Martha Wash: ♪ Everybody dance now ♪ [C+C Music Factory's "Gonna Make You Sweat" playing] ♪ Everybody dance now ♪ Narrator: The nineties, a decade marked by challenges... Woman: The nineties started out on a tough note.

They began the way the eighties ended.

Narrator: A once-towering mayor, his career suddenly in tatters.

Man: But as we've learned in American politics, not everything is as it seemed.

Narrator: Proud traditions... Woman 2: We used to have a winning football team in Washington, and the whole city was Redskins crazy.

Narrator: And a revolution that would forever change the way we live.

Man 2: By the end of the nineties, the Internet was part of everyday life, and AOL was the dominant company.

During the nineties, there was this sense of change that was going on.

Narrator: Journey back to the end of the last millennium.

Welcome to "Washington in the 90s."

Treach: ♪ Here we go now, holla if ya hear me, though ♪ ♪ Come and feel me flow ♪ ♪ Here we go now, holla if ya hear me, though ♪ ♪ Come and feel me flow ♪ Narrator: Immediately after the decade began, a crisis engulfed the city.

Mayor Barry has been arrested on drug charges.

Male reporter: Mayor Barry was arrested last night at the Vista Hotel in downtown Washington.

Agent: Mr. Mayor, I want you to put your hands on the wall.

Please put your hands on the wall.

Woman 3, voice-over: I think everyone was taken aback by the arrest.

We knew he had problems, we knew he wasn't as focused, but I think no one anticipated that.

Woman 1: That was a shock.

Obviously a tough moment for him, but it was a tough time for the nation's capital.

Narrator: Later, at trial, video would emerge of the FBI sting operation at the Vista.

Muse: And of course, it was an unbelievable scene, the mayor there taking puffs off of a crack pipe in a hotel.

[Audio static crackles] Agent: FBI.

Barry: This goddamned bitch set me up like this.

Set me up.

Ain't that a bitch?

Narrator: The arrest, and Barry's reaction, etched a lasting mark on the public's imagination.

You know, ladies and gentlemen, you can say what you want about Washington D.C. mayor Marion Barry, but... [Cheering and applause] I feel... it's my belief that, gram for gram, you're not going to find a better mayor anywhere.

[Cheering and applause] Man: Unfortunately, Barry was a punch line for the rest of America.

Lauryn Hill: ♪ Strumming my pain with his fingers... ♪ Narrator: But many area residents didn't revel in Barry's downfall.

Woman: For a lot of us who know Marion from back then, it's very sad.

People to this day believe he was a victim of overreach on the part of the FBI.

Man: The fact is, she did set him up.

He went up to have sex.

Barry was known to have sex with women.

It was not an uncommon thing.

They got him on a possession charge for drugs that he did not bring-- [chuckles]--to the room, so it was just like, "Yeah, you got him.

Congratulations."

Man: He was a hometown hero, and people related to him.

And he had problems, but I think, you know, everybody has problems themselves or somebody in their family has problems.

[Spin Doctors' "Two Princes" playing] Narrator: At the dawn of the decade, Washington also had cause for celebration-- the Redskins.

The team was riding high, looking to build on the winning formula that propelled them to 3 Super Bowls in the previous decade, winning two.

When I came here, we went to the Super Bowl, so I thought you went every year.

That was the culture here.

The culture was about winning.

Narrator: During the 1991 season, everything seemed to click.

A backup for most of his early career, Mark Rypien had emerged as the team's starting quarterback.

Man: And we called Mark an unmovable statue.

I think Mark racing a turtle would be a very close race, but Mark can throw the football.

Mark was a very smart individual.

Narrator: The job of protecting Rypien fell to the vaunted offensive line.

EMF: ♪ Oh!

♪ ["Unbelievable" playing] Jacoby: The Hogs.

I was very fortunate to play on a lot of great teams, but that one was so explosive offensively because of what we had up front, with the guys blocking.

Narrator: The core group of Hogs had been battling together in the trenches for more than a decade.

Jacoby: We knew it was going to be the last go-around for a lot of us on that team.

Narrator: Despite their advancing years, the Hogs gave up just 9 sacks the entire season.

EMF: ♪ You're unbelievable ♪ ♪ Oh!

♪ With a mix of seasoned veterans, and a few explosive newcomers, the Redskins bulldozed through the regular season, finishing 14-2.

The team stood just two playoff wins away from a fourth Super Bowl appearance in 10 years.

EMF: ♪ You're unbelievable ♪ [Boyz II Men's "End of the Road" playing] ♪ We belong together... ♪ Narrator: Following Marion Barry's arrest, he faced a ten-week trial.

Reporter: Mayor Barry arrived at the U.S. District courthouse facing probation, jail time, or a fine.

Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson gave the mayor all three.

I'm calm about it.

I understand that there are different sets of standards for different people, and that's the American injustice system.

Narrator: Convicted of a single misdemeanor-- possession of cocaine-- Barry was sentenced to 6 months in prison.

Reporter: Do you think that he was treated differently because he's the mayor of our city?

I think he was treated differently because he's black.

He should have been charged with a felony, and he should have gone to jail for a heck of a lot longer.

It's sort of like the verdict in the O.J.

trial.

It depends on who you are as to how you saw that outcome.

Narrator: During his trial, the man dubbed "mayor for life" announced what once would have been unthinkable.

Barry: I believe it's time for me to serve you, and God, in other ways.

Therefore, tonight, I'm announcing that Marion Barry will not be a candidate for re-election for my fourth term.

Boyz II Men: ♪ It's unnatural... ♪ Narrator: The office of mayor was up for grabs.

[Hootie and the Blowfish's "I Only Want to Be With You" playing] Pratt, voice-over: I think I was probably the earliest person to declare, but it was not very well-noticed, except by a few friends and family.

