Remembering back to the mid/late 80s, 15th St SE on Cap Hill was the cutoff line, the red line if you will, for a “good” neighborhood. I know this because I had friends that lived on the 1400 block. I even stayed with them one summer while I worked in town.

The local Metro stop was & is Potomac Avenue Station. I would use this stop 20 years ago, and even though the stop is only two or three blocks away from my friends’ house it was a still a little leery at night and you had to watch yourself. This was when violent crime in DC (and America for that matter) was starting to get a little out of control. I remember lots of carjackings happening that summer, which was a new phenomenon at least in DC.

Come to think of it, I had my car stolen around the corner from Po-Ave Station that summer too. It was found and returned, busted steering column and all. At least they didn’t wreck the thing or drive it into the river.

Fast forward to today, and my favorite Mexican restaurant is a block away from the Station, there’s a fun local bar where you can play dominoes a block away and for Christ’s sake there’s a new Harris Teeter right across Pennsylvania Ave.

Neighborhood on the upswing, right? Maybe not so much.

Read the rest of this entry »