WHERE: It Had To Be U Street

U Street NW has been honored as one of the American Planning Association’s Great Places In America: Streets for 2011. On its website, APA wrote, “In 2009 when president-elect Barack Obama ordered a chili half-smoke at the famous Ben's Chili Bowl along U Street N.W., crowds flocked to the legendary eatery and the street it has anchored since 1958. U Street has gone through difficult times, particularly the lingering aftermath of devastating riots following the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Today the street is pulsing again with the music, businesses and life that, in the early 1900s, distinguished it as the main street of Washington's ‘city within a city.’”

For more information, please visit http://planning.org/greatplaces/streets/2011/

Image courtesy Ben’s Chili Bowl. Info courtesy American Planning Association.