My Capitol Hill Neighborhood

Sometimes I feel as though I live on Capitol Hill instead of in suburban Virginia. I go to yoga and morning meditation at Capitol Hill Yoga. My massage therapist and my Wednesday night meditation group are at Healing Arts of Capitol Hill. My dentist is on East Capitol Street. My friend who plays the bass is on Mass Avenue NE.

I have learned my way around. I now know which streets are one-way and when. I know multiple ways to get to the SW Freeway. I even know what days they clean certain streets, thereby restricting parking.

I now know at lot of people who live on Capitol Hill. In addition to all those mentioned above, most of those who participate in my yoga and meditation groups live on the Hill. Many Temple Micah members also live there. And there are others.

Just today as I was buying my daily “short skim latte” in the Starbucks at 8th and Penn, I spied a contractor from my office and had a good chat with her. As I walked outside, I was hailed by someone across the street. On closer examination, it turned out to be someone I had worked with for many years.

I seldom walk down a street on the Hill without talking to someone, often a perfect stranger. People are just so friendly. They are really a community in the midst of a big metropolitan area.

So how does this differ from suburban VA? For one thing, where I live, most people drive; they don’t walk or ride their bikes. For another, you have to walk a long way to get anywhere. Whereas, on the Hill, most everything is within several blocks. So being friendly is just not as easy in my neighborhood.

Will I be moving any time soon? Probably not. I would have a hard time buying a place one tenth the size of my house on Capitol Hill. And it would definitely not sit on half an acre. But there are days when a small row-house on a postage stamp size lot sounds like a good idea to me!