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City Cast DC

Emma Uber

Marquis Clyburn Jr., a 14-year-old from Southeast D.C., summed up his thoughts on the youth curfew in two words: “It’s trash.”

He delivered his scathing opinion from the Kennedy Recreation Center in Shaw as younger children played on inflatable bounce houses and older teens filmed trending TikTok dances off to the side. As he spoke, another boy around his age entered the building sporting a hood and ski mask. A woman at the front desk asked him to remove the face coverings.

“It’s 90 degrees,” she said. “You not hot?”

Pump It Up Palace was one of more than a dozen youth events hosted by the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation last week. Clyburn attended Wednesday night with his mother, but said the event was “for babies.” He much preferred the teen jams – late-night parties the District has historically held in the summer, but began hosting earlier this year in an effort to curb large teen gatherings in neighborhoods such as Navy Yard and U Street. A nationwide phenomena, the chaotic meetups have at times erupted in violence.

The “teen takeovers” – and what to do with them – have become a fixation of Trump administration officials, D.C. leaders and local residents alike. Officials can't seem to decide whether to impose curfews on youth in designated zones or if such measures would lead to young people being overpoliced – a particular concern in D.C., where National Guard troops and federal agents patrol the streets. The council has twice this month postponed a vote on emergency curfews, with Mayor Muriel E. Bowser publicly castigating the group as “soft on crime” after the first delay.

But for Clyburn, things are quite simple: he just wants to hang out with friends at night. Clyburn

went to a teen takeover after he was bored one weekend and saw an Instagram post. He said he would have gone to a city teen jam if there had been one – the disorganized takeovers don’t have music, basketball courts or free slushies – but he went to Navy Yard because “there’s nothing to do” and he wanted to scooter with friends. He found the gathering too chaotic though, and said he doesn’t plan on attending another.

A basketball, football and track athlete enrolled in the Mayor Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program, Clyburn had a message for those who seemed to consider all D.C. youth delinquents: “Think of everybody, not just a certain group.”

DPR events during D.C. public schools' spring break last week. They disagreed on whether the curfew made sense and whether there was enough for teens to do in D.C. But all of them said teens in D.C. were being judged and stereotyped based on the bad behavior of a few.

“I feel like it’s the D.C. government against teenagers,” said Ty’shaunn Chase, 17, who disagreed with the curfew. “It’s not all of us that’s like that. It makes me uncomfortable because you don’t know me.”

But her friend La’Kendra Wheeler, 16, defended D.C. officials. “I feel like … we can’t be mad because the teenagers are the ones who put us through this. They doing dumb stuff.”

The stakes for D.C. are high, as President Donald Trump has used public safety in the District as justification for his unprecedented federal inventions, including his 30-day takeover of the D.C. police department and deployment of the National Guard. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, a Trump appointee, has pointed to teen takeovers as a reason she should be able to change D.C. law so that her office can prosecute “young punks” under 16.

Young people cannot be arrested for curfew violations, but are sometimes taken to the city’s youth detention facility until a parent picks them up. Police have arrested youth at teen takeovers for other offenses. D.C. police have at times devoted more than half of the department’s on-duty officers to dispelling teens from curfew zones, an official said, a resource strain on a department already facing historically low staffing levels.

Hosting events for youth also costs the city. The D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation hosted four late-night teen events for its Teen Spring Jam Series during the first two weekends of April, with each event costing an average of $148,000, according to DPR director Thennie Freeman.

Staffing accounted for the majority of the costs. But that figure does not include the cost of having D.C. police officers, janitors, traffic control officers or city personnel from other departments on site. Plus, last week DPR hosted life guard training, horseback riding, ice skating, talent shows and a financial seminar for teens.

D.C. officials have touted the events as a way to help teens stay safe and have fun. The Spring Jam events offered food, games, music and a safe environment for teens until 10 p.m. and nearly 6,000 teens attended – though 

 outside the recreation center during one of the jams earlier this month, leading to the arrests of eight youths ages 12 to 17.

“We will always prioritize programming that gives DC youth somewhere to be, something to do, and people who care about them. That is priceless,” Freeman told me.

So why do people continue to claim there’s nothing for D.C. teens to do?

“People probably just need to get involved in their local rec centers and not read headlines or watch social media clips because they don’t show the whole story,” said Marcus Coates, DPR’s deputy director of recreation services. “We are fully engaged and fully invested in our young people, keeping them safe and having fun while doing it.”

