There are some residents who would prefer a more "civilized" Mount Pleasant Street. ("Mount Unpleasant Street", they call it.) Some residents want our neighborhood to be merely an eastern extension of Cleveland Park, sort of a residential suburb of that high-income Ward Three area.
It's true, some of the men hanging about on the street can be unpleasant, and we will continue to work on solutions to that problem. But let's not make Mount Pleasant Street into a boring imitation of Connecticut Avenue.
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This is
Jack, looking not too bad for the far side of 60. Emily and I moved to the District, and Mount Pleasant, in 1974, at a time when it was considered foolhardy
to choose to live in Mount Pleasant. Drug dealing was flagrant, and crime
rampant. One vivid memory from those days was of a young man's body
at the entrance to an alley a block from home, executed in cold blood by his drug-dealing
buddies, his blood pooling crimson on the pavement. More recently there was the Latino
rioting of 1991, when the whole neighborhood was cordoned off by police. Most
frightening was the Mount Pleasant Shotgun Stalker, gunning down residents on the street
and in alleys, at random, in 1993.
But not for one moment through all those difficult years did we ever regret choosing this neighborhood for our lifetime home.
DC North, a monthly magazine for "north DC", wrote up this about me; I blush in embarrassment!
While Mount Pleasant is well along the "gentrification" path, the 14th Street corridor of Columbia Heights is just struggling back to life, after decades of neglect following the terrible riots of April, 1968. The stretch between Euclid Street and Spring Road remains grimy, but the future is close at hand, with major new developments under way between Irving Street and Park Road.
This photo shows the 7-11 at the corner of Columbia Road and 14th Street. This is the "old" 14th Street, a charmless spot, troubled by bands of teenagers who consider being disruptive great entertainment. Profound changes are coming, but what will the "new" 14th Street be like?
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