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”.