Roses are red
Violets are blue
I like Shaw
How ’bout you?
I can’t come to say I love Shaw. Still so not happy about having crackheads on the block who leave their buddies out on the sidewalk with big bloody gashes in their heads.
And it is not as if I actually live in the chichi part of Shaw where I could casually wander over to the Starbucks or Caribou coffee or Sparky’s for hot water and a tea bag (I don’t drink coffee) to people watch on a Sunday morning before or after services. No I live in Truxton Circle and it comes with big pluses and minuses that take away from any love I have for the area, so that all I have is intense and meaningful ‘like’.
Off and on I love my block. I love the fact we have a handyman on the block and he is affordable. Not so happy that my jobs are an afterthought to his higher paying ones, but hey. Love that I have great neighbors. Not so happy with the other ones who decide to be the most ghetto a$$ negroes they can be. Sorta not so happy with Anglo neighbors who fortress themselves behind their doors and hardly wave hello, but I hardly see them so they are almost nonexistent…. Yes you Mr.SUV-don’t- speak to -no-one. Gad, would it kill you to wave hello back?
Location wise I really like my part of Shaw. It is on the green line so I can get to work. I can walk to the grocery store, unlike some people in Capitol Hill, poor babies. It is right on Route 1 and Rt 50 so I can get back and forth from the College Park, MD area and its surrounds real easy to see or be seen by friends and relatives. During certain parts of the day there is plenty of parking for those friends to leave their cars near my house. I have walked from Gallery Place/fake Chinatown and it’s many diversions on a bright sunny day. I have biked from my hood to Dupont and other parts of Downtown DC in 15 minutes or so. It is a good central location.
There have been brief flashes of love for my hood. Mainly when I lose things. Like my wallet and my Palm. They were returned to me by good people who found them on the street. But later something happens and I fall out of love with the area and settle into like.
It doesn’t help that I have flashes of jealousy concerning friends’ neighborhoods in other parts of town. I like some parts of College Park, MD. I also like parts of Alexandria and I miss North Arlington. Silver Spring has taken off lately and seems like a great neighborhood with a few decent grocery stores, bike paths, great public transit, and the AFI theater.
However, Shaw is my best bet. I need a central location. I need to be able to walk to things. I need to have a commute that isn’t bogged down by the red line always breaking down. I like Shaw. It’s good for me.
Hello there! I’m a relatively recent addition to this area – I arrived in the middle of summer – but I just discovered your page. I spent several hours poring through your previous posts, and I enjoy ’em. I admit that so far, the positives (cozy streets, people actively talking to each other outside, folks waving as you drive by) have balanced out the big negatives (having our house broken into and the resulting chaos). I’m glad I stumbled on your blog!
living in the city…..
there are the pluses and as you figured I would say….
there are also the minues!
yes… I should write that one down
I have had moments where I hated this city and could not explain why I live here….
I moved to the neighborhood about 2 years ago… though I am over by the 10th & U Metro, so on the cresting wave of that gentrification. Right now, my “neighborhood” is a huge construction zone and I don’t find it funny when my father-in-law writes in the dust on my books-shelves. But I did walk to get lunch today at a locally owned diner. And I have biked back and forth across most of the area. I need to learn more to the east, especially Georgia Avenue (it’s so close), and slowly I am. I wanted to thank you for your posts! I just moved my compost from one corner of the yard to the other and I was thinking how nice it was to know that there are other aspiring gardeners in the area.
on the whole – this is a good place. And we are lucky to be part of the changes. Or so I think.
my blog: http://www.improbablethings.com
We also have the ‘scared’ Anglo neighbors who fortress themselves and don’t talk to anyone. Even when I lived on the ‘safer’ Swann St., we had the same unfriendly suburb refugees there too. I wonder how long it takes for them to move back after being tired of being in a self-induced prison? My neighbors have cute dogs, so I have to come out to meet them when they get walked. – Jimbo