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Two reminders for your Wednesday planning:
* Onyx (1100 First Street) is having its grand-opening party from 5 to 8 pm, with music, nibbles, and tours.
* And, at 6:30 pm, DDOT is having a Public Meeting on Ward 6 Ballpark District Performance Based Parking Pilot Program, a look at what's worked, what hasn't, and what might change in 2009 with the on-street parking around the ballpark. The meeting is at 6 pm at Friendship Baptist Church, 900 Delaware Ave., SW.
 

Be prepared that on Tuesday (Nov. 18), President Bush will be visiting the US Department of Transporation headquarters on M Street. Given that no parking will be allowed at DOT until noon on Tuesday because of security concerns, be prepared for an onslaught of extra transit passengers at the Navy Yard Metro station and on the bus lines, and extra cars in the daily lots around the neighborhood. No doubt there will also be some traffic disruptions as the president arrives and leaves, too.
 

A bunch of items to start the week with:
* Remember that the west entrance to the Navy Yard Metro station at Half and M is closed every evening this week from 8 pm until closing, thanks to work on 55 M Street.
* On Monday (Nov. 13), the Zoning Commission gave final approval to moving 225 Virginia Avenue into the Capitol South Receiving Zone, which will allow any construction on the block to have greater height and density than the 6.5 FAR/90-ft-height currently allowed. This was approved with two caveats: that there is Zoning Commission review of the design of the portions of a building proposed to rise higher than 90 feet to confirm that the building will be sufficiently setback from the eastern building face, and that any structure will provide a suitable northern focal point for the Canal Blocks Park. Read my entry from the hearing a few weeks ago for more information.
* On Nov. 24 at 2 pm, the city council will be having a hearing about B17-0909, the "Taxation Without Representation Street Renaming Act of 2008," which would "designate the portion of South Capitol Street, SE that intersects with N Street SE and Potomac Avenue SE as 'Taxation Without Representation Street, SE." It just so happens that this is the portion of South Capitol Street that runs alongside Nationals Park, where the council was thwarted in earlier attempts to install an electronic tote board showing the federal taxes that DC residents pay while still having no voting representation in the US Congress.
* Tommy Wells is taking nominations for the Second Annual Livable, Walkable Awards.
* For weeks I've been meaning to post that Nationals Park made the list of Travel and Leisure Magazine's "Must-See Green American Landmarks," thanks to being the first LEED-certified professional sports facility.
 

I have to admit that information fairs aren't quite my gig (especially since I'm immersed in this stuff everyday), but I did wander past today's Anacostia Waterfront Community Information Fair at the ballpark to see what there was to see. I got there pretty early and left pretty early, so didn't see any of the panel discussions (and didn't take any of the bus tours), but if you want to see how they configured the exhibitions within the Stars and Stripes clubs at the ballpark, here's a batch of photos. (And, if you were there, maybe you're in one or two of them!)
I also took a few new photos on First, Third, and New Jersey of 909 New Jersey, Velocity, Onyx, and the Foundry Lofts, which will serve mainly as a reminder of why I don't normally go on photo expeditions on cloudy days. If the weather finally shifts, I expect to be out taking some additional ones on Sunday, especially of 1015 Half, since the first columns are visible above ground-level.
Plus, I felt a burst of inspiration yesterday the likes of which I haven't seen in months, and *finally* created project pages for William C. Smith's 800 New Jersey Avenue development and for the 11th Street Bridges reconstruction. The 800 NJ page has almost no information (since there's so little to be had about the project beyond the basic 1.1-mil-office-residential-retail-and-maybe-Whole-Foods profile); the 11th Street Bridges page is a little better, but still is just a lot of pictures of overpasses and flyovers. Better than nothing in both cases, though!
 

