District Gentrification: Restaurants and Real Estate
In gentrifying neighborhoods from U Street to Upshur, top-notch D.C. chefs and restaurateurs are jockeying for prime positions. Along the U Street corridor, Al Tiramisu owner Luigi Diotaiuti has opened Al Crostino and Saied Azali followed suit with Viridian, Perrys' sibling venture. Nora Pouillon of the eponymous Nora and Asia Nora allegedly has her eye on 14th Street for a new place (U Nora, perhaps?) and James Beard nominee Ann Cashion of Cashion's Eat Place will open Taqueria De Flores on 11th Street in Columbia Heights in fall 2006.
What is propelling D.C.’s star chefs and established proprietors to set up shop in corridors where the power set has traditionally feared to tread? Sister publication Gothamist cites a link in New York City between cutting-edge hotspots and real estate stability. Specifically, Tim Zagat, in the City Section of the New York Times, notes how "adventurous nightlife seekers set their sights on an out-of-the-way area" -- which then paves the way for restaurants, high-end shops, and finally, residents who can afford to live in revitalized areas.
But in D.C., it seems to have worked the other way around. As written in these pages and others, real estate values in Columbia Heights, Shaw, Logan, Petworth, and U Street skyrocketed long before hipster bars and restaurants took root. Residents, rather than restaurants, have trailblazed onto these streets under the mainstream radar, for better or for worse.
Some lament the "suburbification" of the District because commuters have begun to tread on locals' unique turf. What's more, as Anne Hull recently reported in the Post, some residents fear that District officials have simply ceded land to real estate developers at the expense of long-standing businesses.
Others have embraced restaurants as the spoils of gentrification. They no longer have to trek to Dupont or Cleveland Park for a simple dinner and a drink. Petworth’s Kera Carpenter, the owner of W Domku, told DCist in August that neighbors were so anxious for the place to open that strangers showed up on the doorstep to help her paint. We noted in our subsequent late-summer visits that the plate glass window had been shattered -- perhaps a sign of protest about Upshur Street's changing character or perhaps a sign that things haven't changed that much after all.
Is the onset of restaurants and bars stripping the U Street corridor, Shaw, Columbia Heights, and Petworth of its mom-and-pop shops and its character? Is it infusing commerce and luster into neighborhoods that now need it?
Or are the new arrivals increasing property values -- and property taxes -- squeezing out residents and shop owners who have called these neighborhoods home for decades?