My family's old Somali restaurant

[FAH1223]

No offense but that little place looks so ghetto

That area (U Street) is a Washington, DC cultural beacon. It used to be ghetto in the 1990s, but it has been revitilized along with downtown DC. There are neighborhoods in DC that have cadaan moving in. Gentrification is ruining the chocolate city label.

This is your Capital city.

[mcali]

I remember when I was young white people were scared to be in their locked cars in certain parts of dc. Now they have their women jogging naked almost every where. Well at least South East is still ghetto as shit for now.

[FAH1223]

I remember when I was young white people were scared to be in their locked cars in certain parts of dc. Now they have their women jogging naked almost every where. Well at least South East is still ghetto as shit for now.

Southeast even is getting gentrified. Wallahi, Anacostia isn't even that bad It can be rough but its not like how it was back in 2000. I worked in Trinidad neighborhood in Northeast, couple miles from Union Station metro and NY Avenue metro stations, and that area had a lot of stuff going on. Back in 2008, there was military style checkpoints all over Northeast and the cops always were at my job just lounging around and making their presence known. The madows who sold weed, who probably had a piece on 'em, they never bothered me and my brothers cause to them we're all the same and I'm not stepping on their corner. But if you beat them in basketball, they start taking notice and might try something... my bro played on the courts there and fried My parents got so pissed off.

If you want to see ghetto, go to East Baltimore. I am legit scared to go to Baltimore minus the harbor and downtown area.

Washington, DC isn't a scary place to be. I've walked at night in Southeast and Northeast... no problems... and the cadaan like you said are running around half naked doing their workout routines. I see them in Northeast and obviously they are in Southeast in Capitol Hill area. BUT EVEN ACROSS THE RIVER you see THEM

[mcali]

Man you right about that basketball shit. back when i was really into basketball I'd play all over dc trying to get better. Lets just say most the time I was the best player on the court but had to miss some shots and get the ball stolen a few times to keep them niggas happy. I saw one fight because on guy was frying the other guy, after that day I said to myself thats dead and decided to play smart. I was walking SE just a month ago and these high scool kids tried to get me for my phone. I saw they were scared already for some reason and I just started saying you dont want that beef. I think they thought I was from another block or something.

[Murax]

FAH,

Cafe NEMA is a waste. I got dragged there by a couple buddies one time. Wallahi it is the only place You will see a circle of old habars sitting at a table with drinks full of alcohols and Somali odayaal at the bar drinking, and Somali Bartenders and nobody is even hiding or ashamed


Really though I came to find out that Somalia actually had pubs and bars back in the day and many Somalis drank.



NewHargeisagirl,

Most urban places on the East Coast are like this

[Voltage]

DMV is the place. I would love to move there.

Fah, southeast is the capitol right? I stayed with a relative who lives two blocks south of the capitol and another two blocks (four blocks from Capitol) I felt like I was in a whole different country wallahi or something from 1920's sharecropping Alabama inside of a big city.

[Murax]

DMV is the place. I would love to move there.

Fah, southeast is the capitol right? I stayed with a relative who lives two blocks south of the capitol and another two blocks (four blocks from Capitol) I felt like I was in a whole different country wallahi or something from 1920's sharecropping Alabama inside of a big city.

Southeast/Northeast are the former slums of the city and the slum started only a couple blocks from the capitol building. Eventually the leadership in DC started getting competent and the Federal Government was getting more and more alarmed at having foreign dignitairies come to DC and see Urban slums right next to vital institutions. Now for about 17 blocks from the Capitol building it is nothing but brand new real estate, white people on bikes, and to top it off places like Starbucks, Cosi, etc. DC was the scene of the most extensive gentrification project ever taken in America and the city formerly known as the "Chocolate City" is becoming whiter and whiter. Formerly this was one of the most dangerous cities out there, and even today there are some areas You go, You are guaranteed to get robbed, killed, etc. So many cadaan kids in my area would go there for drugs and end up missing

[FAH1223]

DMV is the place. I would love to move there.

Fah, southeast is the capitol right? I stayed with a relative who lives two blocks south of the capitol and another two blocks (four blocks from Capitol) I felt like I was in a whole different country wallahi or something from 1920's sharecropping Alabama inside of a big city.

