I once stopped with my Dad in one of the black districts in DC back in the 80s. It was like stepping into a Third World country.
Needless to say we didn’t hang around. Its still the murder capital of America.
One of my best friends from my Air Force career did a tour at the White House Communications Agency (WHCA) back in the late 80s and early 90s. He spent part of his time at the White House, the rest as a budget analyst at WHCA HQ at Bolling AFB. His wife worked at the Pentagon; they lived on base at Bolling.
In those days, he told me, the base newcomer’s brief spent a lot of time on “staying safe in the local area.” If your car got a flat tire in the “hood” above the base, military members were told to roll on the rim until they reached Bolling—stopping and fixing the flat or waiting for roadside assistance was considered too dangerous.
I was never assigned in DC (thank God), but did a few TDYs to the area. During a one-week training course at DIA (which is also headquartered at Bolling) I struck up a conversation with a security policeman at the base gas station. I remarked that Bolling seemed like a quiet base. “It is,” he replied, “but we sometimes get gunfire from the heights above Bolling.”
“Gangbangers?” I asked.
“Snipers,” he replied.