“Dear PoP,

Here are some images from about 4:30 this morning at the corner of 9th and N St NW. Next to Old City Green and down the block from the Long View Gallery and the Lamont Bishop Gallery. We were jolted awake by the sound of gun fire and the squeal of tires speeding away. The ambulance didn’t stay long, no one at the scene was injured. It took the police only a few minutes to arrive, but by then, whoever was in that vehicle was long gone.

P.S. Truth be told, PoP. I hesitated in sending these over. I don’t want to add to any negative perceptions of my neighborhood, but I remembered another incident many months ago on 8th and N, and PoP was the only place I saw anything reported about it. The most significant part about this, to me, is what’s not pictured. Before the sun was up, the tow truck arrived, scooped up the vehicle, swept away the glass – and life went on.

Runners jogged by on their morning efforts. The Circulator started its loop. Tomorrow the saxophone player will be once again outside Old City Green. The Long View Gallery will still invite all the neighborhood in for a monthly art opening. Pets will scamper over to Wagtime. Alabama fans will flock to the Old Dominion Brewhouse to grab 128 oz beer towers and cheer on their team. Conferences will jam the Convention Center during the week and the marching band will loop around it on the weekends. People will still trot through the alleys to find Rogue 24 or the secret entrance to SUNdeVICH.

Work will continue on the stores in City Vista, and the Yale apartments and lofts, and the condos above the Shaw metro station, and the new Convention Center Marriot. We’re still walking down the street to the Giant, and to the clothing swap at the Shaw library later today. Incidents like this happen from time to time, but this neighborhood won’t go back to the way it was in decades past. There are too many good people of all backgrounds and ethnicities moving in every week. Those that would do things like this in the dark of night, lost claim to our city long ago. They will continue to be pushed out by the forces of positive change.”