But the community garden that could almost be mistaken for a disused car park on Seventh Street, just a short walk from a sprawling, recently-completed convention center, is quietly revolutionary.
Look a little closer and you will see bunches of dill and parsley, beets, even a fruit tree or two. Hand-painted signs advertise the wisdom of eating at least five portions of fruit or vegetables a day, point out that beans and peas have lots of iron or that fibre strengthens your digestion system. "Eat broccoli," one sign says, next to the broccoli patch.
Occasionally groups of people can be seen weeding or watering, hunkered down at the bunches of greenery, chatting with the odd passer-by who stops to congratulate them for breathing some civilized life into the place.
Mike Sullivan, who directs the neighbourhood's "EcoDesign Corps," engaging youth in hands-on community based projects, has no illusions about the benefits of this and other ecologically friendly spaces he is responsible for, which include gardens, green roofs and rain barrels. He likes to think that the garden "adds or turns a new page" in the lives of its visitors and passers-by. An anthropologist who graduated in 2000, he is particularly proud of his organization's "Chain Reaction" bike shop, which strives to get residents out and about on wheels.
Shaw is a wonderful part of the city for so many reasons, from its pretty terraced houses, many of which have been renovated as part of the gentrification process, to its history of being home to freed and escaped slaves. It is also known as the site of some of the worst of the city's riots of 1968 following the assassination of Martin Luther King. But now, comfortable homeowners can be seen out in their front porches watering their plants while local youths congregate on nearby streets. People here sometimes talk about "the plan," which according to a recent article in the Washington Post, is a theory, fed by the increasing gentrification of traditionally black neighbourhoods, that elites want to turn the city back into a majority white place.
Whatever theory of social impoverishment you espouse, there is no question that housing is becoming unaffordable for many poorer families in Washington.
This somehow makes the garden seem even more inspiring, and for all its small scale and humble façade, relevant.
One of the biggest disadvantages faced by America's urban poor is health, notably the obesity epidemic.
We've all heard the theories about how fast food, being significantly cheaper than the fresh alternatives and in urban settings without a car, often easier to obtain, has fuelled America's weight problem, particularly among children and adolescents.
The Institute of Medicine blames an "adverse environment" for the epidemic, including urban and suburban designs that discourage walking - there are frequently no pavements in American neighborhoods, and buses are often non-existent or unreliable - pressure to minimize food costs and preparation time, reduced access to fruits, vegetables and other nutritious foods, decreased opportunity for exercise and more time spent sitting at a screen instead of playing outside.
The statistics are sobering. Sixteen percent of Americans aged six to 19 or about nine million children are obese, defined as being heavier than 95 percent of the relevant growth chart for their age. But about one quarter of African American children in that age group, are obese.
Many of these children are already exhibiting early symptoms of heart problems, for example high cholesterol and blood pressure. Diabetes has become a disease of the young in the United States. According to The Surgeon General, obesity cost the country more than $117 billion in 2000. Only about a quarter of adults and fewer adolescents actually eat the recommended amounts of fruit and vegetables. Obesity doubled between 1980 and 2000, and tripled among adolescents.
But if lack of cash is contributing to the problem, what is the point of Sullivan's garden? Isn't five portions of fruit and vegetables a day a luxury for the well-off? Isn't he rubbing their noses in it?
Sullivan says that some of the most frequent visitors to the garden are clients of "Bread For The City," a drop-in center next door where vulnerable Washingtonians, most of them black, get food, clothing, medical care, legal and social services "in an atmosphere of dignity and respect." "Folks who come to Bread For The City love to stop and ask for a peach," he said. "It's important for people to know where food comes from, whether it's from an animal a tree or the ground." He's had inner city kids come by who didn't know a hamburger came from a cow, for example.
With millions of American children facing a lifetime of ill health, and the most expensive healthcare system in the world, Sullivan is happy to influence one person at a time. He practices what he preaches, buying his own produce with another couple from a local farmer, and reveling in the mucky state in which it turns up on his doorstep. With all the fancy organic foodstores around America, he worries about another type of gentrification - that of sustainably produced foods, which are already affordable mainly to better-off Americans. But he can't worry too much, or he would do nothing. "I'm a great believer in the philosophy that if you can't change the world, at least you can change somebody's," he says.
Send your comments on this article using the form below, and they will be considered for publication. It may be necessary to edit your contribution. Wherever possible we would like you to include your name and town of residence. Priority will be given to e-mails providing these details.
