Washington D.C. - Clash of Rich & Poor
[jazz music playing] [Peter] Good morning, guys. Here in the nation's capital, Washington DC. A place where most of us know what Capital Hill and the mall looks like but did you know just a far stone's throw away is the hood and on the other side of that beautiful heartbeat of government is the rich hood. So that's what we're gonna do today, get in with a local who said, "Peter, I can show you both sides of the tracks in DC."
"I've lived in both." "Give you a very unique perspective on what this city's all about." Let's do this. [jazz music playing] [man] We are crossing the bridge right now and the common saying in the city is don't cross a bridge.
Now you will slowly see as deeper as you get, the neighborhood changing. Since I used to live in a food desert and there was no groceries and I eat a lot of food but I don't like fast food. So if I wanted actual food I had to cross the bridge this way get some actual food, go back again.
[Peter] So you're saying there's no good food over here? -There are fast food stores. [Peter] We're literally talking five minutes away from Capital Hill. -[driver] Food deserts are real. -[Sagnik] Food deserts are real. -Food desert’s real? -Not a joke, it's a real thing. You're from Ethiopia, sir, do you have food deserts in Addis Ababa? -No. -No? Wow.
-Take care, sir. -Be safe. All right Sagnik, so the name of this neighborhood-- -Is Anacostia. -Anacostia? Yeah. The city is divided into four quadrants and this is the southeast quadrant.
-Okay, so little back story. Originally from India, you lived in the UK, then you came to the States, and ended up in this neighborhood, right? So the story goes when I was in London I was finishing grad school, I didn't have any money and I had two options, one was to take a job in London for 50,000 quid subtitling videos and the other option was to move to DC, get an internship, start from nothing and build a business and do whatever I want but I believed in the US. It was always my life's mission to come here and build companies here. So I went with the latter but since I didn't have any money, this is where you move. -You moved in one of these houses? -Yeah.
I got off the airport, first time in America, it looked super ritzy. The Uber took me to the main part of the city. So the Capital, the White House, the memorial, everything looks glitzy, and as soon as we crossed the river, still in the city, it started changing.
I saw people shooting themself with syringes in the bus stops and I was like, "Am I still in DC?". 'Cause it doesn't feel like it anymore but I was still in DC and eventually I realized this is gonna be my home until I can afford something better. So this was like an Airbnb-esque.
A bunch of people lived here. No one spoke a word of English. People shared beds, bathrooms, and all that stuff. I paid around like $300 for two months. That was my first payment. I don't remember how much I paid afterwards. But I lived there for about four or five months. Okay.
And eventually I started getting my life together and then we moved to a different place which I can show you afterwards but this is where it all started. Anacostia to this day is considered a neighborhood where you shouldn't come if you're living in the main parts of DC. -So you say that and as an outsider I look down these streets… -Yeah. -And it doesn't look bad at all. -Yeah, it's 'cause these areas are still getting a lot of residential development money coming in. -We can walk down here. -Developers are still moving in here…
…and realizing the potential but at the same time since it's Anacostia it doesn't get as much policing and it doesn't get taken care of as the areas where all the tourists are. Okay, what's crime doing right now in DC? So the thing with crime in DC was DC followed the spike -…of metropolitan cities during COVID. -Okay. But after COVID, DC was the only place where crime stayed upwards and the biggest driver of DC's crime is homicide and car jacking. Which is kind of hard to grasp because as of now if you look around it looks pretty residential.
-Right, okay, so before this was all working class neighborhood, right? -So DC's biggest economy is all the federal jobs obviously and media. That's the biggest circle of people where I lived actually. Yeah. Here are the working class people who are running the city basically. Okay. Doing the jobs of, like I don't know, they work at McDonalds.
They're driving the bus, they're driving the metro. -What does a place like this go for or one of these town houses? -I mean look at it, from the outside it's a good house, right? -Looks great, yeah. -But because of the area I don't think it's gonna cross like three. Okay. I'm staying in Georgetown, it's interesting there are more American flags here than Georgetown. -That's funny 'cause I lived in Georgetown for four years and Georgetown's population is usually rich retirees and every next flag is a Ukraine flag or "This house we don't tolerate racism" flags.
And so if an alien came down they wouldn't know which country it is. [Peter laughs] [Sagnik] Thank you. [Peter] That's a tight edge, nice work. [man] Yeah, thank you, man. As a kid who had a lawn mowing business I can see the detail going on there.
Yeah man, like [laughing] these are the people that keep the city running. [siren blaring] -What y'all doing? -Making a video, he used to live here. -Okay. -How's the neighborhood lately? Still a busy street. -Still busy? -Have no accidents here in a long time. That's a good thing.
-That's what you want. What do you got going with your binder? Vitamin Es, and patient's rights, and little sorta thing. My name's Christina Ballinger, I'm your president in all of this. Patients rights… I'm making a video, you okay with that? -Cool, what do you got here? -Yeah, you rolling? -You rolling now? Okay. -I'm rolling, picture me rolling.
Who's lyrics are those? -Tupac. -Boom [Peter] No EBT here, why is that do you think? [Christina] That's food stamps. [Sagnik] Oh yeah, they don't… [Peter] Clear fruit, you think that's healthy? -That's probably sugar, let me see it. -Nah, it's water. [Peter] Sugar is 57 grams, look at this manipulative marketing. -Look at that, Clear Fruit. -That's Clear Fruit.
I'm sorry, that's junk. Let's get something better. They make it look good, look at that. "114% sugar for the day."
[Sagnik] That's enough sugar for two days. [Peter] You're in good shape but… -Sag… -What's up? What you're saying is so true. There's literally nothing you can get healthy in here and… What do you got here? Let me see this. Skittles? -Candy on water. -[Christina] I'm gettin' that. -[Peter] 31 grams of sugar.
Not to be the diet police but all right, let's do it. -You said the diet police. [Peter] Take care, good luck. Okay, point driven home, you go in a store like that, and what are gonna get other than water? And yeah, that was one of my biggest culture shocks.
