These last couple of years I have noticed a lot of changes in my neighborhood. While they've been subtle changes like rebranding liquor stores and calling them "wine and spirits shops," or the specialty cupcake shops that are popping up on every corner the impacts have been far greater than imagined.

According to Curbed, a prominent blog started by Lockhart Steel dedicated to architecture, interior design, and real estate, aside from Portland, Oregon, Washington, D.C. is the fastest gentrifying city in all of the United States of America.

The term “gentrification” has found its place in popular culture with the expansion and reconstruction of many cities just like Washington, D.C. According to PBS,gentrification is “a general term for the arrival of wealthier people in an existing urban district, a related increase in rents and property values, and changes in the effected district’s character and culture."

Historically Washington, D.C. has proven to be one of the biggest cornerstones in African American history. By the year 1840, Washington, D.C. became one of the three major cities in which African Americans accounted for the majority of the population. During that time period, the African Americans of Washington, D.C. were known widely for their “championing civil rights despite racial segregation and prejudice running rampant throughout the rest of the country” according to urban and cultural anthropologist Sabiyha Prince.

While the city once dealt with the dark legacy of slavery, failed periods of Reconstruction, and the differences that stemmed from Jim Crow segregation, it now deals with the dislocation of residents because of urban renewal and the uneven impacts of contemporary urban planning.

According to an opposite editorial articled entitled "'Gentrification' in Black and White" by Carl Foster that ran in the Washington Post in February of 2012, by the year 2011, the District of Columbia’s African American population had declined under 50 percent for the first time since its founding in 1790. This is beyond astonishing for a city that was given the name Chocolate City due to the large presence of African Americans.

But who’s to blame for this decline in the African American population in Washington, D.C. and the overall misplacement of D.C. residents who have lived in the District all of their lives after all? According to Richard Florida, urban theorist and author of "The Rise of the Creative Class," Washington, D.C.’s newest residents are apart of a group called “The Creatives.”

“The Creatives” are a group of young professionals, typically white, of a higher social economic status, who are attracted to the physical aesthetics of major urban cities like Washington, D.C. Florida argues that “The Creatives” bring something new to the neighborhood. He explains that these “Creatives” are a class filled with people who “are paid to use their minds and the full scope of their cognitive and social skills.”

But while “The Creatives” generate a new buzz within the city, they bring with them a much bigger, complex problem. The rise of “The Creatives” does not generate enough respective space for the District’s newest residents and residents that have already been living in the city.

Ultimately, the mass movement of people like “The Creatives” into Washington, D.C. comes with success but it also comes with a much bigger degree of failure. In Washington, D.C. and all other major cities experiencing gentrification this failure is found within the underlying inability to find a balance. This balance, or lack thereof, present in Washington, D.C. is taking away from the authenticity and rich culture within the city, and forcing longtime residents to relocate.

With urban reconstruction is becoming more popular as the country progresses urban developer Lisa Struvent said “No discussion on urban revitalization is complete without addressing gentrification. Gentrification is not only the introduction of wealthier people in an existing urban district, a related increase in rents and property values, but it is the exchange of the character of those areas as well.”

So yes, to some urban developers Washington, D.C. might be the newest cash cow, and to "creatives" it might be one of the trendiest places to reside, but above all D.C. is home (and always will be) to me and thousands of other lifelong residents.