CHANGE IS BAD! Please Don’t Hate Me For Gentrifying.

Recently, I found myself engaged in a conversation that’s pretty common among certain segments of Washington society. Someone had moved into a neighborhood. A developer wanted to put up a tall building in that neighborhood. Longtime residents were vehemently opposed on the grounds that this would cause gentrification.

Cue the frustrated cries. “Don’t they understand that keeping buildings low causes more gentrification?!?!?!?!” We all solemnly agreed that this was very aggravating.

But later, riding the bus home, I got to thinking that maybe it isn’t so crazy. The gentrifiers who want to build up are right that forcing developers to chop floors off their buildings will restrict the available supply of housing, driving up prices and causing more gentrification in the long run. But in the short run, the longtime residents who are resisting — call them “the gentrified” — may be right that allowing a big building will accelerate gentrification in their immediate environs. The housing market, after all, is city-wide. But the building is going to be right there next to them.

Gentrification is a lot better than the reverse.