In light of the increasing prevalence of mixed-use developments with housing or offices on top of retail, now characterizing Safeways from Wheaton to Petworth to Southwest, I hereby re-christen this one-story grocery store on Corcoran Street—in the heart of livable Dupont!—the Stupid Safeway. Originally built in 1942, it’s since been renovated, but never into an appropriately urban form; graceful archways don’t even save the architecture, closed off to the street as they are.

May it serve as a model of what to avoid in the future.