Like everyone is cool, I know what countries are, I know how things work, people work, but when you come to… You know, you're coming to America for the first time and then you move into whatever area, you're still kind of agnostic about whatever life means and then what's the first thing someone needs in Maslow's Hierarchy? Food, right? What kind of food is good for you? I don't know, like home-cooked chicken, rice, beef, potatoes. I'm not asking for a steak or anything. Just like the basic stuff and I couldn't get it anywhere here.
I had to get on one of these busses to get my groceries done 'cause all the options here are these. Again, I'm not putting anything down. I love pizzas too, I love good fried food here and there too but when I'm doing my groceries for the week I need food. I didn't know that "food desert" was a thing in the country with the highest GDP ever. -Yeah. -So that kind of caught me off guard. So now you're getting into-- [horn honks] Jesus.
Now you're, with the grocery store, you're getting into the classic gentrification argument. So the argument is if you start a Trader Joe's or a Whole Foods in an area like this people are gonna push back because they would think that it's a tell tale sign of, you know, there's no other way to put it, White people moving into their community. -Right. -What I am are called YUMPIES, young upwardly mobile professionals.
-Right? -Okay, I didn't even know that acronym. Yeah, it's called YUMPIES. I know what YUPPIES are but I never thought it through like that. When YUMPIES move into a city or neighborhood everyone gets threatened 'cause it's like they're gonna drive prices up. -Which happens, yeah. -Rightfully so. So like how do you balance this out 'cause you need those people coming in to quote-unquote "drive the economy" but at the same time if that is coming at the cost of the local communities which have been living here forever being displaced, then it's not an ideal situation.
Look around, these are the people who have been living here forever. and even though I came here with no money, I still… You know, like I have a job, I was doing something here. I was getting up for something. -Some of these people are living off EBT cards and welfare. -Yeah. -Some are working hard. -There's a mixed bag, right? -Correct.
-Fair to say? -Of course, like every group of people. -Yeah, yeah. -We're gonna go down here, bus stop? -This is the bus stop I came-- -What's up, How you doing? -You ain't the police? -I'm not the police. Give me the rundown on what y'all doin'. We're making a video on DC. So from Anacostia to the political nerve center, that being Capital Hill, to Georgetown.
Showing that there are many different universes in one place. -What are your thoughts on that? -Okay, I like that. What about Anacostia, tell us what's going on. -Anacostia, they need to clean it up. -Okay.
They need to clean… I don't have no door on my door. I have no door. I've been living like that for almost damn near 20 years.
-On your apartment? -Yes, on my apartment. -And I stay in Anacostia area. -Okay. This is how I'm living. See the trash out there?
[Sagnik] You wanna turn this around so the sun's not on? -This is how I'm living, you see this? -I can barely see it. Why aren't you cleaning it up? You can clean that up, right? Listen sir, it's a place… -Just look. -Yeah. I couldn't see. -But the sh*t keep leakin'. -Okay, so-- -See my door, this my front door.
So when you're in your apartment it's leaking? -Look at this. This is my front door. -Okay. I can sort of see it's broken. Is that what's going on? -Broken. -All right, ma'am. -[mumbling]…you just got $15 [mumbling] -I'm sorry, ma'am. I got no cash on me. Take care ladies, all the best, God bless.
Let's go this way, Sag. Every time I go to the city, that's the bus stop. -Sorry sir, go ahead. -No worries, man. -We're making a video of him. -Oh, absolutely. And you're styling, sir. You're styling. -He should be on camera, not me, look at him.
-Whoa now. -I'm making a video of him. That's nice, young man. We proud of you because we need more people in terms of broadcasting and on top of television. I used to live here, so yeah. [Peter] Sir, what do you want to broadcast from Anacostia? Let us know. -Oh, wait a minute. -What do you want to say?
I would do a documentary that actually shows… I hate to say the ghetto but I am actually gonna say humble beginnings. I'm actually gonna say where a lot of people in high places forgot about. But okay, I'm Black, I shouldn't be talking like this. I'm supposed to be selling you drugs and trying to shoot you but no. I like to go in front of police officers, let me get this right You Black with no criminal record? Everybody Black is not an enemy, y'all.
Everybody Black is not a menace to society. Here you go, take it with you, matter of fact, I'm seeing what you gonna do like in the movies. [clicks] Unit one to base… Y'all gon' do that move. Central is right downtown, there ya go… [clicks] Subject has no priors.
We try this… You let a pair of sneakers and my hat set aside… -Right. -Stop that. Bad things happen to good people and I'm just saying that instead of judging why don't we just figure out like you guys are doing now. Figure out what's going-- like you talking to me now. Everybody's not your enemy. Now about four or five years ago you talking to me, oh naw, he probably gonna rob me.
Not at all! Did it dawn on you I don't want my freedom jacked up more than you do? I'm Black, we say that. We made our mistakes, yes we did. You can't keep no random Black people here, that's not always true. We've lived up to a lot of stereotypes but that's not completely true. -Yep, got you, sir.
-Appreciate your time. -Congrats to you, absolutely. [man] Absolutely. See, people are nice. Like people are nice. Here's the thing, anytime we talk about people, community,
never come down upon individual people or any groups of people 'cause you never know what they've been through. Oh yeah, 100%. It's such a case by case argument. When I came here I had no clue like Black America, White America, I was just here to get my own.
Right, and for those outside of these areas I also want to state there's not one White America, .there's not one Black America. -Correct. -There are many different… There are areas in Appalachia where 50% of the town's people are face in the dirt on drugs.
-And they're White as hell. [laughs] -They're White as they come. And then there are professional Blacks here and obviously people know that, that live in DC. Yeah, and they run the system. But a foreigner from India like you watching this video would think, "All people are like this, all people are like that." -That's a nice positive sign. -Yeah, we need places like this.
'Cause DC has the highest truancy rate, like kids don't have anything to do. -You mean kids not showing up at school? -Yeah. If the parents aren't affluent they kids don't have anything to do and we need more places like these where kids can be socialized properly. So they're not involved in activities or whatever.
