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Over the weekend we all excitedly talked about President-elect Barack Obama's impromptu visit to District mainstay Ben's Chili Bowl. Goofy as it may seem to outsiders, Obama's choice of a half-smoke before even officially becoming president speaks volumes to his understanding of the symbolic gulf that has existed between Washington and the District.
The Politico's Jonathan Martin delved into the two-sided nature of the nation's capital in an article yesterday, writing about how the Obamas are trying to balance life in official Washington with living in the District. Quoting from the president-elect's appearance on ABC's This Week on Sunday:
“One of the things that I don’t like historically about Washington is the way that you’ve got one part of Washington, which is a company town, all about government, and is generally pretty prosperous,” Obama said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopolous. “And then, you’ve got another half of D.C. that is going through enormous challenges. I want to see if we can bring those two Washington, D.C.s together.”
Martin also notes that the Obamas are looking for a local place of worship. Here's what Obama had to say:
“It is tougher as president. You know, this is not just an issue of going to church, it’s an issue of going anywhere. You don’t want to subject your fellow church members, the rest of the congregation, to being magged every time you go to church. And so, we’re going to try to be balancing, not being disruptive to the city, but also saying we want to be part of Washington D.C.”
Kind of a staggering difference to George and Laura "We Didn't Come to Washington to Make New Friends" Bush, isn't it?
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The Church of the Subgenius is always looking for new "fishers of wallets." Short-duration marriages, deflowerings, glandscaping, accubeating...they're the world's only full-service industrial church. And they're proud to pay their taxes! It's a nurturing place to "warm" your "pew" if you know what I mean, and I hope you don't.
Classic photo. That's the look first-timers at Ben's get when they're trying to figure out where the bathroom is.
Classic photo, indeed ... and there goes the neighborhood!!! Nice shot of a hiptard eating french fries with a plastic fork. Next we'll be seeing twenty-somethings eating their ben's chili with chopsticks, soy sauce and wasabi.
What, no violent, explosive diarrhea punchline?
I thought I was sick of pictures of politicians eating at Ben's. Pictures of hipsters eating there is worse. Anybody else sick of this place?
It's nice to have a president that actually cares about the city in which he lives. Bill Clinton was semi-active in the DC area, but showed no true desire to become completely immersed as a resident of Washington.
we'll see if he actually does anything. sitting down at bens chili bowl is a superficial cop-out. going to anacostia, congress heights, trinidad, etc, and actually doing shit, thats not so easy. put your money where your half-smoke (read: mouth) is.
I'll be happy if he just doesn't get us in a war with Iran and doesn't manage to bang any interns.
every time bens chilli bowl shows up in the news, i kill a kitten.
there are some beautiful living room churches in the city, like the one at the corner of 15th and swann nw. i'd like to see the obama family even fit in there, what with all the security. they do have the double parking cones out front waiting for you, though.
Back in the day, Ben's Chili Bowl sat amongst no man's land. You either kicked butt or got your butt kicked. There were no yuppies. There was no Ben's nightlife. This was all imagined by hipster duffasses who realized that this was the only sad piece of DC that was left after the BIG SELL-OUT. They tore down everything that was home to Washingtonians. The 5 and dimes..the Lil Taverns..the movie houses....DC Space....Whitlows.....old Chinatown...
and the coffee waffle shops. Now they all say that they've always hung out at Ben's. What a crock of shinola. It would be cool if Obama made DC his home, but he hasn't moved into the White House yet. As Dr. Zaeus said of Taylor in Planet of the Apes," He may not like what he finds!"
"Damn you all to Hell!", yelled Taylor.
Ben's has been hardening my arteries and softening my stool since '96. Do I go back far enough to be a "legit" Ben's consumer?
Oddly enough, the chili at Ben's looks the same going in as it does coming out.
Great lunchtime joke.
@Deep, I am confused by your post. Are you saying that you did actually hang out at Ben's Chili Bowl back when, presumably it was cool (because it was no-man's-land and there were no yuppies, and you either kicked butt or got your butt kicked)? Before they tore down what was home to Washingtonians?
My recollection is that the vast majority of the houses and storefronts on Florida Avenue were boarded up back then. If it was home to Washingtonians, then they certainly weren't Washingtonians of a fixed address.
I think I like DC after the "BIG SELLOUT" better, since I prefer not to be forced to kick butt in order to sit down for a half-smoke without having my butt kicked. But I may be in the minority, there. I'm as nostalgic as the next guy, but I am generally happier not dodging bullets in Chinatown and crack whores on Florida Avenue.
I do miss Hubcap Tom's, though...
I'm an old townie and hung out around Ben's back in the day. What I was saying is that people act like it was Heaven. I'm saying it was Hell and I lived it. I hung out at the Booker T movie theater and the Lincoln theater. It was tough then. Real tough. I wasn't a buttkicker...I just had street smarts and survived.
FOUR, FOUR DCIST POSTS ABOUT OBAMA'S VISIT TO BEN'S!
AH AH AH!
