Jak & Co. Hairdressers opened downtown 50 years ago, and moved it to now-trendy Bloomingdale in 1988. For much of its past quarter-century, the store has been surrounded by a laundromat, a uniform business and liquor stores with Plexiglass windows.

 

Now, Jackson-Martin says the property owners want to charge market rate — an amount that Jak & Co. Hairdressers couldn’t pay. D.C. Landlord and Tenant Branch records indicate that an eviction receipt was processed in March. Jackson-Martin plans to vacate by the end of April and is selling and donating the salon’s equipment and helping its hairdressers — many of whom have been there for decades — find new jobs.

 

 

After 50 years, a D.C. store will close ?due to gentrification? - The Washington Post

 

I'm really struggling to see why this is a story.

 

They were getting a huge discount on rent, and now the property owners want to change the rate? So what? That happens all the time all across the country. Who cares? If you can't pay it, move.

I'll never forget when a friend of mine in college explained "The Plan" to me. Completely changed the way I looked at redevelopment and gentrification from the standpoint of income disparity and race.

 

I think he was wrong about there being any sort of conspiracy to drive out low-income minority families and small business owners in order to create trendy urban neighborhoods. To borrow a phrase from George Will: a conspiracy implies secrecy; what's happening in gentrified neighborhoods in D.C. is about as secret as a steam calliope.