Council member Christina Henderson, who voted in favor of both the permanent and emergency curfew Tuesday, told City Cast DC that DPR excels at events for younger children but has historically struggled to engage teens who may think they are “too cool” for city-sanctioned events.

But it’s not on the city to entertain teens every night or every weekend, Henderson said. Some of this work falls on the shoulders of parents.

“Why do I have to incentivize you to ask where your children are at 10 p.m. at night?” she said.

Some teens – like 15-year-old Asja Wilson and 13-year-old Kamiyahray Nichols – agreed. Wilson said the curfew doesn’t “bother her at all.”

“To me, curfew doesn’t matter,” she said. “Because I have a curfew from my parents.”

Nichols said she would never attend a takeover because of the fighting she’s seen in social media videos. She said she thought there was plenty for teens to do in D.C., and said many of her classmates attended both DPR events and the takeovers. (Her mother, who was with her at a DPR event, calls the curfew “a wonderful thing.”)

Tamika Jackson, Clyburn’s mother, has signed her son up for many extracurricular programs to encourage a structured and safe social environment, and said she especially appreciates the DPR events. 

Jackson said she doesn’t want her son to depend exclusively on TV, social media and video games for socialization. She wants him to go outside and hang out with his friends, but she also fears that as a Black boy from Southeast D.C., her son will be criminalized.

“It’s kind of infuriating because I know I don’t have a bad kid,” she said. “I do have to worry about him because of the chaos outside with the older teens, but I also worry about police because he is a young Black male and some people think they are all the same. Every time he leaves the house, it gives me anxiety.”

Concerns around overpolicing surged this week after a social media video taken in Navy Yard showed a D.C. police officer grabbing two Black girls and pulling them off a moving bike this weekend. The teens appeared to be in a group of two, and therefore not in violation of the curfew.

The same officer is captured on video standing at the top of the Navy Yard Metro station, yelling down the escalator, “Come up and see what happens.”

D.C. Police Spokesperson Tom Lynch said the matter has been referred to the Office of Police Complaints.

On Tuesday, the D.C. Council voted 8-5 to preliminarily approve a permanent bill allowing the special curfew zones. The bill requires Congressional approval and wouldn’t go into effect until fall.

It passed after new at-large council member Doni Crawford negotiated an amendment with pro-curfew leaders such as council member Brooke Pinto and Bowser, limiting who could request a curfew zone and establishing a 30-minute warning period for teens before a curfew zone could take effect.

But the council voted 7-6 to again delay a decision on the emergency legislation it’s been using to extend the stricter curfew policy since July. Emergency legislation requires nine votes to pass and the council took a “five minute” recess (that lasted 34 minutes) before D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson moved to table the vote, seemingly signaling that efforts to secure enough council members’ support had failed.

Mendelson hinted at the watchful eye of the Trump administration as he urged his colleagues to delay the vote once more, telling them the last thing D.C. needs is a “self-inflicted wound” when the city is already fighting many battles for its autonomy.

“There are folks who are not friends to the District who are looking very closely at what we are doing and what we are not doing,” he said.

Others on the council, like Anita Bonds, fiercely opposed postponing the vote.

“Sometimes I feel like we kick the can and the can doesn’t move very far,” Bonds, who voted in favor of the permanent bill, said. “We continue to put off what we cannot put off.”

D.C. can’t stop talking about curfews. But what do teens have to say about them?

A missing part of the teen takeover conversation

What Washingtonians have been wondering. We break down why things in DC are the way they are and how they work.

DC, Explained

Kaela Cote-Stemmermann

While people today consider Adams Morgan — belovedly nicknamed AdMo — a Northwest neighborhood stalwart, it actually didn’t get its full name all that long ago.

The area, which evolved from an upper-middle class neighborhood in the 18th and 19th centuries, 

 its cross streets, 18th and Columbia Street NW.

It wasn’t until the 1950s — in the wake of the Brown v. Board of education ruling — that people began using Adams Morgan to describe the area adjacent to the much older Dupont and Kalorama neighborhoods. This is because the area had two segregated elementary schools; the all-white John Quincy Adams School, and all-Black Thomas P. Morgan School.

In preparation for the school integration, Florence Cornell, the principal of Adams, and Bernice Brown, the principal of Morgan, partnered to create the Adams-Morgan Better Neighborhood Conference. The conference's work was crucial to making the schools’ desegregation quick and peaceful.

