“Is gentrification a municipal crime?”: Reflections and strategies on “Urban Activism: Staking Claims in the 21st Century City"

Abstract

In this photographic ethnography, Dominic T. Moulden reflects upon his own organizing experiences with ONE D.C. in Washington D.C.- the capital of empire. He shows homes that have been evicted and scenes of gentrification, while offering the framework that “gentrification is a crime,” an analytic that would benefit scholar activists and community organizers to further explore. Moulden also proposes organizing strategies to address the issues of poor, Black, Brown, Indigenous, and all working-class people’s claim to a right to the city, particularly in Covid-19 contexts. Research and organizing must be brave enough to create zones of contestation and liberation, including ‘No Displacement Zones’ to contest the neoliberal politics and zones of gentrification.