Rachel Sadon
DCist might have started the year in non-existence, but I like to think that we more than made up for lost time. From the minute the site came back in June, our writers have dug into all manner of weird, wonderful, and infuriating stories of District life. As we close the books on 2018, here’s a look back at some of the best work we published this year.
Foam Eyes, Big Heads, Can’t Lose … Except for Teddy: An Oral History Of The Racing Presidents
The race is absurd, irreverent, and goofy, but also caters to a fan base that’s well-versed enough in history to understand Teddy Roosevelt’s complex relationship with big cats. It’s become such a part of D.C.’s cultural DNA that even a real-life sitting president once wanted to get in on the action.
We all know the racing presidents. But do we really? Freelancer Matt Blitz dug into their past, present, and Teddy’s elusive win. Somehow Bette Midler plays a part in this story.
Dolcezza Lowered Its Baristas’ Wages. Here’s Why, And What It Says About D.C.’s Economy
Duncan agrees that “it sucks. It totally, totally sucks. If I could pay my employees twice the minimum wage and give them health benefits, I would do it in two seconds. But for any small business, especially in D.C. right now, one needs to make adjustments. We’re doing what we feel is necessary to stay strong in D.C.”
When one local business cut its employees’ wages, senior editor Rachel Kurzius shed light on how the cost (and manner) of doing business is changing in an increasingly expensive city.
Hillcrest Has Long Been A Haven For D.C.’s Black Middle Class. Will It Stay That Way?
Others, like 24-year-old black Hillcrest native Elana Casey, say they are concerned about displacement. She worries that incoming white residents equals outgoing black neighbors, as has been the pattern in numerous D.C. neighborhoods throughout the city’s recent history.
Gross agrees. “If we lose the neighborhood, we won’t get it back for another 50 or 100 years,” she says.
Freelancer Sara Trembath chronicled this tight-knit community’s past as it faces an uncertain future.
‘This Is Where I Can Really Be Who I Am’: Patrons Share Their Memories Of Town Danceboutique
I was a freshman in college and I wasn’t out yet and I came to Town with a couple of gay friends and I was like, “Guys, I’m still straight.” And we got here and I started dancing with all these guys and my friends were encouraging me and encouraging all the men. And I was like, “Oh my god, I’m gay!” I realized that literally at Town.
Nowadays, Town Dancboutique is a hole in the ground, awaiting its inevitable future as a shiny condo building. But on the eve of the gay nightclub’s closure, freelancer Leigh Giangreco gathered the stories of patrons who were there to pay their respects and dance their final Town dances.
With Recent Closures, Is Upshur Street In Trouble?
Thomas, of Fia’s Fabulous Finds, says that when Ruta Del Vino closed, it “was like someone breaking up with me. I took that really hard.” She and her husband had date nights at the Latin American restaurant, and had watched the Ruta team put the restaurant together. “It’s a little bit of a scary time. Big players on that street with regards to traffic are closing down.”
With two of the city’s most lauded restaurants amid a steady stream of openings on Upshur Street, it was something of a surprise to see several closures this fall. Senior editor Rachel Kurzius spoke to many of the business owners on the street to get their take about the Petworth commercial strip’s future.
D.C.’s Two New Bars For Queer Women Promise Inclusivity. Can They Deliver?
When David Perruzza tapped Jo McDaniel to run the bar for LGBTQ+ women he planned to open below his new gay bar, Pitchers, she asked why he was interested. After the 2016 closure of landmark queer women’s bar Phase 1, he told her, women came to the gay bar he used to manage, JR’s, and asked where they could find a space to hang out.
“We’re the nation’s capital, one of the biggest cities in the country—we should have a place for you,” McDaniel recalls Perruzza saying.
After Phase 1 closed in 2016, there wasn’t a single queer women’s bar in the entire city. Then, within just a few weeks of another, two opened up this summer. Contributor Maddie Poore took a look inside, and at how inclusive they are.
Civil Rights Protesters Recount The Little-Told Story Of The Fight To Desegregate Glen Echo
“I remember a sheriff coming up to me and saying ‘I’m going to ask you three times to leave. If you don’t, I’m going to arrest you,’” 83-year-old retired dentist Bill Griffin tells DCist. “He just wanted us out.”
Freelancer Matt Blitz went back to the people who were there to tell the story of the 1960 protests to desegregate a popular summer amusement park.
“We were excited that someone had bought the property,” she says about her new neighbor at the time. “We were saying our dreams came true and someone will fix up the place, but it became the worst nightmare there was.”
