Hear Mt. Pleasant >> Eric Burns

HEAR MOUNT PLEASANT >> Testimonial >> Eric Burns


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I grew up in DC and returned for 10 years in the mid-1990s. Though I lived in several neighborhoods during that time, Mt Pleasant was the neighborhood that felt like home, and where I eventually bought a home. In addition to its compelling setting, striking streetscapes, and long history of cutural richness, Mt Pleasant had something else: A rare atmosphere of dialogue, vitality, and creativity that historically allowed it to transcend the leveling effects of new-millenium chain-store orientation and cultural flatlining that is, tragically, quickly becoming the norm in DC and the United States.

How do we maintain such an environment in the face of change? By embracing opportunities to come together as community members, share experiences, and make meaning. By creating spaces where people are excited to come together. Local businesses, eateries, and community centers allow this to happen, and to make a neighborhood a community. I am confident that when I move back, Mt Pleasant will be a more (rather than less) vibrant, engaged, and politically interested place, and that part of this future vision will be achieved through creation of community-informed spaces of dialogue and reflection that clearly reflect the interest that the majority of residents have in experiencing music, art, and culture in Our Neighborhood.

Eric Burns is a social work researcher at the University of Washington who is now (temporarily) living in Seattle.

Andrea Blatchford