That was the Redskins. Don't say that anymore. -What's going on here, sir? We got the ices out here. We got $2 cups, $3 cups. -You got a juice business? -Yeah, we got what they call ICEE, ice cones, freeze cups, snowballs.
We have that on play right here every day from 6:00 to 9:00. Across the street I have a business there too. Called Best Wash in Town, BWIT. We've been there for three years now.
How's business these days? -Business is fair, you know? Right now a lot of people don't like to come out. They wanna stay in now so… What do you mean stay in? -The streets is bad now. -Really? People scared the streets now, so… Right here? -Yeah, yeah, hopefully we can get people back out to come support our businesses.
You say the streets are bad but as I walked around things looked pretty good but I'm not reading it right or what? -Well come with the time. Time, things right now, the younger generations now just making it hard for people to just enjoy basic life things, you know? There's more violence than five years ago? It's way more violence than five years ago. We did have a little break before the pandemic. Everything was good then after the pandemic I don't know what happened.
People had a little more time to think of bad things to do. What do you think about Capital Hill being right over that bridge? I think it's great. I love my city. I was born and raised right here, Washington DC, I'm Washingtonian. It's great. We have politicians and people actually are supposed to see what's going on here.
Hopefully they will ride through sometime and really see too, you know what I men? It's cool having them there as long as they come show support. Are they showing any support these days do you feel? Uh, naw. They more scared than us to come outside now, you know? They're more scared than you to come outside? Yeah, they way scared now. I think that's the world. Things going on out here now, you know? Politicians got a lot on they table right now, you know? -Yeah. -The good ones and the bad ones. Should I be scared as an outsider to walk these streets or not really? Naw, no one should be scared of nothing.
If anything gonna happen to you it's gonna happen. God forbid nothing happen to no one, you know what I'm saying but who's to say? We here today gone tomorrow. You gotta still live life, you know what I mean? Be happy, smile. You get what you put out, you know what I mean? You give positive energy you get positive energy back. So never be scared to live, you know what I mean? That's one thing, you can't be scared to just live. -[Peter] Look at that thing. -[Sagnik] F*ck yeah.
-This is the bus stop I used to wait at. -Let's do it, take the bus. -Let's do your old commute. -It's been a while. -How you doing? -Sup.
So I'm not pointing the camera on you we have a very nice lady originally from Ethiopia. Very well-spoken, charismatic. She works in education over here. So there's some great programs going on. Commutes from Virginia to Anacostia and back.
Did I get that right? Okay. We just crossed the bridge right now Now you'll see the neighborhoods changing. We're still technically in the southeast but you're no longer in Anacostia.
You see one stop away the neighborhood changed just like that. -Right, half mile. -Yeah. -Take care. -Nice to meet you. -Did the real estate just double in value? -It tripled. -Tripled, okay. -There's a Bank of America right there.
Nice little diner situation right there. The first time I made the trip and I was like, "What the hell?". So you don't have these drastic changes in London? So here's the thing, it's not like poor neighborhoods, rich neighborhoods is unique in DC or America. -It's all over the world, right? -Of course. But how we approach it from like development, real estate, education, redevelopment. That's where all the debate lies.
So in London, London itself is all about the YUPPIES, right? It's being driven by all the European people who are moving in there working in finance, media, tech, all that stuff. If you wanna see the rural England you have to go out of London. -Yeah. -You have working class living in Liverpool, Manchester.
That's unique about DC. DC itself is a big city but it's divided into people like me, my colleagues, and then what we just saw. And the unique thing about America which doesn't get talked about enough is that there is mobility within economic classes. Which like… Here's the thing, why was I able to live there and at the same time eventually make the jump there? You have the education, drive, skills, work ethic. Correct and if you have those things and you're starting from ground zero it's a lot easier to do that in America compared to anywhere else.
Why is it harder for those people to do it than it was for me? It's because they have to unlearn years worth of things they have grown up with. They have had the baggage of Jim Crow, redlining, and all that stuff. I came in with no money but I didn't have to deal with all that negative baggage. Right? But if you're coming here from zero this is the place to do it.
-Right. And there are many that have gone from that hood-- -To here, yeah. Totally. -Like they made it? It's very complicated because I've spent a lot of time in inner-city America and so if someone, let's just give an example, one example. You're outside the projects, 12:00 mid day on a Tuesday. Mm-hmm.
And someone's drunk and gambling with their buddies. If you give them more resources… -...it's just more drinking-- -It's gonna fuel the fire. -And nicer cars. -Yeah, it's gonna fuel the fire. So how do you get out of those cycles? 'Cause if you're in the cycle you can put whatever you want at it and nothing's really gonna change, right? It's almost cliche to say but the only thing which breaks the cycle is education. My parents didn't have a lot of money but what they had was education. And the Indians do not mess around with education.
We do not mess around with education, no. A tiger mom is a Chinese, Taiwanese saying, right? -But I think it should come from India. -Yeah, helicopter mom. You had the helicopter, okay. She won't leave you alone until you get the homework done.
Indians, by the numbers, thrive in this country. I'm not flexing by the way but giving you a number. Gimme a flex.
Indians are the richest minority in the country. Yeah. I just believe in numbers and reality. There's something to be said for that. But you asked what breaks the cycle.
It's like… You know, like that guy who's gambling at mid day, noon, I'm not saying he's a gone case and he couldn't be doing anything but we have to treat him like what he is. Who can be helped is a kid who's growing up in that environment. -Yeah. -And doesn't have a school to go to. -Or is missing school-- -No after school programs. -Not eating good food. -Or no dad in the house.
Those are the people you should focus on. Taking the manipulation from the marketing machine with a drink that looks healthy but it's a sugar bomb. So many of those. Pisses me off. Borderline criminal. I am an FFK, which means a former fat kid.
