The wrong side of the tracks

There are worse parts of the city than where I was this evening, but I'm not running to go find them.

Tonight I went with two FFs to an event at a gorgeous new(ish anyway) theatre in a really not so good neighbourhood. Interesting for me to experience this on many levels. The theatre was more or less walking distance from a metro stop (a metro stop where you could see the Capitol from - I mention this for geographical context) but my friend said he wouldn't walk it (and he's a decent sized black man) so that means you don't walk it. We took a bus - the bus had a hole in its roof. An actual hole. The third fellow and I were the only two white people on the bus. These are things I have not experienced before in an urban centre. Why don't the people traveling to this area get a non-broken bus? (that is a rhetorical question, for the record) The bus was actually highly entertaining (though over-crowded) as there was constant lively banter between the passengers and the driver and amongst themselves. I felt completely comfortable, it's just odd to become aware of things like colour and economics. DC is very segregated. There are good areas which are more mixed and poorer areas as well, but for the most part the really poor neighbourhoods are entirely black or entirely latino. It's really disheartening.

The theatre was on a stretch of road where everything was boarded up except the dance studios attached to the theatre and a Popeye's Chicken across the road. This is of course how gentrification starts. The theatre could afford this neighbourhood, and some day people will want to go to dinner there before seeing a show and so a restaurant will open etc etc etc (I'm not sure how long this facility has been here though the dance studios apparently opened 15 years ago). This theatre was really beautiful and I hope they make a go of it. I fear this neighbourhood has a ways to go before you could really even consider it "in transition".

(I took a cab back to the metro Dad FYI...)