This morning Mayor Fenty held a press conference at Nationals Park with various city officials to highlight tomorrow's Anacostia Waterfront Information Fair, and also talk up the recent progress and near-term next steps for the more than $8 billion worth of economic development, transportation, and infrastructure projects in the pipeline along the Anacostia River (not only in Near Southeast, but from the Southwest Waterfront all the way up past RFK).
Having sworn off taking any more photos of The Mayor at the Microphone (unless he shows up in a Hawaiian shirt and swimtrunks or something), I decided to record the 20-minute event instead, so that the five or six of you interested in hearing the remarks can do so. (It's a 2.6-mb MP3 file; the first few seconds are rough, but then it settles in.)
If you listen, you'll hear how the mayor managed to cajole the notoriously camera-shy Stan Kasten into saying a few words about what's happening along the river and in the neighborhood from the point of view of the area's largest tenant. Deputy Mayor Neil Albert, DDOT Director Frank Seales, Office of Planning head Harriet Tregoning, and the director of the city's Office of the Environment George Hawkins spoke as well. There was some discussion throughout (and especially at the end) about how the slowing economy might be impacting both the city's plans and developers' projects, but the mayor remains optimistic.
The press release from the mayor's office sums up the main points of today's event, but here's the Near Southeast-specific highlights from both the remarks and some other chatter of the day. First up, news of the three big parks:
The city "will break ground at Diamond Teague Park by the end of 2008." (And the guide for tomorrow's fair says that the park will be completed in spring 2009, which is the same date we've been hearing for a while.) The mayor also touted the operating agreement with Forest City Washington to build and maintain the $42 million, 5-acre Park at the Yards (but you knew about this already), as well as the the agreement with the Canal Park Development Corp. to build the $13.1 million, three-block-long park. (No mention of school buses.)
Then there's the bridges: Reconstruction of the 11th Street Bridges is scheduled to begin in mid-2009. (The shortlist of firms vying for the design-build contract was announced a few weeks ago.) Whether we actually see heavy equipment moving in mid-2009, or whether this just marks the first part of the design-build project is not quite clear. I was also told that the contract to demolish the flyover ramps to and from RFK could be completed soon, and that demolition would happen not long after the contract is signed.
Plus, the final Environmental Impact Statement for South Capitol Street and the Douglass Bridge is expected in spring 2009; that's when we'll hear which of the four bridge designs has been chosen.
As for the river itself, the city has started real-time water quality monitoring, updated automatically online 24 hours a day. There's also now the Anacostia 2032 Plan "to make the Anacostia River boatable, swimmable, and fishable in 25 years." And a Green Summer Jobs Corps was created earlier this year to "engage youth in the cleaning and greening of District neighborhoods and parks and to introduce them to green-collar job opportunities."
Finally, a planning process is underway to revamp Boathouse Row, the stretch of boat clubs along the Anacostia between 11th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. (I took a bunch of photos near the boathouses a few months back, and have been lazy about ever getting them posted, though you can see a few boathouse-free shots of the environs here and here.)
There's more about projects elsewhere along the Anacostia, but other bloggers get to cover those. Will update this post if there's any media coverage from today's event, and will have a fresh post on Saturday after the fair. I imagine I'll Twitter a bit from those festivities (like I did from today's); remember that if you aren't a Twitter-er, you can read my tweets on the JDLand homepage--check 'em out frequently, because I do sometimes post news there first, before I write full blog entries.
SATURDAY FAIR UPDATE: They're now going to be providing free shuttle bus service from the New Jersey & M Metro entrance to/from the ballpark, from 12:30 pm to 5:15 pm. (After they heard somewhere that the Half and M subway entrance is going to be closed on Saturday.)
 

Today's print edition of the WashBizJournal has some big retail-related Near Southeast items of interest:
* "The developer of The Yards, the 42-acre Anacostia riverfront project near the Nationals ballpark, is close to landing a jazz club and Dogfish Head Alehouse and may move its local headquarters to the former Navy Yard. The two retail tenants would be the first in the Boilermaker Shops, a three-story industrial building with walls of red brick and plate glass on Tingey Street between Third and Fourth streets SE." (The Boilermaker Shops are scheduled to open in mid-2010, along with the Park at the Yards and the Foundry Lofts.)
* The planned office building at 401 M could become home to Forest City Washington's headquarters; it's the one with the grocery store space in the ground floor. WBJ says Forest City "is 'nearing a deal' with a grocer for 50,000 square feet and an announcement could come in 60 days. He would not reveal the chain, but sources say it is Harris Teeter Inc. which has two D.C. stores and plans a third in Northeast." 401 M is not expected to be constructed before 2011, however.
* Also on the grocery store front, confirmation of the rumor that's been hashed around here lately: "William C. Smith & Co., meanwhile, has been in discussions with Whole Foods Market Inc. about a store in its planned 4-acre development between New Jersey Avenue, H and Second streets, known as Square 737." (See, I tried to tell you folks it wasn't going to be at New Jersey and K; and Jonathan, you're welcome for this tip.)
UPDATE: Finally getting *some* piece of news about 800 New Jersey finally spurred me, after all this time, to create a project page for it. There's no renderings, just a bunch of "before" pictures, but at least it's something. And, since talk of grocery store on this site back in *1999* was one of the first tidbits that led me to start paying attention to the neighborhood, I guess it finally deserves its own page.
 

