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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Today when there is a snowstorm, the streets are somewhat plowed.

No that’s a real perk worth celebrating, because I can’t even imagine what traffic was like back then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Similar - flowering trees and tulips everywhere in the spring in the nice neighborhoods and federal parks. As one example: Cleveland Park

Different - formerly depressed neighborhoods have gentrified and now have flowering trees and tulips everywhere, in yards that used to be mud and needles in front of literal crack houses. As one example: Shaw

Thank you.

[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.

Hartford isn’t whitebread. It is Baltimore Jr.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Similar - flowering trees and tulips everywhere in the spring in the nice neighborhoods and federal parks. As one example: Cleveland Park

Different - formerly depressed neighborhoods have gentrified and now have flowering trees and tulips everywhere, in yards that used to be mud and needles in front of literal crack houses. As one example: Shaw

This. Blocks and blocks of the city were visibly derelict. I remember the houses along New York Avenue used to have things like rotten bay windows or plywood covering windows. It was really bad. I can't believe so many people want to bring those days back.

Do you think it’s because most of those Councilmembers did not live in the District back then and are naive about how bad things were or could become?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The people were much realer, not as many country bumpkins from the middle of nowhere south or midwest coming here and thinking DC is Disneyland. A positive is it's safer

Thank you. Sometimes I also wonder how people come to a major city and still expect it to resemble the rolling plains, hills, mountains of rural communities they came from.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:More expensive.
Less poetry / open mics
Less art
Less small business
Less great food with large portions
Knew my neighbors

Reading this makes me sad. A lot of this should be brought back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember 14th St. used to be empty (above about R). It was a place you largely avoided on foot if you could.

Yes I’ve heard some legendary stories about 14th st.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mass Ave between like 11th Street NW and Union Station was entirely filled with either abandoned buildings or parking lots. Now it's condos and offices as far as the eye can see.

The liquor stores were closed on Sundays.

Yes but Union Station is suffering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:90s—When looking for parking in Adams Morgan, there were homeless guys who would stand in open spaces and direct you to park there. Of course, a small tip was expected.

Today—Uber, bike lanes, bike & scooter rentals are everywhere mean you don’t always have to drive and park

That’s a very big difference

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is especially for longtime DC residents. What are the biggest similarities and differences between the 80’s/90’s DC and the 2020’s DC? I imagine the various Councils and the Mayors managed crime, housing, taxes and schools very differently than today, but what was similar and what is different?

Biggest difference is that I was young and single and thin and having such a great time!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There were lots more more Black people and way fewer wealthy people.

I'd forgotten about all the vacant properties, but even 20 years ago there were still lots of boarded up properties in Shaw. We didn't have the green line until what, the mid-90s?

Fewer restaurants. No bike lanes or dog parks (LOL).

Wealthier parts of the city look pretty much the same with development on some of the main corridors or the outskirts. But that housing stock is locked in.

Really? I’ve always heard DC was a haven for wealthy Blacks and middle to upper middle class Blacks as well as wealthy Whites who lived in very specific neighborhoods.

[Anonymous]

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

Thank you. This is an amazing post and perspective. I really appreciate you for sharing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TRACKS! Oh man I remember being at Tracks one time and someone put some incendiary device under a car. Good times, those were.

Tracks, the Vault, Cities, Kilimanjaro. Great times!

[Anonymous]

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

Oh I sort of miss typed. There are also plenty of white kids in the public elementary schools. I was talking about high school kids

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I remember 14th St. used to be empty (above about R). It was a place you largely avoided on foot if you could.

+1 And 14th was a sort of line of demarcation (similar to 96th Street in Manhattan around the same time) and you didn’t go east of there unless you lived in the neighborhood. Lots of places that burned or were otherwise abandoned after 1968 that hadn’t changed at all.
I grew up going out in Georgetown, DuPont, Adams Morgan. Now everyone in their early 20s goes to places like the Wharf, which didn’t exist then, or H Street which might as well not have. I have a friend who bought a place near Gallaudet in the mid-late 90s - it had bullet holes in the facade and the second floor was completely rotted. He couldn’t get pizza delivered there and cabs refused to take him home. I had another friend who moved just north and east of Logan around that same time - I went to grab smokes at the 7-11 (it’s now a coffee place) around the corner one night and a guy came in who had been stabbed and he was bleeding all over the floor.

Wow. Sounds like tough times but also amazing times.