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This is for the humanities. On September 7th, 2025, we're at Petworth celebration today. Do I have permission to record

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this interview? Yes. And your name is... What? What is your name? My name is Ben.

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Ben. Okay. Do you live in Petworth? In the Petworth area? No, but I've been in here so much as a young kid, and as of now,

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because my mom used to work here. Very cool. And what did she do? She worked for National Geographic a little bit.

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She works for this APA company. I'm not so sure about it, but I know it's a magazine thing. And what brought you here today? I'm visiting some friends. I was actually going to show down in Mario Kart with them.

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So then I wound up here, as, I suppose, a happy accident. Yeah. Very cool. Have you heard about the dog show before and the events that they

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had? I haven't heard of it or been to it yet. Well from your time visiting Petworth, have you noticed anything that's changed throughout

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your visits here? Well, probably increase in maybe drug use, because I've seen that a lot in D.C., which is very, very sad to see. But not really much else there.

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Have you noticed any changes or like, new shops or stores or restaurants or. Well, of course, the typical new restaurant they're tearing down a building right here so it's always

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besides the typical city changes. Do you think that from the changes that you've seen is more lost or is more gained? That's a tough one.

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I mean, there's always a balance, it's it's always this natural sort of balance I found. But I'm going to say more, more probably gains just by a little bit, but And what are you what are sort of the factors that you see

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that have been a game for the, for the neighborhood. Probably more people moving into houses, more people getting jobs and such. And You know, the economic state

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of D.C. just moving ahead. Do you have any, like, favorite spots in Petworth in the community that you know are important to you throughout your time? Well, I must say, I like it here.

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It's very it's very nice. I like the dog show. I like the, the jazz. I like the, the area is very nice.

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I feel like it's pretty peaceful. The Mario Kart showdown. Was that supposed to be somewhere in Petworth, too? Yes.

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It was down there a little bit and I won. It was I won eight games, I won, we played, I think eight matches.

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No, we played, we played 12 matches, I won eight and my opponent Tara, she won four despite her playing since probably 2004 and me since 2016. Wow, that's very exciting.

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Yes, it is. Is that that has to be one of your favorite like spots in Petworth, right. Because that's a memory that

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you've made. Yes. For sure. Okay.

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Perfect. I may have a rematch actually. Okay. Yeah.

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So very fun. So are there any other places in Petworth that you have fond memories of? Well, I know of, probably on the drive here.

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I recognize some places because my mother she used to run in this running club, and I saw some of those places around here, and it brought back good memories and the bridges and a lot of the old structures for sure, I remember.

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So those bring back nice, fond memories. And of course, even from now, maybe in ten years, I'll have fond memories of this moment.

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So great. Well, you say that you visit with every once in a while. So over the course of, let's say,

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five years, what do you hope to see kind of change as you keep coming back to the to the neighborhood? I hope to see more happy people, of course, more people not smoking because I just witnessed someone over there vaping right now.

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And that's I hope that decreases. And I hope people in general they just evolve and everyone's more. And everything around here, it

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could get more peaceful. So I feel like that would be that'd be very nice. And less littering of course,

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because I'm seeing wrappers right there. So less of that for sure. Okay. Well that's really all the questions that I have for you.

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Is there anything that I didn't ask you that you want to talk about? Not. Not really. Yes.

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Thank you so much. It's of course.