-You are an FFK? -Yeah. -No way. -Yeah, an FFK. How'd you get ripped? -Just played sports and I got bullied pretty hard in school. [Peter] That I wouldn't expect to see in DC. -Oh this? Oh, yeah. Is that a syringe in there? [siren blaring] [Sagnik] You asked me what's the left and right solution to this.
The left solution is if we wanna fix "Black neighborhoods", neighborhoods which aren't catered to, let's put more Black people in positions of power, right? The flaw in that argument is that the problem isn't race, the problem is class, right? Those Black people who we are putting in positions of power, they went to Harvard, to Connecticut. They don't have anyone who's from Anacostia in their circle. So why would they empathize with them? So that's the left's problem and the right's problem is they lean too much on meritocracy. The right would love to put someone like me in a showcase and be like, "If this immigrant can do this in America, you, the Black guy who is killing himself in Anacostia, you can pick yourself up the bootstrap and fix yourself." Not realizing they have gone through years and generations of, I don't know, Jim Crow, redlining.
That's not easy to lose. Yeah, but Jim Crow and redlining don't exist now. They don't exist now, 100% they don’t. America is, I would say, probably like, I don't know.
A dangerous thing to say, racism existed everywhere when racism was a thing. Slavery existed everywhere. -I hear in India you have no racism. -[Sagnik laughs] The Muslims and Hindus are just kumbaya together. Racism existed everywhere and racism was a thing, so did slavery.
The US is the only country which risked a f*cking civil war to get rid of it, right? [laughs] That doesn't get said that much often. So if you're not White and you want to succeed from ground up, like, this is the place to do it and that doesn't get said often. I'm not saying that makes life easier for them by the way because they probably think the system is still putting boots on their throat and maybe it is. I don't know what it's like to be them I'm just giving the other side of the argument. The argument here is like, "All they need is, like, modern amenities." So I'm just saying if you put a f*cking Harvard or Yale in there it's not gonna fix the problem.
'Cause their kids growing up without dads in the house. They don't really give a sh*t about college. They care about getting $50 so they can buy dinner tonight.
[jazz music playing] [Sagnik] Welcome to Navy Yards. Navy Yard is basically where all the young folks who are living and working in the media or government space… -You see all these buildings? -Okay, yep. We call them hashtag gentrification buildings. [laughs] 'Cause Navy Yard used to be a community like Anacostia back in the day. -Really? -Yeah. City is divided into like four quadrants and this is the southeast quadrant and so is Anacostia.
The southeast quadrant is notorious for carjackings, homicides, and all sorts of stuff. -Here? -Here, right here. This neighborhood was subject to a sh*t ton of carjackings during and after COVID. Carjackings usually happened here. You know why? 'Cause here, compared to Anacostia, this is where all the expensive cars are.
-Okay. -It's a proper circuit. They come here all the way from Maryland, take the cars and drive it to the harbor and ship it away. And all the expensive cars are in this neighborhood because this town attracts upwardly mobile people. But at the same time, just because it's in southeast cops are not as much present compared to northwest. -And that's where we're going today at the end, right? -Yeah. -That's the wealthiest? -Georgetown's the wealthiest.
But capital is where all the attention goes because of the federal buildings. But Georgetown is like nice hotels, nice restaurants, expensive real estate? -The most expensive real estate. -Okay, okay. -This is all new? -None of this was here ten years ago.
But this and Anacostia is just divided by a singular body of water and you can see the capital right there. [Peter] Oh, yeah. So this is mostly public money filtering down? -What is public money filtering down? I mean there's new development money coming in for sure.
No, public money as in people's jobs, they're working in government. Yeah. I call that public money.
-Taxpayer money. -So taxpayer money. So the people who work for the government, contractors, young people… Look around, all the people around us are all people of my age. -Yep. -Right? They're living here 'cause the rents are $1,500 to $2,500 or $3,000, in that range, and with government money or media money which pays you in the early six figures, that's where you want to live.
This is a grown up college campus. Right, okay. So go through university, get your job in government, your master's degree, and live here.
Yeah, basically that's the dream. If you want to actually move as a young professional in DC that's where most people start. -Gotcha.
And it's vibrant at night, restaurants, night clubs… -This place gets litty at night. -Litty? -Yeah. Look at this place.
-That's on fire, wow. -Such a beautiful city. I love this city. People talk about how cities are dying. People don't want to live in American cities, crime and all the stuff I can talk about forever. I work in news for crying out loud but if you look around, this is what it's supposed to be. -It's thriving, I'm really happy to see this.
-If you want to talk about what COVID took away from us for a couple years and we all became crazy, and lost something, this is what we lost. Go in there, this is what it's supposed to be. Normal people watching sports, having fun, getting a beer. -Right, everyone's having a good time, good vibes here. -Yeah, and these are all DC people. If I can ask their political opinion they all have something.
-But they're all enjoying their time now. -Right [crowd chattering] How you doing? -I just watched your-- -How you doing? -Good. I just watched your living in Mexico City one. -Wow, are you moving? -That one was really cool. -No, we live here in DC, NoMa. -Okay, tell us about it. What's going on in NoMa? There's so much growth happening.
I just bought a condo there two years ago and in the time we've been there we've had Bryant Street. -Yeah. That area, we have pickle ball. Pickle ball is in DC now.
Metro Bar, they took a actual metro car and converted it into a bar that you can have drinks in. -Okay, okay. -Super really fun. So you work around here or… Yeah, I work in the city right next to Union Station. -Okay. -Really fun, everything's walkable. I bike to work nine minutes.
-So you love it here? -I love it here. It's great. You're happy. This is really sweet. I've never seen anything like this. -That's Anacostia over there. -Okay. -We just came from Anacostia. -Okay. -We're showing all sides of DC. -I was doing a clean up there. -It's really fun. -What were you doing?
With Accenture, my job, we just do community service once in a blue moon. So like picking up trash across to Anacostia, right over there. Literally right there. Yeah, it's cool. -Interesting, it's two different worlds, huh? Very much so. Yeah, absolutely. -I live on this side. -On this side?
