This Just In: Columbia Heights No Longer Cool

Photo courtesy of
‘Target entrance @ Columbia Heights’
courtesy of ‘spiggycat’

In a somewhat interesting and mildly thought provoking (yet mildly silly) piece of journalism, the Washington Post has written an article on how the now one year old Target of Columbia Heights has changed the hipster culture and the neighborhood’s appeal. You see, Columbia Heights is no longer cool because Target doesn’t lock-up it’s deodorant. In fact, it offers a much larger variety than the local CVS and features it in a brightly lighted aisle! SO not hip.

If you are a true hipster, you’ll move to Anacostia. That’s what the dude quoted in the article did. And he got out before the Target. Now that’s hip.

I’m all for local neighborhood character. D.C. has a lot of it and is a big reason why I love it here. But can we please move past this whole “hip” thing? Neighborhoods don’t have to be dangerous and sketchy in order to be a cool place to live, with or without a Target.

Stay hip, Washington.

(Disclaimer: I am not an actual hipster)

Karl is a Washingtonian who lives and breathes everything that is DC. Politics, ethnic restaurants, sad sports teams, the Metro and pretty much anything in between. Karl’s life is kind of like going to a Nats’ game while eating Ethiopian food and discussing the latest legislation to pass the House. Then cramming on the Metro for a ride home. That ’bout sums it up. See why Karl loves DC or check him out on Twitter.

13 thoughts on “This Just In: Columbia Heights No Longer Cool

  1. Amen, Karl. I just moved to Columbia Heights, and I was psyched about the proximity to Target. Having moved from Shaw/LeDroit Park where you had to pretend you didn’t see the drug dealers on the corner and had to get a CVS attendant to unlock the deodorant (or hand lotion) cases… I can’t tell you how nice it is to just go to the shelf, pick out my product, and take it to the register.

  2. I wish newspapers would stop using the word hipster. It defines nothing.

    And I found that article entirely depressing.

  3. If living in a high crime area is “hip” or “cool” then I guess living in a war zone would be orgasmic. Is it cool now to get mugged? I’m so out of the loop. Ha, if you think anacostia is cool try living in baghdad!

  4. What’s a “hip ster”? And where’s this “Columbia Heights” you speak of?

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  6. I live in Arlington, which I hear is not hip because you don’t get that thrill of walking down the street at night with the risk of getting mugged.

    I find it funny that these hipsters will go to Target just as long as its not in their neighborhood. I liken it to those suburbanites who rail against Wal-Mart being in their town but they have no problem driving to one a few towns over.

  7. yeah…I just love how living in proximity to minorities trapped in a hellish cycle of poverty and violence = hippness.

    Apparently, people (of color) stuck on the lowest socioeconomic rung only exist to to make hipsters feel cool. If such people were to find a way out of poverty, there would be no more cool/edgy/authentic neighborhoods, and where would the hipsters go? THEY NEED BLACK PEOPLE TO SUFFER TO LIVE!!!

    KEEP DC DECK! SAVE THE HOOD RATS! DOWN WITH ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES!

  8. Look, I live in Columbia Heights (and have for 5 years) because I can’t afford the nicer areas, not because I want to up my chances of getting mugged and/or killed! That notion is absurd. And yes, I go to Target because it’s cheap. My life did not change because of Target, it’s just a store. And alex, you’re an idiot. Calling an entire neighborhood uncool makes you…a hipster.

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