Now here's some quick-thinking: "With high-end hotels completely booked and District residents renting out their homes to tourists, JPI has joined the inauguration rental frenzy and will rent unleased apartments at two of its recently delivered projects near Nationals Park. The Dallas-based developer will require a three-night minimum stay at the Axiom at Capitol Yard and Jefferson at Capitol Yards. The company did not release pricing information, but said it will offer guests a choice of furnished one or two-bedroom units. They also will receive access to 24-hour concierge service and conference rooms, gym facilities, free wireless Internet access in common areas." (WBJ)
UPDATE: Per Ed's link in the comments, the prices are $750/$1,000 per night for 1 and 2 BR units (with that three night minimum). Here's the Craigslist post.
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More posts: 70/100 I, inauguration09, jpi
 

Nice catch by reader S, who notes that the city's exhortations to arrive at Saturday Nov. 15's Anacostia Waterfront Community Fair at the ballpark via Metro appear to have one small complication:
"The Navy Yard Metrorail station west entrance on the Green Line will be closed for select days this month as a result of safety sensitive construction work directly above the station's entrance. The station's west entrance will be closed on the following dates:
"Saturday, November 15, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
"Monday to Friday, November 17 to 21, 8 p.m. to closing
"Saturday, November 22, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
"Customers who normally use the west entrance will need to use the east entrance located at New Jersey Ave. SE."
UPDATE: They're now going to be providing free shuttle bus service from the New Jersey & M Metro entrance to/from the ballpark, from 12:30 pm to 5:15 pm.
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A reminder that this Saturday (Nov. 15) at Nationals Park is the second Anacostia Waterfront Community Fair, with representatives from not only developers but city agencies manning booths with all sorts of information about all the projects planned along the Anacostia River corridor. It's from 1 pm to 5 pm, and will also have (according to this DDOT press release) "free bus tours to several locations being revitalized on both sides on the waterfront, such as Poplar Point, Waterside (formerly Waterside Mall), Boathouse Row, and Southwest Waterfront." And refreshments, too!
(Let me also just state for the record that I was planning on posting this reminder today, even if I hadn't gotten a robocall just a few minutes ago from Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Neil Albert inviting me to the shindig.)
UPDATE to bump up and also to link to additional information about the activities (including some panel discussions) via Tommy Wells's blog.
 

The folks at Onyx on First apartments are throwing a Grand Opening party on Wednesday, Nov. 19, from 5 to 8 pm, which will include a "special tour," as well as jazz, wine, and hors d'oeuvres. Here's the invitation flyer, along with the information on how to RSVP. (Though I don't imagine they'll lock the door if you try to show up without having called first.)
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More posts: Onyx, Square 743N
 

Just out from DDOT (now online): "The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) will host a quarterly public meeting on the Ward 6 Ballpark District Performance Based Parking Pilot Program on Wednesday, November 19, 2008. The meeting is an opportunity for residents, business owners, churches and other stakeholder groups to provide feedback on the first year of parking operations under the Performance Based Parking Pilot Zone Act of 2008.
"The meeting agenda will include:
"Presentation of the Ward 6 Committee that will assist DDOT in determining how curbside revenue will be allocated.
"Update on multi-space meter revenue collected since the inception of pilot zone.
"Update on Ward 6 Visitor Parking Pass (VPP) program.
"Discussion of potential signage improvements or modifications for 2009.
"Recommendations from community stakeholders for 2009."
It's scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 19, from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at Friendship Baptist Church, 900 Delaware Ave., SW (on the corner of I Street). For more information on the Performance Parking program around the ballpark, check my Stadium Parking page.
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More posts: parking, Nationals Park
 

