The Change of the Washington DC Housing in Caiptal Hill Twenty Years Ago and Now

Capitol Hill
Name:
Instructor:
Institution:
Date:
Introduction
Globalization seems to have been hastened by the rapid population growth, and the more rapid rates of urbanization. Each year, there seems to be more and more people moving from rural to urban centers in search of opportunities and education. The landscape in most cities less than five years ago and today is completely different, with most structures that were there then. In most cases, these structures might have been brought down and replaced with larger, modern and more comprehensive structures. With increased urbanization comes increased land and rental rates, which then translates to increased property prices in areas considered ‘leafy suburbs.’ Washington DC is one of the best examples of cities that have experienced tremendous change over the years.
The area around Capitol Hill has especially faced increase inland rates and property prices over the past two to three decades. This applies too, to H street NE Washington DC corridor. Capitol Hill owes its name to the hill on which it sits on, which stretches eastwards from the centre of the city. It is arguably one of the oldest, if not the oldest, residential community within DC. It was initially designed to be the seat of the Congress. However, the area has grown both physically and economically, to be a very important player in the real estate sector of DC. Capitol Hill is rich in historical buildings, with its streets made up of mainly row houses, each with its own architectural design depending on the time it was constructed. Most of them are conjoined with a wall running through their perimeter, with the only openings coming when they meet streets.
Cultural Composition and Dimension
The Washington DC is one of the most culturally tolerant and cosmopolitan regions in the United States. The region has, over time, been the cultural boiling pot for people from diverse cultures and practices. It is for this reason that the Capitol Hill neighborhood has been very welcoming and supportive of gays and lesbians. In actual sense, there is a striking coincidence between this realization and the fact that the region has been the cradle of these groups. This close relationship between the two groups is what has resulted in the holding of the annual gay parade. However, this is not the only major factor that plays into the demographics of the region.
Racial Composition
The area is mainly inhabited by whites, although there is also a strong presence of other races, such as Asians and African Americans. According to Maciag (2015), the region has gradually experienced an influx of people, especially higher members of the social class. These affluent individuals have in turn brought about rapid development in an area that was initially deemed poor as well as under invested. With this rapid development came rapid hikes in the property prices as well as the costs of living.
This resulted in the displacement of the indigenous people, who couldn’t keep abreast with the rapid rise in the cost of living in the area. This process is known as gentrification (Maciag, 2015).It is this gentrification that resulted in the higher population or inhabitation of whites in the region, than the blacks, who were indigenously the dominant group in the area.The census of 2000 clearly indivated the whites as being the majority population in the area.
Gentrification is however taken as a blessing in disguise for the region, since it has been termed as the reason for cultural healing and social agglutination, that has brought about economic growth as well. Ruta (2012) opines that the replacement of the originally all-black community by a middle-class, multi-racial community, has helped in creating a homogenized environment favorable for education. Additionally, the growth in the region as cosmopolitan is a fitting tribute to the political leaders of yester years, the investors and the developers who have worked hard to help fight social vices like drugs and riots.
In this neighborhood, there is a change in the demographic composition of the people, as younger individuals are rapidly replacing the aged .This younger portion of the population is characterized b...