Reply to R.I.P. Pursuit Wine Bar. Another innocent victim and casualty of DC’s out of control crime

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Reply to "R.I.P. Pursuit Wine Bar. Another innocent victim and casualty of DC’s out of control crime"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The reason that DC businesses are closing isn’t so much because of crime but because they need more customers.  More density and vibrancy will bring more customers.[/quote]

People start avoiding places when there's a huge increase in crime. Eventually, people even start moving away. I've been surprised by the number of long-time acquaintances (including people from here) I've talked to recently who have started looking into moving elsewhere.

I agree that it's probably a combination of factors, but crime seems to be one of the biggest issues dragging the city down at this point.[/quote]

H Street resident here and yes, it's a confluence of factors, but I'm not sure you understand the interplay.

ALL of this links back to Covid. People stayed home during Covid because they had to. Businesses were closed. As things reopened, crowds didn't come back at the same levels. Prices absolutely went up, for various reasons, and that dampened enthusiasm for returning to prior levels. Also some businesses didn't survive the shit down, and fewer places overall made H less of a destination. All of this happened independent of the crime issues.

But the crime issues worsened during this time. When everything closed, we saw big increases in vagrancy and loitering along H. Without more people out and about, this contributed to a sense of unease. Panhandling increased. Crime was going up in the city all over, but the shuttered businesses and more of[b] a sense of lawlessness [/b]I think really encouraged crime on a H.

And then of course the crime, panhandling, and vagrancy has an impact on businesses, and it spirals down. It's been very frustrating to watch.[/quote]

That's the part that has people staying away. I lived here in the 90s and the insane levels of crime didn't happen to people on their way home from church. Now anywhere anytime and you could be a victim.
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