I've accidentally at night gone on the metro and gone one stop too far and it was scary to get off and had to turn around some point but that was a bit nerve racking. So yeah, you do feel it, [snaps] immediately. -You're gonna go to capital next? -Yeah. -Capital, then Georgetown. -Oh, so fun. [Sagnik] The person we just met, that's a peak example.
-Mia. -Mia, she's technically transplant. She moved here straight from the West Coast. She works in the city, pays her taxes.
-She lives in this nice neighborhood. -Yeah. She's enjoying this beautiful weather and this restaurant here. -Cool woman. -Cool woman, perfectly nice people. People in Anacostia are perfectly nice people but that just shows the difference.
She also knows the quote-unquote "privilege" or whatever you're gonna call it and she tries to do community service on that side of the water. Yeah. There's no one to villainize in this story. -No, not at all. -Except for time. This is a story like many of my stories you have more questions than answers. That's the best stories.
-You think about it and there is no-- -Solution. Solution, easy fix, easy understanding. The thing is like… the US, America, and different classes of people are beautiful but what lacks is exposure. People who live here, and often time who move here from, I don't know, Wisconsin let's say, they don't even know that Anacostia exists. I worked in news for the last seven years.
The biggest thing which I focus is not this side or that side it's exposure. I want to expose these kind of people to the fact that Anacostia exists and I want to expose people in Anacostia to the fact that all these people who are "gentrifying" Washington DC are not coming here to move you out of your neighborhood or stuff like that. They are literally playing their own game. -Right, and the beauty in US cities and places like Anacostia, the economy is right here literally a half mile away. Yeah, yeah. Unlike Appalachia in the middle of the countryside.
They don't know what being out of the community would look like. 50 miles gets them nowhere to no job. Other than coal mining, yeah. The good thing about being in Anacostia is there's something to aspire to.
Which is right there in your eye sight, right? That is important for young people who are brought up in these communities. The exposure to the fact that a new world exists. The exposure and understanding that that bridge can be crossed.
-Literally that bridge can be crossed. -Yeah. [jazz music playing] -This is the Mall, right? -Yeah. [Sagnik] DC tourism. -And we're meeting with your friend who works on Capital Hill? -Yeah. [Peter] This is beautiful, you guys.
[Christian] This is about as American as it gets through and through. A giant phallus in the middle of the city. -[laughter] -That's America sometimes, you know? Yes, and it's the tallest building, right? -Yes, that's right. There's nothing allowed to be above 13 stories. That's for security reasons. There are air force bases in Maryland and obviously if there was to be some type of attack or crisis in the city they want to have rapid response and limit potential hazards with those guys flying in. -[Peter laughs] -I was being a tourist for a second.
I haven't been here for a while now. You can say whatever you want about DC but look at this. [Christian] It is great, there's a reason most cities in the country aren't set up like this. It's not a great use of space but it is beautiful and like there aren't any other cities really… [Sagnik] Just so you know about architecture a little bit, this whole thing was designed by a French dude.
-That's right, it was modeled after Paris. -This whole strip is called the mall. It was modeled after Paris by this dude called L'Enfant and the whole city is built in gridlocks and they're like diagonal roads crossing the gridlocks and those roads are named after our 50 US states. The point being there's a lot of thought behind doing all of this and it's a shame that this doesn't happen anymore.
-We don't build sh*t like this anymore. -Right. It's not profitable to build a city like this. -Not at all. -So at the end here we have the nerve center of power -That's right. -They're not thinking about Anacostia. Not at all. Everyone in that building represents either a state if you're on the Senate side or a district, county if you're on the House side.
When it comes to DC, our member does not have voting power. So any legislation that comes up to the floor largely isn't catered to help the people of this city. The other problem is DC is not a state. -We're a city, we have a mayor. -Yeah. But there isn't extra oversight from a larger body who can come in and say this is how we help this group.
It's a small, limited city government and there's really only so much they can do even though we are in the middle of arguably the most important city in the country -[Peter] It's a beautiful city. -Yeah. If a tourist comes here they wouldn't realize DC is having so many problems. It's actually a conscious move on the city's end.
If you look around there are police cars everywhere. There's so much security here because they realize that this is the place which needs to look good 'cause this is, you know-- If you don't have this looking good you're a total failure. Yeah. It's sort of the North Korean tour here? -Kind of. -Yeah, to an extent.
[Peter] Yeah, this is the iconic shot right here. [Christian] A lot of the country might have a different view of those steps because that is where January 6th happened and now, again, we talk about DC like it's a war zone. I do want to stress that, crime is up, and this is a problem that the city is starting to come to terms with, but it's not like, and Peter, you've traveled a lot more than I have. It's not like you're in the middle of Syria. -Yeah. -Not a green zone. It's Washington Dc. It's the nation's capital.
-Again, it's arguable the most-- -It's putting it into context. I think that gets… um… -That gets left out a lot of times. -Yeah. Compared to a lot of European cities, yeah, this is dangerous. Compared to Latin American cities… -Not so much. -But I think the number takes the label for the whole city but really it's all about different areas of the city.
Right. The risk factors adjust to whatever area you're in. -Exactly. [Peter] Christian, we forgot to get on camera your title. What are you doing exactly? I am a White House correspondent for the Washington Examiner.
It's a national magazine. We're headquartered here in DC. We cover Congress, the White House, Supreme Court, all the federal agencies and we do state and national coverage too as it pops up. -Right, and you wanted to bring Christian into this because obviously he has the-- -I'm always-- -'Cause I'm a mentor figure. -Oh, okay. -No, that's a lie. I'll answer you why I wanted to bring Datoc but to give Datoc all f*cking the credit in the world when I moved to DC one of the first people who actually believed in me was Datoc and he funny enough, hired me to edit his podcast and paid me in Chipotle bowls. Because that's what he asked for.
