Race, Class, and Politics in the Cappuccino City

by Derek S. Hyra

For long-time residents of Washington, DC’s Shaw/U Street, the neighborhood has become almost unrecognizable in recent years. Where the city’s most infamous open-air drug market once stood, a farmers’ market now sells grass-fed beef and homemade duck egg ravioli. On the corner where AM.PM carryout used to dish out soul food, a new establishment markets its $28 foie gras burger. Shaw is experiencing a dramatic transformation, from “ghetto” to “gilded ghetto,” where white newcomers are rehabbing homes, developing dog parks, and paving the way for a third wave coffee shop on nearly every block.

Race, Class, and Politics in the Cappuccino City is an in-depth ethnography of this gilded ghetto. Derek S. Hyra captures here a quickly gentrifying space in which long-time black residents are joined, and variously displaced, by an influx of young, white, relatively wealthy, and/or gay professionals who, in part as a result of global economic forces and the recent development of central business districts, have returned to the cities earlier generations fled decades ago. As a result, America is witnessing the emergence of what Hyra calls “cappuccino cities.” A cappuccino has essentially the same ingredients as a cup of coffee with milk, but is considered upscale, and is double the price. In Hyra’s cappuccino city, the black inner-city neighborhood undergoes enormous transformations and becomes racially “lighter” and more expensive by the year.

Genres: Nonfiction, Cities, Dc Comics, Urban Planning, Read For School, Politics, History

240 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2017

Reviews

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I spend most of my time reading about international, or at least, national-level affairs, so it was really interesting to dig into this hyper-local analysis of DC and the Shaw/U Street neighborhood in particular. It’s an area that’s seen a ton of change in the last 30 years, and this is a great exploration of all the various forces and dynamics - economic, social, racial, political - that have shaped that neighborhood and the city more broadly. Super academic-y, but enjoyable nevertheless.

[Michael Torruella · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was not bad and provided an informative view of gentrification in the Shaw/ U Street area. However, I felt some of the arguments were hollow (bike lanes and dog parks). It would have also been nice if the book also focused on more neighborhoods around DC such as Columbia Heights and H Street, no solely on Shaw/ U Street.

[Ari · Rating 2 out of 5]

IQ "In other words, in gentrifying Shaw/U Street, upper-and-middle-income African Americans are taking part in guiding the community's redevelopment, and this can conflict with the interests of lower-income Americans. While race and sexual orientation are important for understanding Shaw/U Street's political debates, intraracial class difference, based on income, wealth, and educational distinctions, is also a significant factor in explaining divides and tensions in the community, as well as the trajectory of its redevelopment" (pgs. 118-118)

This book does a good job of introducing readers to the history of DC and the meaning of gentrification and cultural displacement, it serves as an excellent primer in that regard. However I took issue with a lot of what is left out/only hinted at and the theory of "living the wire". The quote I opened the review with seemed spot-on but while Hyra starts off strong with that paragraph, he doesn't delve as deep as I would have liked on the subject of Black gentrification. I walked away from the book remaining unconvinced that this is not primarily a class issue. He provides examples of Black gentrification but doesn't make the same connections that he does with white gentrifiers. In fact when the Black owner of Good Libations hints at gentrification being a primarily socioeconomic issue, the author prints his quote in full (I think) but then doesn't follow up. Instead he tries to straddle the line and say it's both class and race but ultimately it doesn't matter because integration isn't work. It's very frustrating. If he doesn't believe Black people can be gentrifiers (which is certainly an argument one can try and make) then he should explain that in greater detail, instead he moves on to talking about the conflicts between the white LGBT community and lower income Black residents. Furthermore this book seems completely off on the subject of 'living the wire', at the end of the day I wholeheartedly believe people are looking for cheap rent and that is why they move. Not because they want to live in high crime areas chasing some adrenaline high by living in a 'dangerous' neighborhood. Hyra makes this bold assertion with little evidence, he just talks about a conversation he had with white millennials (how many? when? How did this come up?). I can begrudgingly admit that white millennials may be more candid with a white guy than with me but I find it hard to believe anyone can complain about lowering crime rates as he tries to claim (some) of the white Shaw community does. Additionally he praises Busboys & Poets repeatedly, a chain I'm a huge fan of (in regards to their events. Food is pricey), and he mentions a lot of (new to me) criticism leveled against the chain. However he never mentions what the owner would say to defend himself against charges of underpaying staff and capitalizing on Black culture. It read like a missed opportunity that gave me pause about Busboys.

I did appreciate learning about "black branding", another new to me term. This was one of the chapters that seemed highly credible and well researched, names of individuals and organizations interviewed are provided. "Both internal and external preservationists wanted to minimize the decline period because it reproduced a stereotypical ghetto image they were trying to diminish. The desires of both some local residents and Cultural Tourism, DC staff to tell a marketable uplift story help explain Shaw/U Street's constructed Black Broadway narrative. In this narrative, entertainment is highlighted, while other community themes like interracial relations, intraracial class conflict, protest politics, prostitution, drugs and poverty are minimized"(86).

