No havarti there when I was growing up. 
It was a grittier city when I lived there, no doubt. It was blighted, but paradoxically, that also allowed a vibrant music and arts scene to exist. There were go-go and punk shows all over the place, even a few that were outdoors and funded by the city (Marion Barry was a polarizing figure, but he did fund all sorts of cool art stuff). No one carded, ever, so we just roamed all over the city, listened to epic live music, drank too much, looked at good art, saw weird dance and theater. The Smithsonians were (still are) free, too. You could get good cheap eats at the Ethiopian place or go to the El Salvadorian diner the next day for hangover food. So the surface of the city was dull, but if you scratched it, there was so much going on, none of it centered on consumer culture.
Then crack happened, gun violence got really serious, and it got really horrible for a while 
And now it is all gentrified, full of European strollers and havarti cheese. Weird. Nothing there is affordable now, I guess.
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