The Capitol is where DC is divided up. Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, and Southwest all converge at the Capitol. For example, I commuted to the Library of Congress and got off Union Station which is in Northeast. The Library is in Southeast. But all I had to do was walk down First Street Northeast down to Southeast. And the otherside of the Capitol has NW/SW.

All the cadaans that live in Southeast are in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. It used to be a madow area 25 years ago The same thing has happened to the Northeast part of the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Small ass houses are half a million to a million dollars... Back in the mid 90s you coulda got them for under 100 Gs. People would go to DC back then and comment that it was dirty and didn't look like a Capital city. They were right and like Murax said, that whole neighborhood that encompasses NE/SE has been gentrified. The H street corridor, which hasn't been touched since Martin Luther King Jr. walked on it, has been getting revitalized and it is SHOCKING. I am seeing cadaans on a street that madows still dominate. The Trinidad neighborhood, the place I worked in during sophomore year, also has new condos and apartments and cadaans have no fear of going out in still madow majority areas

But once you go down Pennsylvania Avenue and cross the bridge to Anacostia, the demographics change significantly. Barely many cadaans because there is still a perception of Anacostia and SE being so dangerous as it was back in the day.

[Murax]

FAH,

Even Benning Road isn't too scary anymore

[FAH1223]

FAH,

Even Benning Road isn't too scary anymore

On the DC side nah... but on the Maryland side... that's where all the rough niggas are getting pushed into. Capitol Heights

[Murax]

FAH,


Horta How's District Heights, Upper Marlboro, Beltsville? Where do the Somalis in MD live?

[Voltage]

With the way you guys described it, I don't know why you guys seem to hate the gentrification of the city. In my city of Seattle, the only Blacks you will see now tend to be East African. African-Americans predominantly lived in the Rainier Valley and the Central District. Rainier Valley has seen active city development to make it more inclusive and bring other minorities (Asians, East Africans, Jews) and middle class liberal whites in and the CD, located in prime land near downtown Seattle, has seen almost all of its historically Black population bought off and sent to Tacoma. I kind of dislike seeing Whites filling that historically Black neighborhood but I went to middle school in that District and it was pretty rough. Maybe Blacks need a wake up call like this to make them start developing themselves rather than continuing the status quo?

Besides doesn't PG county have the most affluent Black community in the country? It is not like Black influence in the DMV is going down anytime soon.

[FAH1223]

FAH,


Horta How's District Heights, Upper Marlboro, Beltsville? Where do the Somalis in MD live?

District Heights is ghetto, Upper Marlboro is a step above and Beltsville is okay... I live where Laurel-Beltsville meet and its quiet but there's more crime south near Adelphi.

Voltage, the thing I hate is that this has made everything in the city so damn expensive when things should cost 4-5 times less than what they are really worth. Small houses selling for a million dollars?

and PG County does have the most concentration of affluent AAs but it kind of sucks seeing history being shoved away for out of towners. A lot of these Blacks also are moving to Baltimore and Baltimore is completely different culture wise amongst blacks in the two cities. It is amazing how different they are when they are only an hour apart.

Baltimore is kind of like how DC was in the 1990s... cheaper real estate, more ghetto folk, more crime... BMore is just huge though whereas Washington is so damn small

[AbdiWahab252]

FAH,

Fortunes were made in B'more in the early 2000s. Its city and state government were very probusiness. I love when you have black officials in power and are willing to play ball.

A common friend of ours told me that the ghetto was one of the richest places in America if you knew how to turn coals into diamonds.

Murax,

Are you still chilling at the shiisha joints in Skyline ? NoVA has no character. A very bland place. I do miss the Somali shindings there which were at their peak in the late 90s and early 2000s.

[Murax]

Abdiwahab,


I'm too grown for that stuff now man


Sure there was a time I would be at Skyline on any given Friday/Saturday but that was before the curfew. Now since the place went crazy with fights every day: Eithos Vs Arabs Arabs Vs Somalis Eithos Vs Somalis etc Fairfax police put a curfew of 2:00 am.


Adiga You seem like a Babylon type