Episode 4: Washington, DC

Jonathan: 00:06
I remember my first Sunday morning in DC. I was staying downtown. I walked outside around 8, 9 a.m. and the streets were barren. I did not see anyone walking. I didn’t see a bike on the road, and I saw no cars moving. I was the only person outside. And this is downtown DC. I went back inside and said, did something happen? Was there another 9-11? Was the zombie apocalypse? Is something going on? They were like, oh no, it’s just under morning. About 11 o’clock, it’ll get busy. And sure enough, somewhere around 10:30, 11 o’clock, the streets started buzzing.

Sam: 00:58
This is City Share, a podcast about how we move through cities and how cities move us. I’m Sam Her. Today we’re scooting around Washington, D.C. D.C. is more than just the mall and the political engine. It has some surprisingly quiet places too. Like in this one city, there are two different worlds. One full of hustle and bustle, and the other is tranquil and reflective. That one is harder to find unless you have the right guide.

Sam: 01:34
Jonathan!

Jonathan: 01:36
I am Jonathan R. Stafford.

Sam: 01:39
Riding up on a scooter.

Jonathan: 01:41
How are you feeling this morning?

Sam: 01:43
I’m feeling really excited to do this with you. Thank you for doing this.

Sam: 01:47
We’re outside Big Bear Cafe, one of Jonathan’s favorite breakfast spots in Bloomingdale.

Jonathan: 01:53
Hey, how you doing this morning, man?

Sam: 01:54
We order coffee and breakfast sandwiches.

Jonathan: 01:57
Look at that. Doesn’t that look nice? If you just like the way a sandwich looks, this is a healthy sandwich for breakfast.

Sam: 02:03
We finish eating and we go grab some scooters.

Jonathan: 02:08
As you can see, people do use the scooters and stuff in the neighborhood because the one I parked there is gone.

Sam: 02:17
We hop on and head down R street and then cross over into the Eckington neighborhood.

Jonathan: 02:24
So I we’ve crossed over into Eckington when we cross North Capitol.

Sam: 02:30
Eckington is one of DC’s oldest neighborhoods.

Jonathan: 02:33
It is quintessential DC neighborhood. Like there are Victorian style row houses.

Sam: 02:38
There are brick row houses covered in vines. The streets are calm and small enough to feel comfortable riding.

Jonathan: 02:44
I don’t know. It’s a cute little street.

Sam: 02:50
Except for the whirr of our scooters, we could be back in time hundreds of years ago, before cars, when life just generally moved slower.

Jonathan: 02:57
So if you like architecture, like DC is one of those places you can go in different neighborhoods and you can see the different ways in which the architecture worked out here. You see little flourishes in the design that I think you just don’t get in like new construction because they just built them differently back in the day.

Sam: 03:17
We ride down Quincy Place. It’s bushy green on both sides, hardly any traffic at all. We’re getting nice shade from big elm trees lining the whole street. It’s a hot summer day already at 8:30 in the morning, and it’s only getting hotter, so this feels like a real find.

Jonathan: 03:17
Jonathan: 03:40
If you go around DC, outside of like trees that are on streets are usually not very big trees. And this street has really big trees. They haven’t come in and totally destroyed them.

Sam: 03:59
We scoot down to the end of Quincy Place and cross Eckington Place as the city starts to wake up all around us.

Sam: 04:16
When did you start scooting in DC?

Jonathan: 04:16
Um when did I start scooting? I the weekend that they dropped off a billion scooters in DC. Like the uh cicadas, like they would just see everywhere, right?

Sam: 04:26
Okay, not quite a billion, but there are thousands of scooters in DC and people are using them.

Jonathan: 04:31
Bikes and scooters are like a part of the way people get around here. Because it’s not this is not New York where there’s a subway station every other block. Right? This is people get around by bike and scooter and then public transit. Yeah.

Jonathan: 04:47
Sam: 05:13
Jonathan gets around on two wheels a lot. So, he notices things, like the new bike lane we find at the end of Eckington Place.

Jonathan: 05:13
Yeah, so this is a brand new bike lane.

Sam: 05:16
The paint looks very fresh. Is this where you told me there used to be a Wendy’s?

Jonathan: 05:22
Yeah, so the Wendy’s was directly down at the end of this street here where it runs into Florida. So we used to call it Dave Thomas Circle.

Sam: 05:29
Dave Thomas is in the founder of Wendy’s. This intersection was infamous for being one of the worst places to drive in the entire city. And floating awkwardly in the middle of this tangled mess of streets was a Wendy’s.

Jonathan: 05:47
Like a little island. Like I’m not exaggerating. Everyone knew that this intersection was a problem. It was a problem for cars, it was a problem for pedestrians. There was no way anyone would bike through there. On a scooter, it was almost impossible.

Sam: 06:01
In 2021, the city bought the floating Wendy’s, demolished it, and completely reimagined the intersection.

Jonathan: 06:08
Um and it is so much better now.

Sam: 06:10
Now traffic runs smoothly in both directions. And we scoot along in our own lane, protected by perfectly spaced white bollards. The white paint on the road is literally glistening in the sun.

Sam: 06:28
Alright, where are we headed next?

Jonathan: 06:29
Uh, we are gonna go across the street into the protected bike lane, and we’ll take the protected bike lane down to Alethea Tanner Park, and we’ll go through the park and onto the MBT.