For an inside look at what's going on in DCist headquarters, I direct your attention to the following: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AXPnH0C9UA
I heard that Ben's serves canned chili. If that's true, that's another reason not to eat there.
Yup. Ben's chili comes out of a big honking can. So what? It's hot, greasy, and fills you up if you can keep it down. Did you actually think they made it from scratch? Have you ever seen anybody making chili at Ben's? The stuff comes in big Sysco drums, they dump it in a big pot, and put it on the back burner. Still, the staff does end up doctoring it with Ben's secret blend of hobo spices. How do I know? I'm the hobo Ben killed for the recipe and walled up in his wine cellar inside a cask of amontillado.
I had no idea you were a poet...
Is this what being into DC has become. Having a half smoke at Ben's. So that gives you DC cred now. Memo to the mayor and President Obama. There is more to DC than having a photo op at Ben's chili bowl. Give me a break.
You ain't got no DC street cred until you had a rock thrown at your head.
Columbia Heights...represent! At least some of us are trying to keep it ghetto.
I had bricks thrown in my vicinity on my way to Columbia Heights metro back in 2000. Does that make me a pre-gentrification OG?
awesome! i have street cred then. except, the punks with rocks weren't on 11th street, it was hawaii avenue. maybe they were pumice stones. maybe!
So do tell, what should the Prez do to prove his DC mettle? Get mugged in Adams Morgan?
You ain't cool until you've been spotted at Morning Happy Hour at the Zoo Bar.
Save the Kittens!!
Maybe the difference is that Barack is from an urban city? George & Laura lived in Texas (Crawford?!?) and Bill & Hillary were from Arkansas. DC would feel more like home in Chicago than either of those towns...
There is such a thing as being too friendly. After all, Clinton did come for the interns.
Obama is here to do a job; not make your favorite hang-outs seem more trendy.
From the article:
"The District, however, is changing.
"U Street, once known as “Black Broadway,” is increasingly diverse. Such black landmarks as Ben’s Chili Bowl... now draw a racially mixed clientele. "
Oh my God. Talk about repackaging displacement.
Carn, do you have any more kittens? I need to kill me one of those myself.
Who really lived in the U Street area 20 years ago though? It wasn't exactly a thriving hood. When our family purchased a place in Logan some 20 years back, the place was pretty much only full of prostitutes, addicts and used car lots. There were a lot of vacant houses and boarded-up buildings. It seems that the people who *did* live there 20 years ago, and who have since moved on, probably made out like bandits, selling the 2 BR rowhouse they picked up for $40k in 1975 for $400k in 2005.
I guess I'm having difficulty identifying who, exactly, has been "displaced".
And I'm having a difficult time digesting the author's definition of diversity. Honestly, I'm not going to go into some tired rant using that "G" word we hate so much, but if white affluent people eating at Ben's Chili bowl means diversity to you and is an indicator of a more racially harmonious future, I guess all the Israeli's eating filafel is an indicator of future peace in the Middle East.
So do tell, what is "diversity" in your mind? It's clear you have a real disdain for those you would qualify as "white yuppies", but truthfully if you walk down U street during any given night you're bound to see mopeople from more disparate backgrounds than just about anywhere in the city. Methinks that it's not a lack of diversity--or whatever you wish to call it--that has got you steamed about the current U Street demographics.
It's funny how we sometimes assume that all white folks in DC are rich and non-whites are poor. That ain't necessarily the case. But it fits the 'displacement' victimology, so that's probably more important than actual facts.
"Oh my God. Talk about repackaging displacement."
So we should have artificially preserved crime, drug dealing, and a lack of basic neighborhood amenities? For what?
I'm not sure you can argue 'displacement' when most of the neighborhoods directly abutting U Street to the east are filled with public/affordable housing and conditions quite similar to what U Street used to be.
Anyone nostalgic for the good-old ghetto fabulosity that was U Street circa 1985 need only take a short trip to Trinidad or Rosedale. Here, on the fringes of a rapidly transitioning H Street, you'll find the same brand of generational poverty and career loiterers that so characterized pre-gentrified U Street. But act now! Even as I write this, hipster doofuses are making Granville Moores and Sticky Rice their own, and Jimmy Valentine's hard-won cachet will soon go the way Bar Pilar's deepfried tater tots and bacon marys.
WTF is a bacon mary? Can I assume it's not an effiminate gay Jewish man that chases gentiles?
A bacon mary is a bloody mary except, instead of a celery stalk, it's got bacon for a swizzle stick.
What you're think of is a "goyim guzzler."
Wow. You all really presume to understand my position. I couldn't care less about U Street, either the former or the present. It is the Jonathan Martin's position and article that aggravated me. The whole D.C. used to be a horrible place, and segregated between the working class blacks and the elite whites. But, good news people! D.C. is cha-cha-cha-CHANGING! Look at U Street! It used to be the black broadway. Now white people are eating a Ben's Chili Bowl! Yay diversity!!! The future is so bright, I gotta wear shades. SEE?!! Ben's Chili Bowl, a symbol of a kinder, gentler future. Hands across America. White people congratulating themselves for eating in a black owned business. Grandpa would never do that. I mean, of course he would congradulate himself over bulls**t, but he would never eat THERE... owned by THEM. Our generation is so open minded.
