The Flavor of Present Day Washington, D.C.

I worked there for a decade. The parts I liked were the simthsonian museums, the needle monument (one hell of a view), the capital mall, The VW memorial. Other than that, DC like many metro clusters has become an unreported war zone. While I was at the OTC in one year three were killed in our building by thugs. While at the Auditors building in 3 years two were killed. While at the Pentagon four were killed and ya never hear about it and that was twenty years ago. Lord knows what its like now.

Michael Davis said:

I worked there for a decade. The parts I liked were the simthsonian museums, the needle monument (one hell of a view), the capital mall, The VW memorial. Other than that, DC like many metro clusters has become an unreported war zone. While I was at the OTC in one year three were killed in our building by thugs. While at the Auditors building in 3 years two were killed. While at the Pentagon four were killed and ya never hear about it and that was twenty years ago. Lord knows what its like now.

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Sadly, it hasn't changed much. The tourists areas are very interesting and relatively safe - during daylight hours. After sunset, all bets are off. I may be somewhat cynical, but I earned that perspective as a cop there from '70-'87.

I love the Cherry Blossom Festival and season. Love it! Everything's in bloom and smells so good, the grass is so green, and everything is just lovely.

Minus the crowds that show up for the Festival.

ironmikezero said:

Sadly, it hasn't changed much. The tourists areas are very interesting and relatively safe - during daylight hours. After sunset, all bets are off. I may be somewhat cynical, but I earned that perspective as a cop there from '70-'87.

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Wow. Don't tell my boss! Was there recently for work, had a risk assessment insisting driving a hire car on the wrong side of a road would be Dangerous, so was taking public transport at gone midnight instead. Lols.

Back on topic, I got a chance to wander around some, and for a capital city I thought it was kind of empty and quiet. Maybe I'm comparing it to the wrong parts of London (I guess the City is equally deserted at weekends) but it seemed more like a sleepy town with overly-large architecture. It felt more civilised than London for not being rammed with tourists and/or locals.

I'm not a D.C. resident -- I've just been working at the Pentagon since 1995 while living in Northern VA.

The main thing is that D.C. really is two different cities. You have the Government part of it, centered around the Mall, and you have the rest -- a fairly standard American city of approx 650,000 residents (Boston sized). It has the same inner-city blight, re-urbanization, gentrification, good, and bad areas.

It is also a large commuter town. Hardly any of the Federal workers live there. Speaking of which, unlike any other city in the US, the Mayor does not have a State government or infrastructure to use. The role of the State is performed by a committee from the House of Representatives. Makes things interesting.

Hi Anna --

I don't live in the city itself but have been in the area for a long time. Most neighborhoods are not nearly as crime-ridden as some might think. True, it's been pretty bad in the past, but that has calmed down in recent years.

As others have mentioned, there are two parts to the city: the federal part (pretty empty at night) and the parts where people actually live. The descriptions that will work for your story kind of depend on what your story is aiming to do or be.

Some random thoughts for you. In terms of memorable views, I've always loved driving along the George Washington Parkway at night (in Virginia) and looking across the Potomac at the federal area, where all the monuments are. They're really lovely at night. And then there's the Kennedy Center off to the left, too. It's always impressive to bring visitors in to DC that way at night if it's their first time here. Of course, the Washington Monument is closed to the public now and all covered with scaffolding because of the earthquake damage from 2011. (Some day, they'll actually get it repaired. But then it is the government that's in charge of this project, not a private company, so who knows how long it will take.)

For just nice walking around, check-out-our-neighborhood kind of things, Connecticut near Calvert is nice because it's a residential neighborhood (mixed apartments, townhouses) with a lot of restaurants all along the main streets, up toward the National Zoo. Kalorama is nice, with nice views of downtown because it's up on a hill. Adams-Morgan is usually a hopping place to be, but can be crowded in the evenings. Georgetown is also good for walking around, but it's kind of touristy. But there are nice restaurants there, plus the waterfront development there (by the Whitehurst Freeway) has some restaurants with nice views.

There are a couple of big touristy times. Cherry Blossom Festival means that the monument area, especially by the Lincoln and Jefferson monuments and the Tidal Basin, are absolutely jam-packed with tourists. But the cherry blossoms are absolutely gorgeous, especially on a sunny, cool spring day. There's nothing like it. (Just get up extra early to beat the crowds.) And at Christmas, there's the National Christmas Tree on the south lawn of the White House. The decorations are not exactly high-tone, but then they have to be weather-resistant. And there are 50 smaller trees, one for each state and each decorated by that state. Something that always brings in a lot of tourists.