Other organizing groups in the area started using Adams-Morgan to describe their neighborhood groups and the name stuck. The hyphen was eventually dropped around 2000, making it the Adams Morgan we know and love today.

How community members gave Adams Morgan a uniting cause.

How Adams Morgan Got Its Name

Remember the days before Elon Musk's DOGE, when the major discussion in D.C. was his fantastical hyperloop? No? Hardly surprising as it’s considered one of the biggest transport flops in D.C. history. We talked with 

What’s the Hyperloop and Why Did DC Want It?

The hyperloop concept dates back to 2013, when Elon Musk and a team of SpaceX engineers proposed what they called the "fifth mode of transportation" — a vacuum-sealed tunnel between D.C. and Baltimore, eventually adding Philadelphia and New York — that would eliminate drag and propel passengers in pods at roughly 700 miles per hour.

In 2017, Musk suddenly took to Twitter to announce he had "verbal government approval" to build a hyperloop connecting D.C. and New York, a trip that would take 29 minutes. He claimed it would be 100% privately funded and would be done in two years.

 what he was talking about. Reporters reached out to state agencies, governors' offices, and mayors' offices along the proposed route — and found…nothing. “Eventually you actually get this trail of breadcrumbs that leads back to none other than real estate heir Jared Kushner, who seems to be the driving force behind this project,” 

It quickly became clear that The Boring Company — Musk's Hyperloop venture — struggled to answer even fundamental questions when meeting with transit officials. Had they accounted for D.C.'s notoriously wet, unstable soil? What if it ruptured? What about seismic activity? The answers were consistently no. “ Those [meetings] were described to me as an unmitigated disaster,” 

Additionally, the technology itself was non-existent with prototypes struggling to make it work safely at even 200 mph, nevermind 700 mph. By 2018, the goalposts shifted dramatically. The new vision became essentially 16-person buses in a tunnel. Then 

 became Tesla sedans, which they showed off at a press demo.

By the time a draft environmental assessment was released in 2019, the project — now just called “The Loop” — was essentially an alarmingly unsafe lithium-powered underground shuttle with a daily capacity of less than a single Metro car. Nobody was on board. Eventually, the Boring Company stopped communicating at all, and by 2021 

In short, nothing. The project quietly died in 2021, and Ribel unearthed its history for his 

. “ Nobody wants to revisit this chapter,” 

, “People are embarrassed by this, as they should be.” The proposed Hyperloop terminal in NoMa was sold to a developer for luxury apartments, its web domain was taken over, and it effectively disappeared from the DMV zeitgeist.

In the meantime, the transit improvements that would actually move the needle — light rail, expanded bus service, increased Metro investment — are the unglamorous options that keep getting passed over. For this reason and others, many were 

. But if you close your eyes really hard on the red line, you can almost pretend you’re on a 700 mph hyperloop, right?

Listen To The Full Disaster 

Before Elon Musk's DOGE there was his fantastical hyperloop. But, it went down as one of the biggest transport flops in D.C. history. We talked with Matt Ribel for the full story. 

Inside the Story of Elon Musk’s Failed DC Hyperloop

Ashe Durban

Mosh Madness, D.C.’s premier music festival slash basketball tournament is back for its second iteration this spring. On April 11 in the Takoma Park Presbyterian Church’s gym, the DMV’s best and brightest bands will rock out — while teams, made up of D.C. musicians, showdown in a 3v3 basketball tournament below for the title of 

“The Best Band in the DMV (Who Decided to Sign Up For This Particular Basketball Tournament).”

And D.C.’s music scene is behind Mosh’s out of bounds concert: last year it was a smash hit. This year promises to be even bigger, doubling capacity and pulling sponsorships from 9:30 Club, Chuck Levin’s, and more.

On the surface, the festival breaks age-old jock-artist rivalry stereotypes. But according to organizers — Reid Williams and Ian Donaldson, both of the band 

 — the inspiration for the festival was way more utilitarian.

“We’re working musicians who play basketball a lot during the weekdays. And the only people we know that are also available are other musicians, basically. So we have a whole ‘musicians who ball’ community. And the soundtrack is often just our friends' music,” says Donaldson. 

It wasn’t just a love of music and basketball that spawned Mosh Madness. It was a desire to move past the scenes and social groups segmenting D.C.’s music scene.

