Why has gentrification skipped 9th Street?
Embzam Misgina, a 40-year-old Ethiopian immigrant, didn’t think he’d run into much resistance in stretching “Little Ethiopia” farther south down 9th Street NW. The cluster of Ethiopian hangouts near 9th and U Streets, after all, has helped to propel the revitalization of an entire neighborhood. “It was a very bad area, but we opened a lot of restaurants up there and it became very safe and commercial,” says Misgina. When Misgina went about opening a restaurant at the corner of 9th and P Streets, though, he found himself treading on the turf of a historic black institution: His Queen of Sheba restaurant is across the street from Shiloh Baptist Church and next door to its Child Development Center. As it turns out, Shiloh would much rather keep the borders of Little Ethiopia right where they’ve been, as opposed to welcoming a liquor-serving establishment to its block. At a hearing before the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board on Wednesday, Sept. 14, members of the Shiloh congregation filled