Wait, with guac or without? -Whatever he wanted, double meat. -'Cause guac is extra. But besides… That's the tangent reason but the actual reason I like Datoc is 'cause journalism and politicians, the biggest disqualifying factor for you to be in your job should be the fact that you want to be one, right? And Datoc happened on his career because he was a bartender. And he's a sports guy through and through, and he was hired by this editor who he just started talking to at the bar.
Trying to get a good tip. Yeah, and long story long, he now has this insane clutch career. So that's why I'm attracted to people like Datoc who used to have like normal people jobs and now because of their fascination and just being annoyed about the politics in general, they have this job.
Are you a normie or an elitist, Datoc? As he wears sunglasses. I'd like to think of myself as a normal person. But he has the hair of an elitist. It's elite hair, I'm not gonna lie. But a lot of people in DC I think unfortunately do sort of look down their nose at people across the country. It might not be intentionally but like… there's a sense of like… -I know better.
-Well it's not even that, it's just we're in this cool place. Therefore, I am better because I made it here. -It's a big club and you just ain't in it. -That's just not true, you know?
The people working here, many of them just don't understand the people out there. Why do you think that's the case? I think… partially that is the case because it's true and I think the other part of it is because of how politics has turned into a horse race sports type environment. Where we care more about who's winning than what is actually being accomplished and I think that's true in both parties. Okay, so for example, I was out in Maui a couple weeks ago. -Yep. -Did a video on Lahaina fires.
Now the State of Hawaii is pretty slow and corrupt but also it is a federal issue at the same time. FEMA is there. Eight months later, place is in rubble. Yeah, it's a tough one, right? It's not an easy clean up but if it was a priority it would be much further along. And so a lot of people there are like, "Why do I even pay taxes to here if they don't pay any attention to my concerns?" and take any part of the country, a lot of people feel that way right now. I think that is a valid way to be feeling because to a sense, there is a sense of abandonment, right? -Sure. And part of the problem with that is that our nation is dealing with basically a full on sh*t storm.
[laughing] Yeah. For what seemed like six to eight years non-stop. And like since the Lahaina fires we've had the Baltimore bridge collapse and that's a lot closer to home for these people. -Right. -That's sucking up a lot of the oxygen.
I'm not saying that's right, or good, or bad, but I think that's the unfortunate reality. But people in country, like in Lahaina, they're seeing money go overseas. -It seems… -To Ukraine, to Israel.
…from afar, like very easily in high numbers and everyone's giving attention to that, yet their situation gets no attention. At least it's perceived that way. So I think 'cause of my work I'm talking to all sorts of people.
Mm-hmm. That frustration is building I would say across the country. I don't even think it's building. I think it's bubbling over. There you go, bubbling. The top's off the pot. We're coming to a boiling point and that's something that I think most of the powers that be in Washington either don't recognize or aren't willing to come to grips with One of the biggest things which I've noticed living in DC is that topics that get covered are usually zero sum in nature.
If you are talking about sending money to Israel or Ukraine chances are you're not talking about the Baltimore bridge collapsing or the fires in Maui anymore, and people realize that in real time. They just saw that, oh my God, my whole city was in fire, this bridge collapsed right next to me, and the news media and government itself, they stopped talking about me literally two weeks later. -Right? -Yeah. There's a lot of that. That is a tell tale sign, people aren't stupid.
When people see money going overseas, Israel, Ukraine, any other country, what does that signify to a local Hawaii guy who saw his house burn down into flames? That just signifies that the fact that I'm American means less to me now than it did before. -Than ever? -And that's coming from an immigrant. -Right, but I think that's a popular sentiment these days. -Being American has less power or weight. -Cache.
Cache than ever before in the history of the country. Correct. -Do you agree with that? -I don't disagree with it. I think money plays into it and money makes the world go around, right? Like we're talking about funds going to Hawaii, money being allocated here in DC to build out the police force in a way that can tackle crime in a non-racist manner, right? Like money is the root of all these problems, and as an every day American, just like a Joe Shmoe working his job and he's worried about, "I don't think I can afford the American dream anymore." -Yeah. -To have a house, raise kids, whatever.
-Insurance went up 20% or whatever. -Yeah. Like what pride do you have in being American at that point? A lot of people have a lot of pride actually. I've noticed in the so called Heartland or the Deep South, um, they have a lot of disdain towards the government but very much love their nationality, their culture, the community they live in. I think that's good and I think America should be bigger than whoever's in charge of that building. -Or that building. -Oh yeah, for sure. A lot of people are just like, "Just leave me alone."
Like tax me less and leave me alone, I don't need-- -That's a pure Libertarian ethos, right. -You get that more in like Wyoming, Idaho. I think you're getting that more here these days too and maybe that's just a national moment that's building everywhere. Yep. Or maybe it's because like we were just talking about with the media moving on covering things that, A, are sexier, even if they're deadly and horrible for other people Yeah. Or B, don't look at an event as a failure of the government.
Like as a failure of us collectively as a nation talking about these issues. Like that… That matters. Maybe we're at a low point and everything goes in a cycle.
-Yeah. -I do think… Um, I don't think, I know there's less divide in the country than we're led to believe. -Most people are cool. -I hope so, yeah.
Most people are cool and a lot of people aren't involved in politics at all. -No, -They're busy with their lives. [jazz music playing] [Sagnik] The funniest thing about these clothing stalls are these are run by immigrants and they sell shirts of all political parties. Selling MAGA shirts, Hillary shirts, USA shirts. -[Peter] He doesn't care. -[Sagnik] He's just here to make a buck. [laughing] [Sagnik] That's the most American thing you can do, play both sides.
[Peter] All these departments hire a lot of people, huh? I mean they're massive buildings. -That is the system, right? -Right. [Sagnik] And one of the things people get shocked about, it's like DC never changes, our politics never changes. You don't realize that this system was built for gridlock. Of course, yeah.
Gridlock is a feature not a flaw of the system. -[Peter] Here's a flaw in the system. -[Sagnik] There it is. [laughs] [Peter] It's actually the cleanest tent city I've ever seen. [jazz music playing] -[Peter] This is Georgetown? -[Sagnik] You're getting in Georgetown. -So it's a part of DC or separate? -No, it's 100% part of DC. -[Peter] Totally different vibe up here. -[Sagnik] Yeah.
