DCentric

gnagesh

Z Burger in Glover Park.

I live in Columbia Heights. I end up at DCUSA, or what I call the “vertical strip mall“, almost daily. I was overjoyed that the Target within it expanded their grocery section because I avoid the Giant supermarket near 14th and Park unless it’s an emergency; the last time I was there, it was during a blizzard and the infamously-long lines stretched to the back of the store– and then wrapped around it.

I’ve dined at almost every establishment within a block of the Metro except for the ones that weren’t vegetarian-friendly. I write all of this to say that I know the commercial, congested two-block strip of Columbia Heights between where I live and the historic, Tivoli Theatre, and I know it well. And that is why I am concomitantly happy and annoyed that Prince of Petworth announced the impending arrival of Z Burger, a local chain currently serving Tenleytown and Glover Park.

I am excited because Z Burger serves what I think is the best veggie-burger in town. When I lived in Georgetown, I hiked up the street several times a week to consume it. I am annoyed because of the whining and unrealistic expectations of some of my neighbors, who bemoan that we are getting something so declasse and pedestrian. Sometimes, I feel like grabbing their lapels and beseeching them to explain why they live here, when they are clearly under the delusion that this neighborhood is or should be…something else. More on that, in a bit.

The best objection I’ve heard to Z Burger is that Five Guys is but a block away. That’s fair but I would point out that unless I want a wee grilled-cheese sandwich coaxed from a slapped-together, inside-out hamburger bun combined with orange dairy product, there is nothing vegetarian on the menu. I have no quibble with Five Guys; my partner loves their hamburgers and their fries, though on the soggy side for my taste, are often quite good. But Z Burger also has onion rings, cheese steaks and milk shakes. So it does offer something different and this life-long vegetarian is eager to patronize it, once again.

To each their own, right? But that’s not the case with many of the people I encounter every day, who are dissatisfied with the chain stores and casual dining this neighborhood offers. They want more. They want different. They want better. See this comment, on Prince of Petworth’s Z Burger post, asking why we can’t have Shake Shack (!) or Ray’s. Shake Shack is opening in D.C.– but in Dupont, on Connecticut Avenue, where Fuddruckers used to be. Considering that there is only one Shake Shack outside of New York City (in Miami), I don’t know that D.C. will get two locations anytime soon. But that’s addressing the question/lament literally. Let’s talk about the subtext– which to me sounds like, “Why isn’t something *better* coming to Columbia Heights?” A better example of this mentality can be found on a different PoP thread– this comment was under a post announcing that Sports Zone was coming to DCUSA:

I guess Columbia Heights hasn’t \arrived\ enough for any chain to consider a flagship store (Adidas, Apple, etc) there? I’ll be impressed when it can support something like a Kiehl’s or L’Occitane. Hello, gentrifiers. [link]

Hello, gentrifiers, indeed. This is exactly what I’m talking about, and what gets this Capricorn’s goat. There is already an area of D.C. where one may find Adidas, Apple, Kiehl’s and L’Occitane; it’s called Georgetown. It’s a lovely neighborhood, with good things and bad things, like everywhere else (I, for one, do NOT miss the summer roaches and the winter rats). This is not Georgetown. No, we haven’t “arrived”, if that’s the narrow, obnoxious definition of “arrived” we’re examining.

Whenever anyone mentions Ellwood Thompson’s, the Virginia grocer whose storefront on Irving Street languishes as a dusty, empty monument to bad PR and a worse economy, you can inwardly count “3, 2, 1…” before the inevitable griping about the lack of high-end, organic produce commences. Columbia Heights “deserves” Whole Foods (never mind that there already is one on 14th Street), or at the very least, Trader Joe’s. Can’t everyone see? There are wealthy people here and these low-end stores like Marshall’s or Radio Shack are attracting the wrong elements! It’s positively embarrassing to have one’s relatives visit from Connecticut or California, and see the teeming masses, shlepping their giant bags of diapers or toilet paper to the Metro from Tar-zhay.

I appreciated the words of these PoP commenters:

That Columbia Heights has developed the way it has over the past 4 years is remarkable. I expect things to accelerate once the economy turns, but DCUSA looks the way it does today because that was the best of a very limited number of options.

Finally, if you don’t like the sorts of people who need to buy things at Marshall’s or Target, and who travel there on the metro because stuff is cheap and times are tough, Mr. Poon kindly requests that you relocate out of his neighborhood. [link]

The majority of residents of CH are low income. A couple rich blocks and a smattering of the young professional class notwithstanding.

You want high end s***? Take the metro to Friendship Heights where the majority of residents have extra money to spend on that stuff.

DCUSA attracts tenants that can do a high volume of business with the demographics in place in the neighborhood.

It’s very simple really. [link]

It is pretty simple. We can accept where we live and be realistic about our expectations while appreciating this vibrant, diverse neighborhood for all it has to offer or we can continue down a less gracious path, where entitlement blinds us to reality, and we refuse to acknowledge that for some of our city’s residents, for some of our neighbors, being able to feed and clothe their families while living paycheck to paycheck is a higher priority than procuring shea butter-enriched hand cream or a $2,000 computer.