“I love the fucking diversity here. But with genre, it’s easy for people to silo themselves,” Williams said. The Mosh Madness lineup this year reflects that diversity. In contrast to last year's festival, which leaned heavily on the city’s indie rock scene, this year features a tasting menu of D.C.’s musical palate. D.C. indie’s finest 

, an award winning Jazz-Go-Go band, rapper-sculptor 

But is it a basketball tournament? Or a music festival?

“It’s performance art, it's a bit campy. I would urge people to come for high quality music, not high quality basketball.” said Donaldson. Williams describes it as an IRL version of those brainrot videos where audio content is paired with subway surfer compilations, for the severely attention-impaired.

In that way, it’s an occasion born from the Gen-Z zeitgeist. But in other ways, it fits neatly into D.C.’s music history. All the proceeds will be donated to the 

, placing Mosh Madness in the long line of D.C.’s benefit festivals dating 

back to the 80s with music collectives like Positive Force

. They’re also not the first Washingtonians to use a basketball tournament as a vessel for change. Metroball famously promoted youth mentorship and community intervention in their annual 

At the heart of it, Williams and Donaldson just want to bring different parts of D.C. together for a good cause. “ I hope that they come away with the more philosophical take of ‘We're not so different you or I, music and basketball, they're all just fun things people like to do.’”

Mosh Madness tips off at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 11 at Takoma Park Presbyterian Church. 

 (but add a donation on top!) and moving fast.

 | April 11 | $20 | Takoma Park Presbyterian Church

 (Techno) | April 17 | $9-25 | Transmission

Consumer Culture, XK Scenario, Miracle Blood

 and local underground legend Oddisee on this bright new single from their upcoming collab project “From Takoma With Love” out April 29.

, featuring the Mosh Madness lineup and other picks.

Let's Rock

Mosh Madness, D.C.’s premier music festival slash basketball tournament is back for its second iteration this spring. On April 11 the DMV’s best and brightest bands will rock out — while teams showdown in a 3v3 basketball tournament below.

DC’s Next Big Music Festival Is Also a Basketball Tournament

Mosh Madness: DC’s Next Big Music Festival Is Also a Basketball Tournament

McKenna Harford

Between the new White House ballroom, the proposed Arc de Trump, and whatever’s going to happen to the Kennedy Center, President Trump is trying to reimagine the city in his image.

Paul Goldberger, a longtime architecture critic at the New York Times and New Yorker, wrote a blistering essay about the Trump effect on D.C. — even 

 the Italian Prime Minister Mussolini. And like Mussolini, Trump totally gets the city wrong. Goldberger came on the pod to talk about his essay and the historical parallels he sees.

“[Trump] envisions it as a place of imperial grandeur because he envisions himself more as an emperor than as a democratic president, and he's trying to reshape it to be the seat of an empire,” Goldberger said.

Goldberger said the best cities have a mix of “wonderful accidents and wonderful intention,” both order and chaos, but argues that because Trump’s focus is on himself, his proposed projects will overwhelm the city with little regard for its history or layout.

“ He's missing the importance of history. The idea that the White House is some kind of piece of personal property that he can tinker with during his period of residency…” Goldberger said. “The process we're seeing right now is a joke.”

The most infamous example is Trump’s proposed 90,000 square-foot ballroom (

) at the East Wing of the White House. Goldberger said the building will overshadow the White House in size and block the vista between the president’s residence and the Capitol — a key element in Pierre L’Enfant’s original designs for Washington.

“ The symbolism is pretty bad there,” Goldberger said. “It's completely saying that imperial grandeur — no pun intended — trumps the people's view.”

Even the original White House structure could be tampered with if Trump 

 from the staid ionic style to the more ornate Corinthian style favored by Roman emperors.

 — a 250-foot arch at Memorial Circle — shows the president often “confuses size with quality,” Goldberger said. If built, the Arc de Trump would be the main view from the Lincoln Memorial, blocking the line of sight to Arlington Cemetery.

“I worry it would make even the Lincoln Memorial seem trivial,” Goldberger said.

Trump’s plans are not all set — or built — in stone yet. Delays from the permitting processes and lawsuits aiming to completely prevent construction have slowed progress. But this year will still bring massive changes to D.C.’s architectural landscape.

How Trump is “destroying” DC

Between the East Wing of the White House, the proposed Arc de Trump, and whatever’s going to happen to the Kennedy Center, how will President Trump's projects change the city's look?

