RR this is for you.
So, you’re on the southern side of M Street, which has you staring at the backend of Shaw from your front stoop. But where does that put you? Well according to this map, in the Downtown Urban Renewal Area.
I’m going to say the Downtown has been renewed. It looks lovely. I really like it as a place to work, as I have several choices in how to waste my lunch hour. Today was sit out on the Navy Memorial, which in 1970 was the end of 8th Street. I was going to get cookies (yum salty oat cookies) at Teaism but the line was long. As I sat, occasionally eyeing the door at Teaism, I wonder was the scene I was watching, planned. Really, did anyone actually imagine that office drones and bureaucrats will be sitting around in the sun as people with dogs, school groups, and some woman with a toddler meander the world map etched in the ground? I don’t doubt the planning of the memorial, or the benches, or the commercial space. What I do wonder about, and sort of doubt, is the planning of the soul and life that reawakens when the weather warms up. There is some life in winter, kids still love the map, but it’s not the same.