Does this help at all?

Hi Anna,

I was raised and currently live in the Maryland suburbs of DC. I only went into the city for specific occasions while in school, but now as an adult I work there part of the week, and my sister lives there.

Here are some random memories from my experiences:

- hearing the animals at night from the nearby zoo when you are just walking around in the commercial area nearby (Woodley Park)
- walking the long walk back across the 'bridge' from Adams Morgan to the Metro with my friends on a warm summer night after feeling like such a grown up for going to the bars.
- Eating astronaut ice cream at the Air and Space Museum
- Watching the July 4th fireworks on the national mall
- Spending part of prom night having our limo driver take us to the Lincoln Memorial
- Driving across the bridge back to Virginia at night and admiring all the lit up monuments
- The architecture of the Metro stations is beautiful, though the system itself has gone down hill in terms of reliability. Some cars smell like mildew before the doors even open. But they are heavily commuter trains. You don't see begging on the trains very much at all like you would in NYC. People don't make eye contact, they sit or stand and read their newspapers or e-readers.
- Passing buildings with interesting architecture and realizing how many of them are government buildings
- My grandmother was a docent at one of the art museums, so I have fond memories of them
- Sitting and eating lunch in Dupont Circle
- Eating Ethiopian food for the first time (there is a large Ethiopian diaspora here) and marveling that you eat with your hands
- Seeing traffic grind to a halt as a vice presidential or presidential motorcade goes by
- The Cherry Blossoms, as others have mentioned
- Seeing a show at the Kennedy Center
- Seeing the staircase from the Exorcist in Georgetown
- Driving down embassy row and admiring the buildings and trying to identify the flags
- Going with my coworkers down to the mall to watch the arrival of the space shuttle as it circled the monuments on the back of a 747.
- Participating in political rallies or protests.
- Going to a Capitols or Nationals game.
- Seeing a play at the Arena Stage or Ford's Theater or Shakespeare Theater.

As for the 'real dc', yes, there's a physical separation between the touristy parts and areas where people work, versus the more residential neighborhoods (with varying degrees of diversity and safety), but I wouldn't say people here make a 'real' vs. 'not real' distinction. Unless you're hanging out at someone's apartment or going to a specific bar or restaurant or thrift shop, there's not really reasons to get insider 'tours' away from the touristy stuff.

There are spy tours and things you can sign up for, where they'll drive you around and show you alleged drop-off points, or places where, say, Deep Throat was, etc.

I don't know if this is the kind of stuff you're looking for

lac582 said:

- Eating Ethiopian food for the first time (there is a large Ethiopian diaspora here) and marveling that you eat with your hands
- Seeing traffic grind to a halt as a vice presidential or presidential motorcade goes by
- The Cherry Blossoms, as others have mentioned
- Seeing a show at the Kennedy Center
- Seeing the staircase from the Exorcist in Georgetown
- Driving down embassy row and admiring the buildings and trying to identify the flags
- Going with my coworkers down to the mall to watch the arrival of the space shuttle as it circled the monuments on the back of a 747.
- Seeing a play at the Arena Stage or Ford's Theater or Shakespeare Theater.

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Great choices, lac582!

I also had Ethiopian food for the first time here -- it's really a marvelous experience.

And I love that staircase from the Exorcist movie. (Hubby went to Georgetown U. way back when, so we've made the rounds there multiple times.) Kind of gives you the creeps, doesn't it?

We didn't go to Ford's Theater to see a play until actually pretty recently, but it's a wonderful experience, especially when you're sitting in the theater and, as you watch the play, can see the Presidential box where Lincoln was shot. (We saw A Christmas Carol, and it was a lovely production.)

this may not have any relevance for you but since you are writing YA, thought I would throw it out there.

My 13 yo DS just went on a class trip to DC, and when I asked him how the trip was his first response was "we walked alot and saw a bunch of stuff" I am not making this up and this is a smart kid, but anyone who has ever peppered a preteen/teen boy with questions can relate! With more probing, he related that the tour of the Holocaust museum was boring ("sorry mom, but it was. we had to walk slow and be quiet.") and his most interesting moments came when he was in the bathroom and a drunk homeless guy struck up a converation with my son and his friends.....Two years prior to this, we took the kids as a family and our favorite moment was when we visited the Lincolm Memorial and just climbed the steps and looked out to the reflecting pool and washington memorial. very cool and inspiring.

young kids and teens, especially boys might not be interested so much in the museums as in the more physical acts of sightseeing. we saw these bike tours when we were there and if we go back I would love to do one of these bike tours. there is so much to see and it seems like a fun way to do it.....