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" »
"THIS WAS A NEIGHBORHOOD where we had tried to get McDonald's, and they said they wouldn't consider it. Today, we'd rather not have McDonald's."
— D.C. Council member Jim Graham on how much has changed in Columbia Heights in recent years, as reported by The Post's Paul Schwartzman.» "A Rapid Renaissance in Columbia Heights" [WaPo]Once one of the District's most vibrant commercial areas, riot-scarred 14th Street NW struggled over the years to attract new business. But with this month's opening of the giant D.C. USA complex at 14th and Irving streets NW, anchored by a Target store, the last big piece of the neighborhood's rapid revitalization is coming into place, joining other new businesses, restaurants and luxury condos.
Officials and community leaders will gather in Columbia Heights on Wednesday to open the D.C. USA retail complex.
» EARLIER: "Columbia Heights Awaits Target, New Businesses" [Free Ride/Express]
Photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post
COULD THE CHEVERLY STATION on the Orange Line someday become a cool place? Might there be an interesting bar to check out?
While there aren't current plans to dramatically transform Cheverly, at Thursday's Metro Board of Directors meeting, new rules were adopted on how the transit agency will develop land adjacent to its stations.
As The Post's Eric M. Weiss reports:
Too often in the past, board members said yesterday, land around stations was sold mainly to raise cash. The new rules focus on increasing transit-oriented residential and commercial development to encourage Metro ridership and reduce automobile traffic. The Ballston corridor in Arlington and Columbia Heights and Gallery Place-Chinatown in the District are considered examples of successful transit-oriented development.So who knows, maybe at Branch Avenue station, Metro Place at Town Center will have a Lucky Strike and a Panera Bread nearby! Or not. One step at time.
» "Development Strategy Honed" [WaPo]
EARLIER:
» "You Can Drink Near Van Dorn St., But Not Cheverly" [Free Ride/Express]
» "Metro's Underutilized Resource: Its Real Estate" [Free Ride/Express]
ALTHOUGH DEVELOPERS and officials still have some details to hammer out, the city of Falls Church's downtown is going to get a major facelift. As The Post's Kristen Mack reports, the city council approved plans for a $317 million mixed-use, four-block development early Thursday morning after eight hours of public comments and two days of deliberations.
While the site at Broad and S. Washington streets is mostly made up of parking lots, four small apartment buildings will have to be condemned. In their place, developers from Atlantic Realty envision an eight-story hotel, a Harris Teeter grocery store, a bowling alley and new residential construction, adding a million square feet to the current site.
Critics of the plan contend that the plan isn't all that different from other mixed-use developments in Northern Virginia and doesn't fit well with Falls Church's small-town feel.
Construction could begin this summer.
» "Council Approves Controversial Downtown Revitalization Project" [WaPo]
IF YOU'VE DRIVEN ON ROUTE 7 through the city of Falls Church, you may have been maddened by its slow speed limit and ever-vigilant police force, which makes the trip between Seven Corners and Tysons Corner stretch on for what seems like eternity. Now, officials and planners in Falls Church are concentrating on getting those low-speed passers by to stop. After two public hearings slated for this week, the city council will vote on a grand plan to remake its downtown.
As The Post's Kristen Mack reports:
If approved, the $317 million project would be the biggest thing to happen to Falls Church since Metro extended the Orange Line there in 1986. In addition to attracting shoppers and diners from across the region, city officials say, they hope the revival of the downtown area will bring young professionals, first-time homeowners and empty nesters to buy condominiums, rent townhouses and establish roots in Falls Church.But the plan is not yet firmed up. No hotel has officially committed to the site and Harris Teeter has signed a letter of intent, but not a contract, to open a store at the proposed four-block site at Broad and S. Washington streets.
» "Falls Church Turns to the Future" [WaPo]
Photo by Tracy A. Woodward/The Washington Post
THE FUTURE VIETNAM VETERANS MEMORIAL VISITOR CENTER is on its way to raising the estimated $75 million to $100 million needed for construction.
As The Post's Michael E. Ruane reports, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund announced that Lockheed Martin and Marathon Oil have contributed a combined $1.5 million. So far, the fund has raised $16 million for the effort. Groundbreaking on the facility, which will sit across Henry Bacon Drive opposite the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and between Constitution Avenue and the Lincoln Memorial, is expected in 2010.