Muse: Sharon Pratt had never run for office before, but she was involved in politics.

She was bright.

She was beautiful.

She was tough.

She was a fresh face.

She was the anti-Barry.

Sharon Dixon.

I'm running for mayor.

I think it's time for some new blood in this city.

Pratt, voice-over: I decided that I was going to run on the notion that it was time to clean house.

Then everybody started suggesting that I bring a broom to clean house, and pretty soon they said a shovel, so there was a growing momentum and frustration within the city.

Sharon Pratt Dixon, Democrat.

Good morning.

Narrator: On the eve of the Democratic Primary, facing a crowded field of candidates, Pratt's odds of winning were long.

Pratt: As we were heading south on 16th Street, the early returns came in, and WTOP announced my lead, which was an incredible, unexpected lead.

And we all hit the brakes at 16th and Florida and jumped out of our cars and did the victory sign, and nobody got mad at us.

They just honked back.

Narrator: Voters in the general election delivered a clear mandate.

Pratt: It is...time... to clean...house!

Ha ha ha ha!

Muse: Sharon Pratt Dixon was not only D.C.'s first woman mayor, she was the first African-American woman to be elected mayor of a major U.S. city.

Woman: Well, I'm just proud.

I mean, just to see her, and just to see how powerful she is, especially as a speaker.

She represents the women of this city.

We like it.

Pratt: I think it was just--the notion of you can do anything you set your mind to was the high point.

Then reality really embraced us shortly thereafter.

[Carlos Santana's "Smooth" playing] Narrator: One of those realities was Washington's growing Latino community.

You really began to see the emergence of whole blocks and neighborhoods beginning to see Latinos from lots of different parts of Central America, mostly Salvadorians, but also Guatemalans and Nicaraguans.

Narrator: Refugees from war-torn Central America had been settling in Washington since the early eighties.

Otero: And so you had a large number of single men who had left the family and had come to look for jobs so that they could send money home.

Narrator: Many of the new arrivals settled in D.C.'s Adams Morgan and Mount Pleasant neighborhoods.

Otero: You have a large community in a relatively small space.

Very new to this society, very new to this culture.

Narrator: Over time, tensions grew.

Otero: Coming from places of violence, the experience with law enforcement is very different.

[Shouting] Don't do that, man!

Otero: Law enforcement here had very few, very few officers that spoke Spanish, so communication was a very significant issue.

Narrator: On Cinco de Mayo, 1991, tensions finally came to a head.

[Siren] Male anchor: It was around 7:30, and police were attempting to arrest 3 men for drinking in public at 17th and Lamont.

The official police version is that one of the men resisted arrest, pulled away from a female officer, he then came lunging at her with a knife.

There are many different stories and versions about what happened.

He had a knife, didn't have a knife.

Ultimately, she took out her gun and shot him, and he was injured, not killed.

The word that was spread through the community was that he was shot while he was handcuffed.

[Speaking Spanish] Man: The lady, you know, told an old lady she put the gun right here and just shot him.

So it didn't take much.

It was a powder keg.

[Shouting] Newscaster: It was an ugly night in Mount Pleasant.

Man: The police kill Latin people!

[Overlapping shouting] Otero: And you had 3 days of riots that caught a brand-new administration totally by surprise.

Well, I think that we have a troubled community here, and I think that there are things we can do on an immediate basis, as well as a long-term basis, to come to grips with it.

Narrator: During the second night of rioting, Mayor Pratt imposed a curfew.

Pratt: It was difficult to contain it because there was so much spilt-up anger.

That's when I decided we have to have the curfew and see if we can't have a moment to get cooler heads and get some buy-in from the leadership.

Narrator: And in spite of the riots, the Latino community thrived.

Otero: I think the riots, in some ways, really gave us an opportunity to begin to raise up a new leadership.

The Mount Pleasant riots were a grow-up moment for the city, and it recognized that there are people in the city that were not being seen, let alone heard or having services for.

It should not take riots to change things, but when people are not heard, then you can expect something will happen to make them be heard.

Narrator: Following their 14-win season, the Redskins entered the playoffs on a mission.

M.C.

Hammer: ♪ Too legit, too legit to quit ♪ Narrator: First on their path-- the star-studded Atlanta Falcons, who rolled into RFK Stadium with an M.C.

Hammer-led entourage.

Too legit to quit, man, you know, and everybody wanted to go and say hello to Too Legit, you know, and shake his hand.

We were never that sexy team.

We were the "keep your head down, keep grinding," the blue-collar guys.

Narrator: The workmanlike Redskins handled the Falcons with ease.

[Sting's "All This Time" playing] Next, they faced off against the Detroit Lions in the NFC Championship game.

Sting: ♪ I looked out across... ♪ Narrator: Legendary cornerback Darrell Green put the finishing touches on another Redskins rout.

Frank Herzog: ...left side, picked off at the 33-yard line.

Here comes the return by Darrell Green.

He's back to the 10, cuts to the 5.

Touchdown, Washington Redskins.

Green: That was kind of a gimme.

Just a young kid that probably shouldn't have threw the ball.

He gave the old guy an opportunity to get one.

George Michael: Good evening, everybody.

I'm George Michael, and welcome to Minneapolis, Minnesota, site of Super Bowl XXVI.

The Buffalo Bills, Washington Redskins.

What a game this should be.

Here are two teams with the best records in the NFL, battling for the World Championship... Green: Buffalo was really star-studded, but, hey, we won 14 and, you know, we felt like we could get it done, too.

Narrator: The Redskins took control of the game early.

After shutting down Buffalo's formidable running game, the Bills were forced to go to the air, but with little success.

