Marion Barry’s Nightmare Unfolds
30th March 2026
One of Marion Barry’s first acts as mayor was to kill the zoning plan his predecessor had put in motion. The first mayor of Washington DC under home rule, Walter Washington oversaw the plans for the city’s subway system (The Metro). He fiercely insisted that the zoning around most stops be adjusted to bring about a mix of residential, retail and office space to use the Metro to help establish distinct neighborhoods. Barry correctly inferred that this kind of renewal would bring more middle-class and upper middle class residents back to DC and those people were not his base.
The large developers also hated the plan because it restricted construction of (then lucrative) office space along K St. Barry got campaign cash from that sector and a promise that low income housing would be built in the city’s poorest ward as soon as “suitable sites became available.” Barry then announced that he had shaken down The Man on behalf of the the disadvantage black underclass in his first days in office.
Oddly enough, those “suitable sites” never became available. DC remained heavily poor and over 2/3 black for the remainder of Barry’s first 12 year stretch as mayor. But now those “suitable sites” have indeed become available but not for pubic housing.