Rachel Sadon
Enough words have been spilled over what kind of year 2016 has been. Instead, we’re looking back on the stories that made life in the District so much more interesting, complex, maddening, and hilarious than the caricatures reliably trotted out in the national discourse.
Subdivisions of the “Washington County,” as of 1919.
Butt’s Land and Cuckold’s Delight: Mapping D.C.’s Historic Subdivisions
Beyond the city boundaries, the land was mostly rural with large tracts of land owned by just a few landowners. In 1850, for example, the county’s population was just over 3,000 out of almost 52,000 for the District as a whole. With rapid growth after the Civil War, by 1870 it was still just 11,000 out of 131,000.
Andrew Wiseman mapped out the city’s historical subdivisions, the original divisions of land made by developers in Washington County—the area outside the original boundaries of the City of Washington. Some of the names are familiar, and others are more … colorful.
The Fillmore Silver Spring’s marquis showing a performance by Anthrax earlier this month.
The Fillmore Has Become A Surprising Haven For Metalheads
On a chilly Sunday evening in January, the inside of The Fillmore Silver Spring is a musky flurry of crowd surfers, flying drinks, and bearded men shoving one another. Thrash metal legends Anthrax are playing to a sellout crowd before headliner Lamb of God, preceded by openers Power Trip and Deafheaven. The band is midway through their second song, their 1987 hit “Caught in a Mosh,” when a pit emerges in the middle of the room. Frontman Joey Belladonna points in the direction of the circle. “Metal is alive, motherfuckers!” he shrieked at the end of the song.
Anyone wondering why there is often a crowd of metalheads in Silver Spring got their answer when Ethan McLeod profiled the venue’s surprising niche.
‘Sir Sundays’ launched at Sax in September. (Photos by Alex Edelman)
Male Burlesque Brunch Brings Out Clamoring Crowds In Their Sunday Best
There’s one birthday dance, where a woman named Heather sat surrounded by shirtless dancers as they undulated in front of her and picked her up in her throne-like chair. She later described the experience as “insanely delicious,” though it more closely resembled a bar mitzvah’s Hava Nagila than a striptease. (Rules at Sax bar some of the more hands-on lap dances.)
Of all D.C.’s new brunch offerings, only one promised gyrating men. Rachel Kurzius went out to the first show to see how Sir Sundays stacked up to Magic Mike.
A corpse flower bloomed at the U.S. Botanic Garden over the summer. (Photo by Rachel Sadon)
See And Sniff: What Does The Corpse Flower Really Smell Like?
“Hashtag aromatic,” said Rachel Seeger, who arranged to visit the steamy conservatory during her lunch break with a friend, Steph Wheeler. They tried to pinpoint exactly what the pungent bouquet reminded them of. “We decided it definitely smells like rotten cabbage,” Wheeler said. “With an undertone of funk,” Seeger chimed in. “And an ode to trash truck, maybe garbage juices,” Wheeler finished.
The last time a corpse flower bloomed in D.C., three years ago, most people missed its namesake stench. Not this time around, Rachel Sadon reported.
While often compared to rugby, footy players say the Australian game is more akin to ultimate Frisbee. (Photo by Mark H)
Footy Goes From Down Under To The District
Like footsie, it can be aggressive. And while you might not see it happening, it’s definitely played in D.C. In fact, the Baltimore Washington Eagles Australian Football club was once the second-best team in the country.
On a massive patch of earth at West Potomac Park, the Eagles start training in January for a season that doesn’t begin until May. Lauren Landau learned about footy, or Australian rules football, and the locals who play a sport very far from its home.
The scene outside Trump International Hotel. (Photo by Alex Kaufman)
What It’s Like To Spend Election Night At Trump International Hotel
10:23 p.m. “That is a red ass country right there,” says Rob the consultant as he looks at the electoral map. He’s telling me how “Make America Great Again” is a much better slogan than “Stronger Together” because it’s more positive. He tells me that he considers pulling the lever for Trump a “protest vote.”
