D.C. Neighborhood Tries Yard Signs to Keep Gentrification Away

Milfred Ellis wants the leafy D.C. neighborhood he has lived in for the past half-century to remain a place where middle-class blacks can buy a home, and he’s made his feelings abundantly clear. He has decorated his front lawn with campaign-style signs that read: “Brightwood wants less gentrification. Not more” and “Gentrification Breeds: (1) Superiority (2) Privilege (3) Domination (4) Classicism (5) Community takeover.”

It’s blunt, but that’s the point.

The 78-year-old retired analyst for the Bureau of Labor Statistics views his Brightwood community as a waning example of a strong middle-class black neighborhood. He wants to draw attention to the plight of black residents in the District, even if it means chiding white residents who already have moved in.