The biker, the homeless and the good Samaritan : Media coverage of eviction in a Washington D.C. Business Improvement District

Résumé En

"Feets in the street, then heads in the beds, and retail follows..." could be a definition of micro-transit induced gentrification. The quote shows the obsession of NoMa D.C. BID's President to transform the urban space with walkable infrastructure. But the irruption of homeless encampment breaks down the BID narrative as a vibrant place and happy community. What is The Washington Post coverage of this controversy ? Argumentative and narrative discursive analysis are applied to the press articles dealing with the necessity to clear the camp in order to facilitate BIDs resident movements, or, to the contrary, with the priority to care for homeless people. The chapter explores how the media orchestrates the public debate, reframes responsibilities and finally derivates the search for the structural causes of the crisis towards a happy end parable. The added value of the chapter concerning gentrification coverage is that it doesn't deliver a static vision of newspaper's engagement proor contra-gentrification, but a much more tactical and processual perspective of the journalistic fabric of urban conflicts ... and of its semiotic resolutions.