D.C. at night?

GhostOfTomJoad

GhostOfTomJoad

500+ Posts
Mrs. Ghost & I are headed to the east coast for a little vacation in late July. We're spending a few nights in D.C. before staying in some B&Bs and visiting friends in Alexandria & Charlottesville, VA.

I know that D.C. has a high crime rate & people are cautioned about being out after dark, but I'm interested in seeing the monuments at night. We're looking at doing a "bike the sites" tour which begins @ 7PM and is about a 3 hour guided bike tour through the mall. I'm not concerned about our safety then as we'll be in a group of up to 15 people. My only concern is the walk back to our hotel at 10PM or later. We're staying @ the Hilton Garden Inn across from Franklin Square, 2 blocks north and 1 blocks east of the WH. The walk from the bike tour place (by the Old Post Office) back to the hotel is about 5 blocks up and 2 blocks over.

Anyone ever tried either the walk at night or the bike ride? Any tips are appreciated.
 
I haven't done that tour, but I have walked a pretty fair distance in D.C. at night, and no one even looked at us funny. I would imagine the area you will be in is fine at night.
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You should be fine. The area where you will be is heavily patrolled. D.C. can be quite safe, if you stay in the area of the Mall, the White House etc. Going north, stay in the NW quadrant and you will generally be OK. The Adams Morgan area has some funky bars and resturants and are OK, but is about as far "east" as you wnat to go, don't walk too far away. Cabs are easy to find and in most cases that is the way to go. If you go anywhere of the "red line" of the Metro, is usually ok. Georgetown is always a good bet. Cab only, no metro. Have fun. D.C. can be fun town. But like any big city, keep your wits about you and you should be OK
 
DC crime is overrated. Unless you're in SE or some other sketchy area non-residents don't visit, you'll be as safe as anywhere in the world. Momuments at night are much better than during the daytime IMO.
 
Unless things have changed drastically since I lived there the above post is very untrue. But if you stay in the Mall area, most of Georgetown and Dupont Circle (not too far east towards Malcolm X Park/Meridian Hill) you are more than fine. Crime can get you anywhere though so use the same common sense you would anywhere, be it Dallas or Denver even.

Chances are you won't be the only ones walking in that direction at that time of night and plot your course out ahead of time. Construction, best lighting, etc... Don't get all lovey dovey, not that you would since you are married, so you can focus but don't look paranoid. Make eye contact and carry yourself with confidence, two things that marks don't usually do.

Adams Morgan will be fun too for the above listed reasons. Cab it up there from Dupont or something. I lived in a very sketchy, well a couple of very sketchy parts of the Capital region and while I did have one person try to pull a gun, another try to pull a knife and another try to mug a friend and me, I never lost any money or had any of my own blood shed. This was over a ten year period and each could have been avoided.

I walked all over, rode my bike all over as well. You will be fine and have a great time. I have heard that much of the sketchy parts from just ten years ago have gentrified quite a bit up by the Green line above Cardozo/13th street. I find it hard to believe but anything is possible.
 
If you're worried about it, call in advance and have a cab meet you for the ride home. I've wandered around the monuments at night and felt fine. But I haven't ventured off the Mall so take this with a grain of salt.
 
I am going to go with Eating Club here and advise you not to worry about the areas you are proposing to walk. There might be a few homeless people near the McPherson Sq Metro station, and maybe some others in McPherson Sq or Franklin Park, but they are basicallly harmless.

My rule of thumb for walking in DC after dark is basically anywhere on the Mall is safe. Anywhere west of about 12th or 13th St and Pennsylvania north to the U St corridor is safe. Most of the Capital Hill neighborhood is safe. Most of the area west of 16th St all the way to the Maryland border is safe. Pretty much all of Arlington is safe, especially in the Orange Line corridor (Rosslyn to Ballston).

Of course, I think you will be sticking to pretty common areas for tourists and visitors and I would not worry about walking in those areas at all.

Enjoy your trip!
 
Thanks for the tips, everyone. My wife has traveled to DC a few times on business & stayed in the same hotel we'll be in (she liked it's location to the sites & the fact that it's across the street from a metro station) but she never ventured out at night on her own. I don't think we'll have any issues at all if we stick to the main streets & use common sense.
 
...And that was the last we ever heard of the GhostofTomJoad.

j/k Have fun. D.C. is an awesome city. The monuments at night are amazing.
 
Haven't done the bike tour. But the bus tour of the monuments at night is great...And you should be fine on that walk. Odds are you'll see a crazy or 2, but they're basically harmless....usually best to just ignore them and keep walking. As others said, Georgetown, Adams Morgan, and Dupont are good spots to check out for food/drinks. If you're a beer fan, definitely go to brickskellar.

