Area Of Anacostia example essay topic

"A Perspective Community: The Anacostia Area " In 1890, the opening of the Pennsylvania Avenue Bridge spanned the Anacostia River to connect the community of Anacostia with the rest of D.C. Since that time, a lot of things in this marriage have changed. Anacostia, then a working- and middle- class area for whites and blacks, is today an almost entirely black community whose struggles with unemployment, welfare and crime. These characteristics are well-documented in the local press; the community, which remained a single-family-dwelling residential area long after apartments came to other parts of the District, is today host to most of the city's public housing and is zoned primarily for multi-family dwellings. Once, city planners envisioned lively commercial and manufacturing enterprises along the Anacostia River. They believed that from The Mall, the city would expand in the direction of Anacostia. Today, the federal government is the main business of the city and Anacostia struggles to attract investors and businesses 'across the river.

' The once-celebrated marriage of Anacostia to the rest of the city is troubled. D.C. itself is troubled financially, which cripples its ability to help Anacostia residents improve their community. To some extent, what happened in Anacostia is similar to what happened in other inner cities across the U.S. But in important ways, the governmental bodies involved here are quite different: the city of Washington exists as a colony of the federal government, which exerts more direct legislative and financial control over the District than other cities in America. It is also the largest employer and the largest landholder. In the twentieth century, governmental agencies and private developers acting together cleared out the central city to make room for the federal government. The government was able to do this through its unique economic and legislative relationship to the city, and through a heightened symbolic architectural and verbal language which supported its valorization. The symbolic language and the government's dominance in the local economy are mutually supportive.

Symbolism removes ownership of the city from local residents and makes it national. It also masks the federal government's failure to prove economically beneficial to all sections of the city and to all its races and classes, as a 'trickle down' theory of dominant economies argues. Because of the government's importance in the local economy, its symbolic self-representation goes unchallenged. Government-sponsored changes in the central part of the city have had profound effects on communities like Anacostia. Asking 'What happened?' can help develop an informed answer to 'What happens next?' Now that you have a little bit of history about the grief-stricken area of Anacostia, I can talk about the information I gathered through my interview.

I interview a young man named Lavante Williams, a fifteen year old teenager from the Anacostia-Colombia Heights area. He is a student at the charter school Thurgood Marshall School located on the intersection streets of Martin Luther King and Malcom X. I noticed right off that he was a serious young man who had endured a lot through his short life. He did not smile much and his humor was very limited. After he realized that we were from the same world and had similar lifestyles and pasts, he opened up quite well. He even least me $1.10 for the bus home. Lavante gave me a personal insight of the area.

He told me that the makeup of his community is strictly of African-American descent. He said that his area of town was composed strictly of project and public housing buildings. This desolate sight to see everyday for 15 years told me that it was geographic feature that took away from the area and had a psychological effect on him. He told me of his family support, which was surprisingly strong. But most of his friends did not have a dependable source of moral support. The standard of living in his housing complex is very minimal and volatile.

Most of his older friends do not go to school. Lavante, in confidence, also testified that their only way of income is through drug trafficking. He says that the dark allies, entrances to the projects and streets (except for fully exposed ones) are to be avoided at night. This teenager is comfortable in his neighborhood and does not live in fear. Although, he does not recommend walking the area after dark if you are not known or acclimated to the area.

The predominant language is English along with the debatable language of Ebonics. The current predominant issues in his area are crime, unemployment, lack of healthcare, lack of nutritious grocery stores, and transportation. Robberies, drug sales, murders, and gang activity give this area a bad name. But it still, beside its adversaries, has produced this optimistic young gentleman. And as in any questionably bad area of town, the monstrous war stories are always worse than the actual place. There is love, support, and communal ties that are not focused on enough.

Only the bad is exploited. When I asked what resources could solve some of these problems, he, in his own truth answered, "The government and other people have to understand we are not bad people. We all have dreams of getting out and doing better. But until we get a little help and more understanding, it's just harder to do. We just do what we gotta do to survive.".