14th and U was notorious in the 1980s as a place to stay away from
.
In 1979, I walked up 14th St. in search of an address. The farther north I proceeded, the more dangerous the neighborhood appeared. At R St. I turned around because it looked too dangerous, with young men who looked like hoodlums slouching on the sidewalk. I was obviously entering a slum.
Turns out I was in the wrong quadrant. The address I was seeking was in Southwest DC, not Northwest DC.
Nowadays, Sette Osteria, an upscale Italian restaurant, stands at the corner where I turned around due to concerns about safety in 1979.