Is Trump Destroying DC’s Architecture? 

Welcome back to our series “DC Dating Off the Apps.” (Find our 

!) ICYMI, I’m deleting the apps and sacrificing myself as a social experiment to try D.C.’s in-person dating options so that you don’t have to. I know, heroic. This time, we’re headed to the dart boards to see if cupid’s 

After doing some aggressive self-affirmations in my bathroom mirror, I biked down to 

 in Mt. Vernon Triangle for a “Dates & Darts” social hosted by 

. After checking in, I went to the bar for my free drink and to look up the rules of darts on my phone. Soon we were broken into four groups of about 10 people each for some darts. We played, switching groups occasionally, then were given free reign to mingle.

Well, apparently I’m an absolute ace at darts. So, that was a pleasant surprise. But putting the dopamine rush of beating a bunch of strangers aside, this event had a lot going for it. The game-play structure kept awkwardness at bay while still allowing plenty of time to flirt with your teammates, or better yet, your rivals 😈

It drew a more interesting and diverse crowd than the 

 I attended (and not nearly as many quarter-zips, thank god). The balance of ages and genders was perfect and I loved that I wasn't limited in who I could talk to. One of the best parts of the night was chatting with the other women, making friends, and embracing the cringe together.

It was also a great deal. For $20 I got a drink, two hours of dart games, and the benefit of curated groups and icebreakers.

At first, I was having flashbacks to the first day of summer camp, where you’re trying to differentiate yourself among a large group dynamic — something I was never great at (potentially because I refused to look up from my copy of “Percy Jackson”). But with two drinks in the bag and everyone in awe of my dart throwing prowess, my shyness was quickly forgotten.

The larger issue for me was how to follow up with people I liked. Unless you download the organizer’s app, you have to do things the old fashioned way — go up and ask for someone's number. This led to a few awkward instances of people I wasn't interested in asking for my number, or having to chase someone down (an introvert’s nightmare).

Well well well, I know you doubted, but I 

 end up meeting someone interesting and we are planning a date for this week (fingers crossed they’re not reading this 🙏). It could be a disaster, but regardless, I would consider this experiment a success!

TLDR: It was fun! I would attend another Peared event. They have a 

 I want to try. In general, the activity-based dating events are a win-win. Even if you don't make a romantic connection, you can still make friends, drink, and crush at darts.

Cost ($15 early bird or $20, includes drink and darts) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

What D.C. Dating Experience Should We Try Next?

I’m deleting the apps and sacrificing myself as a social experiment to try D.C.’s in-person dating options so that you don’t have to. This time, we’re headed to the dart boards to see if cupid’s dart hits its mark

DC Dating Off the Apps: Darts Are Flying 

 has been on a mission to put D.C.’s rap scene on the map for over 20 years. “We're all too familiar with other iconic cities in hip-hop, like Atlanta, New York, Houston, and Los Angeles. I’m trying to do my part to make that normal in the DMV as well.”

Along the way he’s become one of the DMV’s longest reigning underground hip-hop lyricists and beatmakers, released about 20 projects, toured with the Roots, and helped make D.C. a music mecca in its own right.

 spotlights the iconic Takoma Park carryout Peter’s Sub Shop (with the DMV’s best mumbo sauce 🤐). In one of his breakthrough records, the 2011 beat tape “

,” he masterfully paints a sonic portrait of D.C.’s biggest green space. “

” will transport you straight to a sunny window-down drive on the parkway.

Born Amir Mohamed el Khalifa at Howard University Hospital, Oddisee grew up finding his own DMV landmarks across Adelphi, Takoma, Silver Spring, Upper Marlboro, and D.C. In the early 2000s — before social media — Oddisee, along with any other beltway hip-hop heads, had to flock to the city to find their people.

“If you listened to rap and you wanted to rhyme, it was a very small scene. It was pretty much the U Street corridor and 18th Street. That was our watering hole,” he explained.

Oddisee credits a host of rhymers before him — 

 — for creating the DMV’s underground rap infrastructure, mostly through open mics. For the first time, D.C.’s independence from the larger entertainment industry in New York or LA was actually a positive.

“As powerful a city D.C. is, it’s not necessarily known as being a creative hub. We didn't have the sheer population to support niche music,” said Oddisee. “That created something beautiful because no matter what style of rap you did, you had to share space.”

