THE CENTRAL UNION MISSION is facing a logistical quandary. Two years ago, the homeless shelter sold its building at 14th and R streets NW, pictured here, to condo developers and used the $7 million from the sale to purchase a four-story building on redeveloping Georgia Avenue where it would have enough space for 100 beds.
But residents in the Park View, Petworth, Pleasant Plains and Columbia Heights neighborhoods have vowed to stop the move, saying it isn't a good fit for their revitalizing community. While Central Union has not yet decided to turn its back on the Georgia Avenue space — a special zoning hearing has been postponed until fall — The Post's Paul Schwartzman reports that the mission is starting to work with D.C. officials to find a new space downtown, where there is the most need for such a facility. D.C. Council member Jim Graham, who opposes the Georgia Avenue location, tells The Post that there are several possible locations downtown for the shelter, but declined to name them.
The clock is ticking. Central Union has until October 2009 to vacate its 14th Street building.
» "Central Union Mission in Talks For New Site in Downtown D.C." [WaPo]
Photo by Linda Davidson/The Washington Post
FOR THOSE WHO who aren't in a rush to get up or down the long Q Street NW escalators at the Dupont Circle station, the inscription of Walt Whitman's poem "The Wound-Dresser," which was carved into the exit portal's circular walls last year, can offer a momentary poetic escape from the daily commuting grind. On the surface, a poem by Howard University professor E. Ethelbert Miller surrounds a circular bench.
The use of poetry at Dupont Circle and other Metrorail stations — including another Miller poem adjacent to a new sculpture at the Georgia Avenue-Petworth station, pictured here — has attracted a new honor for Metro's Art in Transit program. Last month, D.C. Poet Laureate Dolores Kendrick recognized the program for its creative vision and commitment to poetry.
Over the years and through partnerships with organizations like the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, art installations have been slowly expanding across the rail system.
» "Art in Transit" [WMATA]
Photo courtesy WMATA
D.C. MAYOR ADRIAN FENTY stopped by Looking Glass Lounge on Georgia Avenue on Tuesday to announce that the slowly revitalizing commercial corridor in Petworth is eligible for new tax incentives to encourage neighborhood development as part of D.C.'s Great Streets program.
Petworth is one of six areas in the District that's poised to benefit from $95 million in new special financing. As The Post's David Nakamura writes, the D.C. government "will finance development bonds using tax increment financing, a process by which the debt service is paid off with increased tax revenue that results from the growth of new businesses."
Here's how the money's expected to be parceled out: $10 million for Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE/South Capitol Street; $25 million for H Street NE; $25 million for Seventh Street/Georgia Avenue NW; $10 million for Petworth; $15 million for Minnesota Avenue/Benning Road; and $10 million for Pennsylvania Avenue SE.
Continue Reading "Fenty Announces Tax Incentives for 'Great Streets'" »
ON A RECENT Sunday, Prince of Petworth blogger Dan Silverman, pictured above, sat at the bar of the Looking Glass Lounge (formerly Temperance Hall) with a Boddingtons, talking to bartender Eric Stier. "When Eric is working, the music is fantastic," he said of the bar's Old 97's, Drive-By Truckers, The National, Wilco and Billy Bragg playlist.
Silverman would know. Posts about quality-of-life issues, real estate, neighborhood crime and restaurant and bar news are among his most-read. When it comes to bars and restaurants, Silverman has in his rotation a handful of places that capture the spirit of the neighborhood.
Among his favorites is the Hitching Post. "Now that's a real neighborhood place," he said of the restaurant that has anchored the neighborhood for more than 40 years. With its red vinyl seating and Charles Mingus and Marvin Gaye on the jukebox, the Hitching Post serves up fried chicken, mac 'n'cheese, pork chops and collards.
For a leisurely brunch, Silverman cites W Domku, pictured at right, as his go-to spot. "It's a great place to grab a seat on the couch, talk to people and stay awhile," he said. Gravlax, Swedish waffles, omelets and Norwegian savory crepes are among the selections at this eclectic restaurant that offers free Wi-Fi, as well as live music on Wednesdays and some weekends.
Continue Reading "Petworth's Blog 'Prince' Offers a Filling Tour" »
FIRST, METRO shut down one of the escalator banks at the Georgia Ave.-Petworth station because of construction at the corner of Georgia and New Hampshire avenues to build the Park Place condos. Now, access to the station will be more restricted: The elevator on the western side of Georgia Avenue — which had remained open — is scheduled to close for three months starting Wednesday.
Metro says shuttle buses to the Columbia Heights station will be available every 10 minutes for passengers unable to use the escalators.
» "Georgia Ave-Petworth Metrorail Station Elevator to Be Closed Temporarily" [WMATA]
ROCK CREEK CHURCH ROAD to the east of Petworth is one of the District's more beautiful, but quiet, thoroughfares. On one side are blocks of rowhouses, on the other is the aging fence that rings one of the city's largest open spaces. The Armed Forces Retirement Home sits on a 272-acre site to the north of the Washington Hospital Center and to the west of North Capitol Street — and for the most part, it's closed to the general public.
