#hstnedc

Sorry for the long hiatus. I'm still pretty new to this blogging thing. However, I have been thinking about you all (you know those of us somwhere between a hipster and a hoodrat). I recently got my hands on Google Glass and decided I would use it to give ya'll a first person view of H street and some of its landmarks. For those of you who aren't too familiar w/ H Street this might not mean as much, but if you're familiar w/ the H St neighborhood you'll recognize a few of these spots. 

One of the first things you'll need to know about living on H st is how to get around. For starters, there isn't a metro in sight. This forces many gentrifiers to do something that's unthinkable in many cities, ride the bus. Not any bus, but the X2. The X2 is hands down the MOST ratchet bus in all of the District of Columbia. 

With the absence of a metro stop in close proximity, the X2 is the one bus that connects Northeast DC to downtown DC. The bus runs from Minnesota Avenue all to the way to Lafayette Park right in front of the White House. This means a wide variety of people ride the bus everyday. I get on at H St and 14th Street NE, where H street corridor begins. Heading West into the city, most of the abrasive activity happens up until the bus gets to the Chinatown/Gallery Place bus stop. The minute any commuter gets on the bus, they're counting the stops until they get to Chinatown. Going East on the commute home, we dread Chinatown. It's where the ratchets board the bus

What make the X2 so special is that it epitomizes the gentrification taking place on H street NE. Things like the juxtaposition of hipster yuppies sipping organic spinach juices in the morning and the drunk crackheads trying to sober up at 7am with Crown Fried Chicken can only be seen on the X2. 

Common sights on the X2 include: high school kids listening to music w/ out headphones, local salesmen (products include, but are not limited to: beer, 'oils', DVDs, gloves, etc), a mother disciplining her kids, smoking cigarettes on the bus, fights breaking out over such cigarettes, and more people than you want to see crammed on a bus. Oh I almost forgot, someone rolling a blunt at the bus stop....RATCHET