D.C. Readies to Relocate Some Workers to Anacostia

MARION BARRY is sometimes credited with sparking the revitalization of the area around 14th and U streets NW. It was there during his tenure as mayor when the District government moved many of its agency offices to the Reeves Center, which officials hoped would anchor the area's revitalization. And while the Reeves Center brought jobs to the U Street corridor, some say it's debatable whether the municipal complex sparked the neighborhood's renaissance, which didn't kick into high gear until more than a decade after it opened in 1986.

Now, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty has announced that the city will relocate the Department of Housing and Community Development to a new building in Anacostia at Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Good Hope Road, a facility that the NAACP had at one point considered using as its national headquarters.

As The Post's David Nakamura reports:

The building is within a few blocks of Poplar Point, a 110-acre parcel of parkland that the District is planning to develop into a regional entertainment hub, with housing, offices, shops and, possibly, a soccer stadium for D.C. United.

Will the new municipal jobs be the harbinger of change for Anacostia or just one piece of the larger redevelopment puzzle? It's too early to tell, but as Nakamura reports, Charles Wilson, founder of the Historic Anacostia Block Association, is excited to get some more foot traffic into the neighborhood.

» "The Reeves Center Myth Revisited" [Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space]
» "Agency's Move Seen as One Step in Anacostia's Renewal" [WaPo]

Posted By Michael Grass at 11:34 AM on March 4, 2008 Tagged in Anacostia , D.C. Government , D.C. Politics , Free Ride , Planning , The District , Top Stories

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