Zippy does Washington (and Ted Rall, priorities)

Ben's Chili Bowl photo.

On Friday, the Zippy the Pinhead comic strip featured Ben's Chili Bowl, a U Street landmark in two ways. It's known for being an African-American owned restaurant that survived turmoil both after the riots as well as the construction of the Green line subway route (which drastically damaged retail business in the corridor during the construction period), and as a favorite of Bill Cosby.

It's also one of the only nickelodeons in the city that is extant today. These were the precursors to movie theaters and movies with sound ("talkies"). And Ben's lies between two movie theaters, the still extant Lincoln, and another theater was located in the building immediately east of Ben's.

Ben's was also discussed in the blog in the context of how the national-global real estate market downtown shapes how the DC Office of Tax and Revenue assesses properties in neighborhood commercial districts. See "Testimony -- Historic Neighborhood Retail Business Property Tax Relief Act."


Yesterday, the strip featured Barry's Magic Shop in Wheaton, a store which faces closure because of Montgomery County's plans to enhance the urbanness of the area. Their plan for a walkway dooms this store, which sits in the parking lot of a 1950s era shopping center. (See "No News is Bad News for Barry's Magic Shop" from a Post blog and also from the Post, "Icon May Go Up in a Puff of Smoke," as well as "Caught in the way of progress" from the Examiner.)
Barry Taylor, of Barry’s Magic shop at 11234 Georgia Ave. in Wheaton, jokes around with a burning book, saying that he is “burning mad” because of the Wheaton redevelopment. He says Montgomery County is forcing him out of business after 32 years. The county plans to tear down the two-story building, where his shop is located, out. Photo: Greg Whitesell/Examiner.

The detailing in the drawings of both strips is incredible.

And Ted Rall, the great editorial cartoonist whose cartoons tend to run in alternative newspapers such as our own Washington City Paper (you must thumb through the classifieds to find it), has a great cartoon about urban construction priorities (although I will say that you need new residents because they pay property and income and sales taxes, although at the same time, such increases in revenues are supposed to be funding community services and amenities).


Ben's Chili Bowl probably has the city's only decent execution of a back lit sign (otherwise I am against their use).

Index Keywords: urban-design-placemaking