The last time I was there, I brought a relatively large leather purse (about the size of a laptop). Had no issues.

I’ve been here since 1992. I have very little interaction with political people except an appreciation for the young people it brings to town which has been pretty consistent over 30 years.

Yep, that's the article!

Thank Molly Ivins for that term. That’s how she referred to the younger George Bush (W).

NGOs and Non Profit groups wax and wane depending on the administration.

Is it broken? If it's still working you can give it away on Freecycle or Buy Nothing.

Nah. There are two DCs - political/political-adjacent DC and normal DC. The latter is filled with people who may work nominally government jobs, but are more (primarily) technical specialists than anything else. I will concede that the former is rapidly overtaking the latter as people are getting more and more politically involved. But it really just comes down to what your milieu is. The political/transient milieu might be changing, but I wouldn't really know.

On a broader note, I would say this city underwent a revolution during the Obama years. People began to dress better, look better (there was an article in The Economist around 10 years ago about how DC went from having nearly the fewest gyms in the country per capita to having the most or almost the most in a matter of years). If DC ever was Hollywood for the Ugly, it CERTAINLY isn't that anymore. People began to care more about sitting in good restaurants and not just drinking Folger's coffee. Bike lanes really took off at that time. I won't speculate why these people and that specific moment demanded these changes, I'm just stating that's when and who changed the city. It has been relatively stable/consistent since.

Retrofitting sprinklers is a HUGE job. They require a separate water supply from the rest of the building and if you don’t install them in the original construction it requires tearing out a shitload of drywall/walls/floors. 2033 is a more than reasonable timeline for all buildings.

lived there 80 years. lots of new people coming c in, no one leaves except the children of residents. of my high school class, i am the only one who stayed here.

https://www.eaglecreek.com/products/pack-it-reveal-garment-folder-m?_pos=3&_sid=6472d4b7b&_ss=r

Love this summary - very apt.

How have I never heard/read "Shrub administration" before?! Social media has failed me.

Now, which Shrub in particular are you referring to? Or should I already know the answer to that?

I was in Bethesda & people were honking their horns & waving to everyone they saw. The sense of community was...dare I say Disney-esque?

I wasn't mad about it, by any means, but it was as if a declaration of peace had been issued after a 4-year long war.

The water fountains are turned off in the winter, and turned back on sometime around April or May I think. Once they are turned back on, the bigger dark ones are the new ones...those are likely to be working. The smaller brown ones will rarely work from my experience.

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DC Water - https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1cqraRSF0l3GsIW3tdYsGC2A9Ayk&usp=sharing

Been here since 93. The town’s culture does change with administrations.

The Clinton years were a party. DC had a warehouse club scene that has since disappeared. The city itself lacked amenities (e.g., if you needed home products you traveled to the suburbs to do shopping). Crime was high. Depending on your comfort level, if you were on Capitol Hill you didn’t explore much further than third street SE. Not sure how any of that might have been the result of the admin, though.

The Bush Jr years were… something. After the traumatic anxiety inducing 9/11 (and that’s an understatement) the tone turned “top down my way or the highway.” The city’s transformation continued apace. You might think people would find a way to blow off steam, but the former warehouse clubs disappeared to make room for Nationals Park, shuttering a big portion of nightlife and scattering queer culture across the city.

The Obama years felt promising and idealistic, attracted a youth culture and restaurant scene that had been missing. Also attracted Silicon Valley. The “NY-ification” of DC.

The Trump years reminded residents this town is the political center of the country. And a real battleground in a moment’s notice. A weird anxiety set in not for obvious reasons. More like due to the neglect that came with first contact with an admin that seemed uninterested in stepping into the role. A notable departure from prior admins: Whenever the presidential motorcade appeared in traffic it wasn’t managed like previous admins. No police clearing the way and managing pedestrian traffic. It just appeared, blasting horns and trying to blow through the streets. Not hyperbole: random uncivil crappiness was everywhere on the street. From both sides of the spectrum.

Currently: a weird idealistic culture has set in. Especially in the workplace. Best described as “everyone wants to save the world, nobody wants to do the dishes.” Net result: seems like everything is viewed through the lens of what’s in it for me and less gets done.

Fold them first as in pant legs together or sleeves tucked in . Then put on bed or table and roll them tightly. Saves space too

Do they need to be rolled a specific way?

There was a better article a while back that distinguished between Washington, the company town revolving around the Capitol, White House, and political DC, and the District of Columbia, the vibrant city of 700,000 who have little or nothing to do with the political company town. Washington is incredibly transient. The District less so. There’s still turnover in the District, especially among the 20-something crowd that moves here for internships and nonprofits, but the District is otherwise pretty stable.

As someone who was here during Clinton I can say I agree and noticed the same back then. It’s not so much that things backslide during R admins (let’s face it, they don’t hang much in DC proper or contribute to it’s culture), it’s that we get fresh new blood with new D admins.

Thank you. It irks me when folks discount the literal 100s of thousands who have lived here for their entire lives.

https://doee.dc.gov/ecycle

From the webpage: "In 2023, there will be one eCYCLE collection event in each Ward during each quarter." I took advantage of the program last year to get rid of a bunch of broken electronics. Anybody can drop stuff off at any location. They definitely take TVs and don't charge anything. Whether any of the events will be convenient for you in terms of time and location, I don't know.

Even on the hill you’ve got career Congress and Senators so turnover is a fraction.

>Many political appointee jobs went unfilled, there wasn't a surge of new young aspiring staffers etc.

Is that true? I vaguely remember reading an article along the lines of OP's point that presidential administration's do affect DC culture a little bit. Because the Trump Team was full of political outsiders, they didn't pick up a lot of the think tankers and other former administrative officials like you would expect. And look at how many Trump staffers were young people. Like, wasn't the deputy head of his personnel office like an undergrad from GW or something?

As I said, I remember reading some article about how most of the Trump staffers ended up moving to Navy Yard and Southeast. But I'm not so familiar with that, and it should be pointed out that there's been some development in those neighborhoods, so of course new people to the city would gravitate there.

ETA: I used to read a lot of Politico back in the day, and this article sounds about right. I could be wrong, but this is what I was thinking of.

I’m not sure if that makes more sense or less. I seriously feel for the O-3 or gs-9 they put in charge of waste management chaperoning.

That name brand wrinkle release spray works wonders too…