The approved design for the 25,000-square-foot facility — which has been criticized as a potential drain on the powerful impact of the Maya Lin-designed memorial wall, pictured at right — has the visitor center sitting largely below ground level, out of view from the surrounding monuments.
» "New Pledges for Vietnam Wall Visitor Center" [WaPo]
EARLIER:
» "Vietnam Wall Visitor Center Approved" [WaPo]
» "Memorial Advocates Are Sold on the Kiosk" [WaPo]
» "An Unwelcome Visitor Center" [NYT]
Photo by Michael Grass/Express
ALTHOUGH THE NEW TARGET retail complex in Columbia Heights comes with a 1,000-space underground parking garage, some residents still fear that precious on-street parking will see a squeeze even tighter than usual when the businesses there open their doors next month.
The D.C. Council is considering a plan for new pilot projects aimed at keeping the parking situation under control despite the arrival of Target, Best Buy and other businesses that are flooding into the neighborhood.
Continue Reading "Columbia Heights Parking Meeting Tonight" »
WHILE THE IDEA to re-route some rush-hour Blue Line trains between the Franconia-Springfield station and the District via the Yellow Line has been stewing in recent years, Metro officials will formally propose such a service pattern at this week's board meeting.
The goal of the re-routing?
To relieve the bottleneck at Rosslyn, where trains on the packed Orange Line merge with those on the Blue Line before heading into their shared tunnel into the District.
As The Post's Get There blog reports today:
While the transit authority staff points out in a report to the board that ridership is growing more quickly at the stations on the eastern side of downtown, this proposal is almost certain to be controversial among riders. The concept has been discussed before as a way of creating more room in the Rosslyn tunnel. It factors into planning for the Metrorail line to Dulles, which would send even more trains through the tunnel.Don't expect the proposal to go into effect in the immediate future. Although the plan will be presented to Metro's Customer Services, Operations and Safety Committee, there won't be a formal board recommendation until June.
» "Blue Line Diversion Proposed" [Get There/WaPo]
» EARLIER: "An Inevitable Metro Marriage: Blue and Yellow?" [Free Ride/Express]
Image courtesy WMATA
PLANS TO CONSOLIDATE the Washington area's military medical facilities were drawn up before the scandal over conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, documented by The Washington Post, forced officials to take a hard look at the kind of care wounded veterans received when they returned to the States.
Accordingly, plans to shift and consolidate Walter Reed's facilities to new hospital centers in Bethesda and Fort Belvoir in Virginia have been upgraded to deal with the realities of a long-term war, as The Post's Steve Vogel reports.
Let's take a look at the new plans, by the numbers ...
» $2 billion: The number of dollars the Defense Department is spending on the new facilities in Bethesda and Fort Belvoir that will replace the current Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the District.
» 71: The percentage increase in cost to that the effort to close Walter Reed and redeploy its services has seen since initial 2005 projections from the Base Realignment and Closure Commission.
» 120: The number of beds at the new Army hospital planned for Fort Belvoir.
Continue Reading "By the Numbers: Walter Reed's Replacements" »
On Alexandria's Wish List: 2 New Metro Stations
Map It:
Braddock Road Eisenhower Avenue King Street Van Dorn Street
METRORAIL RIDERS who head through Alexandria might someday have to stop at two new stations being proposed for the Blue and Yellow lines at Potomac Yard and in the Eisenhower Avenue corridor. The city council has given approval to a plan that would have developers near the proposed sites help finance the construction of the two stations, as the Examiner reported on Monday:
City Council members have instructed staff to add language to Alexandria's draft master transportation plan that would bar the city from approving development ... unless the development clearly contributes to the funding and building of a Metro station.Blue and Yellow Line trains run through stretches of track where stations can be miles apart, as is the case with Eisenhower Avenue, King Street, Braddock Road and Reagan National Airport.
But don't expect stations to materialize in the near term: They cost about $100 million a piece and would take years of planning to make a reality.
Continue Reading "On Alexandria's Wish List: 2 New Metro Stations" »
Addison Road