I had a friend who lived next door ro an open air drug market in Langley Park (yeah I know it's not Capitol Hill but bear with me.) He actually felt safer -- the kids watched his house and were very courteous to him. Matter of fact, I can attest to the fact that when I would be helping some little old lady get her groceries inside in such neighborhoods, a lot of times the guys selling drugs would help. Yeah there was self-interest there -- business didn't happen while I was there with my radio going blocking the courtyard, but bottom line these were often nice kids who did not see that they had any other way to make a living. But you also did not want to show up arrogant and drunk and flashing money usually....I saw a lot of people get in trouble that way.
Anyway, what you say is true but ... people still got shot closing their curtains; one woman got shot driving her son home from choir practice. And there are feral children in some of the neighborhoods... Bottom line. The Supreme Court, the library of Congress, the museums are all pretty safe during the day. At night the federal core is lonely and yes, there are predators, and yes, there are open-air drug markets very close to downtown and the Hill. ::shrug:: The place has its points. It's one of the more beautiful and most interesting cities in the world. But you should be careful where you walk at night, just like you should in Paris, London or New York. On Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 10:28 PM, Robert Munn <cfmuns...@gmail.com> wrote: > > On Mon, Aug 3, 2009 at 9:15 PM, Dana wrote: > > > > > He's just being a jerk. It's actually rather white for DC, if we MUST > think > > of it in terms of race -- all those senators and supreme court justices, > > yanno. But those million-dollar townhomes are sometimes within a couple > of > > blocks of crack markets, housing projects and various other desperate > > people. I am not saying don't go there. I used to drive through the there > > all the time when I lived in Annapolis and in Prince George's County. But > > know where you are. > > > > I lived on Capitol HIll for three years, both in the "nice" section at 2nd > and C St SE and in a "borderline" section at 10th and C St NE. Mixed > neighborhood in some ways, but the farther away you go from the Capitol, > the > less white yuppie it gets. I rather preferred 10th and C NE, and locals > rarely get targeted unless they are participating in the drug trade. > > There were definitely sketchy characters - one of my neighbors did seven > years for robbing a bank when he was 19 (apparently no one told him that > 99% > of bank robberies end in capture of the robbers). Another neighbor was in > and out of prison, with the rest of the neighbors on the block lobbying the > parole board to keep him in jail. Nevertheless, you do not want to venture > out on Capitol Hill if you don't know where you are going. > > Safety is a block by block concern on the Hill. One block could be safe, > the > next block could have an open-air drug market with guys offering > drive-through service. 16th and C St NE used to be the spot, and twice a > month some poor fool, usually a young black man from another neighborhood, > would turn up dead in his car with several bullet holes in him. > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:301401 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
