Donna Rattley Washington Interview, September 14, 2019

INDEXED CLIP TIME: 00:00:05.370 --> 00:02:46.220 SEGMENT SYNOPSIS: Carmen Bolt interviews Donna Rattley Washington on September 14, 2019 during the Celebrate Petworth Festival. In this clip, Donna Rattley Washington discusses gentrification in Petworth. SUBJECTS: 2019 Celebrate Petworth Festival; Petworth (Washington, D.C.); Brightwood (Washington, D.C.); Gentrification; Affordable housing; Georgia Avenue (Washington, D.C.)

My name is Carmen Bolt. I'm a PhD student at American University. We're here with the Humanities Truck at Petworth in a series about Petworth and what's changed over time here. So if you wouldn't mind introducing yourself and then we can jump right in.

Okay. My name is Donna Rattley Washington and I live at 19th and Shepard Street Northwest, so the Crestwood neighborhood.

Yeah. So did you grow up in the Petworth neighborhood or ...?

I'm a third generation Washingtonian, and I grew up at 13th and Kennedy Street in Brightwood. So but my mother grew up in Petworth and yes, I sorry, my kids are calling me... but it changed a lot. So when I grew up here, you only saw white people when you went downtown, like there were literally no white people at all north of G Street. There was one family that lived on Kennedy Street that went to our school. I went to Brightwood Elementary. And so there's been a ton of change. And it's interesting to watch. It's wonderful. In many ways, the the infusion of restaurants and amenities and different people. And the youth. I mean, that's been a huge piece of it, that these neighborhoods had really just all transitioned to older African Americans. And so what you see now is the infusion of folks from a lot of different races a lot of different places and kids, which has been wonderful. It's a hard kind of... it's such a conundrum in many ways because so many Washingtonians, native Washingtonians, are concerned about the displacement that's come through gentrification. And it's real. But my personal opinion is that no one has a natural born right to be born and live in one place. People have freedom of movement, and that the infusion of different races and economic levels into this neighborhood has brought a lot of benefits. And we need to figure out a way to ensure that the neighborhood stays diverse. Both racially and economically. And, you know, that's ...

So the biggest change you've seen over time here is just the demographic changes?

Well, the demographic change, and the economic change, that's accompanied that which is then brought so many more.... Llke literally just restaurants. So for me, my husband and I live very close to the park and always went for the last 20 years west of the park to eat. And now we don't have to do that. And we love that. And my husband's a real estate developer. He's a big developer on Georgia Avenue. He does a lot of development there. And so we benefit from it and and we're a part of it. We're part of the change and part of the history so it's an interesting place to be. Yeah.

You summed it up nicely. A really fine line. [inaudible]

And how do you balance that? And how do you create a space for everyone where resources are limited, housing is limited. I have not figured it out. But I obviously love what I see here today, and I'm grateful for it. And so it's an interesting time.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.