Politico created The Recast to investigate the local impact of shifting demographic and power dynamics among the Black populations of several cities across the country. Politico found that nine of the ten American cities with the largest Black populations experienced a decline in the past twenty years.

In April 2022, they put out three stories about Washington DC, with an eye towards the causes of these demographic and political transformations and the broader policy implications.

The Good Bones rehearsal hall paid particular attention to their cover story, “Washington was an Icon of Black Political Power. Then Came Gentrification,” which focused on Studio’s U St.  / Shaw neighborhood. The neighborhood photos and demographic maps offer a striking example of the changes the past 20 years have brought to the neighborhood, and The Recast’s team—journalists Steven Overly, Delece Smith-Barrow, Katy O’Donnell, and Ming Li— combine research and interviews to paint a picture of the kind of rapid change and radically haunted spaces that James Ijames had in mind while writing Good Bones.

Read the full article. Another great piece in the series is “Black DC is Gone? The Truth is Always More Complicated,”  by longtime Logan Circle resident Eric Easter, reflecting on his time in the neighborhood since moving there in the early 1980s as a recent Howard University graduate.