The Difference a Quadrant Makes: Folding the Map in the District

• February 5th 2019

by Nena Perry-Brown

From redlining and urban renewal to gentrification and displacement, the prejudicial impact of housing policy and city planning is hidden in plain sight. In order to illustrate disparities in urban investment, Chicago artist/activist Tonika Lewis Johnson created the "Folded Map" project, where she contrasted similar addresses on the North and South sides of Chicago to draw attention to the socioeconomic variation between those areas.

UrbanTurf wanted to pay homage to that project and examine how it may look to "fold the map" in Washington, D.C., where the quadrant layout lends itself to several like addresses miles away from each other. Below are examples we found, some of which illustrate disparate investment, and others which illustrate just how much some areas of the city are perhaps overlooked or undervalued:

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19th Street SE and 19th Street NW

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16th Street SE and 16th Street NW

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Q Street SE and Q Street NW

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Massachusetts Avenue SE and Massachusetts Avenue NW

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Although there are plenty of streets that are found in more than one quadrant, in many cases, there are no corresponding street addresses for easy comparison (eg. Yuma Street NW vs. Yuma Street SE, Brandywine Street NW vs. Brandywine Street SE, and Chesapeake Street NW vs. Chesapeake Street SE). Are there any particularly interesting instances of same-address disparities you have noticed, readers?

Note: Some addresses are approximate because either there are no houses with clear pictures on the corresponding block in the opposite quadrant, or a closer address could not be verified.

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/folding-the-map-in-the-district/14964.