In a few decades when people ask “where were you when you realized that Donald Trump would become president,” Rachel Kurzius will be able to say she was in one of the only places in D.C. where the crowd was ecstatic.
(Photo by LarryJay99)
Eleanor Holmes Norton Weighs In On President Trump, D.C. Statehood, and Good Girls Revolt
I really am cautioning my own constituents against any morose sense that the world has just stopped. I really do think that this is the time to show that the fight continues and not to make assumptions. I don’t expect to be cheered by the first 100 days, but I also know he can’t possibly do much of what he pledged to do. That’s what I tell my constituents. I do not need a bunch of people walking around saying we are lost at a time when we ought to be fighting.
As Washingtonians struggled to come to grips with the results of the election, Eleanor Holmes Norton tried to buck them up in a conversation with Mark Lieberman. They also spoke about her depiction on Amazon’s “Good Girls Revolt,” which tells the true story of how a group of women at Newseek challenged gender discrimination (Amazon didn’t pick it up for a second season but the creators are shopping it around elsewhere).
(Photo by Daniel Reidel)
This year, sales are limited to only 1,200 people, and the $500 price tag will allow for a more “all-inclusive” experience than in previous years, Williams said. In addition to food, drinks, and a stellar view of the inaugural parade, “we’ll have door prizes, lots of freebies, music and video… almost like an inauguration day cruise on Pennsylvania Avenue!”
The years of free or semi-reasonably priced admission to the Newseum on inauguration day are gone, Christina Sturdivant reported. Instead, guests could pay $500 to celebrate the ascension of a leader who despises journalists inside a museum dedicated to free speech.
Photo by Ted Eytan.
Policy Riders And Lack Of Statehood Put A Major Burden On Abortion Care In D.C.
DCAF Board Member Emily Crofoot describes 2009 and 2010 as “two very short, very sweet years” when D.C. Medicaid funding could help pay for abortions. “Then, D.C. was used as bargaining chip during the budget debate and yet again, we lost the funding. It was very, very frustrating.” When the local funding ban was reinstated in 2011, 28 District women who were scheduled to have abortions were informed that D.C. Medicaid could no longer provide assistance.
Without statehood, D.C. has suffered a long list of indignities at the hands of our Congressional overlords, and it is only likely to worsen in the years to come. Rachel Kurzius looked at how policy riders have been used to undermine abortion care.
Photo courtesy of Community of Hope
Demand At A Gleaming New Medical Center In Southwest Outpaces Supply Of Physicians
The center is well on its way to meeting Community of Hope’s five-year goal of 40,000 visits by 10,000 people, says Kelly Sweeney McShane, the organization’s president and CEO. And while the center’s current staff members “are great and incredibly committed,” McShane says, “our challenge right now finding enough providers to meet the demand.” The center still has nearly 20 open positions for physicians and other healthcare providers.
The non-profit Community of Hope opened its latest facility on a side of town where chronic illnesses are prevalent, and quality healthcare can be hard to come by. It has since served thousands of patients—86 percent of whom live in Ward 8—in a gleaming Southwest facility, but attracting doctors and other staff has been harder than at its other locations, Christina Sturdivant learned.
Amanda Marino shows food bank partners how to thin out plants that are too close together. (Photos by Rachel Sadon)
At The Capital Area Food Bank, Produce Is Paramount
In a garden that seems to appear from nowhere, just a few yards from Metro tracks outside the Capital Area Food Bank’s warehouse, Amanda Marino holds out an outstretched hand. It looks like she is clasping a set of particularly gnarly pebbles. A group of seven women and one man peer into her palm, but they’re stumped as to what exactly the wizened kernels might turn into. “These tortured, ugly-looking seeds are beets,” Marino says brightly.
As the Capital Area Food Bank rids its system of junk food, it is simultaneously working to increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Rachel Sadon visited the facility and peeked in at a class at the urban demonstration garden.
