The first part of what happened, before the Good Samaritans arrived is completely missing in that article (or Tweet).
Your detailed, first hand post helps the reader to develop some kind of back story about the present neighborhoods.
A lot of people are operating on very old and outdated information about DC, and most ot course don’t know the neighborhoods.
It’s always important to start with the fact that DC proper is very small and contains less than 10 percent of the population of the metro area. The city-suburban things factors into the discussion anywhere, but here it dominates the discussion. DC has gentrification on steroids, and the suburbs are choking on accelerating sprawl and traffic congestion. The pace of change is amazing.
Since most people have some memories of DC from trips over the years, I always urge people to go to Google Maps and identify these “exotic” neighborhoods that they read about. Then go to street view and “drive around” a bit. Real destitution is largely concentrated in areas dominated by the housing projects, which are finally starting to get thinned out as they age out. And of course the drug trade lurks in the shadows and the alleys in some places. It’s not Marion Barry’s Washington any longer.