hipstersandhoodrats-blog

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When people speak of the X2, although entertaining, it's not usually in a positive light.

As you all have learned from my previous posts, you can find just about anything you wouldn't imagine finding on a bus on the X2. Beer, cigarettes, oils, scarves, and even love. Yes love and not the hourly kind either, but the kind that is born of serendipity and leads to marriage. Yesterday, a few friends shared a story with me from the Washington City Paper on a couple of young gentrifiers whose initial sparks ignited on the X2 in May of 2012. A year later, he proposed in Paris--quite an upgrade from the land of Hipsters and Hoodrats. The couple has no plans of incorporating the X2 into their wedding plans (thank GOD), but an image of her ring on the infamous bus made its way to her Facebook newsfeed.

"I feel kind of guilty every time we take a Uber. We could be taking the X2...Never underestimate the power of public transportation." Said the soon to be bride on her experience. 

It's a rather tender story that should inspire hope to the most bitter of us. If they can find love on the X2 of all places, then things should work out for the rest of us right?

P.S. 

Gentlemen's tip: If you plan to host ladies at your humble abode on H St, get her an Uber, don't make her take the X2. Although, a bus ride might be a good barometer to measure how down to Earth she is.  

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Sorry for the long hiatus. I'm still pretty new to this blogging thing. However, I have been thinking about you all (you know those of us somwhere between a hipster and a hoodrat). I recently got my hands on Google Glass and decided I would use it to give ya'll a first person view of H street and some of its landmarks. For those of you who aren't too familiar w/ H Street this might not mean as much, but if you're familiar w/ the H St neighborhood you'll recognize a few of these spots. 

Captured #throughglass are: A view from The Oasis In The Hood (my building), some of H Street's favorite food spots, and of course, the X2. 

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"This ain't Brisk tea, it's liquor"

A lot of you who have heard me talk about the X2 offline felt that my last post didn't do the notorious bus justice. Not to worry, there will be many more stories to follow...such as the one from earlier this week. 

Last Tuesday morning as passengers were boarding the X2, I heard a raspy voice from outside belt out: "Hold the bus!". I turned around only to see a middle aged guy wearing jeans, timberland boots, and a white Redskins jersey running awkwardly with a bottle of Brisk Iced tea in his hand--although due to the nature of the X2 I doubt the bottle had any iced tea. Something told me his presence on the bus would be a nuisance. When he boards the bus, two entire rows of seats are filled with at least 10 passengers standing in between. Despite the limited amount of space he forces his way through with the help of a raspy "excuse me, excuse me, excuse". As he passed by me I took in a whiff of alcohol so strong I thought I was drunk. Once he gets to the back of the bus, he finds seat and starts to make conversation with some young guys in the back. Before a full minute can go by, I hear a foot tapping and fingers snapping. I turn around to see the sounds are accompanied by him rapping. As annoyed as I was, I couldn't help but laugh because he actually had bars. One of his punchlines confirmed my suspicion about his beverage--"this ain't Brisk tea, it's liquor". Before he gets off at his stop he finally admits to his drunkenness in his final verse with the line; "I'm so twisted, I can't close my eyes".

Just another day on the X2.

[hipstersandhoodrats-blog]

Typical passenger on the X2.

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One of the first things you'll need to know about living on H st is how to get around. For starters, there isn't a metro in sight. This forces many gentrifiers to do something that's unthinkable in many cities, ride the bus. Not any bus, but the X2. The X2 is hands down the MOST ratchet bus in all of the District of Columbia. 

With the absence of a metro stop in close proximity, the X2 is the one bus that connects Northeast DC to downtown DC. The bus runs from Minnesota Avenue all to the way to Lafayette Park right in front of the White House. This means a wide variety of people ride the bus everyday. I get on at H St and 14th Street NE, where H street corridor begins. Heading West into the city, most of the abrasive activity happens up until the bus gets to the Chinatown/Gallery Place bus stop. The minute any commuter gets on the bus, they're counting the stops until they get to Chinatown. Going East on the commute home, we dread Chinatown. It's where the ratchets board the bus

What make the X2 so special is that it epitomizes the gentrification taking place on H street NE. Things like the juxtaposition of hipster yuppies sipping organic spinach juices in the morning and the drunk crackheads trying to sober up at 7am with Crown Fried Chicken can only be seen on the X2. 

Common sights on the X2 include: high school kids listening to music w/ out headphones, local salesmen (products include, but are not limited to: beer, 'oils', DVDs, gloves, etc), a mother disciplining her kids, smoking cigarettes on the bus, fights breaking out over such cigarettes, and more people than you want to see crammed on a bus. Oh I almost forgot, someone rolling a blunt at the bus stop....RATCHET

Still don't believe me? Check these stories.

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Welcome

On September 20th 2012, Forbes released its list of the Top 20 Hipster Neighborhoods in the US. Among them was the "up and coming", half-gentrified H Street Corridor area of Washington, DC. Just a month earlier, after 4 years of attending the George Washington University in Northwest DC, I moved to H street NE with my 2 roommates. It's safe to say that I don't live in Foggy Bottom anymore--to the naked eye, H St NE is the HOOD, but it's also an extremely popular area. (Hence the name Hipsters & Hoodrats). I'm neither a hipster nor a hoodrat; I like to think I fall somewhere in between. On this blog, you'll hear the tales of how one navigates through the home of the hipsters and the hoodrats.