we lived a block away from 1994 to 2016 - this particularly stretch of U has always been a no man's land - the difference is people coming in from the burbs now expect all of the area to be like Bethesda Row and its not - in some ways for the better, in others for the worse. Rats have been in dense urban environments for centuries, they have tunnels running under the sidewalks and stoops and it is a constant battle with all of the food garbage from the restaurants, people come to a bar area and public urination occurs - that has also been a problem for decades. Delicate flowers should stick w/ the chain restaurants at the mall or use valet parking @ Le Dip, DC has bigger problems to address than this.

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Anonymous wrote:I don't know anyone from NOVA who ventures down there anymore. It's just not worth it.

Interesting, because I don't know anyone who lives in the city and goes to NOVA for anything. Although that's not a recent thing.

So you don’t know anyone who has flown out of National Airport?

I stand corrected--the airport! And trips to the cemetery every 10 years while playing tour guide. But in terms of restaurants, bars, stores, etc., there's no reason to go to NOVA.

+1. And what a silly retort. Yes, you have to leave to city to get to an airport. Duh.

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Anonymous wrote:You all just sound so old. You really do.

Because we don't want to deal with rats, public drug use and public urination in our neighborhoods? Let's see how you feel about this when you can afford to buy a house.

Lol, I own three houses worth a combined $3.5 million. My primary residence is a rowhome within a block of 14th and U with a Redfin estimate of $1.8 million.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know anyone from NOVA who ventures down there anymore. It's just not worth it.

Interesting, because I don't know anyone who lives in the city and goes to NOVA for anything. Although that's not a recent thing.

So you don’t know anyone who has flown out of National Airport?

I stand corrected--the airport! And trips to the cemetery every 10 years while playing tour guide. But in terms of restaurants, bars, stores, etc., there's no reason to go to NOVA.

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Anonymous wrote:I live near 14th and U. OP is laser focused on one particularly bad - and notorious - corner of a single block and generalizing about the whole city on that basis. Pretty ridiculous.

No. The OP is asking how the city can allow such a bad situation to occur in that area. It’s a fair question.

It’s a big city. It’s one corner. It’s slated for massive redevelopment. How’s that for an answer?

Why was it allowed to fester for years and why does it need to wait years to fix?

Blah blah blah. Just avoid the neighborhood if you can’t take the bad with the good. More room for the rest of us.

You know, I'm a DC native (EOTR), and I love the city. But damn if I don't hate the attitude that you're just supposed to put up with the bad parts.

No one is saying that. I’m just pointing out that OP literally fixated on the worst corner in the whole neighborhood, literally, and painted the whole city with her ridiculous observation. Yes, it’s a bad corner. That’s the only reason she was able to find a parking spot near there. And my point in response is that yes, it’s a bad corner, but they’re about to clean it up and turn it into a show piece.

PP's exact words:

Just avoid the neighborhood if you can’t take the bad with the good.

Certainly seems to imply you're just supposed to take it.

They don’t live in the neighborhood. I do, and I like it. If they don’t like it, they don’t have to come. We don’t need them.

What do you like about it?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know anyone from NOVA who ventures down there anymore. It's just not worth it.

Interesting, because I don't know anyone who lives in the city and goes to NOVA for anything. Although that's not a recent thing.

So you don’t know anyone who has flown out of National Airport?

Anonymous wrote:You all just sound so old. You really do.

Because we don't want to deal with rats, public drug use and public urination in our neighborhoods? Let's see how you feel about this when you can afford to buy a house.

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Anonymous wrote:The pot smell is pervasive everywhere in DC - we were in chinatown last week visiting the Portrait Gallery and it was rampant. That's what happens with legal pot.

It used to be like that with legal cigarettes, only inside too.

While tobacco smells gross. The smell of skunks is absolutely disgusting, lingers longer and is much more pervasive.

You only smell cigarettes outdoors while people are actively smoking. You can smell weed in outdoor settings for extended periods of time while the smoker is long gone. Not only that, you can only smell cigarettes in your car if both you and a smoker have your windows down, they are next to you and traffic is stopped. I can drive at 30 MPH with windows up and still get skunk smell in my car.

It’s a major nuisance.

I disagree, I think cigarette smoke is as pervasive as pot smoke, and I personally find cigarette smoke to be much worse. If I had to smell one or the other, I'd rather smell pot smoke.

