Yesterday, I walked seven miles. I started out at the Arlington Cemetery.....crossed the bridge to the Lincoln Memorial, and walked all the way to the Capital building, before turning north toward Union Station, and finally ending up almost at the end of H Street in DC. Naturally, by the end, I was fairly dehydrated and just about on my last cylinder. Then, the German Biergarden came into focus....I stopped in there....and the kid gave me a cup of ice water and a German beer. Within fifteen minutes, I felt re-hydrated.
The highlight of this walk? At the end, I had this chance to watch a DC funeral. The cops had come and blocked off an intersection to allow the possession to proceed. There in the front....was a horse-drawn carriage with the coffin. It was an odd deal....the horse had gold glitter over his hooves. He was a big fellow and had no problems in pulling this short carriage.
Behind the carriage? Well....here were two forty-foot long limos. I'm guessing "special" family members rode in these. And then came the thirty-eight other vehicles.
At that point, along H Street....I stopped to assess the local environment. Twenty years ago....I might have been the only white guy on the entire street. To be honest, H Street is fairly run down and in some kind of private recovery phase. The city is talking up a trolley car deal, and put the track on the street....although it could be five years before this electrical issue is fixed up (they have a law dating back to around 1910 which says no electrical lines can be laid out to support a trolley car operation).
If you go a street back of H Street....what you find is that the young yuppies of DC have started buying up the rowhouses....tossing in $200k of repairs, and suddenly have a half-million dollar house (least by DC standards). In effect, they are buying the older black generation out and changing the entire landscape of H Street neighborhoods.
My guess is that half the buildings along H Street will be bought out and torn down within the next two decades....and this new urban mecca will come about. The comical thing? The yuppies likely vote Republican and the voting results in ten years might change in a dramatic fashion.
So right now.....you've got the urban yuppies and the remaining hardcore blacks in the same atmosphere. It wouldn't make any sense, except in DC.