It’s not exactly a hot take. Local punk historian 

 that D.C.’s place outside the belly of entertainment helped its punk zine scene get off the ground, H Street’s hottest new club Transmission thinks it 

, and it’s how local band April + Vista said they 

Oddisee isn’t just an underground sound smith, but an underground historian and ethnomusicologist. He attributes D.C.’s unique melting pot of musical influence to 

 — when millions of Black people left a Jim Crow-entrenched South in the 1900s.

“Most Black people from the DMV originate from the Carolinas and Virginia. So we have this heavy southern influence in D.C.,” explained Oddisee. “ A high level of musicality comes from where we're from, it wasn't something we discovered solely through electronic production processes.”

For Oddisee, this manifests through go-go influence. His band, the Good Company, is full of D.C. scene veterans. The full scope of their musicality, from go-go to hip-hop to jazz, is on display in their 2020 

. “The music always had this live influence and that definitely came from go-go,” Oddisee said. “It came from being a music mecca.”

 (Go-Go) | March 8 | $25 | Citizens and Culture

 (Club) | March 14 | $22 | Chacho Spirits

 (Cumbia) | March 28 | $30 | State Theatre

“supreme and Kaws” — Lil Sobe feat. Ma Dukes

 for their familial take on DMV rap. It’s cute and it cranks.

, featuring Oddisee and other local music picks.

Your Monthly Music Playlist

Chronicling DC’s Underground Rap Scene with Oddisee

Anyone who’s ever dated in D.C. can attest that it’s not for the weak. Double-phone clutching staffers, love-bombing interns, and morally ambiguous Deloitte employees make for a truly harrowing dating pool (and those are just 

exes!). As someone who’s been burned one too many times by the Hinge algorithm (please, god, no more avoidants) I decided that it was time to try something new.

Enter this series, “DC Dating Off the Apps.” I’m deleting the apps and sacrificing myself as a social experiment to try D.C.’s in-person dating options so that you don’t have to. I know, heroic. Will I find love, or just a renewed bitter dissolution with romance? First up: speed dating!

Armed with a healthy dose of skepticism and my (very serious) journalistic hat, I braved D.C.’s snowcrete to attend a speed dating event set up by 

 at a cafe in Ballston. Over the course of two hours, I was matched with nine different dates, each of which was eight minutes. I then got a two minute break to find my next date and a longer coffee break in the middle. Here’s how it went.

This event was a well oiled machine. It started on time, directions were clear, and they even had a website to identify my dates and indicate who I was interested in. They also did a great job of curating a safe, low-pressure environment that was as non-awkward as I could hope for.

I was charmed by how easy everyone was to talk to (who hasn’t experienced the horror of a silent first date?). While there was lots of stereotypical “first date talk,” there were also conversations that left me curious. I learned about a great hiking spot in Maryland that I’m considering buying crampons for, and a jazz bar in my neighborhood I’d never even heard of. So already, I felt my time was well spent.

Look, I’m not trying to judge (except that I am, in fact, judging), but 90% of the men were in a button up and J-Crew quarter zip. DMV lads, can we step it up a little? Trying to discern between two shades of heather gray was not what I signed up for. But in all seriousness, the cafe set up ended up feeling a little bit job interview-adjacent. While I appreciated how serious people were about finding a match … where is the fun?! The whimsy?! The flirtatious, dare I say chaotic, energy?!

My other bone to pick is that we were required to track the time on our phones. So, each date became an awkward game of trying to subtly check the timer without being rude. God forbid I checked too early. Eek!

Would I do this again? Yes! Despite not finding anyone I was interested in, and, of course, all those damn quarter zips, I had a great two hours meeting people and left with a renewed excitement for dating (cringe, I know!). As an introvert who often leaves first dates feeling drained, I was surprised by how much social energy I still had left in the tank after chatting with 

 people — it felt refreshing and efficient.

Next time, I would attend a speed dating event in D.C. proper (sorry, folks across the river, I know you’re disappointed!) and I would attend one that took place at a bar to help curate those ~ romantic ~ vibes.

DC Dating Off the Apps: The Need for Speed (Dating)

“Baltimore! RVA! D.C.!” screams Justice Tripp, Baltimore hardcore legend, halfway through Trapped Under Ice’s landmark 2011 record “

DC, Explained

A missing part of the teen takeover conversation

How Adams Morgan Got Its Name

Inside the Story of Elon Musk’s Failed DC Hyperloop

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