Todd on How Far We've Come

"When I was younger, this city seemed so big. Now that I am older, it seems smaller because I see things from a different perspective. But, I look back at all of the crime here and think about how far we’ve come. My Dad was a cop in D.C., so I grew up around a lot of the bad here. But, my Dad also showed us the good, too. He showed us this city. We used to go to Roosevelt Island and Fisherman’s Wharf on Maine Avenue. When I go back, I still have fond memories. He didn’t hype the crime, but you hear a lot coming up. It was super dangerous. There is no other way to describe it. The main thing he taught me, though, was the importance of seeing the whole city. Even in places that had a lot of crime, it’s not like the movies; these are real people who are trying to get by. There are some bad apples, but most people just want to live a normal life and do their thing. My Dad showed me that these weren’t bad people, they were just in bad situations.

"I have always felt that this is such a diverse and interesting place. There are so many different angles you can take with this place -- from the historical standpoint of how it came to be to all of the different kinds of people living just a few blocks from each other. Jeez, I can go on and on about how interesting this place is.

"Now, I am in sales and am traveling all over this city. I drive around and see all of these neighborhoods that have changed so much since I was growing up here. From the H St. corridor in Northeast to U St., these places had to reinvent themselves. This city lives and breathes and is constantly evolving."