and I’m an 11th grader here at Phillips
Academy Andover and I’m from Washington
DC but actually I’m not from Washington
DC
I’m from Capitol Heights Maryland which
is a small suburb of DC and I normally
say Washington DC instead of Capitol
Heights because Capitol Heights has a
little bit of a reputation it knows a
crime-ridden filthy and dangerous suburb
or at least it was before the changes
began to occur that tempted my mother to
moving into a new townhome there now
Capitol Heights isn’t dirty or crime
ridden at all
it’s a previously rough neighborhood
giving way to the changes than the
affluent and educated homeowner like my
mother can bring and the same thing is
happening inside BC right now if you
follow Addison Road down to JFK Stadium
you can see the bones of new apartment
buildings rising older bars give way to
coffee shops and as crime rates go down
organic grocery stores go up and to me
this all looked like a great thing
finally my city was getting itself
together but then someone asked me a
pretty tricky question where did all the
black people go and my response was I’m
right here but that’s not what that
person meant what they meant was the
historically lower income black people
who have lived in DC since the civil war
period and the reason that this
demographic change has occurred because
of an interesting phenomenon that I
began to study see the New York Times
has said that the black population BC
has dropped by 11 percent in the last
decade this is because of a process
known as identification some of you may
know the term and some of you may not
but the definition of gentrification is
the rebuilding and renewal that
accompanies the influx of middle-class
and upper-class residents with
deteriorating area that can result in to
this placement of lower cross residents
and this placement isn’t just moving
this placement is unintentional and
completely unavoidable this placement
can also lead to lack of jobs often
lower income people who live in cities
rely heavily on public transportation
and if someone has no access to public
transportation they lose their only
source of income
in addition gentrification is also
affecting the middle class not just
lower-class citizens as rents and
property taxes rise middle income
earners such as teachers who teach at
inner-city schools and police officers
who protect our streets can no longer
afford to live in these urban centers
but there are some people who say there
are pros to gentrification some of them
being that public schools tend to get
better all public amenities tend to get
better and we also see crime rates go
down and people who do manage to keep
their homes throughout the entire
process of gentrification do see their
home values rise but despite all of
these pros and cons that could be
debated for ages we’re talking about
gentrification right now for a reason
and that reason is because there’s been
an extreme acceleration in the rate of
gentrification in the past two decades
it’s predicted in the past in the
biggest 30 cities across America the
rate of gentrification has doubled and
so we have to ask ourselves why with the
phenomenon that affects and
disenfranchises so many people there has
to be a reason why and that reason why
is those pesky Millennials that’s right
people ages 18 to 36 are no longer
settling in the suburbs this is part of
a phenomenon called the suburban Texas
which is cause for a plethora of
logistical and psychological reasons one
of them being that the suburbs tend to
induce depression and dissatisfaction
amongst its members
another reason being Millennials are
just wholly uninterested in cars
therefore they don’t really like
commuting most importantly Millennials
seek connection we see this in their use
of social media like Twitter Facebook
and Instagram they want to connect and
it’s hard to connect in the world of
picket fences and cul-de-sacs thus the
suburban Exodus has moved supply and
demand for houses to cities which is
exacerbating gentrification the demand
before used to be for 3 to 4 bedroom
house with the yard out front and out
back an in-ground pool and a good school
district now
Millennials who are having children
about six to eight years later than
their parents are shifting this demand
to cities cities don’t have an adequate
supply and this can lead to the
displacement of lower-class residents
and so now with this part of
gentrification understood after doing
all this research I thought there had to
be some type of solution well the
solution lies in the reason for the
acceleration what if we could change
suburbs to make them more like cities so
people would stop moving the cities new
urbanism is a new idea of architectural
thought that involves building mixed
income homes eco-friendly homes and
centering those homes around a community
center or shopping center that matches
all inhabitants needs new homes and new
urbanist communities often architectural
II promote connection these are all
things Millennials want in their
communities if we can incentivize the
government to incentivize builders to
build more homes in the suburbs in these
new urbanist communities we might be
able to shift demand away from cities
halting gentrification might might being
the key word to all of us because to get
a plan like this path would even poke
holes in this plan I mean to get
together with government officials local
leaders people who live in those areas
and many more people and often those
people are never in the same rooms
together and the reason why is because
of blame politicians blame the private
sector the poor blame the rich the rich
bamboo poor goes in this endless cycle
and I start to blame myself you see
I fit to the definition of a gender I
have the privilege to be part of an
affluent family that can move to a
neighborhood that was changing to suit
my needs
while displacing others and this
privilege started to make me feel really
guilty and as I started feeling guilty I
started feeling defensive and once I
felt defensive I felt like I was being
attacked every time I read an article
about gentrification or attempted to
talk to social workers about
gentrification I felt like they were
personally attacking me not the problem
and eventually this actually halted my
research all my emotional turmoil about
having privileged stopped me from being
able to see the situation critically I
couldn’t see solutions
I couldn’t even see the problem but then
I realized something very important as a
privileged person it’s not about me if
you’re the coolest person it’s normally
not about you
learning this helped me see past my
inner problems with gentrification I got
to see that my privilege was halting
conversations that needed to happen most
importantly I need to focus on the
people who didn’t have privilege so
doing all this research and studying
about gentrification shed light on a
phenomenon that is impacting all of our
American cities but it also shed light
on how privileged and internal problems
with people who are privileged can just
stop important dialogues and I hope with
our generation this doesn’t happen I
hope that with our generation we can
move past an over privilege and come up
with more solutions so the world has
less problems thank you [Applause]