Anonymous wrote:Late 90s / Early 2000s = things were always getting slightly better

Now = things always getting slightly worse

This is the best summation. Hands down.

In the 80s/90s downtown was still a shopping mecca. The huge Woodies, the Hecht Co, Garfinkel’s, etc. Along Connecticut Ave there was Raleigh’s, a large Gap (across the street from where Shake Shack is today), Burberry’s, Brooks Bros, etc. There was also a popular xxx district along 9th street near Gallery Place.

Today, downtown still has a fair amount of retail but mostly on the high end in and around the part of downtown branded as Center City. Downtown’s flagship Macy’s is doing alright, but lacks the charm, panache or massive size of the old venerable Woodies with its restaurant.

Things I miss from the 90s:
Georgetown had scruffy stores like a Peruvian Alpaca place where I got a really nice scarf.
DC had actual ethnic restaurants inside its border. Columbia Heights had lots of good ones.

Coffee shops! (That weren't Starbucks). Oh, I do miss them.

Dupont Circle was where all the young professionals lived. So many young hot people in suits. And I was one of them!

There was public access community TV and it was great.

Things I don't miss from the 90s:

There were random cabs that would pick up lots of people and weren't marked and were very confusing.

Lots of grifters on the National Mall were trying to scam tourists.

Things that are better now:
So many restaurants that are good and not just tourist traps or lobbyist traps.

Indoor swimming pools, playgrounds, and rec centers are much improved.

Things that are the same:

The terrible food trucks on the National Mall.
Why?

Anonymous wrote:Such a thread.

Then:

Maggie's and Armand's for pizza (and underage drinking)

Little Tavern for deathballs.

The 9:30 Club was a tiny, dank room with a column in the middle of the "stage" that you had to walk down a 1/2 mile long hall to get to.

Now:

&Pizza and a bunch of other chains (no underage drinking, but plenty of vaping and toking).

5 Guys

The 9:30 Club is a good sized venu that is a good place to see a show.

9"30 club was a firetrap. I remember that!

Late 90s / Early 2000s = things were always getting slightly better

Now = things always getting slightly worse

Anonymous wrote:Such a thread.

Then:

Maggie's and Armand's for pizza (and underage drinking)

Little Tavern for deathballs.

The 9:30 Club was a tiny, dank room with a column in the middle of the "stage" that you had to walk down a 1/2 mile long hall to get to.

Now:

&Pizza and a bunch of other chains (no underage drinking, but plenty of vaping and toking).

5 Guys

The 9:30 Club is a good sized venu that is a good place to see a show.

And they're about to open a full-scale reconstruction of the old club!

Anonymous wrote:Such a thread.

Then:

Maggie's and Armand's for pizza (and underage drinking)

Little Tavern for deathballs.

The 9:30 Club was a tiny, dank room with a column in the middle of the "stage" that you had to walk down a 1/2 mile long hall to get to.

Now:

&Pizza and a bunch of other chains (no underage drinking, but plenty of vaping and toking).

5 Guys

The 9:30 Club is a good sized venu that is a good place to see a show.

Love this comparison

Anonymous wrote:I bought a new car in 1997 at a dealership in Rockville. As a DC resident, they would not do the vehicle registration and get plates for me. Said I was on my own. When I got to the DMV I learned why.

They had a reverse Jim Crowe system in which I, as a white person, was expected to stand to the side and wait while black people behind me in line were serviced. When it was finally my turn, the clerk refused my valid DC driver's license as appropriate ID to register the vehicle. I had to pitch a fit in front of a supervisor to get plates.

You can't make this stuff up.

Do you still live in DC or are you in the suburbs?

Such a thread.

Then:

Maggie's and Armand's for pizza (and underage drinking)

Little Tavern for deathballs.

The 9:30 Club was a tiny, dank room with a column in the middle of the "stage" that you had to walk down a 1/2 mile long hall to get to.

Now:

&Pizza and a bunch of other chains (no underage drinking, but plenty of vaping and toking).

5 Guys

The 9:30 Club is a good sized venu that is a good place to see a show.

Biggest difference between now and then is that back then there wasn’t a group of apologists for criminals.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is a lot nicer today
Lower crime

You must be joking. Raford Edmonds? Hello?

Did you mean Rayful Edmond?

This thread has been so informative.

Anonymous wrote:DC is a lot nicer today
Lower crime

You must be joking. Raford Edmonds? Hello?

Anonymous wrote:

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

I guess this is supposed to be a jab at white people (which I understand is socially acceptable), but how do you think DC became Chocolate City? It was the "country bumpkins" moving up from the South. But they were Black.

I can tell you didn't live here in the 80s or 90s because if you did you would know that black people who have newly moved up from the south are called bamas, not country bumpkins

I think the point the PP as trying to make is that people moving to DC from far-away rural areas in nothing new, and it's certainly not limited to white people. Hence why the reference to southern rural blacks was in quotes.