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As the Purple Line Moves Forward . . .
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KATHLEEN HANSEN
Carole Highlands
ยท
Those who support the Purple Line on "social justice" grounds would do well to study what has happened in the District and other cities when Metro or light rail is brought into low-income neighborhoods. Real estate becomes more valuable, a wave of development brings in new housing and retail, and many long-time residents (many of whom were renters) are pushed out. Indeed, the introduction of mass transit into low-income neighborhoods greatly increases the likelihood that long-time, often low-income, renters will be displaced.
Over the past 10 years, Montgomery County has lost thousands of units of affordable housing -- primarily because of condo conversions -- despite having what some experts consider the best housing policies in the country. The county's inability to preserve that housing does not bode well for the preservation of affordable housing in Long Branch or Langley Park -- two low-income neighborhoods through which the Purple Line will run. As The Post's series on affordable housing ["Forced Out," March 9-12] illustrated, landlords will go to great, even illegal, lengths to empty buildings of tenants so that they are free to redevelop those buildings as more expensive rentals or as condos.
Are backers of the Purple Line such as Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez talking openly and honestly to the residents of Long Branch and Langley Park about the possibility that they may be displaced by the same Purple Line that is offered as a solution to their transportation needs?
KAREN FITZGERALD
Silver Spring
The writer is a member of the Montgomery County Park and Planning's Master Plan Advisory Group on the Purple Line and is a program officer for housing and community development at the Meyer Foundation.
