West Elm has design consultants, but I question the value of a virtual consultation

I really struggle with the fact that social media influencers can be pretty useful for certain things, but at the same time I hate what they do so much.

this city is a joke

As others have said, you have to go to the in person inspection station for your first inspection. Once you’ve done that you can use the kiosk the next time you need to get an inspection.

This weather is screaming that climate is fcked

>refugification

hm?

100%. What used to be the accoutrement of Wall St made its way here.

What people don’t understand is that an instagram follower costs about $0.02 cents. You could make a new account, pay some company $250 bucks, and have 10,000 followers the next day. It costs almost nothing.

the magnolias behind the Smithsonian castle are starting to pop; I'm afraid they're going to get clobbered with the 50 degree temperature drop we're expecting in the next 36 hours. Again. :(

I showed up to the office at 7:30 today so I could leave early and drink outside in the sun

Influencers are cancer.

It's glorious, I am outside basking and working and so happy.

Today a beer tomorrow hot cocoa

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The DC metro area is millions of people, not to mention people travel to DC for food and drink. Plenty to knock but not weird that there'd be a sizable audience.

I think the City Paper had an article a couple years ago where local restaurateurs basically said there were no noticeable increases in patronage due to influencer posts.

Then there are those bars/restaurants/etc. that decorate for the gram. I remember when La Vie on the Wharf had people going there to post. Just wild.

I thought they were suspect and then I read a little about the culture of requesting mad comps (couple hundred dollars of food and drinks the "influencer" might have a friend eat or dump in a trash can outside the restaurant) and sometimes not even doing a review or posting a random photo.

Even calling restaurants before they open and hassling them for a first review.

And some have the audacity to think they should be noticed as a celebrity.

"Influencers" be the modern grifters.

I would say Obama revitalized much of the city, such as the 14th Street corridor. (Yes, many people would call that gentrification, but I think it was a good thing.) He made DC feel like an exciting, creative place, merely because he seemed exciting and groundbreaking, and a lot of idealists flocked to his administration, and DC, as a result.

Whenever I walk by Le Diplomate, my first thought is still that it was Michelle Obama's favorite restaurant.

So I think Obama made DC more urbane. It is no longer a steakhouse city (though it still has some of that).

Trump made DC grumpier, but there was a certain energy in feeling like you were near the front lines of a real struggle for the soul of the country. It was stressful, but with each day his administration was stymied—by Pelosi, by the courts, by activists, by governors, by opinion polls that scared Republicans—there was a sense of hope and petty victory.

In short, D.C. felt more like an activist city, which was invigorating.

We're still finding our footing after the double-whammy of Trump and the pandemic. I'd say the city is a bit unsettled, certainly more so than it was under Obama. At least then there seemed to be a clear upward trajectory, escaping the crises of the '80s and '90s. We have a lot of challenges: Homelessness, crime (most of it petty), residential rents, and now a question about how how to deal with a partially empty downtown. It is clearly a transitional period.

> Lol...Wonderland and Raven a secret dive bar if you were a traveler into DC from afar and reading a free travel guide.

Given that I imagine some nonzero number of folks who follow these accounts are suburbanites or new enough to DC to essentially be tourists... I guess it works! I just find it amusing

There are companies out there that will let you try out a tool to see what percentage of followers might be "organic" or bought thru an Instagram follower farm.

I'd guess almost all local food influencers that have 100K+ followers are suspect. Maybe Tom Siestma (Sp?).

Lol...Wonderland and Raven a secret dive bar if you were a traveler into DC from afar and reading a free travel guide.

Maybe I'm old but "influencer" is just the dumbest shit.

You already know it will.

Equivalent to stealing candy from a baby. Shameful

> after Election Day 2016 the city collectively seemed like it was stuck in a deep depression

The depression was palpable that night. I volunteered to help push out live updates for legislative monitoring firm I worked at.

It was like all the air went out of the room when the "firewall" fell.

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