Jacoby: I have never seen a quarterback that was pummeled so much by our defensive front 7 than Jim Kelly was in that Super Bowl.

Narrator: The Redskins offense proved just as overwhelming.

Frank Herzog: He's going deep.

He's got Clark in the end zone.

Touchdown, Washington Redskins.

Narrator: The Bills scored two late touchdowns, but by then, the game was already out of reach.

Final score: Redskins 37, Bills 24.

The victory capped off a magical year.

[Crowd cheering] Jeff Bostic: I think, when the season started, we had a mission, and last Sunday in Minneapolis, it was realized.

This is the number-one city, the number-one fans.

Without you, we wouldn't have been there.

We hope you enjoyed the season as much as we have this year, and we'll just see you next time.

Thank you.

[Crowd cheering] Narrator: In the days before satellite and streaming music, FM radio provided the daily soundtrack for many Washingtonians.

The stalwart rock station WHFS began its fourth decade as a musical trendsetter.

The nineties all of a sudden happened as if it was magic.

We started talking fast, we started talking over the music, and we started using a lot of what we called forward momentum, so the music kept coming very quickly and never stopped.

Narrator: The music they played also changed, a new sound out of the Pacific Northwest.

Weasel: Lot of us that saw grunge as a breath of fresh air.

It was a return to rock and roll.

It was a return to guitar-based rock.

Narrator: One of grunge's pioneers, Dave Grohl, had his roots right here in Washington.

Man: This guy that, you know, grew up here, everyone knew, and he had run away to join the circus.

Narrator: But even for locals clued in to the latest sounds, it was easy to miss Grohl's 1991 homecoming with the band that defined the era.

[Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" playing] Man: Nirvana...

I actually missed that show because I was working the" bigger show" at the Citadel Center.

♪ I was alive and I waited... ♪ Hurwitz: We had an act called Jesus Jones booked there, did a song called "Right Here, Right Now."

And Nirvana wanted to play the same night at the 9:30 Club, and I said, "Well, I don't know if you want to do that "because we have Jesus Jones at the Citadel, you know.

I don't know if you want to go up against that."

And the agent said to me, "We're not worried about Jesus Jones."

Kurt Cobain: ♪ Come as you are, as you were... ♪ Narrator: Arriving in town as virtual unknowns, within 3 months, Nirvana would have the number-one album in America, forever changing the course of music.

Hurwitz: The nineties was when what used to be called "alternative" and--can hardly be called alternative now-- became the mainstream.

Come on.

♪ Gonna get away ♪ [Go-go music playing] Narrator: But Washington's homegrown go-go sound still dominated the local music scene.

♪ Temperatures rising... ♪ Narrator: While nationally hip-hop was on the rise, more Washingtonians still moved to the live call-and-response of go-go.

Man: Go-go music was the soundtrack to the nineties.

It was the soundtrack to our lives.

It was at your block parties.

It was coming out of people's houses.

Go-go was a lived thing.

It's something you experienced, really.

Bardley: It's the sound of D.C. to most-- to all native Washingtonians.

Even if you don't like it, you're aware of it.

Narrator: But many linked go-go to the violence that still plagued Washington in the early nineties.

Anchor: ...free concert they were playing erupted in gunfire.

Two friends of the band, a 16-year-old and 13-year-old, were killed; two others were wounded.

Bardley: I didn't go to go-gos.

I was just like, "Yeah, that's not for me.

I'm not running towards the violence."

Narrator: The IBEX Club on Georgia Avenue had an especially rough reputation.

Woman: I actually went to a show there to go see the Backyard Band one night, and I thought I would write about it.

And as I was waiting in line to get into the club, the guy in front of me was stabbed.

Narrator: But some questioned the link between the music and violence.

Lewis Jr.: We're talking about dealing with a time when we were the murder capital.

It had nothing to do with the go-go itself.

Bardley: It wasn't the music.

Like, that's crazy to say, like, music incites violence, but people who liked the music who were violent, they met up at the go-go.

[Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop" playing] [Crowd cheering] Narrator: In 1992, Bill Clinton became the nation's first baby-boomer president.

I was a freshman at American University the year that Bill Clinton was a senior at Georgetown University.

And to me, personally, it was as if one of us had ascended to become President.

He was like Barack Obama before Obama in the black community.

Good morning.

Well, I'll see you some more, I'm sure.

Narrator: Once in office, Clinton took to Washington's streets.

Reporter: The on-the-go Clinton went out for a jog earlier this morning.

The president-elect has said he wants to burst the bubble of security that surrounds presidents.

Muse: Bill Clinton made an effort to endear himself to the residents of the city.

He ventured outside of the White House, not just to jog, which was a nightmare for the Secret Service, but he visited the neighborhoods.

Man: He was such a character, and he could talk to anybody, and he did.

Narrator: Clinton brought a fresh energy to the city as well.

Man: He was kind of like Lawrence Welk, you know, and what you'd watch on "Ed Sullivan" and then there were the Beatles.

That was kind of the feeling.

There was this real generational change.

They bring in a lot of their young, enthusiastic people with them, and so Washington becomes, at least temporarily, more Technicolor and a little bit livelier.

It gets staid again pretty quickly after that.

[Chuckles] Narrator: No matter the decade, Washington weather could overtake whatever was happening on the political scene.

Man: This storm may rival the storm of February 1983.

That storm produced more than 16 inches at Washington National Airport.

Ace of Base: ♪ I, I got a new life ♪ Narrator: In early January 1996, Washingtonians prepared for a fierce winter storm.

News anchor: And, judging by the way food stores and video rental outlets have been jammed, you folks are paying attention.

Reporter: Do you think this is going to be a one-, two-, or 3-movie storm?

Woman: Oh, 3 We got 5.

And a video game.

