(Continued in comments!) A little about DC.... Northwest DC is the nicest quadrant, specifically ALL areas west of Rock Creek Park. If you look at a map, you can see Rock Creek and the big green park area. Almost without exception, this is the safest part of the city. It is very liberal, Democrat, whatever- but serious street crime is pretty much nonexistent. There are few motels in NW I would not recommend or consider dangerous. Upper Georgia Ave, 5500 block and up has a few, but it's still safer than much of the rest of the city.

The New York Ave corridor (US Route 50) has a lot of motels but it is sketchy. Lots of people are permanent residents those motels and probably a lot of the drugs and shit we'd all like to avoid.