Sidenote: I found it fascinating that bike lanes are being built in Black DC neighborhoods and the communities resent that whereas in Chicago communities of color are annoyed that they are being left out of the creation of bike lanes. Other quote I found interesting;

"The geography of poverty also shifts in the cappuccino city. In DC, as in other urban areas, Whites are moving to the city center as low-income African Americans move further from the city's core. With the movement of low-income African Americans to the suburbs, the 'second suburbs' are created. We are no longer a country of 'chocolate cities and vanilla suburbs'; rather, certain cities have become 'Oreo cookies,' with increasingly White inner-city cores and darker suburban exteriors, like the cappuccino." (152)

[Brett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hyra describes how the intersections of race, class, sexual orientation and religion have affected the Shaw/U Street neighborhood of DC. He uses the term ‘guilded ghetto’ to represent how the neigherhood has evolved due to redevelopment, such that it now has dog parks, coffee shops, bike lanes and luxury condos (similarly, he notes the wider city has become more populated, and populated by more white residents - now a ‘Cappuccino City’ in place of ‘Chocolate City’). Part of the book involves his claim that ‘intense debates’ associated with different social categories suggest Shaw cannot be characterized by the ‘cosmopolitan canopy’ (engagement across social categories carried out with a spirit of ‘goodwill’) that sociologist Elijah Anderson describes. Instead, relations are purported to be conflictual, based on competing interests and power struggles. While he gives examples of local debates in chapter 6, I wondered if some of those conflicts (e.g. school parking lot issue) were really motivated by race (e.g., versus just public space use concerns). Nor was it clear to me how intense debates between groups (the essence of democratic politics) signifies the absence of goodwell or civility. This book has been criticized (rightfully I would argue) for some of its assertions, noteably that “some [White newcomers] even talk about the occasional carjackings, muggings, and shootings as if these things were cool…” (page 11). As a gay White resident who lived in the neighborhood in the early 2000s, I am skeptical any of my friends appreciated the area because it was edgy or thought shootings were ‘cool.’ More plausible were assertions that redevelopment has led to people living in integrated neighborhoods but suffering from social segregation, limiting how much low-income residents benefit from economic development. He helpfully suggests remedies: helping long-time (lower-income) residents remain engaged in local government, that their preferences be reflected in the built environment, and that neighborhood organizations emphasize bridging capital. Hopefully, this neighborhood will continue to have areas typified by ‘bridging social capital’ (e.g., Ben’s Chili Bowl, Busboys & Poets, Lee’s Flowers), that help relations among groups be more ‘cosmopolitan canopy’ in nature.

[Dan Schiff · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've heard and read enough about DC gentrification, including from Derek Hyra on many radio shows, to know about this issue before opening the book. Still, I found it an interesting and readable history of the last several decades of the District, particularly Shaw/U Street.

Perhaps the most interesting insights were into how the city, developers and neighborhood associations accomplished the "black branding" of the "gilded ghetto" to make it both welcoming and cool--with a whiff of danger--for new White arrivals: "The creation of the Black Broadway narrative was largey shaped by the desire of internal and external community actors to fight certain negative iconic Black ghetto stereotypes. ... [R]esidents did not speak about the crime and the drugs of the 1970s and '80s; rather they shared their stories of 'achievement' and 'uplift.' In this way, internal community forces were distancing the neighborhood's newly created brand from the stereotypical image of the ghetto."

This is such a complex issue with moral implications. Who has claim to a neighborhood or a shared space? What do newcomers owe to long-time residents of a neighborhood? What role should the government play in maintaining the character and function of a city? These questions are largely outside the scope of the book, so Hyra does not address them.

I do take a bit of issue with how much faith Hyra puts in shared "third spaces" in his final chapter about "Building Equitable Communities." While it's true that establishments such as Ben's Chili Bowl and Busboys & Poets are patronized by a fairly diverse clientele, I would be hesitant to characterize the positive interactions across races and demographic groups in these establishments as much more than superficial and fleeting. Hyra does not address the waning significance of public transportation as a "third space" that we once all shared--with Uber and Lyft surging as our Metro system crumbles, there are even fewer occasions for us to share space, even if it meant being together stuck on a single-tracking train.

Ultimately, it's in a city's interest to support neighborhoods with a diversity of ethnicities, income levels and housing, with reliable public transportation.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for Cappuccino City, for some personal reasons:
1) I am an urban planning student and am interested by the forces and experiences of gentrification
2) I live adjacent to Shaw, the neighborhood where Mr. Hyra focuses his study; and
3) I could easily be described as a gentrifier - as I am a newcomer to DC - this book was easy to identify with; and
4) Having read other ethnographic works, I also was eager for the raw storytelling.