‘Punk In The Produce’: How Mt. Pleasant Neighbors Are Trying To Save This Immigrant-Owned Grocery
BestWorld Supermarket is an unassuming, immigrant-owned grocery store at 3178 Mount Pleasant Street NW, part of a tight knit neighborhood with a large Latino population. You can find quality Mexican cheese and the right kind of cornmeal to make arepas. You can buy good kimchi and noodles and jackfruit. It’s the kind of grocery store that turns into a haven for people who come from somewhere else (or whose parents come from somewhere else), and crave foods they just don’t sell at Safeway.
It’s not every day that a concert happens in a supermarket, much less a sold-out one. Staff writer Natalie Delgadillo chronicled the efforts of a group of Mt. Pleasant residents as they try to save BestWorld from becoming a CVS (or anything else).
In Tandem: Blind Bicyclists Take To The Road In Weekly Ride
The air was heavy from a week of rain, but a cool breeze picked up over the 11th Street Bridge and followed the riders down to the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail, rippling over the water and through the trees. One tandem sped away over a hill.
“Riding with the elephants, as we like to call it,” says Tajuan Farmer. “With these bikes, the gravitational pull takes over and they’re gone.”
Freelancer Helen Wieffering told the story of a group of cyclists—half of whom have visual impairments—who go for a tandem bike ride each week.
‘23,232 Feet From The White House’, And Other Slogan Ideas For Arlington’s New Amazon Neighborhood
National Landing: So Close To National Airport You Can See The Hudson News
After all sorts of hints and leaks, it was almost no surprise at all that Crystal City was the winner (or one of them, anyway) of Amazon’s HQ2 sweepstakes. What did turn more than few heads, though, was the announcement that the company would be moving into National Landing, a neighborhood no one had ever heard of. DCist to the rescue. Arts and Food Editor Lori McCue got to work on drafting the perfect slogans. Marketing people, please send us the royalties.
“Most people who use psychedelics are in the closet about it,” Rado says in an interview. “I think why people gravitate toward the group is because they have never really felt comfortable talking about these things, and then all of a sudden here’s a room full of people and a safe space where that’s all that we’re talking about.”
The nation’s capital is home to a psychedelic society. Freelancer Ethan McLeod explained what its all about.
‘The Streets Are Dangerous:’ What It’s Like To Be Undocumented And Homeless In D.C.
“Undocumented people continue to go to places where they feel safe. They get their health care at Mary’s Center or at La Clinica del Pueblo. They get services through their church. They don’t go to mainstream services,” according to Janethe Peña, the executive director of DC Doors, an organization that provides transitional and permanent housing and employment to low-income Latinos in the District. Peña says her clients’ reluctance to make contact with city services has only increased since Donald Trump took the presidency, as anxiety has taken hold that any wrong move can lead to deportation.
Staff writer Natalie Delgadillo outlined the extra set of difficulties faced by undocumented immigrants experiencing homelessness.
Where Medieval Times Meets MMA: Meet The Washington Juggernauts
One fighter tells DCist that the difference between the ACL and MMA is a bit like the difference between the XFL and NFL—a similar activity at heart, but with a different kind of ferocity. Another says it is as much a mental activity as physical, akin to tennis.
In practice, though, it’s as though MMA crashed into Medieval Times: people suit up in period-accurate medieval armor and try to bash each other into submission with a variety of swords, maces, polearms, axes, and shields.
Freelancer Jake DeBacher attended a match of the Armored Combat League, and you definitely want to read about it.
D.C.’s Liveliest University Meme Pages, Explained
“If someone has something to say, all they have to do is make a meme and post it to the page and hundreds of people know about it and are talking about it instantly,” Bynum says. “Everyone has a voice and a platform.”
DCist intern Maria Carrasco brought us into the world of the popular meme pages that have proliferated at some of the area’s universities.
After Bloodbath, The National Zoo’s Naked Mole-Rats Finally Choose Their Queen
The new colony transported to the National Zoo this summer was made up of 17 adult mole-rats. There are only 13 adults left. “Yeah, they’ve been fighting and killing each other,” Kearns says. “They have mole-rat wars to determine who’s going to be the queen or who’s going to breed with the queen. We’re hoping things will calm down a little bit now.”
Practically every line in this story and its precursor, both by Natalie Delgadillo, was a revelation. Who knew that the political intrigues of naked mole rats were so freaking riveting?