Ace of Base: ♪ I saw the sign ♪ ♪ And it opened up my eyes, I saw the sign... ♪ Narrator: When the blizzard finally arrived, it didn't disappoint.

It's the storm they'll be talking about for decades.

Muse: That storm doubled back on us and dumped more snow on us than we thought we could ever dig out from under.

Roberts: I loved the Blizzard of '96 because I had plenty of food and wine in the house and plenty of firewood, and my basic view was, "Let's just stay here and enjoy it."

♪ And since we've no place to go, let it snow ♪ Hey, man, it's freezing out here, baby.

Lewis, Jr.: Nobody was in school, and we had an incredible time in the neighborhood, playing football in the ice and just having a good time.

[Siren chirps] Narrator: For some, the show went on.

Man: For us, being a neighborhood bar, it's, like, one of our best business cycles ever because everybody just said, "Hey, let's have fun," when you can sled on Wisconsin Avenue or, like, "Who's got cross country skis?"

But apparently a lot of people, because all of a sudden they're skiing up and down the streets.

We should have one blizzard every year just to have some fun.

Blues Traveler: ♪ ...'cause the hook brings you back ♪ ♪ I ain't tellin' you no lie ♪ Narrator: Washington's National Mall, the focal point of protests and marches since the 19th century, saw many during the decade: 750,000 demonstrators at the 1992 March For Women's Lives, and in 1993, nearly a million people marching for gay rights.

[Tupac Shakur's "Changes" playing] ♪ Ooh ♪ Narrator: But no nineties march attracted more attention than the Million Man March in 1995.

Muse: Everybody wondered what that would be like.

A million men, African-American men, on The Mall.

Man: I'm here for the unity part of it, and I'm here because I'm a responsible black man.

Muse: It was organized by Minister Louis Farrakhan, who, as you know, was a very controversial figure at the time.

Woman: The minister wanted to talk to a million men, to talk to them about responsibility, accountability, family, you know, holding their head up.

Shakur: ♪ I got love for my brother, but we can never go nowhere ♪ ♪ Unless we share with each other... ♪ Bardley: I convinced a few of my friends to go, just to see what it would be like.

Let's just drop this hard shell you've built up and let's just be with each other, enjoy each other's company, meet other black men.

Lewis, Jr.: I remember that incredible feeling of brotherhood, and I never seen so many people in my life.

I remember leaving there feeling like this was the start of something different.

Sherwood: People were so fearful that African-American men were going to flood the nation's capital.

Those kinds of attitudes somewhat overshadowed what, in fact, was a remarkable, peaceful, family-oriented march.

Narrator: But still there was controversy.

Muse: The debate was about numbers.

Were there really a million?

That was so unfortunate because that was not the point.

I think the Park Service suggested it was around 400,000, but it doesn't matter; it was a huge march.

I was there, and what I saw were people saying, "We matter."

Narrator: The nineties also saw new monuments and memorials added to The National Mall: the Korean War and FDR Memorials, and in 1993, adjacent to The Mall... Roberts: The most remarkable one was the Holocaust Museum because who knew that it would have the impact that it has had?

For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.

Survivor: I'm sorry I'm crying.

I'm not crying for sorrow, I'm crying for joy.

Dawson: We all knew something about it, but to see the faces and to feel the pain, it wasn't a day in the park to go there, but it was an important place to visit, and it makes my hair stand on end to think about it.

Well, let me tell you, I understand the risk.

I am prepared to take the risk.

Narrator: Meanwhile, in city politics, Sharon Pratt struggled to find her footing.

I shouldn't say this, but I think the high point was the night of winning, just because it was considered so utterly impossible.

Narrator: She took heat for slashing Marion Barry's signature summer jobs program.

What Marion used to say about the summer jobs program was that it was good policy, and it was good politics.

Sherwood: For people who had no opportunity during the summer and you got a job for 6 or 7 weeks and you got paid, that was something, and people remembered it.

And Sharon Pratt Kelly killed the summer jobs program.

Narrator: And she was blamed for the District's loss of the Washington Redskins.

[R.E.M.

's "Losing My Religion" playing] Muse: Losing the football team to Prince George's County was a very hurtful thing in Washington D.C.

Fans blamed the mayor for that and felt that had she made a little extra effort to get along with the so-called "Billionaire Bully," Jack Kent Cooke, that maybe those negotiations could have gone better.

Dawson: Sharon Pratt Kelly blew the deal.

Jack Kent Cooke wanted to build.

She played poker, and she lost, and that was a huge, huge hit for D.C. sports.

Sharon Pratt: Dianne Feinstein, who had been mayor of San Francisco, tried to tell me, "Sharon, you're a woman.

You better be careful with this one," you know, "Don't lose the team," but I unfortunately-- tried as I might, that didn't happen.

Man: ♪ We all rise... ♪ Narrator: On April 24, 1992, Marion Barry completed his 6-month prison sentence.

Not in my wildest imagination did I think that so many of my friends would receive me...

Crowd: Yeah!

with open arms.

You da man, you da man.

Narrator: Two months later, he entered the race for the Ward 8 City Council seat and won.

Masters Barry: That night, when we got ready to go down the street to have his victory speech, took us 30 minutes to go a block and a half between our apartment and the auditorium because people came from everywhere.

Marion Barry has made a political comeback.

Sherwood: He ran, and he won, and he was back in office.

And as soon as he won in 1992, we didn't have a doubt in the world that he would run for mayor again in 1994.

Barry's back!

Barry's back!

Barry's back!

[Crowd cheering] Narrator: As Marion Barry embarked on his campaign for an unprecedented fourth term in office, he faced a city sharply divided along racial lines.

I don't think you want to come over here.

Barry: Now you're going to be a Christian.

Now, you're not going to be nasty.