Meal from Scratch DC via Facebook
Some Meal Delivery Companies Stop Short Of D.C. Residents Who Need Them Most
Two years ago, Layo George and her husband purchased a house in River Terrace—a Northeast community on the edge of Ward 7. While the twenty-something medical professionals loved their newly-renovated row home, they soon realized that one of the conveniences of city living was basically nonexistent: quick and easy access to food.
With just a handful of sit-down restaurants in Ward 7, the steady stream of new food delivery apps are poised to help fill a void—but many of them don’t deliver east of the river, Christina Sturdivant reported.
Photo by Sarah Anne Hughes.
After D.C. Extended Paid Sick Leave To Tipped Workers, Cases Of The Flu Dropped By 5 Percent
A recent National Bureau of Economic Research paper provided hard data for what many labor advocates have long predicted: cities that guarantee paid sick leave see a drop in rates of the flu and other contagious illnesses—to the tune of more than 5 percent. But the curious case of how D.C. implemented its law shows just how significant the effect is for waitstaff and other service sector workers.
In 2008, D.C. became the second jurisdiction in the country to pass a paid sick leave law, but, amid concerns from the restaurant industry, it excluded all tipped workers from the benefit. Since then, a slew of other cities implemented their own laws, which largely didn’t carve out such an exemption. Researchers looking at some of those jurisdictions found that cases of the flu dropped by between 4 and 6 percent, but in D.C. it had only fallen by 1 percent. After D.C. extended its law in 2014, though, that jumped by another 5 percent, according to data that a Cornell professor provided to Rachel Sadon.
Banneker Pool. (Photo by Andrew Wiseman)
Casa Ruby Employees Say They Were Misgendered, Harassed By Staffers At Public Pool
“We just wanted to have fun,” says Lovely Hicks, a youth program coordinator at the LGBTQ non-profit. “Half of them had never been to the swimming pool as women, so it meant a lot to them.” But following the events of their inaugural visit to Banneker Pool last Friday, Hicks says that those plans have changed.
A lighthearted trip to the pool turned sinister for a group of transgender youth, Rachel Kurzius reported. After the incident, DPR pledged to add sensitivity training for staffers.
Marian Anderson’s dress is striking, all the more so because there are no color photographs from her 1939 performance at the Lincoln Memorial. (Photo by Alex Edelman)
Finding Chocolate City At The African American History And Culture Museum
Perhaps nowhere is the District so joyously celebrated as in the “Musical Crossroads” gallery, where visitors can bask in the regal orange, turquoise, and black outfit that Marian Anderson wore for her 1939 performance at the Lincoln Memorial. “Most of her collection is at the University of Pennsylvania, so I had no hope of this,” says curator Dwandalyn Reece. But when Anderson’s niece-in-law told her “Oh by the way, we happen to have this,” Reece recalls, she was floored. No color photos of the day exist, and seeing how brightly Anderson shined offers another dimension to that history-making moment.
Far too long in coming, the African American History and Culture Museum has been an instant hit—with free tickets already claimed for months. There is an incredible amount to explore and digest, but nestled among the exhibits are some extraordinary hometown artifacts. Rachel Sadon highlighted the stories around a few of them, while Christina Sturdivant dove into Sweet Home Cafe.
Photo by Rachel Kurzius.
Speed Dating For Friends Can Be Just As Awkward And Heartbreaking
When I enter the Georgetown Library, I feel embarrassed asking the librarian if she knows where the Friend Speed Dating event is taking place. Part of me wants to clarify that I’m there as a journalist and have plenty of friends, thank you very much. But I don’t, and she directs me to the basement with a smile.
Instead of meeting people rapid-fire for a relationship, Rachel Kurzius gave speed dating for friends whirl. “To me, the search for new friends feels more daunting than a date,” she writes. “If a potential romantic partner fizzles out, it could have to do with any number of things outside my control. The whole ‘it’s not you, it’s me.’ But a friend is there because of you—the real you. So if they don’t want to be your friend, it’s you.”