Sam: 06:41
Alright.

Sam: 06:45
The MBT stands for the Metropolitan Branch Trail. It’s a trail well used by dog walkers and running clubs and bikers and things like that. Some people call it the Metropolitan Beer Trail because one section has over a dozen breweries you can scoot or bike to in an afternoon. It’s still early in the morning for us though, so we’re more interested in a water break at Alethea Tanner Park.

Jonathan: 07:10
Alethea Tanner Park is one of our stops. It is a there’s park benches, you saw the picnic tables right there.

Sam: 07:16
The facilities are nice.

Jonathan: 07:18
But it’s also there’s a bathroom, there’s a throne, which is like a really clean indoor bathroom, and you can refill your water here. So this is usually a pit stop for us.

Sam: 07:27
We each top up our water bottles at a new-looking fountain and turn towards the entrance to the MBT. The wall of the park’s entrance is full of murals, just one mural after another, as far as the eye can see.

Jonathan: 07:39
We’re standing in front of one right now.

Sam: 07:42
We’re looking at a mural of the MBT itself, painted by artist Elliot Hamilton. It’s a scene of two adults and a kid on a bike painted in all different colors.

Jonathan: 07:51
They they did not make the images of these people white, right? Uh and so I I do appreciate that. Even though it is abstract, you can still envision that these are people that are part of this community. They blend the colors of the community that they are that they are in right now.

Sam: 08:22
Had Jonathan not stopped us, I might have been moving too fast to really notice this mural. But here we are, stopped in the middle of the trail, studying it like it’s a painting in a museum. People use the MBT to commute, but I’m realizing that it can be about a lot more than that if you just take a minute to sit still and look around you.

Jonathan: 08:43
So I mean two football fields worth of murals on a wall is nice to look at.

Sam: 08:51
We hop back on our scooters and continue down the MBT, and we’re just passing mural after mural. They’re so colorful as we make our way towards Union Station and the center of DC. The streetscape around us begins to shift from tree-lined and residential to concrete and Greek columns.

Jonathan: 09:14
This is the postal museum.

Sam: 09:16
Ah

Sam: 09:19
Jonathan points to something on top of the post office.

Jonathan: 09:22
Like, it doesn’t get any older and grander than like big statues on the top of the building for no reason.

Sam: 09:29
We’re finally surrounded by all the big marble buildings that people think about when they think DC. We pass Union Station.

Sam: 09:36
Alright, so here we are. This is Union Station on our on our left. Yeah. Okay.

Sam: 09:41
That’s a major hub for buses and trains and also bike and scooter share in DC.

Sam: 09:45
Very grand.

Sam: 09:46
We’re headed to Upper and Lower Senate Parks. Lower Senate Park is a natural oasis in the sea of concrete and government bustle. We dock our scooters across the street and head in on foot to find a quiet spot to sit. As soon as our shoes hit the path, the noise of the city falls eerily faint.

Sam: 10:09
Yeah, it’s beautiful.

Sam: 10:10
It’s actually surprising how quiet it gets. The tree canopy rises up around us, separating us from a massive parking lot next door. You can see the gleaming Capitol Dome from everywhere in the park.

Jonathan: 10:24
For some people, like if you live in a city, this is as close to nature as you might get.

Sam: 10:29
DC has the most parks of any city in the country. So there’s all these little pockets of green space, even in the center of it all. A chance to stop and reflect.

Jonathan: 10:40
Like you there are places you will forget you are anywhere near a city. Like you don’t see buildings.

Sam: 10:48
We sit still for a while, watching a man clean the reflecting pool nearby.

Jonathan: 10:55
To sit still is wonderful. I I appreciate the ability to just stop sometimes and know that I’m not like I’m not in control. I’m just long for the ride and I’m gonna try to enjoy it. Yeah.

Sam: 11:33
We scooted just over two miles, but it felt like we covered two worlds. This was an easy ride, mostly on slow, quiet streets and protected bike lanes suitable for beginners or seasoned riders who just want to take it easy. Really big thanks to Jonathan, our amazing and thoughtful guide, for showing me the quieter side of DC. Next week we’re going to Omaha, Nebraska with Clarice.

Sam: 12:05
Okay, hopefully this isn’t offensive to you, but when I told people that I was coming to Nebraska, uh, they were like, You’re going where? Like, why are you going to Nebraska?

Clarice: 12:13
People ask me the same thing all the time. Actually, when I say I’m from Omaha, they’d be like, What’s Omaha? People live there.

Sam: 12:22
Turns out Omaha is pretty cool. Listen next week to find out why. City Share is brought to you by the North American Bikeshare and Scootershare Association. It’s supported by the Better Bike Share Partnership. Huge thanks to them. They do amazing work. Another big thanks to Sun Tiki Studios in Portland, Maine, who donated the studio time and space for us to record this podcast. They are awesome. City Share is reported and produced by me, Sam Herr. I am also the executive producer for the show. Our other producer and fact checker is Ariel Knoebel. Our editor is Peter Lang-Stanton. He also mixed the show. Our show art is by Ariel Knoebel. Music is by Blue Dot Sessions. Sound effects are from Freesound.org. Additional sound effects are by mboscolo. And I’m your host, Sam Herr. Thanks for listening.