While we’ll intentioned, this isn’t necessarily great advice.

if she doesn’t make it back on the train before the doors close, then she’s stuck on an empty platform with a creep.

Tell her that if she screams out “stranger danger” that like 10 people on that train car will immediately zero in on that guy like The Terminator, and some of them will be ready to start kicking the sh*t out of that guy.

I’d come right over and start screaming for him to get away from your daughter. And then start smacking him with my big heavy bag until he was running away screaming like the loser he is.

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Are you not getting any likes? Or do you not like the likes you’re getting?

Either way, OLD is nothing compared to actual human interaction.

I usually traveled the Orange line. Your childhood sounds more exciting than mine.

Wait until you're 35, it's even worse!

Seriously, I totally agree with you. Thinking about moving, tbh.

Back in 90s as kids we’d hop on the Metro and have guys full on expose themselves to us as teens. It’s always been an issue.

Not a good area, I would avoid

lol

This is the way.

Men like this get away with too much.

They’re worse than rats.

Well summarized. It’s shitty but it’s accurate.

From my understanding is that the materials they use for the playground floors aren’t regulated & are made from used tires so some of the test may not be accurate because some areas may have lead while others don’t

>The best tip I can offer is to NEVER sit at a window seat.

yeah but the window seat has all the good views /s

>Practice loudly yelling “stop harassing me creep,” “get away from me,” or “leave me alone.”

gonna go ahead and say this is not the way to handle that. if the individual is unstable this will escalate the situation in perhaps a really un-optimal way.

Get cameras on your house. Don't answer the door. Don't leave anything, I mean anything, in your vehicle. Don't face obsess your phone while walking.

The north side of Trinidad is still messed up, the south side has lots of urban pioneer hipsters.

I’m sorry she has to deal with this but it’s reality as you’ve noted and there’s some great suggestions here. I just want to say for the majority of us men who aren’t creeps, if you see a young woman being harassed step up and help. Even if you’re not a big, imposing guy, confrontational, know BJJ, etc., you can run interference with the aggressor.

“Hey, man, you look familiar. Don’t I know you from…”

“My man you dropped something back there”.

“Hey I’m not from here can you tell me how to get to xyz?

It may give her an opening to bounce and signal you know what’s up and are trying to help out.

Meet someone in person

Lot of great suggestions here. I'll throw one in that has seemed to work for me between ages 17-now 26 years old. ALWAYS have resting bitch face or looked pissed off. I cannot say this is the single variable that has helped deter creeps from talking to me, but I have yet to be approached because I always try to come off as unapproachable as possible. Not many men like a shrew, unless you're Heath Ledger from 10 Things I Hate About You. I also emphasize saving Metro PD's number 696-873, so she can text for help.

I’m really glad you carry pepper spray and despite its legality I hate it can’t be more easily obtained in the district. Just please, please be careful and not use it in a confined space like a crowded train. That can go very badly.

Years ago I paid for the one time Bumble premium fee, and it's barely worth having it take up space on my phone these days.

Did you accidentally turn into a man? (Since that sounds like the experience of most men on the apps, if that).

But seriously - it's probably some impact from more effort to monetize users by reducing non-paid features. But I haven't heard of any app coming to take Hinge's place quite yet.

Also:

• If you're looking for conservatives/moderates/libertarians, maybe more of them have left the area since Trump left
• Is your profile actually that good? (unclear face shots (sunglasses, mask), no full body shot, prompts that limit who might be interested in you/make you look bad... maybe have a guy friend review or submit on a dating subreddit)
• It's possible you've just hit a weird dating age range for women in the area (feel like I've seen late 20s women complain about dc in the past), or you're looking for a weird age range for whoever you're interested in

As a 40+ year old queer woman, my experience is that it's gotten worse. Granted, I did notice a big drop off after turning 40, but changes to dating apps in that time seem to have gotten worse. I didn't really get a lot of engagement on Hinge to start with so that's about the same, but Bumble made a similar paywall change and I definitely noticed a big drop off in matches after that. Okcupid just keeps getting worse too. It used to be ok for a dating app, but the changes towards more of a swipe app have made it pretty useless. I don't think a lot of people use it any more.

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I live in Trinidad as far away from Bladensburg rd as possible, but still nearby. It is in the 2nd wave of its gentrification, so it is a mix of younger upper middle class people, awesome older population and some lowlifes that mostly keep to themselves but the occasional crackhead passes out on my porch(this would happen to me when I lived on u street too). Just be careful, but no one wants to mess with someone who is going to cause them trouble. I have never had any issues with anyone but that CVS area is unnerving, every time I go there for a vaccine or something I have deal with aggressive panhandlers but that’s about it.

I do have to say if I was a renter I would live somewhere else but this area is a great place to buy, I have never had an investment that gained as much value as my house in Trinidad.

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