Madamenoir, April 19th, 2019: Gentrifier suggests Howard University move its campus after students complain of constant dog walking & the internet said “not today!”
In a recent news story, students at Howard University detailed their frustration over neighboring residents’ usage of the campus greenery as a one-stop dog park.
Washington, D.C.’s Fox 5 published a local news report where several man on the street interviewees summarized the students’ frustration.
“The Yard is for the students and although everyone loves pets, I feel like it’s disrespectful to have the pets just running around, especially when there are several parks around here. If they come on ‘The Yard’ and they’re just walking through, I don’t necessarily have a problem with that, but I still feel like there are other ways to get around D.C. without having to cut through a college campus,” said Malakhi Briggs, a sophomore at the historically black college.
But then enters Sean Grubbs-Robishaw, a white man who lives in the Shaw-Howard neighborhood where Howard resides.
“So, they’re in part of D.C. so they have to work within D.C. If they don’t want to be within D.C. then they can move the campus,” he said. “I think we just need to work together and I don’t think it should be a he or there or here… It’s our community and that’s how it should be.”
Since Howard’s founding in 1865, Washington D.C. has dramatically changed, morphing from “Chocolate City,” to the sudden erasure of the black businesses and residents who have contributed to the city’s cultural relevance. Howard is regarded as “The Mecca,” due to the legacy of the alumni who have roamed its halls and the daily communion which occurs on campus as students from across the diaspora gather in the name of academia.
A recent study summarized in the Washington Post showed the city had the most gentrified neighborhoods in the country between 2000 and 2013. The report conducted by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, estimates that around 20,000 black residents were displaced over that period.
