Day: January 30, 2006

Washington Examiner: Top News covers the changes in NoMa but all that they are describing seem like areas other than NoMa.
Okay here are a few things that kinda confused me or gave me some pause:

Five years ago, the area around Florida Avenue and North Capitol streets was trash-strewn, crime-infested and rife with abandoned buildings and warehouses.

Um, the area around Florida and North Cap has trash and people hanging out who never get on the bus and I would not exactly say that the intersection is drug-free. Not yet. Maybe they are talking about the intersection of NY & FL?
Then there were the pictures. There was one of U St. Which is not in the NoMa area as I understand the general area that is NoMa. Besides, we call it U St. Then there are the multicolored door apartments at 6th and L. Is that NoMa? I thought the northern border of NoMa was NY Ave, but I haven’t given it much thought. Besides I’m claiming those apartments in the name of Shaw and Mt. Vernon Sq. I just gotta find my flag to plant.
ETC
Speaking of Mt. Vernon Sq….. This Old House has invaded and took over a house. It’s over on the 1100 block of 5th or 6th St. I enjoyed the web cam. Every housing project needs a web cam. But I was thinking I want an alley cam. Watch the coming and going of who is walking through my alley.
ETC2- I just realize that Truxtonian and I wrote about the same article, and I’ve updated my link as the article has moved.

There’s a great article in The Examiner about development along North Capitol Street. The article talks about how the NoMa area (edit: apparently the writer is mistaken about boundaries of “NoMa”) has been blighted for so long but now it appears to have reached a tipping point. A great observation:

“This neighborhood has a new fabric,” said Patterson [VP of Corp Affairs for XM Radio]. “People have stayed here and the new people coming in – you’re seeing a new sense that things are changing. People are picking up trash. There are community watch groups. There is an influx of students at McKinley Tech. These are great things when you can have new schools, new residents and new businesses coming together.”

Though XM has been in the area many times longer than me, I do think it’s getting easier to see what he’s talking about. The changes over the next few years on North Capitol Street are going to be amazing to see.

Finally, I thought this was interesting. Maybe it’s interesting because it’s what I want to hear… so I’m biased, but interesting nonetheless:

“The economic engine in the capital for the past 30 years has been the development of office space, but beginning in 2001, there was a resurgence in the residential markets. Developers now say the city is primed for rebirth in urban retail.”

Hopefully we see this on North Capitol Street shortly, regardless of whether or not it’s properly referred to as “NoMa”.

I know this will sound like a horrible proposal but I hope that there is a large enough consensus in the Truxton and Eckington areas that maybe residents we can pursue it, or at least be open to it, but I really think North Capitol or New York Ave needs a parking garage. Not a surface lot, but a multilevel for profit garage.
Why because we are already complaining about parking and there are future parking headaches around the corner. The current parking pressures come from churches and businesses in the area as well as new residents. There is the big ugliness that is the ATF building coming up and couple that with XM employees driving in from the far reaches of civilization, you have folks parking in the neighborhoods, pissing off residents. I’m thinking of the various proposed businesses for North Capitol and wondering, if these places are successful they may attract people not living in the area who might want to drive here.
Yes, there is the metro station on Florida Ave but not everyone can take the metro. It helps to live near a metro and have decent public transit near one’s house. Yet, if a portion, even a large portion of people are coming to the intersections of Florida Ave and North Capitol or Florida and New York Avenues, there is another portion (large enough to be annoying) who won’t be doing public transit and putting pressure on the residential streets. I know for a fact, XM employees are willing to pay between $10-$20 a day for parking. And who knows the future actions of the ATF people, maybe they’ll park at Union Station, maybe they’ll invade the neighborhoods, who knows.
Anyway, I’m just thinking out loud and thought I’d share.

Saturday morning, when I get the Sunday inserts in the Post I quickly pulled out the parts I read and save the rest for my aunt who want the coupons and sales papers. Anyway I pull out the magazine section and said aloud “Why is Steve on the cover?”
Apparently whenever the Post does a feature on the Washington DC swing dance scene I know at least one person in the photo. Gad, this is a small town. But the Post did me a great service in explaining something about a most wonderful dancer that at first I was too embarrassed to ask about and later didn’t care about. Of course, I kinda miffed, Steve never dipped me.
Later I get an e-mail from an InShaw reader about a Post article regarding 9th Street and the Carter G. Woodson house. Maybe that section of the block might get better now that it is in the hands of the National Park Service. Would be interesting to see how it matches up (or pairs) with the Mary McLeod-Bethune house over on 1318 Vermont Ave, also in Shaw.
Lastly, in Friday’s paper there was an article on the income gap between DC’s upper income and lower income folks. One thing that caught my eye in the article was this:

Lazere cited the city’s statistics showing that most workers in the D.C. Convention Center are not city residents. “Most of these jobs don’t require a college degree, and they are stable, with decent wages,” he said. “We’re spending city resources to create jobs and then not even ensuring they go to D.C. residents who need them.”

Ah the beauty of the DC metro area. Work in one state or district, live in another. Also even if you have rules stating you have to hire District residents, there is no rule I know of that says they have to remain district residents throughout their career.