[Peter to driver] Take care. -Beautiful buildings. -I know, right. [Sagnik] As you go up you'll see the most expensive zip codes in terms of real estate in arguably the entire Northeast and it's all in the same city which is funny. -Oh, look at this, it's lively. -It's your buddy? -Look at this outfit right here. -How you doing? -Nice to meet you.
-We had to stop and get a fly jacket. -That's a fly jacket, microphone, shades. Richy was the guy who first gave me my job when I left London and he had every reason not to. His resume looked like a five star menu. Literally we got his resume, the editor in chief literally sends me an email, he's like, "Who the hell is this guy?".
So we called him up and he came over to the United States on a student visa. So we weren't allowed to pay him for a year. So I payed him in like-- Burrito bowls? -Huh? -Chipotle? Free couch sleeps and Chipotle bowls, literally. That was it. That was one of the reasons I could leave Anacostia 'cause I didn't have a place to sleep and eventually we became roommates too. We lived-- I had the unfortunate circumstance of being roommates with this guy. [laughing] All right, so dive us into this place. This is a different DC than Anacostia.
This is the hub right here of West Georgetown. Got Wisconsin Avenue which goes up into Maryland. With application to the book. It's changed a lot in the 15 years I've been here, that's for sure. Georgetown has always been kind of like a nicer area but the rest of DC like where I'm at over by Capital Hill has completely changed in 15 years. I mean the rent's ten fold what it used to be.
-Ten fold? -Literally, dude. Navy Yard didn't even have any buildings when I moved here. So if you go down there you gotta be careful but not anymore. [Peter] What about over the river? The only times to be honest I've been in Anacostia was to cover police shootings and stuff like that.
There's a lot of car jackings and stuff in places like Georgetown but Anacostia, you know, that's where all the real violence happens. The question is how have places like Anacostia been improved by all of the development that's been going on as a by-product of the expansion of the federal government? And I mean there's speed cameras and they yield $3 million a year here just in parking tickets alone. -Okay. -So there's money in the city.
But the question is why do we have almost a thousand car jackings last year? They spent millions of dollars to preserve the trolly tracks here. Which have no trolly on them. [Peter] This driver in the tinted out SUV right here… -Yeah.
That looked like straight out of Kyiv, Ukraine when I lived there. Like driving around the mafioso. What is that energy? What is going on with that? -High-ranking politicians? -Definitely high-ranking politicians. Georgetown, also the university, I know 'cause I went from 2008 to 2012 There's a lot of international students with a lot of money and especially from the Middle East. So a lot of Saudis, Qataris, people from Bahrain, Egypt, all over the Middle East.
There's a lot of wealthy Arabs who come to study at Georgetown. How much is this place right here? What are one of these places? Probably three mil, something like that. -Three mill for what? -For one of those little three bedrooms. -2,000 square feet? -Little more than that.
-But yeah, something like that. -How 'bout this white one here? Dude, yeah. It's four or… Sagnik and I lived in a… [laughs] We lived in a big mansion in Foxhall, and it was seven grand.
Now it's 11 grand, they just put it back on. -Seven grand rent? -Seven grand, yeah. -Ouch, how many people? -Same for ten years. It was seven when I moved in in 2014 and we got down to five. We got down to five.
It's a giant mansion, like a frat house for grown up people with jobs. -Okay. [Sagnik] What you're looking at is like peak elite DC. When L'Enfant, the French guy who was designing the city was drawing up the whole map of the town he purposefully kept this area secluded from the rest of the city's map because he didn't want the quote-unquote "riff raffs" getting here and that's why you will see no metro stops.
-Okay. [Peter] So we're all for diversity and equality but we don't want people from Anacostia coming here? [Sagnik] It's about being secluded in this elite part of the city where only you and the rest of your colleagues would live. When my dad was here at school he had Kissinger lived right over here. -Henry Kissinger. -Oh, wow.
-In one of these places? -Literally right back there. And so he'd walk by, there'd be a Secret Service detail. John Kerry used to live down here.
Actually I built a half pipe in my back yard when I was… -I'll bet John Kerry loved that. -We'll walk past the old Hockey house. But I built a half pipe and Madeline Albright was my neighbor. Oh, wow. The university brought me in and said, "You gotta take down this half pipe." -Madeline isn't into ramps? -No, she's not. Actually her assistant came over she said, "You can't build a skate park in Georgetown."
-I said, "This is a skate ramp." -[chuckling] They tried to get me to take the ramp down but I was off campus. I said, "Point to me the law that says I can't have a half pipe and I'll gladly take it down. Needless to say they removed it immediately after I graduated but… -But you kept it up for your time there. -I kept it up for my time there, yeah. All the way to graduation.
Oh, wow. This is a special neighborhood though architecturally. Anacostia and now in Georgetown, what do you think as an outsider? Tale of two cities obviously. I bet if you broke down who's gonna help you more? This hood or that hood? Help you in terms of what? I need some help, I got a flat tire. Oh yeah, I would definitely go with Anacostia.
Anacostia, the people will help you there, right? 'Cause they know what it's like to be not helped. -Right. -Can't call Jeeves to fix your tire. Okay, here are the rail lines, why keep the trolly? Just for the look? [Rich] To fell historic, yeah.
Basically they preserved them, it cost millions of dollars to keep the cobblestone and the trolleys. 'Cause they could have just paved over it but… Speaking of history, this house is where my brother lived and in 2008 I was a freshman and for Obama's inauguration I had my friends come stay with me partied here and then I had a genius idea. We would go straight from here to the inauguration, get the best possible spot. We got there at like 3:00 AM. I vaguely remember I had a giant Grey Goose bottle I had mixed with beer. So that lets you know how smart I was back then and by 9:00 AM, lost my friends, no cell service, no nothing, I just started going against a million people coming onto the mall.