Readers have reported hearing gunshots around 11:30 pm Sunday. I wrote to the Metropolitan Police Department's 1D mailing list (on Yahoo) and received two replies, first from MPD's Nicholas Gallucci: "An unidentified male fired several shots in the area of half and m street sw. No one was injured and nothing was struck. However, if anyone saw this incident and or has any information regarding the male, please contact the police asap."
Then, 1D Commander David Kamperin added some detail: "We had an individual fire shots at a police officer - the officer took cover. No injuries and the subject is still out and wanted. Anyone with information please call 202-727-9099."
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I've been meaning to do this for months, and this morning the inspiration finally hit. Now you can subscribe to an RSS feed of the blog comments, so that you don't miss an iota of the conversation around these parts.
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Nov 7, 2008 9:59 AM
* The agenda for Monday's ANC 6D meeting has been sent around (not yet posted online). They'll be revisiting the designs for exterior trash enclosures on certain Capitol Quarter townhouses that were discussed and given the thumbs down last month. Other items include the potential modification of the 70 bus route, the franchise agreement between the city and Verizon for FiOS, and street closures for the SunTrust National Marathon on March 21. The meeting is at 7 pm at St. Augustine's church, Sixth and M streets, SW.
* Meeting at the same time on Monday (well, starting at 6:30 pm) will be the DC Zoning Commission, with a vote on the proposal to move 225 Virginia Avenue into the Capitol South Receiving Zone (read about it here).
* The city's Public Space Permit feed is back. Yay! Hopefully the Building Permit feed won't be far behind.
* One thing we've all learned over the years is to not believe anything about the school buses leaving Canal Park until we actually see them all drive away. But I will note that the DC Housing Authority currently has a solicitation out for a contractor to build surface parking lots at DC Village (which is where the buses are relocating to). Bids are due Nov. 18. I'm hearing "mumbleJanuarymumbleFebruarymumble" as a potential timetable for the departure of the buses, but see sentence #1 of this paragraph.
 

Nov 6, 2008 7:04 PM
Some news out of this afternoon's unveiling of the team's 2009 uniforms:
* "Nationals manager Manny Acta and outfielder Lastings Milledge said on Thursday afternoon they would like President-elect Barack Obama to throw out the first pitch at the team's home opener against the Phillies on April 13." (MLB.com)
* "The Nationals also released a preliminary schedule that features six weekday games. They include the April 13 opener against the World Series champion Phillies at 3:05 p.m., 12:35 p.m. starts against Houston on May 5 and Florida on Aug. 7, and three 4:35 p.m. games on the final days of home stands. The team did not play any weekday afternoon games last year, during its inaugural season at Nationals Park, because of worries how traffic and parking would be impacted in the neighborhoods surrounding the stadium. Additionally, the start time for Friday night games has been moved from 7:35 p.m. to 7:05 p.m. Last season, several scheduled Friday fireworks nights were canceled because slow-moving games pushed the Nationals past a curfew team officials had agreed upon with neighborhood leaders." (Examiner)
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Nov 5, 2008 9:15 PM
(Sorry that this is about a week old) From WTOP: "Baseball fans who took free shuttle buses from RFK Stadium to Nationals Park as a way to get to games this past season -- may be out of luck next year. D.C. Councilmember Tommy Wells tells WTOP he is recommending to the Nationals that the shuttles stop running in 2009. 'The buses add a layer of traffic that is not necessary. I would like to see them stop running.' Wells says he has received numerous complaints from residents in Ward 6 about the danger of the buses as they pass through neighborhoods. Some buses also sit and idle in less than desirable locations. Traffic troubles that were predicted around the stadium never really did materialize in the ballpark's first year. Wells thinks that's all the more reason to discontinue the bus service." What do the Nats say? "As of right now, the Nationals have not announced any plans to change the shuttle bus service next season."
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More posts: Nationals Park
 

Nov 5, 2008 1:47 PM
(I'll sneak this in during the post-election hangover, when no one's paying attention) The folks at J-Lab have posted a three-minute video profiling JDLand.com and its obsessive-compulsive creator, as part of their coverage of the 2008 Knight-Batten Awards. They did a very nice job of encapsulating my torrent of words about the site into a crisp little presentation, so take a peek if you have nothing better to do (here's a direct link if you're not seeing the embedded video):
JDLand.com: 2008 Knight-Batten Awards from J-Lab on Vimeo.
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More posts: JDLand stuff
 

