#newDC Is Chaos. But Stop, Breathe, And Realize Chaos Is “Vivrant” And Great.

Listen to Q-Tip, Get Familiar With Chaos Theory, And Revel In The Madness.

Wikipedia defines chaos theory as “the branch of mathematics that deals with complex systems whose behavior is highly sensitive to slight changes in conditions, so that small alterations can give rise to strikingly great consequences.” However, as a lifelong resident of Washington, DC, I can look out of my window and define chaos theory as “currently living in #newDC.”

Here’s an undeniable fact that may be frustrating, yet necessary-to-accept for people who, like myself, love the one-time blue-collar, working class, chicken wings and mambo sauce, half-smoke, go-go and harDCore #oldDC:

There will soon be absolutely no reason whatsoever as well to recognize anything that you remember about Washington, DC representing anything that’s actually happening in Washington, DC.

That’s actually great.

Something amazing happens when I closely observe the complex inter-personal and inter-spatial dynamics developing in the radically sociopolitically and socioeconomically evolving Nation’s Capital, though. After doing so, when (apologies to Q-Tip) I breathe, stop, and give all of my mental faculties to figuring out the next best steps, I actually discover the (apologies to Q-Tip, Missy Elliott and Busta Rhymes) vivrant thing into which this dramatically fractured city could evolve.

The city once known as America’s crack cocaine and murder capital is now the center of marijuana legalization and free gay love. Those with medicinal marijuana licenses in #newDC are able to carry around four ounces of weed legally, and there’s a greater LGBT population per capita in DC than anywhere else in America. As well, the number of politicians in the city is probably equal to that of the startup entrepreneurs, restaurateurs and tech sector employees. It’s clear that in this city of late, the incredible is normal and the amazing is commonplace. It’s a chaotic shift.

In 1943, there were 900,000 residents of Washington, DC. In 20 years, there could be ONE MILLION residents of the Nation’s Capital. As well, the city once referred to as “Chocolate City” by George Clinton could easily also have half the number of African-American residents as it does right now, and also comprise 25% of DC’s population at the same time. The percentage of black people in the vastly shifting American capital city could also equal that of Latinos, which is unprecedented in DC’s history. Even further, couple that with wealth in the city being disproportionately held by the possibly overwhelmingly Caucasian population, and it’s a recipe for complete chaos.

DC’s now a corporate town, a locale run by a series of truly impressive conglomerates. As an example, there’s the 9:30 Club, which in the 1980s years was respected as a punk, harDCore and indie rock hotspot. Well, initially, folks forget that the 9:30 Club stopped being a 199-person capacity bandbox at 930 F Street NW 20 years ago. Now, it’s a 1300-person capacity venue that has been awarded “Venue of the Year” and other such plaudits from the likes of Pollstar, Billboard and Rolling Stone.

Plus, the 9:30 Club is now owned by the very corporate IMP, a conglomerate that counts that venue, U Street Music Hall, Echostage, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Jammin Java, the Lincoln Theater, DAR Constitution Hall, Strathmore, Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Eagle Arena, the Lyric Opera House and a soon-to-be-built 6,000 person venue on the Southwest Waterfront as venues that present IMP-booked shows. In 1996, IMP was birthed from a space that presented shows for 199 people. Now, it’s literally working with venues that hold a maximum of 50,000 people. That’s a 25,000 percent increase. TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND PERCENT.

Even further, there’s 29 cranes in the sky and more-to-come shooting up over all four quadrants of the city that are razing old buildings and erecting new structures. These are structures that are being purchased from their original owners for sometimes 500% more than the number for which they were originally purchased some 20-to-50 years prior. In some cases, the structures being purchased are those that represent essential community staples for ethnic minority populations like the Ethiopians who have their largest population outside of Addis Ababa in Washington, DC. At a rate of cashing in at $1 million per property sold though, one can only presume that this will not persist in being the case. Chaos.

Into this chaos we throw a new-to-DC population of people who are single, ready to mingle (and settle down), plus possess a level of disposable income the likes of which has never been seen before in the Nation’s Capital. Since 2000, the median household income in Washington has skyrocketed nearly 75% to roughly $100,000. That literally means that the city has shifted from a largely black, blue-collar and middle-class locale to being a white, white-collar and upper middle-to-high class enclave. Given that this is a shift that’s occurred in literally a decade, that’s chaotic, too.

By comparison, the last time that America overall went through a comparably chaotic period was the era between the murder of Martin Luther King in 1968 and the election of Ronald Reagan in 1981. The 1970s were a wild era for black job and wealth empowerment in particular that mirror the socioeconomic madness currently occurring in the Nation’s Capital.

• In 1960, 11 percent of black workers were in professional and technical and craft worker positions; by 1980, their proportion had almost doubled to 21 percent.
• Between 1972 and 1980, the number of employed blacks increased by 1.3 million, or 17 percent.
• As well, there was a literal general shift in employment from blacks largely working as private household laborers and farmers to moving into blue collar technical and white-collar clerical positions.

That level of chaos allowed for a wild and re-imagined society to emerge that created a semblance of the “beauty” that exists in examining radically shifting #newDC (I mean, the above video is of DAVID BOWIE ON SOUL TRAIN). This beauty is actually reflected in scientist Yoshiki Kuramoto’s model of synchronization, which notes that “under the right conditions, chaos spontaneously evolves into a lockstep pattern.” The mathematical conditions required for Kuramoto’s theory to occur actually mirror the human conditions developing in the recontextualized Nation’s Capital.

There’s a development of initially weak communities that are driven by identical or nearly identical motivations. As well, these communal moments are now happening with greater frequency in radical (read, never-before-seen) spaces. This is a positive trend.

Are you ready to hold onto go-go, punk, mambo sauce, black history and a blue-collar work ethic and embrace the chaos? Comparatively, are you new to #newDC and aware that you’re inhabiting an incredibly chaotic space? If so, in #newDC, it’s time to breathe, stop, and then make things as “vivarant vive, a vivarant, vivarant” as they deserve to become.