It took me three hours. I got back here and passed out right when Obama was putting his hand on the Bible. So that was my inauguration experience.
[laughing] -Look at these details. -How rich you gotta be to have planters? -Right. [Peter] It is beautiful here. What a neighborhood.
[Rich] It's crazy how quiet it is here compared to the big arteries just a couple blocks away. You know what the sound of gentrification is? -Yeah, birds chirping? -Silence. The thing is Georgetown has always been gentrified. [Sagnik] Georgetown from the get go was supposed to be this. -[Peter] And it's held on? -It's held on.
[Peter] Nothing is rocking this boat, fair to say? [Rich] In 2020 we saw some riots. -Up here? -Yeah, we saw looting. So actually there has been civil… Like the 1968 riots after Martin Luther King was shot.
-Yep. -The riots didn't make it up here. But in 1971 there was a forgotten day in DC protest history. Which was called May Day. A lot of the modern protest tactics we see now where you shut down traffic to basically like… Oh, if the government is not gonna stop the Vietnam War, we're gonna stop the government by stopping people going to work. Sure.
It was the biggest mass arrest in American history, like 7,000 or 8,000 people on that Monday and actually both my parents were attending Georgetown and they… My dad got arrested that day. He said he was luckily wearing a blazer and he just walked backwards out of the station. and he didn't get booked 'cause he looked enough like a cop to just sneak out. But my mom was in the nursing school.
She took care of kids who got tear gassed on campus. -So in more recent times you said 2020, there was unrest up here? -Yep, we lived pretty close. So the looted the Sunglass Hut and a bunch of other… The Polo, there's a bunch of nice stores down on M street. -But a guy like this… [Rich laughs] [Peter] He's just chilling and reading. That's the fat cat right there. Ready to drop a drone bomb.
But up around here, some of the businesses were looted but none of these residential places, right? -That's correct. -Okay. As far as that kind crime, break-ins and stuff, it definitely happens. This is where all the students live. -Okay.
-The students live here? -Yes. Well it's funny because they reduced the off-campus population. Um, I'll show you the hockey house real quick. It looks way better than it used to. This is where I used to live for two years. There's also a carriage house in the back where literally the slaves used to live.
and the slaves lived upstairs and the horses lived down below. There's a cobblestone in the back yard and there's literally a horse trough for the old horses. [Peter] We're coming up on Georgetown University? -Is that what this is? -Yeah. -That's Healy Hall is that main building right there.
-Wow, what's tuition like here? So now I actually know someone. When I was going there in 2008 it was like 60, 55. Now it's a hundred grand. In 2008 it was 65? Oh my God. This woman I know sent three daughters here recently for a hundred grand a year each.
-Is it super hard to get in here? Probably it is. I had a very specific… I wanted to study Arabic and Middle Eastern history. -No way. -So that's what I studied in school. Although I only really use it in Ubers now. [laughing] -[Arabic] -[Arabic] Exactly.
That's all you need to know, dude. [Arabic] They love it. [Arabic] Yeah, you got it. [laughs] I don't want to tell you the swear words 'cause swearing in Arabic is really bad. -Oh, yeah. [Peter] All right, the front gates to Georgetown? -Are we allowed to go in or no? -Yeah, yeah.
[Rich] Getting to graduation time. [Peter] Oh, wow. [Rich] Yep. [rock music playing] Takes me back.
[Peter] What a beautiful building. -It is, that's Healy Hall, it was built in the late 1800s. And that's all classrooms in there. -You can drink on campus here, huh? -They encourage it on campus. So you don't do it off campus.
They don't want the residents to get mad off campus. So they let you do it here. This is a conservative Catholic institution right here for ya.
[laughing] Georgetown fell victim to a lot of Catholic institutions endorsed this kind of like-- -Brutalism? -Neomodern brutalism. Yeah, the dorm where I lived is where Bill Clinton lived too, Harbin Hall, and you can look up a photo, it's further that way. It looks like if a jukebox and a bar refrigerator had a baby, that's what it looks like. -This reminds me of Eastern Europe.
-It really does. -Yeah, I love the brutalism. I didn't spend much time in this library, that's for sure. [laughs] [Peter] Not your typical DC tour. -During COVID there was no where else to work out 'cause they closed the gyms. So this was the only place we could get a proper workout.
-And the gas station. So it gets all beat up right out… Yeah, it's closed now. That used to be the spot to get your tobacco late at night but… -Okay, what's this across the river? -That's Arlington. -When my parents were here in the '70s the biggest building was five stories. See that? Can you see what that building says? -Deloitte. -Deloitte, yeah, so… A lot of big consulting, Nestle, Lockheed Martin, got all those big guys.
-So this is the end of DC right here? -Yep. There's a height limit on DC buildings. So a lot of those buildings right there, you can't have those in DC. Oh yeah, yeah, gotcha.
-[Sagnik] Homeless… -[Peter] So even near the nice areas. [Rich] We're gonna go right past there so you'll see plenty of that. -Unfortunately, and then Reagan just pumps these flights in and out landing right near the downtown, which is nice.
-Which the residents of Georgetown do not like actually. There's a great local news story of them complaining about the new flight patterns. 'Cause they go right over their houses. -Where do their jets fly out of? -[chuckles] This used to be the place to smoke the things that used to be illegal in DC. [Peter] Here we go.
[Rich] This is the most dangerous thing you'll do all day. Not very Georgetown. This is all new. Why are they gating this off? [man] They've been trying to keep us out of here for decades, bro. -What's up with that? -It's where we used to skip school.
[laughing] [Rich] Definitely skipped some classes down here. -What a dynamic city, I gotta say. -It is. Way more than I thought. Lot of history, you didn't even hit the museums yet. Didn't hit museums, the mall I've known of but everywhere else I didn't know anything about.
-We got a boat party to finish it up here. -Oh, there we go. Dude, is that a car? [Sagnik] Holy sh*t, dude. [Rich] Does that guy have a Lotus on the water right there? [Peter] He's got his ca
2024-06-24 05:20
