Submitted by sg8910 t3_10puw1t in washingtondc
rectalhorror t1_j6nk4z6 wrote
Reply to comment by swampoodler in Anyone miss the old DC? by sg8910
Born and raised in DC. Parents moved out to the burbs in 1975 because living in Southeast was starting to get sketchy and the schools were terrible and Marion Barry was Marion Barry. Spent my teen years in the '80s going to punk shows at the old 930 Club and DCSPACE and the Wilson Center and it was great: the whole town shut down at 7pm and we had it all to ourselves and we never felt unsafe because the real violent crime was in Wards 7 & 8. Yeah, you had sex workers walking 14th Street into the '90s, but they didn't give us any trouble. Post COVID DC means the crime isn't localized anymore; it's in every ward. I'd suggest it all started when Lanier disbanded the vice squads to focus on the high end drug dealers, leaving the street level crews to fend for themselves. So a decade later, with pot legal, those crews are fighting over smaller territories for fewer dollars. DC SHOULD be able to prosecute the top ten percent of criminals committing the 60% of the violent crime AND provide intervention for those kids before they become repeat offenders, but my lifetime in DC has shown me they're incapable of being able to chew gum and walk at the same time.
unenlightenedgoblin t1_j6nn2vi wrote
I’ve lived in several cities and never seen a place that was as hypocritical as DC. It’s the most partisan jurisdiction in the United States, and there’s always all this high-minded rhetoric (performative), but then people are extremely reactionary to crime and homelessness. Every white person I’ve ever met in the District is a nakedly-ambitious socio-political chameleon from a comfortable upper-middle class upbringing. Like there is literally not a working class white neighborhood anywhere in the DMV. It’s caused me to resent many people here.
1800TurdFerguson t1_j6olaak wrote
Has there ever been a white working class neighborhood in DC? Serious question. Maybe late 19th century? Georgetown and its shipyards and mills were a separate city until 1871. Even then it was in a state of decline, at least from a commercial perspective. DC didn’t crack 100K in population until the 1860s.
DC grew rapidly in the first half of the 20th century, but what was the breakdown between blue and white collar population growth? I’d suspect if was more the latter than the former.
Zoroasker t1_j6omgdo wrote
Yes, there certainly were white working class neighborhoods back in the day.
1800TurdFerguson t1_j6ooql2 wrote
Where? Foggy Bottom? Petworth? What was considered a white working class neighborhood in Old DC?
Zoroasker t1_j6op327 wrote
Swampoodle was one. I think some areas EOTR also qualify but I’m a bit foggy on the particulars. From my research the area I live in originally housed white working class people around the turn of the century versus Kingman Park next door which is known for being originally sold to middle-class blacks.
unenlightenedgoblin t1_j6p0266 wrote
I mean DC ran on slavery right up until the war, so much less of a white working class than comparable Northeast and Midwest, but it was certainly still present. Swampoodle (NoMA today) has a pretty well documented history of white working class settlement. In terms of the working class overall, large portions of the city saw the removal of small, affordable alley homes in 20th century urban renewal schemes. Not only did this erase naturally-affordable housing in dynamic, mixed-income areas, it also shifted the geography of poverty such that it became concentrated in the new top-down housing projects that were built in their place. Most of the poor whites gtfo’ed after this happened (the King riots basically closing the door completely).
I’m from the Rust Belt so it was a huge culture shock for me. The black culture in DC is richer (both financially and culturally) but otherwise not substantially different from my hometown. The white people in each city though live in completely different worlds.
1800TurdFerguson t1_j6p40w4 wrote
But those white working class populations were often ethnic enclaves. Look at Boston or Chicago. One of the largest mass lynchings was perpetrated against Italians in New Orleans. The Crescent City has a long history of various white ethnic groups migrating to the city - Greeks, Italians, Irish, Slavs (mostly Croats). I’m not that aware of DC’s early industrial history, but I’m not aware of the city having those kinds of ethnic population centers.
unenlightenedgoblin t1_j6p5b73 wrote
It was certainly never a Chicago or New York-style ethnic patchwork. Especially historically DC had a lot of cultural influence from the US South (including, critically in the migration context and as you alluded to in New Orleans—zealous anti-Catholic sentiment. There historically are not many Catholics in the South, literally because of terrorist threats against them.)
My main point isn’t to explore in-depth how this developed, but rather to illustrate the way that explicitly-racialized patterns of poverty and privilege are much more apparent in DC, despite it being one of the nation’s most diverse. I think it also explains a lot of national political trends. I truly think most people in DC have only a superficial understanding of the extent of white poverty in the United States, and the McLean and Potomac types are just about the most privileged people in the entire world. It ain’t like that back home, or in much of the country. White people around DC will acknowledge this to some extent, but I don’t think they’re truly aware. The result is a national race and class narrative that is disproportionately influenced by the existing divides in the DMV, while simultaneously tonedeaf in terms of their own contributions toward upholding or benefitting from these inequalities.
1800TurdFerguson t1_j6p7g8z wrote
I’d argue that someone who hasn’t seen it up close can’t really appreciate how bad it is for some people. Poor people in this area are relatively more affluent than those in many parts of the country. Parts of Alabama are seeing a resurgence of illnesses we largely eliminated through modern sanitation, and Mississippi’s largest city can’t keep the water flowing to its residents. People who haven’t been through those parts of the country, or Appalachia, or probably even some long-forgotten Rust Belt towns, haven’t experienced it. It’s a lot different when you have a poor (or poorly run) state with a ramshackle social safety net. A lot of people are poor here, but there are people living in desperate, abject poverty in other parts of the country…including some not far from here. It’s almost like we live in different countries than they do.
Mayonnaise_Sunrise t1_j6noyt9 wrote
I have a similar situation, accept you are slightly older. I was born and raised in Annandale, but my Dad's side of the family has been in DC since the 1800s. He moved out of the city in the 70s (he grew up in Anacostia / Fairlawn). Anyway, I started hanging out and going to punk and hardcore shows in the early 90s (Chamber Of Sound, Asylum, old 930, old Black Cat, random church halls). I was taking the metro around town by myself or with a few friends at age 14/15/16, and the empty city felt like our playground. It was great, can't really say I ever felt unsafe. Outside of the 14th Street hookers, or maybe some eccentric homeless person rapping or singing for money it really wasn't that bad for us at all. Met a lot of good friends I still have today roaming around the city going to shows back then too. That's the old DC I miss.
I also use to spend summers (late 80s-early 90s) working with my Dad and his plumbing business. We would be at Atlantic Plumbing Supply by 630am which was usually filled with a group of colorful characters cracking jokes and carrying on...then off to job sites throughout the city by 8am...I can still smell the wharf in the hot summer air to this day. What a magical time.
1800TurdFerguson t1_j6oizvp wrote
I’ve seen sex workers on 12th, 14th and on K Street within the last decade.
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