While folks in Maryland seem to treat their part of the avenue with some respect, in the District, it’s another sad story.

Back in the early 1990s, Bill Clinton, fresh from insulting rap artist Sister Souljah to win the White House, came to Georgia Ave. to make amends to African Americans. The glad-handing president told many of the small, mostly minority business owners that their suffering was his suffering; their dreams were his dreams; and that he had something for what ailed them.

A few years later, the Clinton administration and the predominantly Republican Congress rescued the near bankrupt District government, establishing a financial control board and snatching the multimillion-dollar federal payment in lieu of taxes; that PILOT was compensation for acres of federal-owned land the District couldn’t and still can’t tax, regulations that restrict economic development and freeloading nonprofit organizations that rake in millions of dollars but give nothing back.

Georgia Ave. didn’t see any reversal in its fortunes.

Recently, when I walked the street from Missouri Ave. to New Hampshire Ave. NW, I was shocked by its prehistoric look. Sure there have been some improvements since the 1990s--renovated engine house, a couple of improved apartment complexes; single-family homes with fancy doors and cut lawns. But the place is a mess: trash strewn; no decent streetscape; and aging facades attesting to longevity, the unavailability of investment funds or sheer neglect—perhaps all three.

A week earlier, riding in Northeast along Benning Road with civic activist Dorothy Brizill to a mayoral press conference on school reform, we were struck by the utter disrepair of the roads and the corridor. H Street NE may be witnessing a turnaround of sorts, but Benning Road remains dismal: crappy roads, sidewalks and boarded-up buildings.

No one should be surprised, really, by the violence in these two communities. Their conditions scream that no one cares—not the residents, the business owners and certainly not the government. (Some government official is shouting right now about the “Main Street” project or the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs recently announced offensive on slum-landlords. I don’t get excited any more about the promises of politicians and bureaucrats.)

Environments like those found on Georgia Ave and Benning Rd. NE give birth to rage and then nurtures it. Zero tolerance may seem a harsh response. But bringing in government agencies to ensure abandoned buildings are developed, business owners clean the sidewalks in front of their establishments, anti-loitering laws are enforced and communities aren’t allowed to look like wastelands send the proper message to everyone: This is a neighborhood worth fighting for.

Hearing that, the government, including the police, might find allies.

A version of this article appeared in the Washington Examiner  on 26 June 2008