Today the City Paper has an article about Columbia Heights called “Withering Heights,” talking about how the neighborhood is declining, dangerous and expensive. I agree only with the last one.
I’m quoted in the article about diversity and this blog is quoted about a shooting, but frustratingly I mostly talked about all the good things about the neighborhood, and the article didn’t focus on any of that: the people, the places, how things are improving, how people see it as much safer and a good place to go versus 10 years ago (which was the focus of his questions, mostly) and so on. The article is very pessimistic and only focuses on bad things about the neighborhood.
And one thing that I keep noticing is that people are saying the area is getting more dangerous. However, according to the city’s crime stats, that’s mostly not the case.
The city has a great crime statistics site where you can look at crimes in a 1000-foot radius around a certain block to see what has happened over the last 30 days or up to a year. The stats go back to 2008.
I tried three places in our area — 1400 Irving where the DCUSA and other developments are, 3000 Sherman, at Columbia and 3600 Georgia where the little bar strip is, looking at 2008 to today. The results are mixed — there is more crime around DCUSA, violent crime is down while total crime is up around 3000 Sherman, while violent crime is significantly down around 3600 Georgia. And in all cases, total crime is down over the last year and violent crime is either steady or up very slightly. (Of course, I’m no statistician and stats don’t tell everything, but I looked at 2008-2009, then from 2010-2011, then 2015-2016.) Try your area and see what you find.
Below are the stats for the three time periods for each location, which also show the change between that year and the previous ear.
I’d bet (but am not certain) that a lot of the property crime, especially around DCUSA and 3600 Georgia, is probably more due to things like high foot traffic, shoplifting and other store- and business-related or crime than anything else. And even with that, crime in all three places I checked is down since last year.
And another thing is that the population of the area and foot traffic are also continuously on the rise. Recently we heard that the area has some of the highest foot traffic in the city, for example. More people in an area would presumably mean more crime, but per capita, not much of an increase, or maybe even a decrease (unfortunately good population stats aren’t available recently for our area, or I can’t find them if they are.)
However, I think a lot of the perception that things are going downhill is because we hear about crime so often — from local listserves, blogs, local news and so on. That sort of thing gets hits and people want to know so people write about it. I don’t think that the area is getting significantly more dangerous, and the stats seem to back that up — it’s either pretty steady or down. That said, there are definitely still problems — reduced violent crime is still too much violent crime, I know people who have been victims of violent crime and sadly know a lot of women who have been subjected to street harassment in the area.
The article makes some good points and raises some important issues that need to be addressed — rising cost of living, segregated people, and more — but I don’t agree with this narrative that the area is on the downward swing and is increasingly dangerous. And those things are not exclusive to Columbia Heights, either. I’d argue they’re happening all over the city. I hope we can keep growing while maintaining our local character and making sure long time residents aren’t pushed out.
I still love this neighborhood — from the Malcolm X Park drum circle to the farmers market, dog parks to kids’ playgrounds, long-time local businesses and convenient big shopping, lots to eat and drink, a wide range of houses, nice old and new neighbors and good stories — there’s a lot here, and it’s great. That’s why I’ve been here since 2007 and intend to stay, until 2107 if I can.
If you want to be part of making things better, get more involved in your community — work with schools or neighborhood groups, talk to your neighbors and local officials, attend police meetings, help out at local nonprofits, and so on.
Anyway, that’s my opinion. I love it here. What do you think?
Here are the stats. The first column is the year, the next column is the following year.
3600 Georgia over time:
1400 Irving:
3000 Sherman:
