Back in D.C. for the weekend. Took a long run this morning from Dupont Circle over the Memorial Bridge over to Roosevelt Island to the Key Bridge then along the C-O Canal and back to 21st and New Hampshire.
This place has changed so much it is hard for me to even remember what it was like when we first moved here in 1979. I do feel that D.C. had a more seedy feel than it does now. Running between Dupont and Foggy and Georgetown there is a ton of new developments. Some are not even so new anymore. The Circle Theatre has been gone for decades as has the 21st Amendment. I'm assuming Dan's Cafe and the Fox & Hound are still around, but of course it's not like I'll be going there but nonetheless they are landmarks to me.
Of course things change. Things are supposed to change. This city is a lot cleaner than it was when I was a kid. It looks better. And more importantly, it still does not look overwhelming. Because of the strict zoning rules here, there are no hideous developments like the ones that are destroying the soul of NYC. The new here blends right in with the old. It is as if the developers actually took into consideration just where they were developing before pouring the cement. Radical thought.
That said, it's easy for me the outsider here now to come down and say this isn't so bad. Compared to what I see in the city, it isn't. But in search of a hardware store I was informed that Candy's is long gone. And in doing a Google on Candy's I stumbled across a site complaining that D.C. is behing "Manhattanized."
Maybe Baltimore is the answer. Actually, everytime I take the train down I have this overwhelming urge to get out at Baltimore and just disappear. But that has more to do with me than the corporate gentrification of our cities.
2 comments:
just remember that it was DC's relative blandness that drove so many expatriates to NY> But that was when NY was far gritter and had cool, beaten up old diners and cheap bars.
One thing you have to understand is that in the early 80s the DC metro area was around 3 million people. Recently, it has passed 5 million. Nothing like obscene military contractors and trade associations for trade associations to keep a city that never had an industrial past humming as other places are drifting (yes, there is actually an association of asssociations).
two recent developments are kind of strange: a new hipster strip on H. St.NE, a former riot corridot with no subway access, and the idea that DC's low-rise skyline needs space: if you can't go up, you have to go out. To that end, the city is trying to steer new development around the former no-man's land around the new baseball stadium off of S. Capitol. But this is coming just at the start of a construction recession so we'll see what happens. By the way, does anyone remember the strip club on 14th where Marion Barry was a VIP customer? It was, in giant lit up letters "This is It!
and who can forget amateur night at jps? and the awkward glances from the husbands of the women youre not tipping.
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