Hispanics are leaving the District’s historically Salvadoran neighborhoods and moving to places along the Georgia Avenue corridor, new Census Bureau data shows, a shift experts attribute to the rising cost of living in Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights. The transition over the last decade has been led by Salvadorans, who increased their share of the District’s 54,749 Hispanics to more than 30 percent, up from 26 percent in 2000. While neighborhoods in Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant saw their Salvadoran population drop between 13 percent and 33 percent, Salvadorans in the Park View and Brightwood neighborhoods more than doubled by 2010.
The overall Hispanic population fell by nearly one-quarter in Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant while it grew by nearly 50 percent in the Georgia Avenue neighborhoods.
*Percent of total population
| Petworth the new Mount Pleasant? | |||||||
| 2010 | Total | Percent | 10-yr | Total | Percent* | 10-yr | |
| Neighborhood/Census Tract | total pop | Hispanic | Hispanic | change | Salvadoran | Salvadoran | change |
| Mt Pleasant/27.01 | 5,233 | 1,269 | 24.2% | -22.1% | 370 | 7.1% | -23.7% |
| Mt Pleasant/27.02 | 5,226 | 1,303 | 24.9% | -37.3% | 490 | 9.4% | -33.6% |
| Columbia Heights/28.02 | 4,277 | 1,843 | 43.1% | -23.1% | 926 | 21.7% | -13.1% |
| Columbia Heights/37 | 5,763 | 1,514 | 26.3% | -7.1% | 514 | 8.9% | -24.2% |
| Park View/31 | 2,885 | 1,037 | 35.9% | +25.8% | 558 | 19.3% | +75.5% |
| Park View/32 | 4,913 | 1,188 | 24.2% | +77.3% | 623 | 12.7% | +183.2% |
| Petworth/25.02 | 5,973 | 2,532 | 42.4% | +18.9% | 1,234 | 20.7% | +30.6% |
| Brightwood/20.02 | 3,813 | 794 | 20.8% | +36.2% | 417 | 10.9% | +124.2% |
| Brightwood/21.01 | 5,309 | 1,651 | 31.1% | +103.3% | 864 | 16.3% | +187.0% |
| Brightwood/22.01 | 3,442 | 823 | 23.9% | +80.5% | 474 | 13.8% | +236.2% |
| Ft. Stevens/18.04 | 4,480 | 1,211 | 27.0% | +20.7% | 671 | 15% | +65.7% |
| Source: U.S. Census Bureau | |||||||
Among census tracts in D.C., Petworth surpassed the area that contains the Columbia Heights Metro station as the section with the most Hispanics in the city.
Housing affordability and available housing stock are the two biggest reasons for the change, experts said.
“Things have just appreciated more in the Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant area … [and] condos that were available aren’t as favorable to large families and families with children,” said Jenn Comey, a research assistant at the Urban Institute in D.C.
Condo prices in Mount Pleasant nearly tripled from 2000 to 2010, according to a George Mason University analysis.
Lisa Sturtevant, a research professor at GMU’s Center for Regional Analysis, said Hispanic communities tend to want to stay near family and what’s familiar.
“So they’re staying in the city but they’re moving down the block — they’re staying close to people they know.”
But despite the population shift, Georgia Avenue’s commerce bears little resemblance to the rows of thriving shops serving Mount Pleasant’s Hispanic community. Although Spanish is overheard about as often as English there and music from Latino radio stations emanates from cars and outdoor work sites, Latino-owned businesses only dot the landscape.
However, the businesses that are there have opened in the last decade and are popular. El Torogoz, a restaurant serving Mexican and Salvadoran food, opened six years ago and has a steady stream of regulars, according to a woman who works there. Flip It Bakery and Deli opened in 2007, and its owners recently opened a second shop on Rhode Island Avenue.
Experts note that Mount Pleasant’s Hispanic population took decades to build up beginning in the 1960s, and that more businesses will likely follow on Georgia Avenue. But Sturtevant noted the Georgia Avenue corridor’s current revitalization may make this a quick stop for D.C.’s Hispanic community if new development prices them out again.
“That’s the struggle the city has — maintaining affordability for those who have built up these communities,” she said. “I would guess if we looked 10 years from now, that may not be where we find the Hispanic population.”
