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Anonymous
| I went to Adams Morgan the other evening after a long absence and it was like the ninth circle of he'll. Still pleasant in daytime, but boy was it unpleasant by night. Every thuglife poser wannabe from MD and and VA and his/her friend overflowing the sidewalks, vomit everywhere, "I ought cap your ass" comments over parking spaces, and of course the ubiquitous pizza wrappers. It felt to this DC native like people coming in specifically to trash someone elses neighborhood. Sounds like gallery place is pretty unpleasant for people watching and an evening stroll too - unless you are the one throwing ice cubes and verbal assault at tourists. Then I guess it's fun? I am all about teens having something to do - not only social spaces but umpteen of my tax dollars paying for summer jobs programs and the like. But these seem to be young adult miscreants who think it's fun to harass, intimidate, front and steal (yesterdays WP) . As the mom of a son coming of age in the city, the kid nearly beaten to death at union station for his shoes made me sick to my stomach. We have programs to support youth in this city. Any word on what the mayor, council and police can do to crack down on the ones messing it up for everyone else? Any political will there? Chicago has been calling in the national guard to deal with it's anarchic crime - is DC headed to that? |
Anonymous
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Makes me think back to when Congress canceled money for midnight basketball because it seemed frivolous. But it's a good thing to keep young people busy at organized activities. Keeps 'em out of trouble! Not frivolous at all.
But I don't think there is any political will or funding these days to go to programs like that. |
Anonymous
| OP, the people fighting over parking spaces and littering pizza wrappers and vomit in Adams Morgan/Gallery Place are not DC teens -- they are (as you identified) yuppy singles, many from Maryland and Virginia, who drive in. Thus the need for parking spaces. A curfew is not going to touch this situation. Neither is midnight basketball or other teen activities. Maybe longer law firm hours? Or bigger parking garages? Less of a sense of entitlement? |
Anonymous
| I agree with 18:07. The Adams Morgan night people, especially, are the "Bridge and Tunnel" crowd, not DC teens. If you want to see the DC teen hot mess, go to Columbia Heights (around the Target). Not pretty. I can't stand being stuck in the Metro with them. Plus if you even make eye contact with one of the crazy acting ones you run the risk of being beat up. |
Anonymous
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More Violence at Gallery Place Metro Police break up a knife fight at Gallery Place Metro station hours after a new joint initiative to improve security. Video here: http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local-beat/More_Violence_at_Gallery_Place_Metro_Washington_DC.html |
Anonymous
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" Makes me think back to when Congress canceled money for midnight basketball because it seemed frivolous. But it's a good thing to keep young people busy at organized activities. Keeps 'em out of trouble! Not frivolous at all. "
Maybe because it does not seem unreasonable to expect parents to impose reasonable curfews on their kids and to know where they are. It does not seem like a great idea to let your teen go wandering around the city until close to midnight with hoards of friends. We need more police there, not activity programs. |
Anonymous
Nevertheless, activities work. Youth need productive activities to fill their free time. When they don't have that, problems occur whether they are rich or poor. It gets bad in the summer time because school's out and so you can't rely on that. To the PP's point, curfews help. But you can't tell teens they have to be home by sundown. They have to be home by law at midnight. I came from a decent part of the midwest, and that was the typical curfew for teens, especially upperclassmen. I don't see any parent telling them they need to be home by 9:30 or 10. |
Anonymous
| The crowd in Adams Morgan the night I was there did not strike me as especially yuppie. Yuppie hipsters I'm sure were about. This crowd did all have out of state plates when they disbursed, but the posturing was pretty 'thugalicious'. Is that how yuppies unwind from a day at the firm? I dunno; the crowd had an edge. Same as above poster, I tried to not 'look at anyone funny, keep my head down and get out - hopefully not to return to that particular scene. Early dining in AM from now on.... |
Anonymous
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I love the subtle racism in OP's post. What qualifies as "thugalicious"? What is a "thuglife poser wannabe"?
I'm 26, white, male, and often frequented the Adams Morgan nightlife. It is pretty shitty, for a variety of reasons. You have a lot of different groups contributing to the problems there, but the OP seems to want to single out a particular group without actually identifying it. Let's be honest, OP, are you talking about the young black men? Having been there, I've generally found the behavior of the young white folks far more vile; they are generally drunker, louder, and more out of control. A group of black kids hanging out on the hoods of their cars aren't bothersome to me. The drunk white kids running through the middle of the street screaming "JUMBO SLICE!" are far more of an issue. But those are just kids being kids... the black folks are thugs and nothing but trouble! |
Anonymous
| By thugalicious I'm referring to fronting like you are a thug, because you suppose that to be charming. Crude language galore, unnecessarily aggressive encounters like the woman who told my black husband 'i loughtta cap your ass' over a parking space. Whatever race, I did not find it appealing. Like I said, it's been a while since I'd been back and maybe I've aged out of seeing the whole urban pimps an ho's scene as fun. I'll take my wine bar anyday- and not in AM. If that's racist I'll live with it. By the way- I used to party hardy in the reggae clubs. What I bumped into the other night just wasn't a light and friendly vibe. And with the amount of alcohol and large foot crowds, just did not feel safe in any way. |
Anonymous
| Btw when Adams Morgan was overtaken by the year round college spring break crowd it was the first nail in the coffin for me. Total nuisance and for the life of me don't get the jumbo slice mania. But again, death threats over parking to me was a new low. |
Anonymous
Anytime someone says something about a black person they must be a racist. Since moving to the DC area the most racist people I've ever met have been African Americans. |
Anonymous
That's such stupid bullshit, I am tired of dealing with it. Did I say any comment about people of color is racist? No. But the language used is coded racism at its worst and I called it out as such. So get off your little high horse and deal with what I said instead of other things other people might have said. If you are going to qualify black folks as the most racist people you've ever met, you've got to back that up. As I so often need to repeat here, just saying something doesn't mean it's true... |
Anonymous
| NP here--PP, I don't understand your reference to alleged "coded racism." What code are we talking about? Seriously, I don't get it. You mention reference to the word thug. Well, personally, when I read "thug," I think: ill-behaved, bordering-on-criminal lowlife. I don't think of a skin color, I think of behavior, and possibly a manner of dress (one that isn't specific to one skin color, BTW). It's absurd to think that when someone complains of poor behavior or uses a standard English word, that automatically she is secretly accusing only black people. |
Anonymous
| Is there a magic decoder right that I can get to learn all the code words? Does it change color? |