Interesting Discussion: Born in VA in a family member’s living room raised near the DC/PG line until my family moved deeper into PG. My mom worked in DC so we spent a lot of time in DC and she spent years living in the city before I was born. PGCPS all K-12. Went to colleges in MD. Moved into the city to teach and be closer to my students. Wanted to teach in DC or PG to help other low income kids make it to and through college. When I got a job it was at a HS in the city. No longer teaching so I’ve considered leaving the city and moving to MD but my rent is actually cheaper than a lot of buildings similar in MD areas that I can easily hope on Marc. I’m a non driver so living in DC has more accessible public transport options than where my parents are in PG.

Funny enough I now work remote so none of my coworkers are from here. When I taught, a lot of the teachers weren’t from the DMV either. My whole life is rooted here. Maybe I’m even scared to leave the DMV.

That’s why people need to do more than talk to their circle or you’ll sum valid nuanced conversations into one sided arguments. There’s a difference between moving and being a transplant. Everyone who moved here isn’t an evil person who wants make DC bland and drive off minorities, sometimes they are also people who’ve been displaced or came for a job/school and couldn’t really afford to pick up and leave or go home or become so involved the DMV is their new home. It just depends on really the interactions. DC is also one of the safest places for the LGBT and has decriminalized cannabis. Transplants to me really are people not in the immediate DMV at all but flood these spaces to amplify crime and low resources to start these kinds of discord in DC. The hate for non locals isn’t hate but more so feeling competitive for the limited resources this city has. It’s like if you are making more and appear more desirable if you keep coming I’ll eventually be pushed out. The fear is coming out as hate instead of us finding solidarity to share resources or support only the politicians who have all of us in mind. It’s on both sides but of course the incomers have to respect that they don’t have full knowledge of history and culture here, so there’s a level of yielding to locals they have to do to understand. It’s not all as it seems.