Alexi Maria, Oral History, Celebrate Petworth, November 18, 2023

Oh, sorry.

No, you're fine. Red light is blinking, okay. Do I have permission to record this interview?

Yes.

Perfect, could you please tell me your name?

Alexi.

In your experience, how has Petworth changed over time?

It's become more of an active neighborhood. It's become a lot safer. There's a lot of restaurants here now, lots of activities. I feel like Petworth always has events going on, at least more than twice or three times a month which is really cool. There's a farmers market now and a lot of different things, that there wasn't here before.

Have any things been lost as a result of these changes?

Probably the people in the neighborhoods that were originally here. like, a lot of the culture isn't the same as it was before, even in like the last five-ten years, it's like changed drastically, and I wouldn't even say it's just Petworth, I would say DC as a whole, like the northwest side, even northeast is starting to follow as well.

Has anything been gained as a result of these changes?

I feel like the arts have been more appreciated. There's a lot of funding that's been initiated for the arts and local businesses, which is really cool. I would say it's a lot of positive changes. There's more housing available now. There's more events. There's like more things that they create to bring in more people into the city and into the neighborhood.

What places in Petworth make you feel like you're a part of the community?

I would say this street that we're at right now, Upshur, I actually did Art All Night here, back in September, and I painted a really cool mural and got to see some local galleries in this neighborhood that I didn't know existed, and meeting, like, local shop owners that are really cool, very sweet people, the really amazing businesses. There's a florist shop here, there's different clothing stores, different restaurants that are amazing. So, yeah.

Do you have a favorite memory from your time here at Petworth?

I would say Art All Night would probably be my favorite. The last one that we just had was so fun and it was so packed and there was a lot of people that I knew and that I met and it was just a really nice community event.

And in five years from now, what would you envision for Petworth?

I feel like it would stay as is, if not maybe just more renovated. Maybe like more local businesses involved. You don't see a lot of like commercial businesses up here. So, I could see maybe like more opportunity for local business owners to open up shop. But for me, it seems like more of a residential area, yes.

And is there anything you would like to add about the community?

I really enjoy the community uptown. Like I said, again, it's very active. There's a lot of events that happen and I feel like it brings everyone together. So you do see a lot of the same faces all the time, which is cool because that's what you want. You want to be able to walk out and be like, oh I know this person or like you know I'm going out and I may not be thinking that I'm going to hang out with anyone but I'll run into someone and I'll end up hanging out with them. So it's very, it's like kind of like family and community based which is really cool.

Perfect, well thank you so much for taking the time to do this.

Thank you.