warzone in nation’s capitol: ring camera captures wild shootout in d.c.-(welcome to mog)

No. I ride in daylight hours. I've never seen a problem on the trails. I'm aware of the occasional reports, but incidents are pretty rare. I was on both trails yesterday on a loop and both trails were being heavily used.

The Metropolitan Brach trail got a bad reputation when it opened because it's a trail with rail that runs along the tracks from Union Station past Catholic University and up to Fort Totten. It will eventually continue to the Takoma Park and Silver Spring metro stations, but at this point, one has to divert onto city streets at Fort Totten, which involves a stiff hill. (There was good reason to put a Civil War fort up there back in the day.) The trail is fine now. You will see lots of young women jogging alone, which is a pretty good indicator. Much of it runs through Eckington, which is yet another of DC's old problem neighborhoods that is now being comprehensively rebuilt. The old Eckington, at least the part along the railroad tracks, is almost gone. Old timers will not recognize the place. When the trail opened, however, it ran through the old Eckington, which could be a little sporting.

The rail corridors have always been a problem, but they are now high priority redevelopment corridors. In Eckington and Brentwood, the good news is that there is nothing along the tracks that can't be knocked down; there is nothing of historic or architectural distinction that is worth preserving. Everything north of Union Station to Brookland/Catholic University is going upscale and high-rise. (Well, it's DC: make that midrise because of the height limits.) East of the tracks, in Brentwood, the whole area surrounding Union Market is being rebuilt. Our picturesque, gritty urban reality wholesale market is just about gone. North of that is Brookland, which is also gentrified.

Excellent description, Sphinx, and “microhabitats” is key to it. You can be along a quiet street of well-kept row houses, take a right and one block you’re in a war zone.

I taught at a high school in that area and know it well. Remember Colonel Brooks? Only one mass murder there that I can recall, but it’s a Bus Boys and Poets now in a multi-use project across from the Metro.

A couple young teachers had rented a nice house a bit south of there. Again, nice street, nice row houses... we’d sit on the back porch and watch the local craps tournament in the alley out back. My leftie bro-in-law bought an apartment in a housing project reno by 14th Street — NW — that sold two of three buildings. Really nice, good security, etc., but the one building left intact as a project was a nightmare. (Something about not paying rent that lends towards disrespect of one’s own home and neighborhood).

My daughter lived in Hyattsville for a while, fabulous neighborhood, much like my own in Arlington — but it was, as you say, a microhabitat protected by rail lines, parks, and hills. Just not pleasant to go a half a mile and not feel comfortable at an ATM.

I’m so gratified to hear from former students from that all-black school who are building careers and families. In fact, I just hired one to do some marketing for me, and another is a partner in my business. They don’t see anything in themselves in these fools shooting up Franklin Street, yet your typical leftie would look at their skin color and start a GoFundMe to help them make bail. It’s so offensive.

When I taught there I surveyed incoming students as to their neighborhoods and life experiences. It amazed me to see how insular some of them were, no travel, no hobbies, no interesting life experiences to report, and it generally translated into less curiosity, less engagement. Not always, but more than less. That’s why I’m all for gentrification, brings so much to otherwise isolated neighborhoods. Sadly, Section 9 housing leaves behind little islands that don’t mix in.

Sorry for the ramble.

I don't know Mt. Ranier well, but I've known several people who have lived there in recent years and they have loved it. Mt. Ranier is probably an extreme example of what nicollo discusses above. There are very graceful sections and then things can change drastically in the space of a block or two. This is a chronic problem on the eastside. My suspicion is that it dates back to the immediate post WWII era when we were inventing the automobile suburbs. DC had not yet expanded to Eastern Avenue. The eastside towns in PG were on the other side of the river, along the railroad. There was a belt of open country that must have been the happy hunting ground for developers, who moved in without any planning or zoning. Some of what they threw up has aged well. Some of it has not. But it is all a jumble, without rhyme or reason. PG County was asleep at the switch in the 40's and 50's, and it still paying the price today.

Generally speaking in Mt. Ranier, the higher you are up the hill, the better the area. The glory days must have been when it was a just-over-the-DC-line streetcar suburb. There are some very graceful Craftsmen, Queen Anne and Victorian homes. Slide down the hill, however, and things go downscale fast. Mt. Ranier is also graced with too many old housing projects dating back to Lyndon Johnson's War on the Cities. It takes a very long time for these to age out and be replaced, though that's now starting to happen.

I've done a LOT of exploring in the last couple of years. I've turned it into a game: try finding a route without traffic from Rockville to Hyattsville (which basically means staying between University Boulevard and Sligo Creek, because if you get south of Rock Creek you get sucked into Silver Spring congestion). That's a real thread-the-needle exercise -- but the reward is the discovery of some wonderfully beautiful neighborhoods tucked away where you least expect them.

Anyhow, I am now conversant with some areas -- Avondale, Avondale Terrace, Lewisdale, Eastland Gardens, Green Meadows, River Terrace, etc. -- that I basically never knew existed before the Anacostia River Trail opened up. Some of these are tiny, hidden neighborhoods that you would never discover in your car. The homes are typically small and working class in character, which means they are affordable. The residents are mostly black or Hispanic. But the homes are tidy and well kept. The neighborhoods are neat. There is no trash, no litter, no graffiti. I don't know about local gangs and the situation after dark, but they are fine in daylight hours. To find real ugliness, squalor, dead-enders birthing the next generation of dead-enders, and an omnipresent sense of lurking danger, you have to seek out public housing projects. If the BLM movement wants to exact historical justice, they should not be trying to dig up and desecrate confederate graves. They should be digging up and desecrating LBJ and Great Society liberals. I'd be willing to help them with that.

The entire Anacostia River corridor is going to be golden, as an overwhelmingly park and residential riverfront through the middle of a major metro area should be. I won't live long enough to see it completed, as there is a lot of bad stuff to shoulder out of the way, but there is a tremendous opportunity. Given Washington's unique history and the well-known dynamics east of the river, Washington's accessible riverfront will be lined with moderately priced neighborhoods (because the homes are older, smaller, and often working class in character). The westside gentry liberals can sit in their very expensive homes in Northwest, oriented towards the Potomac River which is basically inaccessible, and they won't have a clue of what exists on the other side of town. Most of University Park could be plopped down in the middle of Spring Valley and would fit right in. The snooty west side types don't even know it exists.

By the way, while I am usually critical of government misadventures in urban planning, there has been a really smart branding initiative on our emerging Gold Coast. All the little communities along the Anacostia have bought into the "River Towns" brand. That makes great sense on several levels. The whole area makes a lot more sense once you realize that the river is the key. And the entire river corridor is going to be accessible, bikeable and open to small boating. Fort McNair, Nats Park and Anacostia Park at one end; the Bladensburg Waterfront Park at the other end; the Arboretum, Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, Congressional Cemetery and the RFK site (which I hope will be redeveloped as a major sports and recreation hub), Langston Golf Course, and Kenilworth Park in between. What isn't parkland will be cute neighborhoods, and not a single commuter sewer of a road cutting anyone off from the river. And you don't have to be a multi-millionaire to live there. The west siders don't have a clue.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.