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Well This Went From Cool to an Eyesore Awfully Quick…

Back in early May we saw the new art project, Before I Die…, outside the new restaurant (coming soon?) to the former laundry at 14th and Q St, NW.

It’s looking pretty beat up now. You still think it’s cool or has it become an eyesore?

Category: art, Logan Circle

By: | 23 May 2012 4:00 PM | 33 Comments

  • Anonymous

    Jesus…this was such a cool project. Now look what it’s turned into.

  • Anonymous

    The point was to let people say what they want. Why sensor it just because it’s not high concept / to you liking?

    • Anonymous

      People were saying what they want, “GENTRIFY THS!!!” is pretty specific, the message clear.

  • J

    I always thought it was stupid.

  • Anonymous

    I guess somebody didn’t like it.

  • anon

    Eyesore. At least the chalk should wash away, but are the big tags in chalk or in paint?

    Previous Anonymous, I believe you meant “censor.”

  • Instead of “Before I die”, maybe it should have said
    “Random Reader Rant and/or Revel”

  • Kam

    Saw this coming 3 miles away.

  • live from Columbia Heights

    Quelle surprise!

  • j

    your eyesore is still art to some people.

  • michael

    Um, what did you expect? If you want to get heady about it, I think it represents society just fine. Left to our own devices and no one policing the content, you’re gonna get this– some people playing by the rules, answering earnestly, and some people just effing with the whole experience because they can. I’m not mad at it, and wouldn’t even call it an “eye sore.” We live in a city, and on the surface, this looks pretty reprentative of that to me.

  • Alley Cat

    Bet whatever you want that the usual muggers-haters of that area are also the ones who covered this art project with graffiti.

    • Anonymous

      Those are two separate groups. That is a fact. You can deny it but you would be wrong.

      • And who do you know they are two separate groups? I am pretty sure you don’t form part of it, but I am not going to try to separate what is usually the same. It’s the urban planning and preservation broken window theory: graffiti, if it stays, then nobody cares about that section of the neighborhood and it’s subsequently over ridden by gangs. Don’t tell me that the muggers-haters are not in a gang…. Look at the enormous incidence of assaults, robberies, senseless beatings. And look at the graffiti, that’s their mark. The only difference is that the gangs are already there, and that many people put their head in the sand when faced with that fact.

        • Kam

          Actually you are wrong. DC isn’t big for gangs outside of MS13. They rep their hood or crew. There is a difference and normally the ones doing that really aren’t to concerned with the gentrifiers, they are concerned with rival crews and getting fast money on the block. “Gentrifiers” need me more worried about wild youngins and knuckleheads. Trust me there is a huge difference.

          Plus because you tag doesn’t mean you rob and mug. Just like if you rob and mug doesn’t mean you tag.

          • So, crime and tagging exclude each other? Doesn’t seem to be that way. Maybe you haven’t heard of other gangs, like crews on 7 and O NW and nearby. There are some others that are not as highly organized as the MS13, but they exist. Even if they are not organized in gangs, there’s crime in the area, and crime and tagging seem to go hand in hand. Not necessarily two hands of the same individuals, but crime and tagging are associated.

          • Kam

            Alleycat,

            No tagging is a crime but I am saying that it is a leap and probably an incorrect one to say ” usual muggers-haters of that area are also the ones who covered this art project with graffiti.”

            Again, DC is not a gang area, mostly crews, hoods and clicks. 14 and Euclid, Hobart, Gresham boys are totally different than Bloods, Crips, GD’s, MS13 and 18th St. TOTALLY DIFFERENT.

            But I do understand what you are trying to say – Broken Window theory.

  • Anonymous

    “Gentrify This” is HILARIOUS

  • Anonnanah

    The beauty of this is that you can point over (or power wash) this & start over. the folks that didn’t follow the spirit of this and used this venue to further their own agenda are just sad wanna-be artists.

  • Pretty much everything you want to do before you die – that’s any fun anyway – is going to be messy. So yes and yes.

  • It’s better than what it was before.

  • Saw a guy washing it down last night after work. This morning, mostly covered again…

  • Rukasu

    This is why we can’t have nice things

  • Kam

    This really doesn’t even seem like tagging to me (outside of maybe one). Just looks like crayons were left out and the kids and others who just wanted to ad shit got to them.

  • WalbridgeGuy

    Basically exactly what you’d expect the id of 14th street to look like.

  • gottagetit

    Beats Michael and his buckets of piss.



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