Contested spaces

Seeing this headline in today's Post, "Pr. William Votes to Enact Contentious Bill," about anti-immigration measures at the county level there, I was struck by the fact that this kind of response to "new and different" people is no different than the response by long-time residents in the center city to what some call gentrifiers. Or the response by some people in Ward 5 to historic preservation, and calls to create neighborhood-based historic districts, it's all about the other, and the invasion-succession theory from urban sociology.

From the old blog entry, reprinted yesterday, about the components of "gentrification":

(2) change and different people coming into a neighborhood -- most importantly, different people from those currently in residence (the differences--race, class, ethnicity, levels of educational attainment, attitudes toward the urban experience, etc.--are usually not "celebrated" (I make this point because I still remember first being taught about diversity and multiculturalism in 7th grade, and I specifically remember the "melting pot" and "celebration of differences" phrase -- I have a hard time seeing the celebration, at least in DC)

Speaking of contested spaces, the Off Seventh blog has some entries about last weekend's "Gentrification Forum" at Shiloh Baptist Church. In Shaw also has some related posts.