‘The secret that tourists don’t know about’: Readers share what they love about D.C (2024)

Reader letters have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Dear D.C.,

When I was just a kid, I met you and I realized all I had known my whole life was winter. I came here, and for years I sat on top of a hill reading books and it was brighter and warmer and sweeter than anything I’d ever done — and at the time I didn’t even know you were to thank. I thought it was magic.

Not magic, just drinking sunlight in November. Not magic, just a pretty city full of pink trees on the water. Not magic, just a skip and a hop (and a track) from my friends’ places in all directions. Not magic, just a friendly old lady who runs the import store and compliments my pronunciation. Not magic — just us, all walking your sunny spine.

Have you heard someone really famous lives here? (Don’t be shy. They’re not all that.)

D.C., I love you. I miss you when I’m gone. After years and years, I still climb to the top of that hill to see you down below, collecting puddles of sun. I’m lonely without you. Do you know how I can prove it’s for real? Let me prove it, let me say it plain: D.C., I love you in the summer.

Love, Sasha

— Sasha Jovanovski, 24, Foggy Bottom, has lived in D.C. for more than six years

Love living in D.C. for so many reasons! Beautiful architecture, well-educated people, great neighborhoods and restaurants, a pretty good public transportation system, and did I mention the abundance of mostly free and world-class museums?

— Corinne Axelrod, 68, Cathedral Heights, has lived in D.C. for four years

I love that you are the city that is the keeper of most of the country’s history.

I love that you, the city, house so many monuments and memorials to our nation’s most prominent leaders, historical landmarks and major buildings where our top leaders govern from.

I love that when I travel away from the city and fly back to DCA or drive home, the first sites to greet me are the proud Washington Monument and the dome of the Capitol to the side, all sitting along a sparkling Potomac River, which is bejeweled by the Kennedy Center and Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials.

I love that this city is where so many people move and come for their occupations because there is a lot of important work happening in the federal government.

I love that you, the city of D.C., are the center of so many things in our country and that I, as a resident of this place, can observe it all up-close and participate in it.

— Stephen Padre, 51, Petworth, has lived in D.C. for almost 15 years

While I think I could write at least 1,100 words in sharing what I love about the District, I’ll try to keep it brief. My No. 1 favorite aspect of living here has to be access to public transportation. WMATA is doing a fantastic job, and I consider it a privilege to not need a car. Not to mention, this new-to-me way of commuting has offered a new, dedicated hobby: I read a book every minute I’m on a bus or train. I’ll also throw an honorable mention to bike lanes, particularly in Ward 6.

— Taylor Cogan, 34, Capitol Hill, has lived in D.C. for more than a year

With the exception of four years in Illinois, north of Chicago, I have lived here since 1964 — including a year in Prince George’s County, two years in D.C. and the rest of the time in McLean and Vienna. I think that behind the formidable white government buildings and ongoing news events occurring between the Capitol and the White House, the area is basically a wonderful conglomeration of small towns.

When you settle into one of those “towns,” you come to really know your neighbors; your kids and their kids go through all the school years together and you know you belong to a real community … a community that may contain people you suddenly see on TV, or neighbors who on first meeting realize they’ve met elsewhere in the world. I love that wonderful, eclectic mix.

— Catherine L. Gaugler, 80, Vienna, Va., has lived in the D.C. area for almost 60 years

I love that I can walk into Rock Creek Park and feel like I’m on a hike in the country within five blocks of my house. It’s the secret that tourists don’t know about — and RCP isn’t the only place this is true. Nature is a big deal in D.C.

I should also add that there’s nothing quite like hearing lions, tigers and gibbons from your living room when you live next to the National Zoo!

— Sarah Jencks, 49, Mount Pleasant, has lived in D.C. for 20 years

I am a country girl by birth. I grew up on a Hereford cattle ranch in the Sandhills of Nebraska and rode a little brown pony named Dimples 3½ miles to school each day for the first six years.

But I have always been fascinated by cities. They have a beat and a pulse, a diversity that attracts me. Cities have texture — old houses, tall glass office buildings, unpredictable angles and spaces — places where it seems possible for something interesting or unexpected to happen — sort of a nubby texture.

And, D.C. has a nubbier texture than most. There are the “sightings” of the people you see on the national news each evening: Bob Dole shopped at my Safeway, David Broder walked by my apartment building each day, Condoleezza Rice had her nails done where I did.

And Washington is a beautiful city — the monuments, the mall, the cherry blossoms, the Potomac winding its way throughout. When I ran along the Potomac in the early morning, and returned across Memorial Bridge, for one brief glorious moment, the sun came up ahead of me illuminating the Jefferson Memorial, the dome of the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and to my left the turrets of Washington National Cathedral and the spires of Georgetown University. It was a breathtaking sight and I never failed to marvel at it.

Part of each workday was the commute by Metro that required me to change trains in the center of the city. It kept me in touch with the realities of this city that I love. On my way, I passed the homeless men just leaving breakfast at the church across the street. And each morning as I left Union Station to walk to the Russell Building, I encountered the trumpet player who played “Winter Wonderland” on snowy mornings and “Hot Mama” on steamy, humid afternoons. I passed the Cat Woman, her face painted white with black whiskers, wearing a threadbare yellow winter coat.

These people kept me in touch with the fact that not everyone has a college degree, not everyone wears a suit and tie, or eats three meals a day, and not everyone who is poor or homeless is a bum or a thief.

Yes, it is the nubby texture of D.C. that I love. And now that I am retired and walking with a cane, I agree with Queen Elizabeth II who said, “Good memories are our second chance at happiness.”

— Vivian Otteman, Foggy Bottom, has lived in D.C. for 33 years

I was born and raised in this town. I have lived here for 47 years and loved it for 47 years. I love my neighbors and my neighborhood. I love the little parks throughout the city, the number of trees almost everywhere, the flowers in the springtime and the height limit on the buildings. I love the rich food culture we have in the city. And I love go-go.

— Sarah S., 47, Brookland, has lived in D.C. for 47 years

My car was side swiped beyond repair a year ago. Thankfully, I was not in it. I love living in D.C. because you can still have a lot of fun without a car! For example, so far this winter, I’ve gone to the National Museum of Asian Art, seen plays at Studio and Arena, gone ice skating at the Sculpture Garden Ice Rink, watched the MLK Parade in Anacostia to cheer on my Mason friend, auditioned for a play at St. Mark’s Players on Capitol Hill, gone to three restaurants for restaurant week, visited the Capitol and taken a train to Baltimore — all without a car.

— Justin Latus, 55, Capitol Hill, has lived in D.C. for more than 30 years

My husband and I met at George Washington University as summer school students in 1963 and our first date consisted of joining others marching in August to the Lincoln Memorial. Unbeknownst to us at the time, we were going to become part of history. We heard Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech and Marian Anderson sing, “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.”

We were married at Grace Lutheran Church on 16th Street in 1970. Both of us knew back then that we could never leave D.C. because as my husband says, “This place is the center of the universe.”

We plan to be interred at Arlington National Cemetery in the columbarium so we can both boast of a long commitment to this city that we love so well.

— Kathy Megyeri, 81, Upper Northwest on Oregon Ave., has lived in D.C. for more than 60 years

Illustration by Emma Kumer. Images submitted by Taylor Cogan, Corinne Axelrod, and Sarah Jencks.