It's amazing how he turned a compelling premise into a boring product.

Hyra's analysis ranges from the obvious to the unsupported. He does describe how gentrification rapidly transforms Shaw; but with little insight provided at all. He claims to add to the literature a new paradigm of "Why gentrification happens and how it affects people" - yet there is nothing particularly new about what he is saying. At most, he claims (and I'm paraphrasing) "I am adding to the conversation that there's a gap in the literature and actually tensions around sexual orientation matter too." If you live in DC, this reality is obvious and far from groundbreaking.

Hyra also grossly oversimplifies some of his theories, which clearly are based solely on conversations he had at a few parties. His whole "Living the wire" theory stands out as something I will remember - not for its sharp cultural analysis but instead for its completely unsupported and overconfident assertions. The final chapter - particularly the implications and potential remedies - is scant and offers little other than "do equity better."

But where Hyra fails most is his writing. He claims to have spent a lot of time in Shaw and hearing stories, yet the tone he settles on is academic gobbledygook. Cappuccino City would be much more compelling if he were to more deeply share the stories of people he allegedly met. To be charitable, his editor could have been on extended sick leave while Cappuccino City was being revised.

There are deep questions to ask - ones that I ask personally - who is a city for? How do we balance improvement with displacement? These are dicey questions, yet Hyra seems only interested in academic posturing mixed in with some performative ethnographic journalism.

[Adam Carrico · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a good combination of statistical/research paper-style writing and anecdotal analysis of the gentrification of this DC neighborhood. I read this from the perspective of someone who is a DC newcomer (in a somewhat gentrifying neighborhood) and works in Shaw (my office is next to Progression Place), which translated into a more "micro" level analysis and no real thought process to implications this study might have on a macro level scale in other cities (although the author puts forward points he thinks contribute to the gentrification literature).

Main note is that if you are someone who recently moved into DC, it is a must read, simply for a set of facts and analysis about areas and businesses that are probably familiar to you. After reading, it might not be apparent what exactly you can do to help or mitigate the effects of gentrification, but it is important to understand the issues present. The author definitely has an angle, but it isn't overwhelming and does a fairly consistent job of giving both sides of an issue. It's complicated and messy and generally exactly how many white young professionals such as myself feel when thinking about the issue ourselves. Pretty well written overall, really short, and the irony is not lost on me that this book retailed for $30 in a local DC bookstore, so much like the owner of Busboys & Poets, the author is making some money on the backs of a neighborhood where he didn't grow up. It's all so complicated, folks!!! Either way, check it out.

[Melinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting account of redevelopment and gentrification in the U Street/Shaw neighborhood in Washington, D.C. The author is very fond of his gentrification metaphor (cappuccino is like black coffee, but whiter, and a whole lot more expensive), which I thought was clever the first time and not so much the tenth time (or whatever the number of repetitions was). But worth reading.

[Jamie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Barely scratches the surface of a timely topic. He lived in the community for years, but other than one story about a woman that owns a hair salon, it doesn't impart any understanding of the people involved or sympathetic stories for the reader to make a connection. Instead, he depends on generalizations and categorization in an attempt to make his buzzwords stick.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author asks good questions and investigates them from a number of different and interesting viewpoints. However, he doesn't talk enough about his identities and how he built relationships with the residents he interviews, and he doesn't include very many examples.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although focused on the Shaw/U Street neighborhood of DC, his observations and comments are valid for many changing urban areas. Pittsburgh is not immune from this. We fit his definition of an Oreo city.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at the history of gentrification of DC, using Shaw/U Street as the focus. Definitely an academic book, but fairly readable, especially once I got through the section on the District’s political history.

[Phoenix (Books with Wings)]

Had to read this one for class, and I thought it was really interesting. It's so fascinating to see all the ways that cities are made up, and how social processes cause cities and neighborhoods to change. Plus, it's good to get an in-depth view in what the citizens themselves think.

[Adrian Safford · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5
read this for my cities class, and reading how Shaw/U Street went from a “dark ghetto” to a “gilded ghetto” was a bit odd. Overall, very informative and a good read for a basic understanding of gentrification and the factors that contribute to it

[Sydney Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read. A good intro book into the topic if you are unfamiliar with this D.C. neighborhood.

[Jack M · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[BeerBaconBooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid book on gentrification in Washington DC, it was just such a slog to get through.

[Ron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Derek Hyra examined the unique history of Washington D.C. through the lens of race and class. I was happy to see that his analysis didn't stop at labeling gentrification and revitalization as a simplistic battle drawn along racial lines. While this is the context that he looks at the Shaw/U Street revitalization, he also looks at subtext such as intra-race relationships in the african american community based on class and socioeconomics. Class and income have as much to do with tensions in revitalization efforts as race does. This book looks at the complex urban planning issues and doesn't shy away from explaining that their are multidimensional factors that need to be understood to have a truly diverse racial and socioeconomic neighborhood or city.