YOU'VE PROBABLY NEVER heard of Frederic Gregory, but he was the first African-American to command a space shuttle mission. Which is pretty awesome. He'll talk about that and his childhood in Anacostia at a lecture tonight.
» Anacostia Community Museum, 1901 Fort Place SE; Tue., July 22, 7 p.m., free; 202-633-4844. (Anacostia)
Photo by Bill Ingalls/Nasa via Getty Images
PICKING A PLACE TO LIVE is hard! Sure, you could think about property value and crime statistics, but wouldn't you rather focus on revolving restaurants and other important things like that when you're thinking about what to look for in your new neighborhood?
1. COLLEGE PARK, MD.
Relive your misspent youth, and your WWII days, just off the Green Line.
You may have gone drinking at the college bars — like the cavernous Town Hall, the dive bar with pinball machines and a colorful, cheap-beer-enjoying clientele — of College Park. The neighborhood combines suburbia with cozy bungalow houses, bikes parked on the porches, all screaming of academia.
You can rent a one-bedroom place starting around $1,050, take the Green Line anywhere you want to go, take in a physics lecture at the University of Maryland, and then play pinball all day and night while swilling affordable suds. Yes, yes, yes — but you can also do something far more exciting in College Park: You can eat at 94th Aero Squadron, a World War II-theme restaurant that sits next to College Park Airport, the country's oldest continuously operated airport. There is weekly hand dancing at the 94th Squadron, too. That's D.C.'s answer to the jitterbug, in case you didn't know.
» 1 br: $1,050-$1,100
» 2 br: $1,300-$1,500
2. DEL RAY, VA.
Serenity off the Yellow and Blue lines
Del Ray is either the calmest or most stressful place on Earth, depending on what you make of the more than of six "relaxation" or "stress-relieving" shops on its small, quaint and entirely charming main street. Massage shops, day spas, a place advertising "authentic" pilates — if you need stress relief, this is your place.
But also, if you need custard, the Dairy Godmother is there to fill that need. Buy cheeses from Cheesetique, local meats (Let's Meat on the Avenue) or hats (try Tops of Old Town). Del Ray also has a number of gift shops, a gallery featuring monthly rotating exhibits of local artists, an upholsterer, a handful of tasty restaurants including the famous St. Elmo's Café and the less famous Al's Steak House ("no cell phones permitted"), a dog bakery and other amenities that make this charming neighborhood a way to live in a great small town right next to a Metro stop.
It also lets you buy comics and exotic plants from one of the greatest shops ever: the Exotic Planterium and Card & Comic Collectorama, a dusty, treasure-filled store whose owner, Dennis E. Webb, grows many of the plants from seed, and collects everything from Sweet Valley High dolls in their original packaging to old Spiderman comics. Webb has operated the shop right on the main drag for 34 years. So, go buy a plant from him. Plants are relaxing, too.
» 1 br: $1,050- $1,350
» 2 BR: $1,500-$2,200
Continue Reading "Renter's Guide: Check Out These Six Hot D.C. 'Hoods" »
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.
Continue Reading "D.C. Readies to Relocate Some Workers to Anacostia" »
HILL EAST. Poplar Point. The Anacostia Riverwalk. The replacements of the 11th Street and Frederick Douglass bridges. If you can't keep all of the various redevelopment projects for the greater Anacostia waterfront area straight, you might want to stop by the upcoming Anacostia Waterfront Community Fair, slated for this weekend.
The gathering, sponsored by the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development and the District Department of Transportation will allow city officials, developers and nonprofit organizations to interact with the public and discuss proposals for the Anacostia waterfront, a part of the city that was long neglected, but is seeing a surge in interest.
The fair will take place Saturday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at St. Coletta of Greater Washington at 19th Street SE and Independence Avenue. It comes as the city is expected to officially pick a developer to transform Poplar Point into a mixed-used destination near the Anacostia neighborhood's historic core.
Continue Reading "Event to Discuss Plans for Anacostia Waterfront" »
Metro to Set Up Special SmarTrip Sales Kiosks
Map It:
Anacostia Ballston Brookland Columbia Heights Minnesota Ave Potomac Ave Silver Spring Union Station
AS METRO GEARS UP to make its fare hikes a reality next month, the transit agency is also working to make it easier to buy one of its rechargeable SmarTrip fare cards.
Bus riders will be especially interested in SmarTrip cards. After the new rates go into effect on Jan. 6, riding the bus will still cost $1.25 if you pay with a card, but fares will rise to $1.35 for those paying in cash.
No surprise, then, that the special kiosks Metro officials are setting up to sell the cards next week will be in rail stations that they say cater to a large number of bus riders. The special sales of SmarTrip cards, which cost $5 to buy, are scheduled from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at these dates and locations, according to a Metro press release:
» Jan. 3 at the Anacostia Metrorail station (near the bus bays)
» Jan. 4 at the Minnesota Avenue station
» Jan. 7 at the Columbia Heights station
» Jan. 8 at the Union Station and Potomac Avenue stations
» Jan. 9 at the Silver Spring and Ballston-MU stations
» Jan. 10 at the Brookland-CUA station
Riders can also pick up SmarTrip cards online, as well as at Metro sales offices, some Giant stores, commuter stores and vending machines at Metrorail stations that have parking facilities, Metro says.
