Comet to Close Amid the Sound of Grinding Axes
We are saddened to learn that Adams Morgan staple The Comet will be closing its doors after seventy-some-odd years as a neighborhood cornerstone. It should be remembered as a bright and cheery storefront with equally welcoming proprietors found inside, its neon something of a neighborhood landmark.
Still, we're a little weirded out at the Washington Post's take on the story. Sandwiched between the explicit reason for Comet's closing ("But the workload has proved too much for [Bernice Drazin]...") and a reiteration that the Comet is closing its doors "on it's terms" is a melodramatic "Death of the Neighborhood" keening that names just about every bugaboo DC residents have come to fear, at least since Cafe St. Ex, you know, destroyed 14th Street. Gentrification, Doug Jemal, Starbucks, and Harris Teeter are just a sampling of the urban ills namechecked in the article, despite the lack of objective evidence that any of them had anything to do with the Comet's closing.
But, we sympathize. It is awful hard to drive your agenda down 18th street on a Saturday night.— DCEIVER
A Blaze of Memory and Regret [Washington Post]