I know that.

I can tell by your face you're not going to be un-Christian and nasty.

I can look at you and tell you that.

It's not even worth talking to me.

Well, we're going to win.

Michael Jackson: ♪ ...like heaven, so why did it end?

♪ Man: Marion Barry is nothing but the truth.

Marion Barry is one and the only.

He have found himself.

God...and him have found each other.

Narrator: Reflecting on his time in prison, Barry preached a narrative of personal redemption.

Barry: You can slip without falling, you can bend without breaking, so whatever your circumstances, you can come out of it.

Masters Barry: Well, Marion was the most courageous person I've ever known in my life.

His ability to fall down and get all the way back up is not normal.

For most human beings, if they had had that kind of an incident, they would have gone off into the sunset and just tried to survive, but he came back.

Barry: How sweet the sound!

Narrator: On November 8, 1994, Barry's redemption was complete.

Barry: I once was lost... Man: Yes, sir!

but now I'm found!

Yeah!

Was blind... Yeah!

but now I see.

Yes, sir!

Woman: ♪ I believe in myself 'cause I know... ♪ Mr. Barry, are you ready to take the oath-- I am.

to become mayor of the District of-- [Laughter] Muse: The most unbelievable and most unexpected political comeback of the city's history.

Woman: ♪ If you believe, believe in... ♪ Ferrando: To see somebody, somebody who's such a hometown hero that had done so well for himself and then taken such a hard fall and gotten busted in such a blatant way, no chance of ever making it back, and then won the next-- he was only out for one term-- it was amazing.

Narrator: Many Washingtonians understood his appeal.

Sherwood: When people who attacked him, somebody from outside the city, they didn't depend on the feeding programs and the senior citizen homes that he started, they didn't depend on sending their kids to summer jobs programs.

To this day, people, you know, love and adore Marion Barry for what he did for the community.

And in particular, of course, it was chocolate city at that time, it was the black community.

TLC: ♪ Please stick to the rivers ♪ And the lakes that you're used to... ♪ Bardley: For a lot of people who felt marginalized and unheard, we were really resentful.

You have this person we felt that represented us and our concerns.

So when he was up for re-election, there was no doubt that there was going to be a reaction and that he would be re-elected.

Narrator: But Barry's triumph would prove short-lived.

[R.E.M.

's "Everybody Hurts" playing] Years of growing deficits and deteriorating city services reached a crisis point.

Man: I remember driving around the city when I first started as CFO, just saying, "I can't believe the capital of the United States is in this condition.

We can do better than this."

When you think of government at that point in time, just the D.C. bureaucracy was so nightmarish.

Mencimer: I mean, D.C., nothing worked.

The trash wouldn't get picked up, the rats were proliferating.

Sherwood: Many people loved the city.

It was growing up, and more people were coming to town, but overall, the city was dysfunctional.

The Financial Responsibility and Management Assistance Act will speed the District's recovery and return to fiscal health.

Narrator: Only two decades after granting D.C. Home Rule, the federal government took it back, installing a control board to manage Mayor Barry and the City Council.

Sherwood: No one doubted the city was in terrible financial straits, but this was the heavy hand of Congress saying, "You guys have messed up your Home Rule.

We're going to fix it for you."

It was painful for me to watch; that overseer federal government looming over us as if we were irresponsible people.

Everybody loved to hate the Control Board, but thank God for them.

I think there was huge pent-up energy, "the government needs to work for me, work for my family, work for my neighborhood."

Narrator: The reporters at the "Washington City Paper" kept a watchful eye on the ups and downs of local politics.

The nineties were a golden era for the alternative weekly.

Dawson: Everybody read it.

We communicated, you know, we talked about the "City Paper."

We, you know, looked forward, we found out what was happening with the "City Paper": live music, theater, what restaurant just opened.

Narrator: Even the ads were something to look forward to.

Mencimer: The paper was, like, this thick.

We had so many ads, and this was before the Internet destroyed classified advertising.

A short story there was, like, 6,000 words because, you know, we had all these ads, had to fill all the space.

Narrator: People also came to the paper for its journalism.

Sherwood: The "City Paper" does what a local small news organization should do.

It should poke around and look at things that the major newspaper or TV stations either won't do or can't do.

[Dan Wilson's "Closing Time" playing] [Car horn honks] Narrator: The free weekly chronicled the changing cityscape.

Ferrando: There was a lot of people who would not come to 14th Street.

You did have this little theater scene, a few little carry-out restaurants, and that was about it.

Narrator: But, block by block, the city was transforming.

Wilson: ♪ ...into the world ♪ Ferrando: Adams Morgan's shift was really weirdly fast.

It just sort of flipped from being a place where people went, but where you were definitely sort of adventuring into a somewhat dangerous neighborhood to being wall-to-wall restaurants, lots of nightlife.

Narrator: A WETA show from the nineties captured the neighborhood feel.

And we're standing in the middle of Adams Morgan in Washington D.C., site to yuppie restaurants, riots, Ethiopian food, and music in the streets.

Dawson: Georgetown was going out of favor a little bit, and Adams Morgan was becoming the place.

And I think, really, in the nineties, it was that place to go.

Narrator: Other neighborhoods followed.

Construction of Metro's Green Line had ripped apart much of D.C.'s historic U Street.

It was a complete ghost town on U Street for those construction years.

Narrator: When the Green Line finally opened in 1991 and freed the traffic bottleneck, the U Street Corridor sprang to life.

Pratt: How long?

Not long.

At last, the Green Line has arrived.

Woman: ♪ ...the heavens above ♪ Ali: When it re-opened, everything came right back, and the street became vibrant again and people came down again, and it was really pioneered by the young people and the nightclubs' activity.

