Bipeds of Brookland: Alan Meyers

Bipeds of Brookland: Alan Meyers

Alan Meyers met his wife, Allegra, in an improv class in New York City. When she got an internship at the Federal Government, he said, "I’ll move down. So I quit my job in NY and we both moved down here.” That was 11 years ago. They always thought they would move back to New York City where both of their families live in Manhattan. However, after renting apartments in DC and searching for houses for 11 months they bought a home in Brookland.  “We are transplanted New Yorkers that could not be happier and more delighted to be now hopefully permanent DC residents... We were looking every year to move back to NYC and then decided to live in Brookland. We found everything and more [here in DC rather than] moving back to NY for our family, I think that says it all. How happy we are.  Look at everything we have here. It's a blessing.”

Alan works as a financial analyst for the Teamsters which is a Union representing workers mainly in the transportation and distribution industries. He says the most rewarding part of his job is when a company decides to close down a factory and the Teamsters help  convince the company or regulators that it is not in the best interest of the industry. “Saving someone’s job is terrific. Once I was able to work on a campaign when there were two large restaurant supply companies that were trying to merge, and we knew they were going to have a tremendous monopoly. We made a very compelling case to the government who stopped the merger in court. So it was thousands of members’ jobs that we think we saved.”

A few years ago, his daughter got into a charter school they really liked, Creative Minds. When it moved  to its permanent location close to Brookland, Alan and his wife began searching for houses in Brookland. “This neighborhood is fantastic. We’ve actually met our neighbors and have very good relationships with our neighbors, just seeing them on the street. There is a culture that is very different than other neighborhoods we’ve lived in. Everyone’s clearly here and here to stay. What is also surprising is how many of our neighbors are second or third generation Brooklanders. We like it because it’s diverse and we thought that is important for us and for our kids.”

Bipeds of Brookland: A weekly series introducing the people who make Brookland their home, one step at a time.
Article and photo by Tom Sabella.