Okay, seriously, Obama might be symbolic of a better future, depending on your political outlook. The only thing Ben's Chili Bowl is symbolic of is that all of our s**t stinks, and occasionally exits our bodies explosively.
I want the color line to fade in America too, but to hold up what is happening on U Street as an example this is nauseating. The white line moving east in D.C. doesn't mean crap unless the black line starts to move west at the same time, or if the lines fade altogether. Lets not congradulate ourselves just yet.
wow. you really presume a lot about Jonathan Martin's position. did you even read what he wrote? you threw all the yays and bright future talk in. he simply pointed out the U street corridor as one that has changed. it has changed and it's not just wealthy white folk moving in or eating at Ben's, but yes, that's an example of DC changing.
your 'g' word is grudge, and, apparently, you won't get over it until the world is perfect.
I remember (years ago) walking back to my car after a session at some crap recording studio on 14th and feeling pretty intimidated by some underage "yoots" that decided that two white girls carrying guitars needed some minor league hassling. I remember them asking why we didn't go to Ben's instead of McD's...
The hiptards eating there now are just consumers in the Disneyfied neighborhood - I'm sure it impresses the folks back in Ashtabula though.
What do you mean the two parts of DC don't come together? I see stories about muggings in NW on here all the time.
So far the brief Presidency (-elect) of Barack Obama has brought two tangible items to the people of Washington, DC:
1. A staged photo-op at a local restaurant.
2. Massive parking, Metro, traffic, and now mail, restrictions to large parts of the city, including the prospect of having residents of the city not being able to park or drive on their own streets and possibly having tour busses from other states idling in front of their homes for a day.
Yes, I know the Secret Service is behind most of this, but, if Obama wanted to, he could scale this back, or ask that busses not be permitted in the city, or direct the Secret Service and MDW (which he will soon be in charge of) to find alternative solutions such as setting up overflow viewing areas at RFK and FedEx field.
But, quite frankly, the guy simply doesn't care. He doesn't LOVE DC, nor does he HATE DC. Like every single president before him, he has far more important things to concern himself with than the current conditions in a medium sized city that he will live in for no more than 8 years and that, due to the realities of the office, he will have very little contact with. Face it, Obama doesn't care about the DC DMV because, he won't ever have to stand in line there behind a guy who is trying to convice the woman at the counter that he just bought his car off a friend with no paperwork for $25 and that he did not steal the license plate in his hand that is coming up stolen but rather found it while looking for cans on the side of the Suitland Parkway. The same goes for just about everything else in DC.
"Like every single president before him, he has far more important things to concern himself with than the current conditions in a medium sized city that he will live in for no more than 8 years and that, due to the realities of the office, he will have very little contact with."
And that's as it should be. I don't want a president spending time concerning himself about lines at the District DMV. (And for the record, I have had nothing but positive experiences at the DMV) Go figure.)
Yes, I know the Secret Service is behind most of this, but, if Obama wanted to, he could scale this back
Actually, I don't think you're right. Can't the Secret Service act against the wishes of the President when it comes to issues of his safety? I thought that was one of the big issues with the Secret Service officers testifying in the whole Clinton/Lewinsky case - they didn't want to testify about what they saw because that would open the possibility to future Presidents to try to sneak around them. Anyway, I'm pretty sure he does not call the shots on scaling back the security for the inauguration.
Its a fine line. At the end of the day, the Director of the Secret Service works for the Secretary of Homeland Security who serves at the will of the President. However, those are fights that no President really wants to get into. The Lewinsky case was a bit different since it involved a Congressional subpeona and issues of separation of powers.
Having said that, its Obama's show and he could scale it back if he wanted to. He could, for example, offer to make an appearance after the main speech at RFK to encourage people to go there as an overflow site. More importantly, however, he could have made a public statement back in November about how it is his wish that this event come off with as minimal a disruption as possible to the people of DC. Given the fact that Obama now has more political muscle then just about any person on the planet, such a statement would have moved a few mountains over at the Secret Service and the DC govt (which approved this assinine bus parking plan).
Look, when I moved to DC I knew things like this were part of living here. You get stuck behind the occassional motorcade, tourists jam the Metro, etc. However, this is ridiculous. Closing off blocks of the city that are not within sight of any inaugural activity, turning entire residential neighborhoods into bus parking zones, and shutting down entire Metro stations is simply too much.
It would be kinda cool if Obama did move his legal residency here, and ditched the State of Ill-Annoys. Then he would have to wait at DMV, watching those looping infomercials for an hour or two with the rest of us schlubs. Going to Ben's is OK, but he should really try the Florida Ave Grill.
mr. obama,
disrupt us. it's totally cool.
also, come over my house for a beer whenever you want.
how many SBD's do you think Obama let out in that seat? hehhheh
they've updated that spot with a new, more "official" looking sign now...