What do you learn about D.C. when you walk down every street and every alley in all eight wards? Ask the man who did it, Austin Graff.
“Yeah, that鈥檚 exactly what I did,” he told 海角精品黑料.
Graff said it took him two years to cover all 131 neighborhoods, and then write in each of the city’s wards.
Graff said the idea to do this sprang from the pandemic, when he decided to walk with his daughter and teach her the alphabet.
“So we went from like ‘A,’ when went to Anacostia, which is really close to where we live, and ‘B,’ we went to Berkley, and ‘C’ we went to Cleveland Park,鈥� he said.
What did he learn about the city, walking through it, talking to people and taking lots of pictures?
鈥淒.C. is just small, land-wise, but it is still just so disconnected,” he said.
Graff said people don鈥檛 seem to understand each other鈥檚 lived experiences even though they’re in the same city, and that seems to stem from the city鈥檚 history.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 realize that most neighborhoods had racial restrictive covenants on housing and excluded different people,” he said.
Graff said he learned through research that there are only a few neighborhoods in D.C.鈥檚 history that didn鈥檛, at one time or another in the past, exclude people from the Black, Irish and Jewish communities.
鈥淭hat did cause a divide in the city where鈥檚 it’s a pretty segregated city,” he said.
Graff said even though the divide is present, he hopes his guide might begin to change that.
“How do we make the city smaller for everyone, and just celebrate the beauty that happens in every neighborhood.鈥�
Graff said he also learned, as he put it, that “local champions carry D.C.鈥� because they love their neighborhoods and work to keep them great.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
漏 2024 海角精品黑料. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
