Oh Fine, Mom. How’s Washington?

It’s nice to be back in town, which, in comparison to even the most laid-back, residential parts of Brooklyn feels suburban, even Southern, like the sleepy, sunny small-town Florida I grew up in. Cars clutter the roads and most of the city is designed for driving rather than foot traffic. A few months ago, this seemed perfectly normal, a basic convenience, even a right. Now it looks like a luxury. I can see why longtime New Yorkers take issue with car ownership, especially the hulking SUVs that lumber down so many suburban back roads. It’s appalling to the shoe-and-subway ethos of much of New York’s population. It reminds me, in some ways, of the in-the-city snobbery residents inside the District displays toward those in Virginia and Maryland—a combination of genuine pride in one’s city and justification for/reaction to paying higher rents for smaller apartments and higher crime rates. (I run into the same city/boroughs snootiness in New York, of course, but so far it seems less common than similar city/suburb sentiments in D.C.).

This song played at DC9 last night after the Dismemberment Plan show. I guess they knew I was there.