Sure you find it personally more disgusting. That’s a personal preference thing and subjective. What is objective is that the smell of skunk lingers in ways outdoors that cigarette smells do not.

I don't think that's objective at all. Cigarette smoke lingers too.

DP. Cigarette smoke is truly disgusting, but there is something awful about the way pot smells these days that makes it just as bad IMO. I swear pot didn't used to smell this bad.

I've noticed that too! When I was in college and people smoked or when I lived in the city after college, I remember the smell being more similar to clove cigarettes or that incense people sold on the street. I wasn't crazy about it, but it wasn't affirmatively offensive. Now at least some of it smells like skunk. Why is that? I wouldn't imagine that would be a great marketing tool or incentivize people to smoke.
To my mind, cigarette smoke seems to linger more (or equally long) in fabric (rugs, car upholstery, jackets, etc.), whereas the pot smell does seem to linger longer in the air. You can't smell cigarette smoke walking down the street unless the person is right there smoking or JUST put it out.

Anonymous wrote:I don't know anyone from NOVA who ventures down there anymore. It's just not worth it.

Interesting, because I don't know anyone who lives in the city and goes to NOVA for anything. Although that's not a recent thing.

You all just sound so old. You really do.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:The pot smell is pervasive everywhere in DC - we were in chinatown last week visiting the Portrait Gallery and it was rampant. That's what happens with legal pot.

It used to be like that with legal cigarettes, only inside too.

While tobacco smells gross. The smell of skunks is absolutely disgusting, lingers longer and is much more pervasive.

You only smell cigarettes outdoors while people are actively smoking. You can smell weed in outdoor settings for extended periods of time while the smoker is long gone. Not only that, you can only smell cigarettes in your car if both you and a smoker have your windows down, they are next to you and traffic is stopped. I can drive at 30 MPH with windows up and still get skunk smell in my car.

It’s a major nuisance.

I disagree, I think cigarette smoke is as pervasive as pot smoke, and I personally find cigarette smoke to be much worse. If I had to smell one or the other, I'd rather smell pot smoke.

Sure you find it personally more disgusting. That’s a personal preference thing and subjective. What is objective is that the smell of skunk lingers in ways outdoors that cigarette smells do not.

I don't think that's objective at all. Cigarette smoke lingers too.

DP. Cigarette smoke is truly disgusting, but there is something awful about the way pot smells these days that makes it just as bad IMO. I swear pot didn't used to smell this bad.

Nothing you described is unique to that area of the city. It's like that in most places. I saw someone taking a mid-day dump in a tree box near Metro Center not too long ago. Last week I saw delivery drivers smoking pot on K street at 11:00 am on a Tuesday. The rats seem to have gotten somewhat better recently, but they are still an issue.

The particular intersection where you were--14th and U--hasn't been great for many years. But as PPs have pointed out, the Reeves Center is slated for redevelopment so I would expect a lot of the loiterers to go elsewhere.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yeah it’s bad. I have friends what own a place a block off 14th and the rats basically hang out with them in their backyard. It’s gross.

Yea and their place is worth $1.5 million plus - at least.

And your point is … ?

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The pot smell is pervasive everywhere in DC - we were in chinatown last week visiting the Portrait Gallery and it was rampant. That's what happens with legal pot.

It used to be like that with legal cigarettes, only inside too.

While tobacco smells gross. The smell of skunks is absolutely disgusting, lingers longer and is much more pervasive.

You only smell cigarettes outdoors while people are actively smoking. You can smell weed in outdoor settings for extended periods of time while the smoker is long gone. Not only that, you can only smell cigarettes in your car if both you and a smoker have your windows down, they are next to you and traffic is stopped. I can drive at 30 MPH with windows up and still get skunk smell in my car.

It’s a major nuisance.

I disagree, I think cigarette smoke is as pervasive as pot smoke, and I personally find cigarette smoke to be much worse. If I had to smell one or the other, I'd rather smell pot smoke.

Sure you find it personally more disgusting. That’s a personal preference thing and subjective. What is objective is that the smell of skunk lingers in ways outdoors that cigarette smells do not.

I don't think that's objective at all. Cigarette smoke lingers too.

It's also hard to see the shuttered storefronts, the many "for lease" signs, and the large number of homeless persons (along with the tents and collected items) all around the various park areas.