Having lived 3.5 years around DC (decade ago)...I’ll offer 3 observations:
1. Union Station is not a place to hang around. Just get there...get on your train, and get the heck out. Don’t eat from any place there, and avoid going there after dark.
2. This whole H-Street area is some weird area with various pubs/bars which were trying to get upscale while at the same time...was a neighborhood that I’d tell you to avoid. At one point, they were trying to get a tram fixed up to get people into the area, and present it as a ‘safe’ way of enjoying the neighborhood.
3. Finally, this Dem council gal....represents District One...Howard University is there, along with several neighborhoods which were ‘quiet’. At least around 2010...it was one of the three wards in the city that had ‘extra’ police-patrols. It (District 1) is at the edge of what I’d call ‘good-DC’ and ‘bad-DC’. If locals (88k in her district) want change...I don’t see how it’ll occur because they don’t have the revenue to hire another 500-odd police for the city.
It is just an odd town, and you don’t realize until you’ve lived there a year or two. Vast amount of low-level crime/corruption going on. Lot of employees for the city/school system....hired because of relatives having influence. Just a lot of incompetence bred into the system over the decades.
Thanks for the insights. From what I recall, since 1973 Congress has allowed certain powers of government to be carried out by locally elected officials, and they call it “home rule”. Congress has the ability to revoke this status and I hope they do just that, and clean up the crime situation.
Good comments—the only thing I would add is that the DC police force has had a strong “Ferguson effect” going on for years.
They know the senior police administration does not have their back and they intentionally respond slowly to gunshot incidents—they do not want to face armed criminals in real time.
One police station that I am familiar with on Georgia Avenue can hear gunshots from the police station on many nights. They take their time eating doughnuts and finishing their coffee before venturing out to the mean streets outside.