DON'T EXPECT THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY to move from the Navy Security Center near American University across town to the west campus of St. Elizabeths Hospital near Anacostia anytime soon. In the massive $515.7 billion domestic spending bill that passed the House on Monday and the Senate on Tuesday, funding was removed for Homeland Security's new headquarters, as The Post's Mary Beth Sheridan reports.
Rep. David Price, D-N.C., chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee on homeland security, said in a statement that the move came in response to White House budget preferences:
Since the president proposed cutting or eliminating essential homeland security programs for first-responders, transit and rail security, and port security, we made a decision to rearrange the Homeland Security budget so that these important priorities were not shortchanged ... That meant that some of the president's original budget priorities had to get cut, including the St. Elizabeths project.Proponents of the project, including Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., say they hope to find funds elsewhere to preserve the plan. But as of right now, the project is going nowhere fast.
Continue Reading "Funding for DHS HQ at St. Elizabeths Cut" »
AT A GATHERING of city officials, developers and community members in Ward 8 last night, D.C. Council member Marion Barry reiterated his desire to see a soccer stadium built at Poplar Point, a sprawling space on the banks of the Anacostia River opposite the Nationals' new ballpark in Near Southeast. Under two proposals put forward by developers at the meeting, a stadium for D.C. United is in the mix, but only as an optional element, not the centerpiece of the site as had been originally planned before negotiations between the sports team and the city broke down earlier in the year.
As The Post's David Nakamura reports, the four proposals for the site presented to a packed house include everything from a museum complex to a movie multiplex to housing to an amphitheater to a new campus for the University of the District of Columbia. Writes Nakamura:
Each proposal features 4 million to 6 million square feet of development and includes the 70 acres of parkland required by the federal government, which is in the process of transferring control of Poplar Point to the District.The mayor's office hopes to pick a master developer by next month.
» "Visions of Vibrancy" [WaPo]
Photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post
IT TAKES A SOLID BASE of community partners to mount a successful revitalization, whether the subject is a building, a school or a neighborhood. For projects with a larger scope, reaching outside that community isn't a bad idea.
Those hoping to bring about change in historic Anacostia are doing just that: They're looking to the Home and Garden network for some much-needed assistance.
In a partnership with Rebuilding Together, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Natural Resources Defense Council, HGTV has launched a new initiative called Change the World, an effort to promote action through community revitalization partnerships. And Anacostia is in the running to be selected as a featured community.
From HGTV:
While the Anacostia neighborhood is in dire need of extensive rehabilitation, this community revitalization effort would help clean up and maintain Anacostia Park and River, repair elderly housing in the neighborhood and improve a community education center that serves at risk children.The winning community will be announced during the Tournament of Roses Parade on Jan. 1. Whichever spot is picked will join New Orleans as a beneficiary of the first Change the World Week, in which volunteers and organizations will gather to help complete neighborhood projects.
Want to vote for Anacostia? Click vote here. You're allowed to vote once each day until the contest ends on Dec. 21.
» "Vote for Anacostia on HGTV.com!" [And Now, Anacostia]
» "Change the World: Washington, D.C." [HGTV]
IT'S A CONNECTION that seems logical: Drivers traveling south from Capitol Hill should be able to access the northbound Anacostia Freeway via the 11th Street Bridges, just as drivers heading south on the freeway should be able to take the bridges toward Capitol Hill. The problem: Neither of these connections is possible. Yet.
The bridges' limited access, a source of confusion for many a first-time traveler — including, at one point, this very befuddled writer — is the topic of an environmental study by the D.C. Department of Transportation, which is considering constructing new ramps to allow a greater traffic flow, from all directions, onto the bridges.
In fact, according to maps at the study's Web site, it's possible transportation officials could begin using one of the bridges for freeway drivers and the other to serve local traffic.
According to WTOP's Adam Tuss, the project could cost more than $400 million.
The public comment period on the proposal ends on Nov. 20. To add your two cents, visit the project's feedback page.
» 11 Street Bridges EIS [DDOT]
» "DDOT Proposes Linking 11th Street Bridges With I-295" [WTOP]
THE DISTRICT has been trumpeting the early re-opening of the Douglass Bridge over the Anacostia River, which closed July 6 for a major rehabilitation. Among the changes was the elimination of the hulking approach viaduct adjacent to the new Nationals ballpark, which is still under construction.
And we can confirm, via a D.C. traffic camera, that vehicles are flowing in smoothly from the south. From this image, taken about 9:25 a.m., you can see that inbound traffic on South Capitol Street is having no trouble making it to the bridge, despite the absence of lane markings in parts.
» "Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge to Reopen Ahead of Schedule" [DDOT]
Addison Road