GABRIEL, THE WASHINGTONIAN

The White House, the Redskins, the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial, U. Street, Go-Go Music, Howard University, the Library of Congress and yes, MAMBO SAUCE (DC's best kept secret). This blog entry is long overdue and, in the interest of making this more inclusive and accessible to the linguistically challenged, I'll write in the language of William Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde. 

Let me start out with a disclaimer: I don't technically live in D.C. I live in the suburbs, about 8 miles outside the District in Prince George's County (301 STAND UP!!!) and I commute everyday on the infamous Green line (OH, LORD), but if you take into account the amount of time I spend here for work and study, I am technically in the 202 more than home. 

Sure, I find the onerous way in which the Feds use the city as their personal Petri dish for social experimentation particularly abhorrent; many people, especially those on the Hill, believe that DC residents are superfluous to the city's existence. I'm still taken aback by the disconcerting arrogance of some people who have the effrontery to flaunt their bulky résumés, Ivy League degrees and Arlington/Potomac mansions around and treat people like their "zeros to the left of the decimal point" (think about it). Beyond that, DC's like a lot of other cities: dysfunctional local government, weird city layout (its four quadrants are terribly disproportionate), rampant crime, homelessness at every turn and a sizable group of incorrigibly self-absorbed people who are, in no uncertain terms, convinced of their own intelligence.  

Despite this, I absolutely love Washington D.C. My appreciation for this city is an understatement. At times, I find myself awestruck by the intellectual capital that's concentrated here and the numerous opportunities that young professionals have to climb the social ladder and ascend in life. DC is a great mix of the North and the South, although some residents tend to promptly disassociate themselves from the latter, an attitude with which I take great exception given the city's geographic location below the Mason-Dixon line and the fact that slaves were sold and carted off as property on what is now known as the Washington Mall. Slave labor was widely used in construction of new building in Washington, in addition to provide unpaid and coerced labor on tobacco plantations in Maryland and Virginia.  

People, especially those in the Southeast and PG County, MD, speak with a discernibly Southern accent and love Red Velvet cake and biscuits more than this country boy from great Tar Heel State. 

However, reality is far more complicated than a line of demarcation that separates the Yankees from the Confederates. I would venture to say that Metro DC feels closer to the North than the South in both its living conditions and sympathies. People tend to be more progressive and forward-looking, less intolerant of both ethnic and sexual minorities. Also, apart from Atlanta and Chicago, I've never seen so many empowered and confident African-Americans, who are ambitious, well-educated and indefatigably desirous of effecting change in their communities and in the world at large. I LOVE BEING BLACK IN DC, although hailing a cab while black is both an arduous and unnerving experience (you have to wait until they stop at intersections, FYI), but that's another blog entry. While some definitions of Northeastern/ Mid-Atlantic States include DC, Maryland and Virginia, and Delaware, the U.S. Census classifies these areas as being the South Atlantic Region, exclusive members of the Southern United States. 

Washington D.C. is unequivocally the South. I love the city life sensation with the suburban feel. Not to mention that within a few hours you've got everything from mountains and vineyards to the ocean and the Shenandoah Valley and dozens of Civil War battlegrounds.


One thing that I've noticed is that there's a paucity in the number of authentic, born and breed Washingtonians. Most people tend to be from somewhere else. My personal cell phone carries a 585 area code (something I'm planning to rectify soon). Point of origin: Rochester, New York. Same number I've had for almost ten years. It's traveled with me from state to state over the past decade, and yet only in D.C. can something like that be a conversation starter. Trust me, you get weird looks when you pass that one out anywhere outside Upstate New York, except here. 

To work and study here in Washington D.C. is to be surrounded by big ideas and critical debate. This is the marketplace of ideas per excellence and the District has an uncanny knack for drawing people who are interested in something other than money and traditional measures of success. People don't flock here in droves to earn big salaries (or do they) but to work for things they're truly invested in. To a point, and yes, to a point wealth, beauty and fashion all take a back seat to having something intellectually galvanizing to say. There's an earnestness, professionalism and idealism here that's electrifying. 

I love this town and I open my mouth and thank God everyday for allowing my path to eventually arrive here, despite a few minor hiccups along the way. In the interest of not being long-winded and insufferably repetitive, I'll point out 5 things that I love about the District and 5 things that I can do without (hate is such a strong word). 

 5. Ethnic Foods - You're never too far from a hole-in-the-wall Salvadoran food joint and DC's ubiquitous Chinese carry-outs. PUPUSAS!!! FRIED DUMPLINGS WITH MAMBO SAUCE!!! (I've developed a sort of addiction to them, they're my dietary staples). 


4. Free Museums - The Smithsonian Museums offer visitors 16 opportunities to see 16 free museums in Washington, DC. From the National Zoo to the National Museum of American History to the Air and Space Museum, there are plenty of free sights filled with history, excitement and fun that the whole family will enjoy. (PERFECT FOR QUIET, INTIMATE DATES) ;)

3. (Most of) our transit system.  For those times when you need to get somewhere but don’t want to deal with the stress and hassle of driving around a car (who does, really?) – you can just relax with a good book!  And even though we might have ghost trains from time to time, it does a pretty good job of getting you from Point A to Point B, and probably faster than if you were sitting in DC's interminable traffic.

2. Dense concentration of intellectual capital -There are so many smart people here, more than you can find almost anyplace else in the world. You can learn a lot here just from talking with the person sitting next to you (or serving you) at any given bar or coffee shop. Among the nation’s big metropolitan areas, Washington is the egghead. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting someone who already has or is pursuing some degree in higher education. 

We have a third of the country’s astronomers, a tenth of its physicists, and the most PhDs per capita. Such brainpower means the region has lots of experts.

1. HOYALAND - Georgetown University!!! Need I say more?  

Aspects of DC that I can part with.  

5. Jumbo Slice - It might be good for absorbing the kind of joy water people love to down late at night in Adams Morgan, or possibly mopping the floor, but not much else (especially the morning after).

4. Pedestrian walk signals - These apparatuses suddenly drop from 30 seconds of crossing time down to 3 – even when pedestrians are about to enter the crosswalk.  Just one more sign of how traffic engineers believe only cars matter, and pedestrians are nothing but an obstacle. 

3. Residential Segregation - This was one of the first things that I noticed once moving here, which is clearly reflected in the Metro Lines. The Orange and Blue lines are predominately white while the Yellow and Green lines are mostly Black and Latino. The Red line is still a source of confusion, but it seems like all the white folks from Montgomery Country, MD get off at Metro Center, Gallery Place-Chinatown or Union Station, and it gets progressively Black and Latino as one straddles DC's Northeastern Quadrant. 

2. Reckless Drivers - drivers who don’t watch where they are going, especially those who ignore pedestrian cross signals when they have a green light (or sometimes even a red). Lots of folks around here seem to be lost in their own little worlds, which is not good when you are driving around two tons of steel. Apparently, some people were born with Driver's Licenses and learned to drive before they learned to walk. I wish they would hit me!!! NO BUENO!!!

1. The Red Line.  Perpetual track maintenance. Endless single-tracking. Need I say more?

Before I close this out, let me make plain that I'll always be a Southerner, a proud North Carolinian who will always love Cheerwine, Bojangles, Krispy Cream, Biscuitville and the Tar Heels, especially when we beat Duke (No real North Carolinian is a Duke fan, he/she would be a living oxymoron). However, after my first semester at Georgetown, I have come into my own and wholeheartedly embraced a city that I initially found off-putting, transactional and superficial. 

I'm officially a DCer (or Washingtonian) and I love and appreciate this town with a passion.