80’s/90’s DC vs 2020’s DC-Biggest Similarities, Biggest Differences?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:True story:

Circa 1995 there was a big snowstorm that paralyzed the city, (it later came out that Barry had sold all the plows). I walked to work for a couple days. One evening I came home and right in front of my house is a Fox 5 News remote truck, with its satellite antenna up. So I go inside and turn on the TV to see what's going on, and the reporter is saying, "We're live in Northwest DC, where the plows are out clearing the street." And on cue, a plow comes down the street. The camera cuts away, the plow stops, and everyone packs up and leaves.

They plowed half a block, and then left a pile of snow in front of my house. That pile took two months to melt.

Or the time in 1987 when Mayor Barry was in California to watch the Super Bowl when a huge snowstorm hit DC. Instead of trying to return, he decided to stay in California to watch the game and then stayed a few extra days as DC was hit with a *second* snowstorm:

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/468000/today-in-d-c-history-marion-barry-the-super-bowl-and-the-blizzard-of-indifference/

Barry was the GOAT Mayor! Okay, maybe not but I seem to be able to laugh about it now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:True story:

Circa 1995 there was a big snowstorm that paralyzed the city, (it later came out that Barry had sold all the plows). I walked to work for a couple days. One evening I came home and right in front of my house is a Fox 5 News remote truck, with its satellite antenna up. So I go inside and turn on the TV to see what's going on, and the reporter is saying, "We're live in Northwest DC, where the plows are out clearing the street." And on cue, a plow comes down the street. The camera cuts away, the plow stops, and everyone packs up and leaves.

They plowed half a block, and then left a pile of snow in front of my house. That pile took two months to melt.

Or the time in 1987 when Mayor Barry was in California to watch the Super Bowl when a huge snowstorm hit DC. Instead of trying to return, he decided to stay in California to watch the game and then stayed a few extra days as DC was hit with a *second* snowstorm:

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/468000/today-in-d-c-history-marion-barry-the-super-bowl-and-the-blizzard-of-indifference/

My favorite part was when reporters started asking him why he was in San Diego and not helping with the response back in DC, he checked himself into the hospital complaining of chest pains. I remember watching the news and a family member spoke for everyone: "How convenient!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One big difference is that the commercial downtown is still in far worse shape now than in the 80s or 90s. Residential areas may have been worse decades ago but post-Covid the core of DC has never looked worse in terms of commercial vacancies, open drug use, and mentally ill people constantly making nuisances of themselves.

Are you kidding? In the 80's and 90's there was no part of DC that wasn't blighted. Even along K Street the public spaces were taken over by the homeless, there was a tent city on PA Ave.

[Anonymous]

I was here back then, and I thought DC was kind of boring. Restaurants (of which there were far fewer than there are now) were all super formal and a snooze..think lots of meat and potatoes. When Zaytinya opened, it was a HUGE deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:True story:

Circa 1995 there was a big snowstorm that paralyzed the city, (it later came out that Barry had sold all the plows). I walked to work for a couple days. One evening I came home and right in front of my house is a Fox 5 News remote truck, with its satellite antenna up. So I go inside and turn on the TV to see what's going on, and the reporter is saying, "We're live in Northwest DC, where the plows are out clearing the street." And on cue, a plow comes down the street. The camera cuts away, the plow stops, and everyone packs up and leaves.

They plowed half a block, and then left a pile of snow in front of my house. That pile took two months to melt.

Or the time in 1987 when Mayor Barry was in California to watch the Super Bowl when a huge snowstorm hit DC. Instead of trying to return, he decided to stay in California to watch the game and then stayed a few extra days as DC was hit with a *second* snowstorm:

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/468000/today-in-d-c-history-marion-barry-the-super-bowl-and-the-blizzard-of-indifference/

Barry was the GOAT Mayor! Okay, maybe not but I seem to be able to laugh about it now.

I can't laugh about it because people no longer agree that he was terrible. Doomed to repeat!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:White person here who grew up in Northwest DC in the 80s and early 90s. There weren’t many white kids growing up in DC then. They were the white kids at the private schools. Then there were maybe 20 to 40 white kids per grade at Wilson. That was about it. So most of the white kids all kind of knew each other. Like you might not actually know someone, but you’ve probably heard of him or had a friend in common.

There was a lot more crime and homeless people, even in places like Cleveland park.

City services were dreadful. Trash regularly did not get picked up on the appropriate day. Sometimes it didn’t get picked up all week. You couldn’t really figure out when it would get picked up, so if it didn’t get picked up on the right day, you would leave the trashcan at the curb in the hopes that it will get picked up the next day or the next day. But sometimes when you did that, the police would come through and ticket every trashcan. It seemed deliberate. Don’t pick up the trash, then ticket people!

Snow plowing barely happened, which was relevant because it snowed more back then.

There were a ton more movie theaters. Movie theaters all up and down Wisconsin Avenue and Connecticut.

Way fewer restaurants.

I left DC in 2010 so I don’t actually know what it’s like now. Now I live in Macgomery County and the difference in services is absolutely amazing. Trash gets picked up when it supposed to get picked up. Streets get plowed. It’s kind of boring out here though. I only left because I couldn’t afford to buy a house in DC.

Honestly the only thing that was better about DC back then is that it was cheaper. Normal, middle class or upper middle class people could afford to live in places like Cleveland Park and Wesley Park. Like a government worker and a stay at home mom could afford a house in Cleveland Park. Now you need massive wealth to live in those neighborhoods

This post is spot-on.

