Some of it too isn't that folks are too scared, tho some of that too for lots of folks, but just it's less fun and more hassle too for everyone else. That sort of tips the balance towards just doing something else or going somewhere else, and is lost patrons either way
Or IOW the loss to tourism ends up much, much higher than just the people most obviously targeted by the occupation forces
Also who is going to report a crime when the military might show up and start shooting
Right. It's certainly a range there from actually afraid to merely inconvenienced and either way staying away because of it.
The same dynamic with why international tourism has plummeted, which is also not great for DC in particular among other places.
certainly DC has moved much lower on my list of places to visit because I don’t want to deal with this shit
Which is a shame because it's really quite lovely and I think Americans should come see it, it's worth doing the typical tourist week with all the museums and monuments etc. I mean, it's a bit sappy, and the novelty of those things wears off quick for locals, but it really is our nation's heritage.
And all the museums are free! I spent four years in DC in college and never tired of the National Gallery
Amen to this. Washington DC is a beautiful place to visit, even if the humidity and mosquitoes are hell.
This is why God invented AC and screen doors
Yes, but that doesn't help you when you're walking around the national mall around dusk.
Just don't come in August, honestly. There's a reason why that's when everyone leaves. It's also peak tourism because that's when lots of other people take their vacations from elsewhere. But the rest of the year it's reasonably pleasant and even June/July aren't that bad.
I'm saying this based on a visit in July 😆 But honestly even those things couldn't ruin my trip, it's still such a great city, with so many wonderful things to see.
September/October in DC is awesome…
October is really the perfect place to visit huge swaths of the east coast, the leaves in New England are also beyond spectacular that time of year
Sort of inevitable that folks sour on it because the view from outside is (unsurprisingly) the worst of it, but it is a genuinely great place, both for tourists and (many, concededly not all) the people here
I have enjoyed my several visits to DC. Now seems like a bad time though.
I bet the same could be said of Chicago, LA, and other places which Trump has a vendetta against. I remember when he wanted to push a Scottish farmer off his land to build a golf-course, he said he lives like a pig, in trash, and filth, it's part of Trump's evil shtick - demonization.
It's also a very powerful immersive experience of the US imperium, particularly the neoclassical architecture and monuments. The last few times we visited, it felt very much like late-stage Rome.
I admit I haven’t seen every neighborhood in DC but the parts I have seen are as nice as any area in any city I’ve spent time in. My daughter is at GWU and the area around their branch campus in NW DC is legit breathtaking
I stayed at Union Station overnight with the vets group there. The Guard aren't even there all night. They left around 2300 and returned around 0500. When does most crime happen?
There were a few years where if Pres, VP, or China VIPs came to town they stayed in the hotel a block away from my office. Yes, we had checkpoints to get to work. Yes, lots worked remotely. And yes, nobody wanted to stay there for dinner etc.
And that was just cops and Secret Service setting up checkpoints etc, NOT MILITARY.