Is The Beautiful Life More Common East of the Park?

A reader writes:

“So, we read and hear all the time about all the down sides to our neighborhoods – the crime, the racism, crack houses next door. What we don’t always hear about are the really great things about living in our area of the city. I had an experience in Columbia Heights that is a good example – and perhaps we could hear what other people have experienced?

I was at the Giant in Columbia Heights, rushing to get food and props for a baby shower I was hosting the next morning. I’d been out of town and crazy busy with work, so I was super stressed out. I got my groceries and got in the elevator to go to my car, when I realized that I’d forgotten to get my parking validated. There was a young guy in the elevator with me – maybe late 20’s – and he noticed my “I’m so tired and stressed I want to cry” state. He offered to give me his validated ticket and go back and get mine done. My first reaction was that this was a scam – he’d probably been there 48 hours or something and wanted my ticket so his parking would be free. I resisted. He then offered to go down and get my ticket stamped and bring it up to me, so I could unload my groceries. I was still wary, but gave in. He brought the ticket back to me just as I finished loading the car and the whole way to the street I kept thinking “this better not be a scam.” But it wasn’t – he really had just taken the extra time on a perfectly good Friday night to go get my ticket validated for me. That sort of thing never happened to me west of the park where everyone was too concerned about themselves – so that is one of the many reasons I love life in PoPdom.”

The beautiful life can be experienced at the most unexpected times. Not exactly the same but my favorite experience was when I was told to put some glide in my stride. Do you think these experiences are more common east of the park? What’s been your favorite encounter with the beautiful life?