Nov 4, 2008 8:20 AM
Almost nothing from me today--other than to tell you to go and vote, dammit! You can find out what you need to know about many of the citywide races at other sources--the only Near Southeast-only race is for ANC 6D07 commissioner, where incumbent Robert Siegel is running against Geoffrey Kreiss. (I'll link again to this Hill Rag piece that looks at both candidates.) I'll post the winner as soon as I find out, but otherwise I'm buried in my real job and then another event through the end of the week. Next week, life should finally start returning to normal.
UPDATE: A very late night here at work (2:25 am), but at least I can post the final result for ANC 6D07: Bob Siegel retained his seat, 193-77 (with 7 write-ins).
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Nov 2, 2008 6:16 PM
(A little diversion while everyone's waiting for Tuesday.) Those few hardy souls who've scrolled down on my 225 Virginia page may recognize the photo at left, which is a picture of my brother on the swingset in Garfield Park in 1964, with 225 Virginia (then the Washington Star building) at rear, and with the Southeast Freeway under construction. In playing with the family movies this weekend (having gotten them transferred to DV tapes from Super 8 film), I found about a minute of footage from that same day, briefly showing the Star Plant along with the rest of Garfield Park.
This led me to a few other clips I think some DC readers might get a kick out of--they're not of Near Southeast, but various streetscapes and parks pretty close by, on the south side of Capitol Hill. Here's three minutes showing both the 100 block of E Street, SE (where we lived) and Marion Park at Fourth and E in 1966 or 1967. You can clearly make out "Turtle Park" as well as the 1D1 police station at Fifth and E in the background. (It's *possible* that the E Street footage is from the January 1966 blizzard, but the Marion Park footage can't be from that storm, because the little blob in white is me, and I didn't come along until the summer of 1966. And yes, that makes me old.) Also note that at about the one-minute mark you see the original location of Weisfeld's Market at 131 E, before it moved to Fourth and E (and eventually became the Capitol Supreme Market).
Then there's my brother and I running around in Folger Park at Second and D on Easter, 1968. I like this footage because in the background is Brent Elementary at Third and North Carolina under construction, and a beautiful old school building on the same lot that's no longer there.
Finally, there's this clip from Second Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, in 1964, which back then was not the Madison Annex of the Library of Congress but was a wide-open park. This brief pan shows you the block where FedEx and Le Bon Cafe are now, along with the church at Second and C and the townhouses along there, around to the Cannon House Office Building, the Capitol and the Library of Congress. (Sorry the streaming quality isn't better.)
(These aren't *completely* outside of the JDLand mandate. They're befores, after all.)
UPDATE: And, amazingly, in my grandmother's home movies (which I've never seen before today), I found footage from 1969 of my parents playing tennis on the courts just south of the freeway on the west side of South Capitol, at I. A pretty neat (if brief) pan of the Southwest skyline (and the freeway, and the South Capitol ramp) from that spot.
 

Oct 31, 2008 1:15 PM
As I mentioned a few days ago, I was able to snag some time behind the fences at The Yards this week (with permission!!) and took a bunch of pictures. I also took this opportunity to do a bit of cleanup on the many Yards pages on this site, so if you haven't wandered through all of them in a while, I suggest taking the time to do so, keeping an eye out for the ubiquitous icon. Some highlights (click through to the pages for more details on each project):
* I posted a fair number of photos (plus some new renderings) of the Foundry Lofts at Third and Tingey, where the new top two floors are starting to be framed. You can also see how the a portion of the new Water Street just south of the Foundry has been paved, and curbs have been installed; ditto with the new portion of Third Street that will run alongside the building down to the park.
* There aren't really many exciting new photos of the Yards Park yet, but I added in new renderings and also spruced up the page some. The park and the Foundry Lofts apartments (along with the Boilermaker Shop retail pavilion) are expected to deliver in mid-2010.
* I made my first close-up visit to the Factory 202 building at Fifth and M (the old Gun Assembly Building), and got a few new images like the one at right. (Look for the "Pistol Range" photo for added entertainment.) This building is expected to be condos, delivering in 2011.
* I added a lot of new images to the Later Phases page, where you can see a good close-up of the little Building 74 next to Factory 202, which will eventually be townhouses. You'll also see more of the infrastructure work going on, including curb cuts already in place at Fourth and Tingey (even though the southern part of Fourth doesn't exist there yet). There's also a new red brick wall going in along the boundary with the Navy Yard, where a new block of Fifth Street will be built.
* You should also check out my Yards Overview page for the hard-to-read map, to help orient yourself to all the locations.
* Or, if you just want a pile of pictures without the "guided tour," here's all the new photos on one page (which includes images not posted on any of the above pages.) Click the icon to see other photos from the past few years from the same location.
Hopefully that's enough to keep everyone entertained for a while.
 
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