Still waiting for the school buses to be removed from the Canal Blocks area. Once they're gone (DC was given 90 days notice about 100 days ago), William C. Smith plans to start clearing the blocks in the spring, with the real construction on the park (including hopefully a "water feature") will begin in the future.

The National Capital Planning Commission has released a preview of a Urban Land Institute Advisory Panel's recommendations for South Capitol Street; the detailed report will be made public at a later date.

DC Builds: The Anacostia Waterfront, an exhibit at the National Building Museum, is running from January 17 to May 23. Read also the piece the exhibit and the project by Post architecture critic Benjamin Forgey.

The Office of Planning has released the completed Anacostia Waterfront Framework Plan, a 20-year blueprint for transforming the areas on both sides of the river, at an estimated cost of at least $8 billion. (12/3 WP article, plus a graphic detailing the plans). See my Other Projects page for more AWI links.

M Street SE, from the waterfront to the Navy Yard, is included in the "high priority corridors" in the DC Metro system's 10-year expansion plan for light rail or bus rapid transit. Two corridors--from the Anacostia Corridor to the Waterfront Metro station, and from the Silver Spring Metro station to Anacostia--would run along M Street. A three-mile demonstration version will be built in Anacostia in 2004.

One of the "landmarks" of the old M Street disappeared at some point in the last month--the boarded up gas station on the northwest corner of 3rd and M. Eventually there will be another office building there (250 M Street), but there's no firm construction date yet ("maybe in 2004", according to a William C. Smith rep). (May 2004 update: fences have gone up around the lot, but not for construction--it's been turned into a parking lot, so it doesn't look like they're planning for development anytime soon.)