Washington’s Black Majority Is Shrinking

"Much has changed since Ben’s Chili Bowl opened some 50 years ago on a bustling strip known as America’s Black Broadway for its thriving black-owned shops and theaters.

The diner was a popular hangout for black bankers, doctors and blue-collar workers. Jazz greats Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald could be found enjoying milkshakes and sausages called half-smokes, smothered in chili, after performing at nearby clubs.

Now, the crowd at Ben’s can be mostly white, reflecting a neighborhood metamorphosis characterized by new condominiums and Starbucks. “Sometimes you look around and wonder, ‘Where are all the black people?’ ” said Virginia Ali, who opened the diner with her husband, Ben, in 1958.

Jim Graham, a council member who represents racially mixed neighborhoods, said city officials had worked to preserve thousands of low-income housing units in a red-hot housing market. “If I wanted to live in a neighborhood where everybody looked and acted like me, I have many choices,” said Mr. Graham, who is white. “I like a diverse neighborhood.”

In May, 56,463 families — the most ever — were on a waiting list for vouchers for subsidized housing, according to the latest statistics from the city’s housing authority.

Signs of frustration have appeared. A local blog has posted complaints about graffiti that reads: “Go Home Rich White People.”

At Ben’s Chili Bowl, however, Ms. Ali said she was pleased to see the city recovering. She said she was nostalgic, though, for the days when U Street felt like a family.

“You lose the closeness of an ethnic community, ” she said."

Yes, you read it correctly. Things are getting so bad, what with people with JOBS moving into D.C., that subsidized housing is taking a hit and the blacks are waxing nostalgic about the good old days when their kind were more populous, and stop for one moment if you will to think about the shitstorm that would have created if a non-black said something similar but of course with the color scheme reversed.

Blacks moving out, working people moving in. Damn, pretty soon crime may even begin to ebb and won't they just hate that too.

And sorry, Mrs. Ali, but it is not an ethnicity you are missing but a race. Sorry. Perhaps if you open a satellite store in Newark, or Harlem you can relive the good old days.

And wait a minute; how can minorities be the majority. Okay, I get it. To stop referring to them as minorities would take away a lot of political clout so gotcha.