I'm not sure where you buy guidebooks on your planet, but may I suggest another publisher? You've been sorely misguided.

College kids fear going out at night?? You've clearly never been to U St., Adams Morgan, Columbia Hieghts, Atlas District, or any of a number of hotspots that are packed with people on the weekday and weekend nights. Sounds like you've been listening to too many suburbanites who "fear" to enter the city themselves, and so know nothing about what goes on beyond the sensationalizing tabloid evening news shows.

I've lived in DC for 13 years, and it's got a lot of the problems that mid-sized urban cities have in this country, no worse - unless you count the fact that we don't have a voting representative in Congress. You are right about one thing, though, the DC you see on TV completely ignores the fact that real people live here, in real neighborhoods, just like everywhere else.