While some planners dream of creating a "Central Park" for the District — tying together the Armed Forces home property, Fort Totten Park and the McMillan Reservoir and abandoned sand filtration plant — a new draft final master plan for the property released this month calls for the introduction of some mixed-use development to the hilly, shaded space where President Abraham Lincoln escaped the downtown heat in 1862 to pen the Emancipation Proclamation.
Part of the reason: Money. The cash-strapped Armed Forces home sold off 46 acres of its land to the Catholic University of America in 2004 for $22 million — and officials are looking to a similar land sale to ensure its financial survival. Although the home is overseen by the Defense Department, it does not receive taxpayer dollars, just "50-cent-a-week paycheck deductions from enlisted military personnel," The Post's Petula Dvorak reported in 2005.
So, parcels of the home's land are slated for redevelopment. The draft final master plan calls for areas at the edge of the property, along its Park Place border with the Park View neighborhood east of Columbia Heights and its southeastern quadrant, pictured at left, adjacent to the cloverleaf interchange between North Capitol and Irving streets near the Washington Hospital Center and Catholic University.
Continue Reading "Big Plans for D.C.'s Armed Forces Retirement Home" »
IN PETWORTH AND COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, the food and dining options have expanded considerably over the past year or so as redevelopment and neighborhood investment have spread north from the U Street corridor and east from Adams Morgan.
The newest option for Petworth? Nigerian cuisine.
As blogger Prince of Petworth notes, an empty storefront on Shepherd Street NW near Georgia Avenue now boasts sign saying that Lagos Cafe is "Opening Soon." The prospect is exciting news to some commenters on the blog, but others aren't exactly keen on Nigerian cuisine, which includes dishes like amala (a form of ground-up yam), eba (a doughy yam-based dumpling) along with items you might find at other West African and Caribbean restaurants, like fried plantains and fufu (a porridge made from root vegetables, including, you guessed it, yams).
For the yam-phobic, Columbia Heights is just a short walk away. And its restaurant scene is sprouting more mainstream dining options, including the mainstreamiest of them all: Ruby Tuesday.
Continue Reading "An Emerging Columbia Hts.-Petworth Food Split?" »
JUST LIKE THE PRICE OF OIL these days, the price of Petworth real estate is climbing higher and higher.
In October, Express featured the D.C. neighborhood off the Green Line as a Hot Zone neighborhood — to which a commenter at the Prince of Petworth blog responded "and so it begins ..."
Now there's a post on Craigslist for a four-level, seven-bedroom house with an asking price of a cool $900,000. Notes Prince of Petworth: "I can't think of a house around there that could possibly go for 900k, but more power to them if they can get it."
So will we see a million? Even if we do, the neighborhood has a long way to go before it reaches the upper echelon of D.C. real estate.
» "Home Buyer's Guide: The Hot Zones" [Free Ride/Express]
» "Petworth Selected a Hot Zone by Washington Post's Express" [Prince of Petworth]
» "We Have a New Record" [Prince of Petworth]
» "Top Home Sales: Under $3 Million" [D.C. Metrocentric]
Photo by Lawrence Luk for Express
WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? According to detractors, it's the towering house second from left, a telling example of D.C.'s new architecture — and the battle between modern desires and classic architecture.
Generations-old homes are now reaching for the sky and not always in the most eye-pleasing of ways, mixing centuries-old building materials with those seen in brand new places like Ashburn and Kingstowne in the Virginia suburbs.
It's a trend that's generated some grumbling from neighbors. As The Post's Paul Schwartzman reports this morning:
In their search for more space, property owners have forever tacked on additions to the backs of their houses. But now developers and homeowners, yearning for more house and, in some cases, more profit, are building skyward, a direction that preservationists say is threatening the charm of older neighborhoods.The issue has been previously noted by blogger Prince of Petworth, who termed one such roof at New Hampshire Avenue and Upshur Street NW as a "fricking tragedy."District officials don't keep statistics on rooftop additions, or "pop-up" roofs, as they are known. But they estimate that at least 200 have sprouted in recent years as real estate values have soared.
AFTER ANOTHER SERIES of smoky eruptions shut down another batch of Metrorail stations during Monday's evening rush, Metro officials are considering the possibility that the incidents could have been caused intentionally.
"This is not normal," Metro General Manager John Catoe said, according to The Post's Lena H. Sun and Martin Weil. "This is highly, highly irregular."
Report Sun and Weil:
Asked whether he thought the incidents might be intentional, [Catoe] said: "Could it be something else [other than an accident]? Everything now is suspicious."Monday's delays began at around 7 p.m. after several trains lost power between the Pentagon City and Braddock Road stations on the Blue and Yellow lines, according to a Metro press statement. A track fire was reported at the Pentagon City station. A fire was also reported at the U Street-Cardozo station, which shut down both that station and the stop at Columbia Heights from 7:20 p.m. to 8:40 p.m., the statement said.A spokesman for the D.C. fire department said that the department was "very concerned" about the large number of incidents in a brief period and that the department would try to assist Metro in determining whether they were more than accidental.
Shuttle buses ferried passengers between L'Enfant Plaza and Huntington and also between the Georgia Avenue-Petworth and Shaw-Howard University stations.
Continue Reading "Smoke, Fire Cause Another Messy Metro Commute" »
Addison Road