What's the deal with this site?

It's a common question, but the answer is actually pretty simple. I live just north of the Southeast Freeway, and as it became clear that the neighborhood two blocks to my south was going to undergo a huge transformation, I knew I wanted to document the changes, and have a record of what the area looked like before, during, and after. I took some initial photos in September 2000, but started for real in January 2003, 20 months before it was announced that a new baseball stadium would be plopped down in the neighborhood I was tracking.

Originally the site was just photos and a few links, but as more and more news about the 'hood began to flow, I moved into the information aggregation biz as well. And as the interest in the neighborhood has grown, so has my perfectionist need to make this site as complete as possible, making it the beast you see here today.

This web site is a purely personal undertaking--I don't work for the city, or a developer, or a real estate company, or the Nationals, or a PR firm, or anything. I do work for the Washington Post, but as a computer geek, not as a reporter or editor.

In May 2007, the Post's District Extra section began publishing excerpts from this blog, as a column called "Ballpark and Beyond." But the Post doesn't exert any editorial control over this site--it's still completely my own obsession.

So, if you're out and about in Near Southeast and you see a goofy lady with red hair that may or may not be real, standing in the street taking pictures, feel free to say hi, because that's me.

Interested in licensing my photos for other uses, or getting prints? Read more.

If you want to get in touch with me, drop me a line.

Press clippings:

I hope you find the site interesting and helpful.

--jd