According to this morning’s Washington Post — and yesterday night’s evening news, even here in Atlanta — rapper Cam’ron was shot in an attempted carjacking at the intersection of New York and New Jersey Avenues, NW.

I know that intersection well. It was roughly 6 blocks from my house, and during the 1.5 years that I commuted from DC out to AOL, I drove through it twice/day.

It is, in fact, my least favorite intersection in the entire DC metro
area.

The first time I was ever rear-ended, it was while stopped at the
red light at that intersection. That wasn’t the rear-ending that
totalled my car; that one happened several months later, in Virginia. Both were
Friday evening rush hour activities though.

When you exit the 3rd St tunnel going North, you come out on New Jersey. One lane is a forced right, one lane is a forced left, the second-left lane used to be a forced left, but now it just ends abruptly as soon as you cross the intersection. And the two medium-right lanes let you go forward on New Jersey Ave.

Of course these are not well marked. The approaching blocks are also pockmarked with potholes, including the strangest recurring one I’ve ever seen. It was roughly 8" x 18", and every few months would get covered over by a piece of metal held in place by tar and asphault. New Jersey Ave would swallow that up over the course of a month or two.

Happily, I was never the victim of an attempted carjacking while stuck there. Of course, I was driving a 1993 Nissan Sentra. And I moved in near the end of 2001.