Just a few more observations:

1) DC seemed more Southern. I remember a friend who relocated from NYC in the ‘80s would complain about how much slower the clerks were at Peoples.

2) People were in general nicer. It seemed more neighborly, and like a small town.

3) There were not NewYorkers everywhere.

4) People looked at you askance if your kids went to DCPS, even if it was to Wilson feeders.

5) There was another thread about this that talked about Tracks and other fun things.

This is awesome. What was Peoples? Where was it located? I can see people thinking DC was Southern, as a lot of people who moved to DC were from the South.

Peoples Drug was a regional convenience store/pharmacy chain that CVS bought up in 1990.

Thank you for the history. Those regional stores were a part of the character of the community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the 1990s you did not go east of 13th Street in the CBD. The area around what is now the Verizon Center was a pedestrian mall (F Street was closed) that was filled with addicts, dealers and the homeless. On the Hill, no one went north of E Street on the NE side or south of G on the SE side or east of Lincoln Park. What is now Union Market was the Eckington warehouses where you could go get wholesale flowers. 8th Street SE had a lesbian bar called the Phase and a decent Salvadoran restaurant and the street was really rough to walk down. The city government was exclusively Chocolate City and Marion Barry controlled. City services were abysmal. Tony Williams did a LOT to improve the DC bureaucracy by getting rid of all the people who had gotten patronage jobs and did no work. The school system was so, so much worse. The schools did not start on time in the fall because DCPS was incapable of getting books out of warehouses and delivered to the schools. There were no crazy white progressive politicians on the Council like there are now.

Even though there was a lot of petty crime, and shootings among drug crews, carjackings were not a thing and violent juveniles were locked up more frequently. So there was not the overarching sense that juveniles could commit crime with total impunity like there is now. Also, while there were homeless people you did not have the tent culture that proliferates now.

Most of what you write is spot-on, but carjackings were definitely a thing in the 1980s and '90s. It got so bad that the DC Council passed emergency legislation in 1992 that installed manadatory minimums on carjacking:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1992/10/07/dc-council-passes-carjacking-laws/6079515d-5007-43a5-a7de-7c1924f562c4/

That’s crazy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:True story:

Circa 1995 there was a big snowstorm that paralyzed the city, (it later came out that Barry had sold all the plows). I walked to work for a couple days. One evening I came home and right in front of my house is a Fox 5 News remote truck, with its satellite antenna up. So I go inside and turn on the TV to see what's going on, and the reporter is saying, "We're live in Northwest DC, where the plows are out clearing the street." And on cue, a plow comes down the street. The camera cuts away, the plow stops, and everyone packs up and leaves.

They plowed half a block, and then left a pile of snow in front of my house. That pile took two months to melt.

I remember the storm but hadn't heard about Barry selling plows. It was true, though, that suburban contractors refused to plow in DC. I'm not sure if they were accused of racism, but the real reason was because DC wasn't paying its bills and they weren't going to plow for nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was here back then, and I thought DC was kind of boring. Restaurants (of which there were far fewer than there are now) were all super formal and a snooze..think lots of meat and potatoes. When Zaytinya opened, it was a HUGE deal.

Let’s be real, until about 10-15 years ago the restaurant scene in DC has been god awful. Bar and grill everything. The Palm and Nora were fine dining. It was all midwestern tastes at corporate expense account prices.

[Anonymous]

I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned the shows at Fort Reno! The center of my high school social life during the Summer in the late 80s/early 90s!

[Anonymous]

Then: the Bullets sucked

Now: the Wizards suck

But at least you can take Metro to go see them.

Also, more bars had more live music and more often

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe nobody’s mentioned the shows at Fort Reno! The center of my high school social life during the Summer in the late 80s/early 90s!

Those still go on, actually!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One big difference is that the commercial downtown is still in far worse shape now than in the 80s or 90s. Residential areas may have been worse decades ago but post-Covid the core of DC has never looked worse in terms of commercial vacancies, open drug use, and mentally ill people constantly making nuisances of themselves.

Are you kidding? In the 80's and 90's there was no part of DC that wasn't blighted. Even along K Street the public spaces were taken over by the homeless, there was a tent city on PA Ave.

Not really throughout the 90’s. My office moved to Columbia Square when it was new in the late 80’s because the developer was a client and we were surrounded by crime and blight. But the area improved quickly and was fine by the mid-90’s. Same with Capitol Hill. It was dangerous in the 80’s, but improved dramatically throughout the 90’s. The Union Station remodel was done in 1988, and it really was the stimulus for change. It’s so sad to see it return to the state it is in now.

The difference now is that there are more affluent people living and working in the high crime areas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The people who moved here in the 1990s (as I did) knew that DC had a serious crime problem and handled ourselves accordingly. The people who move here now think DC will be the same as Hartford or Omaha or Westchester or whatever whitebread area they come from and are shocked to find that DC still has big-city problems.

You can find these nitwits in the Popville comments section.

Not that familiar with Hartford, are you? DC is quite a bit nicer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The people who moved here in the 1990s (as I did) knew that DC had a serious crime problem and handled ourselves accordingly. The people who move here now think DC will be the same as Hartford or Omaha or Westchester or whatever whitebread area they come from and are shocked to find that DC still has big-city problems.

You can find these nitwits in the Popville comments section.

I am blown away by when/where I see people walking around with phones out and air pods in.

And what's with the women wearing short skirts and tight leggings? Are they trying to get raped?