Carter Umhau Interview, September 29, 2023
Primary tabs
- Okay, today's September 29th at Art All Night in Mount Pleasant.
- Could you tell us your name? My name is Carter.
- Carter, could you tell us about your relationship to Mount
- Pleasant? Yes.
- So I grew up in DC, and so Mount Pleasant was always on my radar as
- a really wonderful neighborhood.
- But I lived across the country for
- a really long time and moved back during the pandemic.
- And the person I started dating and my now partner is from Mount
- Pleasant.
- He was living here at the time and
- so like my whole entrance back into adulthood in DC has been
- primarily first in Mount Pleasant.
- And I lived here temporarily over
- this summer but otherwise was like kind of constantly in and out with
- my partner at his place.
- So I feel like it's my
- neighborhood in a lot of ways because it's the place where he
- is, but also the place where most of my friends are as well.
- And I work up here too.
- Yeah.
- Do you mind telling us where you work?
- Yeah.
- Well, I, on, I'm on sabbatical as
- a therapist, but I have been working at Bold Fork Books which
- is a cookbook shop on Mount Pleasant Street.
- Oh fantastic.
- And you said you were raised in
- Washington? What neighborhood were you raised
- in? In Chevy Chase.
- In Chevy Chase? Yeah.
- Yeah.
- So what have been some of the
- favorite things that have attracted you about Mount
- Pleasant? I have to say it was like
- initially I think through my partner's eyes that I started
- falling in love with it because he really loved it and was always
- kind of evangelizing about the neighborhood.
- And he's multiracial, he's from DC, and he always talked about how
- like this is the place that he still feels most at home in DC, as
- the rest of the city is being gentrified so much and changing so
- rapidly.
- And especially during the
- pandemic, I felt like I was able to come up here and see like such
- diversity and also at the same time, such a neighborhood feel and
- a community feel running into people all the time that are
- familiar faces that become friends.
- And like, it just feels like a little village.
- And so that's kind of been like the initial draw.
- Of course, there's like, I think this is some of what is really
- beloved about Mount Pleasant in general, but that it is by Rock
- Creek as well as having like huge access to downtown and feeling
- like you're in the bustle of things.
- But it feels like that quiet village nonetheless.
- Yeah.
- Fantastic.
- Yeah.
- And what do you think makes it
- such a welcoming place for you and your boyfriend?
- Gosh, I mean I think that it is that village feel.
- I think that there's something about the pace up here that feels
- a lot slower than the rest of DC.
- It feels like that's changing
- though, definitely.
- The village feel isn't, but like
- some of the pace and the energy feels like it's shifting slowly.
- But I think that it feels like there's an arts community that's
- still really alive.
- There's lots of families, but
- there's also a lot of young artists, there's a ton of
- immigrants, like there's just a mix.
- And I think that that's really cool.
- And you said that you sense some change.
- Yeah.
- How would you describe that?
- Well, I actually remember, I think it was like the Washingtonian put
- out, or maybe it was the Washington Post, I don't remember.
- But in 2020, they put out an article about Mount Pleasant being
- like the neighborhood in DC that had been like unchanged in a lot
- of ways.
- And it was also the place that had
- the most diversity left.
- And it was right in the middle of
- summer 2020 or maybe the fall afterward.
- And my sense is a lot of people, a lot of white people like myself
- were like, oh, that's a great place to live then.
- And like maybe wanted to be involved more in the community,
- but then it meant that a lot of people that were here before have
- been kicked out and it's become more and more expensive.
- And I think that there are like a couple of businesses that have
- brought in like a really kind of like young, professional, mostly
- white community that has like more disposable income, etc. It's just
- sort of changed things a bit and therefore it's also becoming kind
- of more desirable.
- So a lot of young families, mostly
- white, like it just is shifting and you get the sense that there's
- kind of two communities happening at once in terms of the immigrant
- population and then the younger families are the more wealthy
- white people.
- And that, there's that tension.
- I feel like you can especially see that on farmer's market days that
- used to feel like a little bit more mellow, but it feels like
- there's this big influx of people that come.
- And these more kind of fun, interesting, hip, good branding
- behind them, companies that come in that are so wonderful, and I
- love so many of them and then there's also like a woman on the
- corner that's selling sliced fruit and like not being paid much
- attention to.
- So there's this like there's just
- there's a tension that seems to be growing and I'm just gonna be
- curious what that continues to look like.
- Where would you like to see things go in the future?
- Yeah, I mean I think that I would love for it to stay a more
- affordable place, for there to be more housing like my friend had,
- that is more accessible and accessible to different
- communities and the immigrant population getting to be able to
- have more say in the community.
- I don't even, I don't know how to
- make that happen, but it feels like a really important piece of
- the puzzle, because I think it's what draws a lot of people to the
- neighborhood, but of course it's going to be the thing that's wiped
- out first.
- So I don't know exactly what that
- looks like.
- I feel like I've been kind of
- trying to wonder about that as someone that works in the
- neighborhood, like what kinds of events can be put on that actually
- are more inclusive and not kind of attracting people just from
- outside of the neighborhood.
- But that would be my hope, I don't
- know.
- Yeah, that's the big one.
- Any other things you'd like to share with us?
- If anyone wants to give me one of their houses, I'd take it.
- I love the neighborhood, I think it's so great.
- Yeah, that's it.
- Thank you so much.