Wheaton to serve Maryland's growing number of Latino businesses.

What can be done to preserve Mount Pleasant as a business and cultural hub for Latinos? First, the District and federal governments and local nonprofit groups can provide increased incentives to commercial and residential property owners to keep rents affordable. Second, Mount Pleasant's businesses can emulate Haydee's, a traditionally Latino restaurant that diversified its menu and added big-screen televisions to attract more non-Latino customers from the neighborhood. By participating in LEDC's facade improvement program, businesses can also make external improvements that will attract more affluent local customers. Third and most important, Mount Pleasant's non-Latino residents can expand their horizons and try out more of the local restaurantes and mercados.

By making these efforts and by recognizing that Mount Pleasant is an important but fragile enclave, we can ensure that every Sunday in the neighborhood is a Fiesta DC.

-- Michael D. Kerlin

Washington

The writer is a Mount Pleasant resident. His e-mail address is mike_kerlin@yahoo.com .