Kesley Gardens

Today must be quote other people’s blogs day….
anyway over at ANC2C02 there is a post on how Kesley is to look in 2010 after being bulldozed and rebuilt. 2010… that’s 3 years.
I’m a little down on that prediction because, it’s not that I don’t want to see a change there, it’s just that at the place where they pay me, I’ve been working with files covering development in the city and it seems that large things take forever to get built, if they do. Looking at the pictures it sort of looks like a zoning variance may be requested because of the height. Joe Mamo (Mammo? Mambo?) over on Florida and North Cap has been trying to get that for a good while now. And there is something about underground parking, which raises questions about how stable are the houses on the other side of the alley when all this earth gets moved. Oh, and then there is the whole construction mess.
On the upside, when this all does get built and the market rate units get filled, there will be people who may be able to support the kind of retail, I and my neighbors would like to see.

You can’t always get whacha wannnahant

…but if you try sometime
you just might find
you get what you need

Richard Layman has a pretty good post over on his blog RPiUS, “Retail you want vs the retail the market can support”. It is something to think about, particularly when we talk improving our commercial strip (N.Cap) options. Richard sorta makes another point in the comments about retail vs office in taxes and leasing and how beauty salons and offices have it easier (in terms of revenue) than retail.
I know what I want, I’m quite sure I won’t really get it, and I’m relatively happy with what I got. I think, I hope we wander in enough to support the Big Bear so that it is worth it as a business venture. There are concerns about the Bloomingdale & TC hoods being able to support both the Bear and Windows, and as much, as much as I would love to have another coffee shop like place pop up in the near vicinity, I don’t know if we could keep it. I eye the slight changes on New Jersey Ave over on the corner of R and in that little strip mall where G&G sits, and wonder what’s that going to be. On the 1500 blk of NJ they’ve removed the signs and whatnot from the old art deco store that did not survive. I don’t know if something is going to go in soon or if they are cleaning it up to make it attractive to potential businesses. A little farther down on R St, the old dry cleaners was getting cleaned out, maybe it’s something, maybe nothing. Whatever goes in, I hope it is something that the area can support and something that would be an asset to the neighborhood.