Rachel Sadon gives indoor skydiving a try. (Photo by Christina Sturdivant)
Tried And True: DCist Goes Indoor Skydiving
With 13 years of indoor skydiving instruction under his jumpsuit—most recently in Dubai—Ricardo Del Castillo is overseeing the operation. But for the afternoon, he is patiently explaining to us how wind tunnels work. In response to questions informed by our rusty physics, Del Castillo replies sagely, “You are the object in motion.”
Your DCist staffers ditched the office for a wind tunnel over the summer to learn some important things about indoor skydiving: there’s a lot of spit, it takes a surprising amount of concentration to get right, and they don’t let you keep the jumpsuits.
Some of the cucumbers sculpted to resemble the male anatomy. (Photo by Rachel Kurzius)
A Skeptic Sucks It Up And Enjoys A Blow Job Class
“Welcome to Penis Class!” Reba chirps. She tells us the short version of why she’s standing in front of us: her husband is a chef who was trying to launch a series of supper parties, and they decided coupling them with sex toy parties would differentiate them. So Reba signed up to be a representative (think an Avon salesperson, but for vibrators and the like), and it went great. “Then my husband said, ‘You could teach a class on blow jobs,’ and here we are!” Right as she makes that pronouncement, as if on cue, thunder rumbles.
Week after week, people (mostly women) flock to Reba the Diva to better their fellatio skills. Rachel Kurzius attended a class and found it better than she expected.
An alter at a Wiccan Dumb Supper featured photos of departed family members and friends. (Photo by Rachel Sadon)
How D.C.’s Witches Celebrate Halloween
Everything about Halloween is loud. Shrieking children are amped up on sugar. Uninhibited adults are amped up on both sugar and alcohol. Rainbows of costumes and candy wrappers fill the streets. The secular holiday is a riot of sound and color. For actual witches—practitioners of Wicca and other pagan traditions—it is the opposite. The night of October 31st is holy, the beginning of a new year and a time to commune with lost loved ones. The religious holiday, called Samhain, is marked in silence and black attire.
While most Washingtonians spent Halloween trick-or-treating or drinking in costume, Rachel Sadon spent it with actual witches, for whom it is a holy night.
Photo by Christina Sturdivant
D.C.’s Best Playgrounds, As Reviewed By An 8-Year-Old
I like this playground because it has a lot of webs! It has about 8 climbing webs altogether. One of the webs is so high that I was scared. It’s kind of hard to tell how to get down because you don’t want to jump down because you’ll probably have to go to the hospital. I’m glad they made sure that there is really a way to get down besides jumping.
There’s only so much that an adult can tell about a playground, so Christina Sturdivant enlisted her son, Monty, to survey the city’s best play spaces.
Beverly Smith in her living room. (Photo by Rachel Kurzius)
A Year After Her Son’s Death, Beverly Smith Is Still Looking For Justice
Smith might not call herself an expert on the subject, but she can rattle off the five stages of grief, just as she can list the different vertebrae of the spine, talk about the intricacies of grand juries and other ex parte proceedings. She also co-founded Pan-African Community Action, a grassroots organizing group. And that is just a fraction of what she’s learned since the death of her 27-year-old son.
Alonzo Smith’s death while in special police custody was the second in a two-month span last year. It prompted city leaders to propose increasing training requirements, but no charges were filed against the two officers involved. On the one year anniversary, Rachel Kurzius spoke to Beverly Smith about her efforts to find “Justice for Zo.”
13,000 People Texted A D.C. Bartender Instead Of C-SPAN After The Debate
In order to get in touch with Tripp Diaz these days, callers have to email her in advance. That way, she knows it isn’t a random person wishing to discuss their feelings about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
A D.C. bartender was having an uneventful night at home, watching American Horror Story instead of the presidential debate. But the debate came to her after C-SPAN accidentally posted her phone number for callers to weigh in, Rachel Sadon reported.