Narrator: The historic Lincoln Theatre reopened to live performances in 1994.

Reporter: On this opening night, there was talent aplenty, both on stage and in the audience, where Cab Calloway's "Hi De Ho" saluted the theatre he'd helped make famous.

Narrator: Practically overnight, a new scene emerged.

Ali: Republic Gardens, the Black Cat, Club Asylum.

One minute, you have a hip hop crowd coming in because one show let out, or the next minute it'd be a punk rock crowd coming in.

I had never seen Washington with that amount of diversity here on U Street.

Narrator: And the original 9:30 Club on F Street had new competition on 14th Street.

Ferrando: 9:30 Club was in their old location.

They were really small.

They were getting very big shows, so they were packing way too many people into way too small a venue.

It was falling apart.

It smelled bad.

There was rats everywhere.

I mean, really, rats everywhere.

Like, if you played a show there, they would be running along the pipes and trying to steal your pizza.

The old 9:30 had-- it was just magical.

It was funky and small and dark and great.

Of course, the punk scene had grown up there.

Hurwitz: You know, punk rock was not shocking anymore.

Not a lot was shocking anymore.

So now music was sort of turning into bigger business.

So I got a bunch of people from the music scene together, whoever could scrape together a bit of money, and, um... opened Black Cat.

Man: ♪ Nothing sold out... ♪ Hurwitz: The bands that we thought were truly our friends, they went there for a couple more bucks and a little bigger dressing room, and the stage a little bigger.

"Wow, there's a place that's a little nicer.

Uh, see ya."

And the hard lesson there that we had to learn was, as they say, it's show business, not show friends.

And so we got some bands for a few years there that I think would have definitely gone to 9:30 Club, and I don't think Seth was particularly happy about that.

We had to build a better mousetrap.

There was this place called WUST Radio Music Hall.

That was an old gospel radio station, and my partner and I, we had heard about kids doing, like, punk rock shows there.

But we walked in, and the moment we walked in was, "Wow," this is home, this is ours."

[The Smashing Pumpkins' "1979" playing] Narrator: The Smashing Pumpkins inaugurated the new 9:30 Club in January 1996 with two nights of sold-out shows.

Hurwitz: There were so many big shows so fast.

Billy Corgan: ♪ ...up off the street ♪ ♪ You and I should meet ♪ Hurwitz: If you want to credit one person with creating what is now the 9:30 Club, I would credit Dante because he kicked our ass so bad that I resolved to beat him, which is-- you know, as corny as it sounds, that's how the American free enterprise system is supposed to work.

[Collective Soul's "Shine" playing] Narrator: When the Shakespeare Theatre Company moved from Capitol Hill to the abandoned Lansburgh's department store in 1992, it seeded downtown's revitalization.

But by mid-decade, much of Washington's downtown remained empty.

Hurwitz: It was still a Wild West down there in the old days; people offering to watch your car for a nominal fee, help you park, even though you knew how to park perfectly well.

There was certainly nothing to do, to eat before or afterwards.

I mean, it's amazing when you explain that to somebody today.

Narrator: In 1995, the city broke ground on the MCI Center.

Collective Soul: ♪ ...heaven, let your light shine down ♪ Williams: A lot of that happening was Marion Barry.

Most developers would tell you this about Marion Barry: when he put his mind on something, it would happen.

Masters Barry: Marion Barry knew how to do business.

If you stop and you look at the MCI Arena or you go to the waterfront in Georgetown, all that's Marion Barry.

He was able to work with developers.

Sherwood: That was the appeal of Barry.

He very popularly would say, "I'm both good in the streets and the suites."

Narrator: The other man behind the new arena--Abe Pollin.

Leonsis: Where Mr. Pollin was a visionary and a genius was from saying, "I will move the arena "from the less expensive land "out in Maryland to an area of the city," that when people first heard where the arena was going to go, said, "This won't work."

Dawson: His devotion to the city and his commitment to building that building and to taking on a big financial burden to do it was impressive.

He was a local guy.

He made his money in D.C., and he was committed to making something big happen.

Narrator: The arena threw open its gates on December 2, 1997.

Reporter: The newly christened "Fun Street" lived up to its name as hundreds lined the block in front of the MCI Center to watch as a fife-and-drum band led the opening-day parade.

It's a fantastic day, a fantastic day.

I think I'm floating around, but, I mean, after 5 years of hoping and planning and overcoming frustration and whatever, and to see it come to fruition, it's just--just a day of joy, really.

Narrator: The arena, affectionately nicknamed "The Phone Booth," transformed its surroundings almost overnight.

Dawson: All of a sudden, it was green light, go for opening restaurants and night spots, and it radiated out across that part of D.C. instantly.

Walking up and down 7th Street at night with bright lights on and crowds of people who were happy to be there was a new experience.

Narrator: Professional basketball and hockey came to downtown.

Leonsis: One of the things that earmarks a great community is sports teams.

[Sports announcer speaking indistinctly] Narrator: The Washington Capitals made the 1998 Stanley Cup Finals.

Later that year, the Washington Mystics tipped off for the first time, and the Washington Bullets arrived in town, sporting a new name on their jerseys.

Sherwood: Abe Pollin thought that Bullets had lost its image as something fast and powerful to something that represented the crime and the shootings of young black men and other people, so he had this contest, and there was just-- horrific names were proposed.

Narrator: From a list of 5 finalists, including the Sea Dogs, Abe Pollin announced a winner.

Pollin: Well, this is it, this is it.

As all of you-- [microphone feedback] as all of you--I'm sure you're extremely excited about the fact that we have this new logo: the Wizards.

Sherwood: I didn't like the name.

I thought it was kind of silly, the little wizard costume and all that stuff.