And as a resident of SE, it's totally safe as long as a you don't go past 8th St. or so(Eastern Market area, though it burned down), though there's really not much to see past east of Supreme Court and Library of Congress on 2nd St. Depending on your congressman, they'll also offer many services as well to make your trip great.
 
EC: I left DC in 96. Spent a good amount of time on Euclid between 15th and 14th, right on University. I was one block from the park, 5 houses from THE Clifton Street Crackhouse which is infamous to say the least, half a block from the Conoco on 14th and two blocks from the Clifton Towers. Anybody who knows about cities knows what "Towers" means if not in a rich white area.

So yeah, it was a tad bit sketchy back in the day. I could tell stories that people who did not know the area would swear cannot be true in our modern society. It hardened me some, educated me more. I have heard it has cleaned up some since then, I just cannot envision it that way.

Last time I was there was in Oct. of 2000. I went to my old place to visit my former roomate and saw a dude take 3 to the chest as a guy came out from behind a dumpster. It was maybe forty feet from me.

There would be no way a tourist would find themselves there to begin with. I always felt relatively safe too for the most part. I used to play basketball and football in Anacostia, no problems. (except for the one time when one dude had a drive by attempt on him. they missed.)

So I hope it has cleaned up. And the areas suggested were fine even back then.
 
Columbia Heights has gone through alot of gentrification since the metro station opened. It's still a hit or miss area though, and crime is higher than other parts of NW, but many young people and businesses are attracted to the area. You can read about the developments and catch up on the old neighborhood here.

The Link
 
Sometimes the only differeince between cops and criminals in DC is that one holds the badge yet is more lethal. I know this from experience in that I used to have a few on the payroll for our club. How else do you get to have the only afterhours serving alcohol in the city till the sun comes up?
 
eljefe76, where you at in SE? I too live on the Hill and it's as safe as anywhere else in the city. I wouldn't go east of Eastern Market/8th St, but there are lots of fun areas on the Hill. Even the Metro's safe, and is usually much cheaper than cabbing it everywhere. Hope you have a great trip!
 
Senate side here...the Eastern Market building was pretty much gutted by fire, but many of the businesses are still out there on the weekends, just not the folks that had stands inside (though the meat guys pull up a refrigerated truck and do business that way). The produce is still there, the art, the jewelry, furniture, fake purse ladies, all there. You just can't go inside the building and get breakfast or check out the seafood, meat, produce and other counters.
 
Nola: I can see both both Capitol Hill Suites and the Madison building from my front porch. How about you?

Hula: As savvy indicated, the main building did burn down (probably about a month or two ago). I know the mayor came out immediately and said they would rebuild, but I'm not sure what the status is right now. Hopefully soon. But glad to hear savvy say there is still business going on, since I haven't even gone to the area since the fire. I'll have to go one of these weekends to support the businesses.
 
Yeah, I'm on 2nd St., so you're only a block away. I'm literally right next door to Cap. Suites. I'm sure we've seen each other before cause I'm always walking to gandel's, the corner market, dry cleaners, etc. on Ind. (Penn) Ave.

Do you walk by on the way to a House office, or on the way to the metro for some other job? I'm in a House office myself right now (and looking).
 
more info on Eastern Market...
The Link

Glad to see there are other Hill rats around. If you're wearing burnt orange and I pass you on my way to the Tune, Scrounge or the Coast, you'll see a
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Us DC Horns should get together somewhere to watch football, might I throw out Pour House as it's within stumbling distance of my apartment.
 
I'm game...However, while I could be wrong, I think Pour House is a Big 10 bar.

I'd be willing to host football watching parties at my house for "hard-core" Capitol Hill Horn fans. Most of my friends are Texans here, but few are die-hard UT football fans (and I hate watching games with people who aren't fans). I can throw a tv on the back porch for the drinkers, smokers, and people who want to grill burgers, and also have a tv inside for the non-smokers. Just an idea.

But I'm down for getting some kind of Cap. Hill game watching going on.
 
yeah the Lounge had about $100K in damage according to Roll Call. I'm old school and still call PH "Politiki." heh. I'll probably be watching games at Rhodeside come fall.

M - yep, I'm still alive. Where you been? We actually got a group together to see Cat pitch last week vs the DC softball team, but I missed the CAN tourney.
 
PS we watched games at Politiki/Pour House (after the Rock was no longer an option) but just for one season. it was kind of a nightmare, and why we ended up at Bailey's and now Rhodeside. I'm sure it would be fine for a smaller gathering, and I'd be down for trying it again because i can walk there, but they were not very accomodating and very unresponsive to technical difficulties and were prone to schedule events in top of the hill, thus booting out Texas Exes to the rest of the bar to watch games (which clearly did not have enough room for everyone).
 
When I was working Andrews AFB last Fall, I had a hotel in Oxon Hill.

I don't recommend it. Not that it was horrible, or there were drive bys or anything like that, but I still wouldn't recommend it.
 
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