More times they are a changing...
(For Mari...)
I took this photo in 2006, of a rowhouse at the corner of Q and 9th Streets NW, painted up as a French cafe as a protest against gentrification.
Back then, as indicated in the photos in the previous entry, the area was reasonably gnarly building condition-wise and inward investment (a/k/a gentrification) seemed like a long way off, and still outside of reasonable imagination.
This was the photo I took on Saturday.
posted by Richard Layman @ 3:20 PM&Permanent Link
4 Comments:
I never understood this to be a protest against gentrification. I thought it was more a complaint directed at an owner for not improving the property, perhaps in other words not gentrifying fast enough. I seem to recall a CP article and blog posts about it at the time.
Hmm. Thanks. But if it was a complaint about property maintenance, why reference gentrification?
Ray M who painted it (RIP Ray) had a quirky sense of humor. Ray was one of those white old timers who moved into the neighborhood in the 70s or 80s. So when the young'uns (when I was young) were moving in 10-15 years ago he was a grumpy old man imparting his wisdom.
This was just one such expression.
https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/city-desk/blog/13060615/cafe-putain-qui-pue-mural-in-shaw-disappears
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