A week ago I took the bus from Penn Station to DC. It was sunny and warm (exactly the opposite of the past few days in New York) which made for a great opportunity to just walk around and enjoy the weekend.
I went down to see Sabina, a very good friend of mine, who doesn’t live there but happened to be in Washington, and to see Ann who graciously allowed me to stay in her fabulous house near Adam’s Morgan. (I did also get to spend some time with a few other great friends – you know who you are 
)
Getting more to the point: while we were out and about, it struck me how many coffee shops, restaurants, corner stores that we tried to go to were actually shut down and boarded up. Mayorga Coffee, for example, used to be in the Tivoli Theater in the center of Columbia Heights, but there was hardly a trace of it when we walked over. The next closest coffee shop could hardly compare without even seating much less the comfortable and relaxed atmosphere that Mayorga gave. It was such a unique space it was hard for me to see it go.
I don’t have a recent photo of the theater/coffee shop in disrepair, but I do have a few of DC buildings, the last of which shows just a fraction of the boarded up windows we passed. Following that are a few shots of Sabina goofing around in the city…
This first one was taken in Bethesda, and in fact the blue building that you can only see a sliver of at the bottom was completely abandoned. It used to house a bar and a separate comedy club, only the skeletons of which are left, though a friend did tell us that until a few days before you could still see the tables and chairs and all the liquor was abandoned on the shelves.
I don’t actually think this General Electric plant was deserted, but it sure did look it, and it was in the Navy Yard which is pretty desolate in and of itself anyway.
As we walked around the Convention Center, we saw that this whole block of buildings had boarded up windows, and then around the corner the next block looked the same. I don’t even know what they used to be, homes maybe.
Now to the more light-hearted stuff…
