Photo Friday: Resurgence of H Street, NE, Washington, DC

On a recent walking meeting with @Lygeia , we met at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health and she said, “let me show you H-Street.” We walked around the corner and found this neighborhood in transition. I have been reading about the rebuilding of H Street for some time, and more recently as part of the 43rd anniversary of the riots that destroyed Washington, DC.

You can see images of a neighborhood working to redefine itself below.

Ironically, another one of my photos was used in the most prominent DC local blog, DCist, to highlight the tension being created by the rebuilding of Washington (see:“Myopic Little Dog-Loving, Cafe-Dwelling Snowball Throwers”). I couldn’t help thinking as I walked this street with Lygeia that this neighborhood will one day enjoy dog parks, too.

You can read an account of life and see photos of H street and the destruction that occurred in 1968 here.

4 Comments

Regina,

Interesting observation (and huge compliment coming from the artist of our time). I thought about it and I would identify the most with "mindfulness" – I saw this short video clip where Ellen Langer from Harvard Business School talks about it (about 4:19).

So for me, the connection is that being a doctor means being mindful of what's happening with the patient, family, community, and the camera, the blog, is just an external representation.

In my leadership training, I identified most with the idea of not letting the "graffiti" of poor emotional/physicial/social health pass us by. Observe it, note it. Whether it's a neighborhood, or a 400 page medical record binder sitting on the table in front of you. I would say that you , me and @lygeia all have that in common – she's always there to point out new features of our community!

I think what a lot of doctors and nurses (and patients) want is to have the ability to be mindful, with the right tools, the right amount of time, and when this is taken away, everyone is hurt. What I have seen you do is encourage mindfulness. That's not graffiti on the wall that people see, it looks at you and forces you to be present,

Ted

Ted Eytan, MD