The constant downplay of D.C. is seemingly inescapable. In my two years of being a GW student, I continue to hear students label the city as excessively career-driven and bleak compared to New York City and other cities across the country. I have to admit that I also found myself guilty of these arduously immature notions. But it’s time to find contentment in the multifaceted role of the District, a city with rich history and culture beyond Capitol Hill.
Coming to D.C. for college after living in Chicago, Illinois, was an unexpected culture shock. The Windy City is one of movement with an equilibrium of people from all walks of life, ranging from local musical artists to start-up owners. This environment persists around the clock. Experiencing D.C.’s desolate streets on the outskirts of campus past 9 p.m., coupled with the distinct professional populace, provoked a self-doubt in the environment I chose to place myself in.
Despite being a political science student, I lacked my classmates’ ambitions of landing a Hillternship, wanting to be a college student for a while without professional pressures. After being vehemently political through high school, I sought a more temperate experience where I could be politically conscious and knowledgeable without feeling the need to share my partisan identity with everyone around me. By rejecting the politically configured nature of D.C. and embracing its culturally expansive character, I developed a love for the District.
I committed to finding an ideal coffee spot that would reliably provide refuge from the academic spaces on campus within the first month of college. After multiple ventures across D.C. to no avail, I walked 20 minutes to Dupont and found Emissary, an uplifting space with an open atmosphere that offers a satisfying mix of studying students, working professionals and customers of all ages. The renowned bookstore, Kramers, is a landmark nearby, hosting an expansive reading selection with an illustrious attached restaurant and bar. Discovering such enclaves reflected the District’s culture as more than a career-centric city.
Utilizing the Metro to reach disparate locales, I became exposed to Mastiha Taverna, a Greek joint in Union Market that embraces the old-world Greek table through authentic recipes and fresh ingredients, like the Mastiha salad with lamb, which combines fresh peppers, olives and multicolored tomatoes with feta cheese drenched in olive oil. The eatery superseded and matured my sense of what D.C. has to culturally offer.
Historic D.C. neighborhoods, like the U Street corridor once known as “Black Broadway,” provide a window into the timeless marks left on the city. Eating at Ben’s Chili Bowl for the first time on a Sunday following a church service next door at the Lincoln Theatre, I was hit with two realizations. The first was that this is what a chili bowl was supposed to taste like: savory with a dynamic combination of hearty ingredients. And second, I evolved a newfound appreciation for the roots in these neighborhoods grown by the Washingtonians of past generations and preserved by locals to this day.
Ben’s Chili Bowl is a renowned spot for D.C.’s original half-smoke, the historic staple of U Street given its founding during segregation and continued to stay open during critical times of the Civil Rights Movement, serving as a meeting point for leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. Of course, I was aware of the historical prominence of the city, yet beyond the monuments, I was once seemingly blind to these less apparent spots which continue to hold legacies.
There is a certain allure to confining myself to campus or even to my ever-cozy residence hall room amid academic and social pressures. Yet, as GW adamantly promotes the city as our campus, maybe it’s time we listen. We have the immense privilege of access to culture, history and art by hopping just a couple Metro stops. Historic D.C. implores to be discovered.
James Pomian, a junior majoring in political science, is an opinions writer.
