WASHINGTON -- Ten days before his 2009 inauguration, Barack Obama stopped at Ben's Chili Bowl, a favorite eatery in Washington's U Street corridor, for a beloved chili half-smoke sausage. In 2014, Washington was placed atop Forbes magazine's list of "coolest cities," with nods to its abundant entertainment offerings, free world-class museums, diverse population and youthful inhabitants. Obama's "circle was everything the new DC saw in itself — cool, cosmopolitan, diverse," Michael Schaffer, editor of Washingtonian magazine, told AFP. Nizam Ali, owner of Ben's Chili Bowl, saw Obama work his smooth magic firsthand. "There's a lot of positive momentum in Washington, DC," he says.

Source: The China Post January 20, 2017 18:21 UTC