I grew up in Arlington and Crystal City. I was a troubled kid but I loved those two places at the time. I practically lived on the Metro- they didn't have the security that they do now. We got away with a lot of shenanigans. We were in the projects but I was on the ground floor so my bedroom window was basically my door. Went out every night to the parking lot outside our complex.

There was a crowd every night. We would drink, we would smoke, we would tease each other and gossip. This was my first true family. And it was everyone- from everywhere. My best friend was a mexican from Los Angeles, his name was Nick. The neighborhood was dangerous like you would not believe. But not in our part. We called ourselves "The GQ boyz" which didn't really have any kind of meaning, some one just referenced the magazine.

And everyone knew us. We would walk people to work, walk people home from work, drive off the riff raff trying to break into cars. We thought we were tough and god help me- I thought we were organized but we were just kidding ourselves. We had issues with other groups from other parts of DC. Things got violent, we came out on top a number of times. But it didn't end. It got worse and worse and worse. It was no longer about standing around laughing and drinking in the parking lot. It eventually became hiding behind cars waiting for firefights you know are going to come. Everyone wanted to be on top. Everyone wanted to win.

And then crack came along. Here is the thing about crack...

The crack epidemic was quite a terrible thing here and had an impact on a lot of people’s lives but it by no means defined this city.

For me it did. When you have gangs in the street hacking each other to pieces with machetes because they can't afford bullets- it is the kind of thing that leaves an impression. At the end of the day it didn't matter how big some one was or how bad a group was, crack swept through and turned everything into a ghost town. Almost over night. I can not properly describe what I saw. Everyone was either dead, or in jail or both- almost overnight. It didn't matter who you were with, how you saw yourself or how big and bad you thought you were. The reason that things changed is because crack was a damn BRUSH FIRE that gutted the city. It was madness and chaos in all directions but it didn't last very long. Crack was more insidious than Ebola.

I escaped all that, and yeah I got my life together eventually. And yes, when I went back to work in DC, things were dangerous while a while after. But looking at DC as it is today...

There is absolutely nothing left of the DC I knew. Even the bridges look brand new. It is like they just paved over the ruins and built a whole new city on top of it.

Do you really think seeing the inside of a hospital and the beltway at night gives you enough insight to speak about a city you didn’t even live in?

Do you really think living in the richest, most heavily fortified part of the red line gives you enough insight to speak about the plight of people you never met?