Mencimer: I actually still think Abe Pollin is D.C.'s greatest sports team owner ever.

When he decided to change the name of the team because of-- in recognition of the violence in the city, I thought that was a stand-up thing to do.

Dawson: It was better than the Sea Dogs, but I thought that was an overreaction.

There was a great history with the Bullets and, you know, there still is.

You see retro Bullets jerseys around all the time, so change it back.

Narrator: As the Wizards and Capitals arrived in Washington, the Redskins left for the suburbs.

The Skins played and won their last game in RFK Stadium against the Dallas Cowboys on December 22, 1996.

Being at RFK Stadium was just one of the most exciting things you could do.

Going to RFK, you know, was epic.

During those glory years in the early nineties, it was incredible.

You'd have a surgeon sitting next to a plumber sitting next to a ditch digger, and they all just had the best time.

RFK is your old country gymnasium, you know, where everybody is packed in.

The crowd is screaming, there is no out-of-bounds room.

You had the bouncing stands.

It's such a special, historic building that brought a lot of smiles to a lot of people.

Narrator: When the Skins left RFK, nothing seemed quite the same.

Dawson: It felt as if football left the city.

It felt as if the Redskins were not that Washington D.C. team that they had been when they left RFK.

Green: How can you christen this new place?

How will you establish the old into the new?

One of the ways you do that is by winning, and that's been a problem.

[Oasis's "Don't Look Back in Anger" playing] Narrator: Following the Super Bowl victory, the team began a steady decline.

Dawson: We also didn't know that that was the swan song, that that was the end of the good times.

I mean, my kids are fully grown, and they don't care anything about the Redskins 'cause they've never seen 'em win.

Narrator: Coach Joe Gibbs retired at the end of the 1992 season.

I have one son that's playing... playing on the West Coast.

I've seen him play two games... and that bothers me.

I want to go and see him play.

I want to sit in the stands and just be a dad.

Jacoby: I think Joe meant a lot to a lot of those guys.

He had the passion to care about each one, each individual.

Narrator: The Redskins' larger-than-life owner, Jack Kent Cooke, passed away in 1997.

Noel Gallagher: ♪ You ain't ever gonna burn my heart out ♪ Narrator: Two years later, the team had a new owner.

One moment seemed a metaphor for the team's struggles.

Dawson: You know, you got this young quarterback, Gus Frerotte, and he scores a touchdown.

You know he's excited, he's energetic, he's done something great.

Dawson: And he runs up to the concrete wall and gives himself a concussion.

Green: Unfortunately, the cushion wasn't as cushiony as you would think, and guess what, there's a cement wall behind it.

I can see this as I'm thinking about it and-- Gus, I love you man.

Dawson: He head-butted the wall, which is just-- you know, kids, do not do this at home.

Narrator: Despite the Redskins' departure, there were still plenty of reasons to go to RFK.

In 1994, World Cup matches had given many Washingtonians their first glimpse of elite soccer.

Capitalizing on the excitement, Major League Soccer arrived in 1996.

D.C. United won the MLS Cup their first year of play... and again in 1997... and again in 1999.

♪ Whoa, I've had it up to here ♪ Narrator: Then there was the music.

By 1992, the HFStival, the station's day-long celebration of alternative rock, had outgrown its humble origins at Lake Fairfax Park in Reston.

Weasel: You know, where were we going to go?

Where was there a space to accommodate 30,000 and growing if we started doing 40,000 or 50,000?

Some people suggested RFK Stadium.

After a, you know, a period of debate, we reluctantly said, "Well, let's try it."

Both: They're the Presidents of the United States of America.

♪ She's lump, she's lump, she's in my head ♪ ♪ She's lump, she's lump... ♪ Narrator: Dave Grohl's new band, Foo Fighters, headlined in 1996.

Grohl: I am living my rock 'n' roll dream.

Narrator: The festival became a family affair.

Weasel: You would think that a big rock festival-- most parents would be very apprehensive about sending their 13-, 14-, 15-year-old kids to a huge rock festival.

Somebody's dad in the neighborhood would buy a block of 20 tickets and take--escort all the neighborhood kids to this festival.

And, you know, to this day, I hear so many people who said, "That was my first concert."

For a whole generation that went through adolescence in the nineties, it was their rite of passage, it was their first recollections of rock 'n' roll.

[Modem chirping] Computer voice: Welcome.

You've got mail.

Narrator: In 1990, few had even heard of the Internet.

Well, the Internet really was invented here in D.C.

I have to remind my friends in Silicon Valley that Silicon Valley wouldn't exist but for D.C. because the government of half a century ago funded the basic research that created the Internet.

Roberts: In Washington, nobody had heard of it except the Defense Department, and I don't think they wanted the rest of us to know.

Narrator: A Washington-area start-up changed everything.

Case: In 1992, we took the company public.

It was the first Internet company to go public.

Back then, we had something like $30 million of revenue, less than 200,000 customers.

Narrator: By 1997, it seemed like everyone had popped the AOL disc into their computer.

Weasel: Remember those CDs that we used to get in the mail, like, every other week?

I remember my nephew signing me up for AOL and sitting me down at the computer and picking my password.

It was mom123.

I had, I think, weasel991@aol.

And we would encourage people to basically email us your request.

I still have my AOL account.

I never closed it.

Narrator: It took Washington a while to adjust to the brave new world.

Case: Probably wasn't till the mid-nineties where people finally started taking us seriously.

Jamiroquai: ♪ ...a man can eat at all... ♪ Case: We went from a company that nobody knew about or cared about to a company that people were paying attention to.

Roberts: The idea that a whole new industry would come to the Washington area and create a whole dynamic, interesting group of people who would move here for some reason other than government was a new thing.

And that really did start with AOL.

