I would fall short of suggesting that the gay population in DC is the major part of that fringe of artists and hipsters that drove development and change on 14th street. They’re part of it, but not the sine qua non. Bar Pilar and Saint-Ex are not and have not ever been gay bars, nor has the Black Cat. Everywhere on 14th Street until you hit U is gay-friendly but not explcitly gay-centered, with the exception of Playbill, Universal Gear, etc, and saying that Logan is a gayborhood is probably overstating the case. Saying 14th street is a gayborhood that’s being invaded by non-gay restaurants is close to ridiculous.

I am far more afraid of the encroachment of half-assed, imitative yuppiedom in my neighborhood, with Viriginia-based chains coming to compete with Cork, resto-lounges that threaten to turn an interesting area into a reincarnation of the 18th street clubland, and, well, Bang and Olufson.

On the other side, the post seems to imply that establishments like Churchkey are not serving the neighborhood demographic. That’s problematic in terms of both the realities of the neighborhood and the intentions of Churchkey.

To begin with, the southern extreme of the 14th street corridor is not and never was all that gay in terms of who lives around there. The majority of the residential population south of Rhode Island is dominated by the high-rise (by DC standards) condos and apartment buildings. Having just toured many of these places in my search for housing, I can tell you that these residences are, well, straight. In fact, I commented that it seemed like the one area where young NoVas may feel most comfortable starting out in the District (or perhaps it’s where they are just before they become middle-aged NoVas).

That said, the hope is, of course, that all of these restaurants would be embraced by the entire neighborhood and would themselves embrace the entire neighborhood. However, there is some crowding-out going on at Churchkey right now – new places tend to attract the affluent who are willing to make the trip at first – and many of us who live in the neighborhood, gay or straight, are not happy about this, but that will change.

When it does change, I would hope that most in the neighborhood understand that none of these restaurants are intending to be, in and of themselves, forces that change the face of the neighborhood. There are, however, a lot of larger forces at work and I do think your comments in the post speak to these as well. However, I don’t think these restaurants are at all “part of the problem”.

A good example to tie all of this together: I walked into Churchkey the other night, past a group of people right at the top of the stairs and one girl yelled to the whole group “oh my God! He’s from Falls Church too!!!”. However, later that night, they played Bell & Sebastian’s “State I’m In”. Yes, we can all just get along.