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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The amount of good dive bars we used to have compared with now is striking. Crow Bar. Mr. Eagan's. The Townhouse Tavern coke den. Fox and Hounds before they cleaned it up and got rid of the good jukebox. Any number of places in Georgetown. We actually stopped into Post Pub the other night and it was great. Our server was about 80 and was not having any of our BS. Don't see that much here anymore.

+1

[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

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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 on the last Tuesday of the month was Ladies Night. It was great in the summers with the volleyball court. I remember a second date with my now wife. Thirty years, a house and two kids later we’re still kicking’ it. Yes, good times. 😀

What was Tracks? It sounds like a great place.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The whores walked up and down 14th St.

Now the whores run lobbying and law firms on 14th St.

Lol. Crazy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Just DC's own bumpkins. DC was a small, sleepy southern town.

Thank you

[Anonymous]

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.

+100 Tony Williams was amazing and the best mayor the city has ever had. The carjackers, tent cities, decline of Union Station and weed smoke EVERYWHERE adds a certain pervasive type of negativity to the city that did not exist in the past.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

14th street was for hookers.

Is that huge homeless shelter at 14th and R still there? That also contributed to the 'vibrancy' of 14th St.

Please don’t bother to post if you can’t keep up with what’s going on. The building was sold almost 10 years ago.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/where-we-live/post/central-union-missions-move-means-new-condos-on-14th-street/2013/02/11/adae3f3e-6fb9-11e2-aa58-243de81040ba_blog.html

It’s gone now

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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!

And the after work bars-turn dance clubs on L near DuPont, and the billiards places. I like WFH now, but am glad it did not exist when I was in my 20s downtown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

14th street was for hookers.

Is that huge homeless shelter at 14th and R still there? That also contributed to the 'vibrancy' of 14th St.

Please don’t bother to post if you can’t keep up with what’s going on. The building was sold almost 10 years ago.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/where-we-live/post/central-union-missions-move-means-new-condos-on-14th-street/2013/02/11/adae3f3e-6fb9-11e2-aa58-243de81040ba_blog.html

Yeah LOL luxury leather brand Shinola occupies the ground floor and the rest is condos. Come unto me capitalist excess!

Nice

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Half the city looked bombed out. The difference between then and today is amazing.

I remember the giant hole that eventually became DC USA.

What was there before?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whores walked up and down 14th St.

Now the whores run lobbying and law firms on 14th St.

Lol at this!

I'd add Marion Barry. Incredibly different from Marion Bowser!

What are the biggest differences between them? They seem totally different to me but people try to compare them and I don’t understand why.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whores walked up and down 14th St.

Now the whores run lobbying and law firms on 14th St.

I used to work a night shift job around there back in the late 90s. The only place open in that area (Thomas Circle) to get a snack was the CVS. It would be me and the hookers in line to check out. We weren't friends, but we recognized each other and we'd each joke how the other was "working" that night.

That seems sweet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The whores walked up and down 14th St.

Now the whores run lobbying and law firms on 14th St.

I used to work a night shift job around there back in the late 90s. The only place open in that area (Thomas Circle) to get a snack was the CVS. It would be me and the hookers in line to check out. We weren't friends, but we recognized each other and we'd each joke how the other was "working" that night.

Yeah, I used to work nights at 15th and L and it was part of the stroll back then. A buddy of mine got accused by a pimp of trying to muscle in on his turf when he was just outside the building having a smoke.

That’s crazy and scary.

[Anonymous]

The relative newcomers just don't know how insane the taxi system used to be with the zones, where you knew where to get dropped off to avoid crossing a zone line and the driver would always argue with you (or take you on some cockamamie route that crossed a number of zone lines). And that the taxi lobby used to be massively powerful in DC and successfully blocked meters for years.

Other than coming home from National, where cabs truly are a better deal than Uber (easier to catch a cab from there, too), I'm not sure I've taken a cab in decades, but they still seem to be all over the place.