Narrator: In 1998, Washington experienced its first Internet-age scandal.

I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky.

OK, you guys, we're not coming back.

Move back.

Muse: Every morning we got up, and the first thing we did was check to see what developed overnight.

Narrator: The press was staked out 24/7...

Thank you.

clamoring for the latest gossip.

Anchor: ...with the former White House intern, Monica Lewinsky.

Anchor 2: Lewinsky has indicated she will accuse Mr. Clinton... OK, so you think you've heard all there is to hear about former intern Monica Lewinsky and the White House under fire.

Well, not so fast.

The weekly "Washington City Paper" found a reporter on its own staff, Jake Tapper, who actually had a date with her.

Narrator: The "City Paper's" eye-catching tabloid cover mocked the national media's obsession with Monica Lewinsky's personal life.

Mitchell: Jake, as the guy who went out to dinner with Monica Lewinsky, you think she is being treated unfairly by the media, and you think she's a very nice person, right?

You know, Linda Tripp dropped a dime on her, so proving herself the worst friend in Washington history, which is saying something, but, I mean, I think the point is that this is just a sweet young girl who didn't deserve to have her life destroyed the way we've all done it.

[Spandau Ballet's "True" playing] Narrator: In 1998, Mayor Barry announced he would not seek a fifth term.

It's a decision that had to be weighed against a backdrop of personal and professional successes and failures, against the backdrops of ups and downs, against the backdrop of a city that has gained a great deal, but has lost some degree of democracy.

Narrator: The announcement closed the book on one of the most memorable chapters in Washington history.

Masters Barry: He didn't care who you were.

He didn't care how poor you were.

He didn't care how uneducated you were.

He just cared about people.

...so help me God.

You're in.

[Cheering and applause] Sherwood: For people who want to see the good in Barry, it's there to be seen.

For those who see a wasted life, that's there, also.

So whether he's mayor for life in the minds of voters, he put a stamp on the city like no other politician since Boss Shepherd.

Narrator: Many seasoned politicians jumped into the race to replace Barry, but it was the city's low-key CFO who emerged as the frontrunner.

Reporter: Anthony Williams was greeted tonight by people he hardly knew, but a group he will owe forever if he is elected mayor.

This is the "Draft Anthony Williams" committee, and tonight their candidate appeared at a Southeast church to accept their request that he run for D.C. mayor.

This was a real "Draft Tony Williams" movement.

He didn't want to run, he'd said he probably wouldn't run when they started organizing for him, and he only agreed to run a couple weeks before they took out petitions to put his name on the ballot.

He was quirky.

He wasn't unfriendly, he was just quirky.

Anthony Williams was, like, a bean counter, you know, wore a little bow tie and everything.

Tony was just a big old nerd.

He was, you know-- I saw him not long ago.

We were at a dinner together sitting at the same table, and he was laughing and talking to people.

And I was like, "Who are you and what did you do with Tony?"

I understood the policies, I understood the government.

It was a matter of learning the politics.

And I think that is what this group represents, taking back this city, bringing it all the way home.

Williams: All of this started out with just a vision that the government could work for people, and the government could be responsible, and D.C. could be respected.

Narrator: In a city hungry for change, Williams cruised to victory.

Throughout the decade, gentrification had been inching block by block across the city.

But with Williams as mayor, it picked up pace.

He's the reason the cranes popped up, property values began to climb, neighborhoods began to stabilize.

Marion Barry actually started the downtown development, and then Tony Williams added rocket fuel to it by being a more competent mayor, where there weren't these ups and downs that rocked the city.

Weasel: The city started having this huge renaissance.

It started in the late nineties, when hipsters would start to move out of the suburbs and back into the city.

Williams: The bad part of it is, displacement, where people who were part of the city and had a stake in the city when the city was struggling; now the city's doing well, they are no longer a part of that picture.

Narrator: By the end of the decade, paper trails were now email trails, and old forms of communication were disappearing.

There were new worries as the new millennium approached.

Weasel: We had this irrational fear.

It was like a science fiction movie.

It was Y2K.

Otero: We had a computer lab, and we were so worried that it would just blow up, that something terrible would happen.

Weasel: Every piece of equipment would have this little sticker that said "Y2K-compliant."

And I started having these nightmares.

I actually had this dream one night that somebody had stuck Y2K stickers all over my body, including intimate places, saying, "You're Y2K-compliant."

I was hoping something would happen.

And we were down-- I was talking to people for Channel 4, and we were, "Hey, what's going to-- What's Y2?

What's going to happen?

What's going to happen?"

Well, of course, nothing happened.

There was nothing.

All that build-up for absolutely nothing, and we survived.

[Crowd cheering] Macy Gray: ♪ Games, changes, and fears ♪ ♪ When will they go from here?

♪ ♪ When will they stop?

♪ Narrator: Today, many Washingtonians look back on the nineties with nostalgia.

I miss some of the small-town element of it.

Leonsis: I miss some of the authenticity and the sense of discovery and wonder.

Things were a lot better than they had been.

It was a good decade.

We didn't know where it was going.

You know, we didn't know what this Internet thing was going to do.

We didn't know that D.C. would become this, like, this hot spot.

You got to change, man.

You got to--you got to roll with the changes.

Yeah, the nineties was cool, man.

I'm--I'm glad I made it.

Gray: ♪ My world crumbles when you are not near ♪ ♪ Good-bye and I choke ♪ ♪ I try to walk away and I stumble ♪ ♪ Though I try to hide it, it's clear ♪ ♪ My world crumbles when you are not near ♪ ♪ I may appear to be free ♪ ♪ But I'm just a prisoner ♪ ♪ Of your love ♪ ♪ And I may seem all right and smile...♪ Narrator: For more information about Washington in the nineties, visit weta.org.