Embattled developer Omar Karim, in a rare appearance, submitted to journalists' questions today on WAMU's Politics Hour.

Under fire for his ties to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, Karim answered questions from hosts Kojo Nnamdi and Tom Sherwood with thinly veiled outrage. Karim defended his own credentials and the record of his firm, Banneker Ventures, with an emphasis on the "defensive."

At one point, Sherwood asked to what LL's ears seemed to be a legitimate question: Name development projects you began or completed before Fenty became mayor. His initial response: "For you to ask me that is very insulting." He kept up with the bluster until finally naming a completed Silver Spring office project, as well as another project that's yet to move to construction.

Karim went on to deny aspects of a Washington Post story. In particular, megadeveloper R. Donahue Peebles therein accused Karim of approaching him at a 2007 event and telling him that "if I wanted to get to do a development deal with the District of Columbia government under Fenty, I'd have to do business with them and their circle...Essentially, the message was I was going to need him."

Karim denied the encounter ever took place, raised questions about Peebles' historical ties to Mayor Marion Barry, and in fact said he was considering filing a libel suit against Peebles. He went on to equate his ties to the mayor to certain D.C. councilmembers' apparent conflicts of interest.

But Karim made it clear he had another motive for coming on the radio: His own bottom line.

A project he's currently developing is in danger, he said, due to politics. Banneker had been selected by Metro to develop a parcel at 7th Street and Florida Avenue NW into a mixed-use project called "The Jazz @ Florida Avenue." That deal is now in jeopardy, he says, because the Metro board is refusing to extend a deadline to finalize its terms—a deadline that's already been extended twice, not unusual in a historically tight credit market.

He implied that his current notoriety has interfered with the deal, and Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, a member of the Metro board, is behind it. Graham told Washington Business Journal in September: "I know that the developer is dealing with a recovering real estate market, but we either have to move forward now, or take another look at who will do this job."

File photo by Darrow Montgomery

Well, Ben, meet Peter Nickles. He's not so bad at hardball himself.

Yesterday, Nickles filed suit [PDF] against Jacobs and fellow JBG principal Kenneth Finkelstein, plus a trio of corporate entities, alleging that they have illegally interfered in the hotel's construction.

The District is suing "in its common law parens patriae capacity to protect the interests and well-being of the citizens of the District of Columbia." The suit accuses the parties of making "false and frivolous" and "extortionist" challenges to the process in which Marriott was selected to build the hotel in what is termed an "illegal scheme" and a "civil conspiracy."

How's that for hardball?

Two of the issues involve the fates of onetime public schools. For one thing, the council is proposing that the Grimke School, across Vermont Avenue NW from the east entrance of the U Street Metro stop and current home of the Fire and Emergency Medical Services department headquarters, to be reserved for the African-American Civil War Museum. That's a project headed and championed by former Ward 1 Councilmember Frank Smith. The problem, Albert writes, is that several developers have entered into a bidding process on the property, incurring "significant expense" to do so. He asks that the council allow the bidding process to continue.

Another point of contention regards the recently closed Bertie Backus Middle School, on South Dakota Avenue NE close to the Fort Totten Metro station.

Like with Grimke, the deputy mayor's office has started to entertain bids on the property, and, like Grime, the council has its own plans. In a plan championed by Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr., the council proposes handing the school directly to the University of the District of Columbia in order to house its new community college.

However, Albert points out, "since UDC has no approved community college plan, and no resources with which to carry out such a plan, the Backus School Provision effectively requires that the school remain vacant for many
years. Because of this, the school will be a blight on the community and is likely to attract illegal and undesired activity."

"Furthermore," he writes, "the designation of the Backus School as the site for a community college occurred without an opportunity to consider the potential significant, positive impacts that could result from locating the community college in another area of the city, such as a location east of the Anacostia River."

Albert suggests taking the Backus handover out of the budget bill and working out a mutually agreeable plan.

Yesterday, the Washington Post printed some very obvious news to anyone who's been on South Cap. Street in the past year: Nationals Park hasn't sparked much revitalizing in Southwest. The city spent $1 billion in infrastructure upgrades and developers have made huge holes in the ground and left a lot of buildings still vacant.

As the article states, District residents weren't just sold a new stadium paid for with public dollars. No. As an old story noted, they were sold the "Stadium District"–a full-service community of new retail and new museums and new parks. The city hasn't come close to a Stadium District. Last week, Fisher wrote about the missing neighborhood as well.

What spilled forth in Sunday's A1 article was a lot of excuse making on the part of city officials and developers.

My favorite:

"It just so happens that implementation is occurring during the worst economic downturn in recent history. So things are going to struggle a little bit," said Neil O. Albert, the District's deputy mayor for economic development.

Really? This effort had been planned for years–long before the recession and banking collapse. The reasons Nationals Park hasn't revitalized the neighborhood are too numerous. But let me try.

*The city took too long fighting and underestimating the old tenants they had to boot to make way for the stadium. There is still a lot of concern over stadium funding and revenue from the games. Councilmember David Catania has said that the city's financial wiz Natwar Gandhi has been basically wrong on everything concerning stadium-related money. As LL reported (in the above link):

"Catania says he has no faith in the latest ballpark numbers—an attitude, he says, informed by history. 'Tell me one thing [Gandhi]’s been right on,' he says. 'He’s been wrong on attendance, wrong on revenue, wrong on environmental remediation, wrong on land.'"

*The city and the Nationals spent most of last season fussing with vendors. So while there were plenty of vacant spaces, vendors fought the city and the team over where they can set up shop and how many could set up shop. This fight dragged on and on and only ended up hurting the one group of people who seemed ready and willing to set up shop near the ballpark. The vendor fight went all the way to D.C. Superior Court.

*The stadium's construction hurt a lot of older tenants when it came to higher property taxes, etc. While new buildings went up without tenants, the old ones got squeezed. One new apartment building wasted a lot of goodwill over a battle with its tenants. The fight was over parking spaces in its garage.

*In March 2007, the Lerners completed construction on a building at 20 M Street SE. After two years, they only have one tenant. Long before the economy collapsed, they couldn't fill their own building.

*The Lerners are trying to make Peter Angelos look good. The Nats owners wasted their first season in the new ballpark refusing to pay rent on the ugly thing. Meanwhile, they fielded a crummy team. At a time when people were just starting to talk about this season, the Nats GM Jim Bowden resigned over allegations of skimming from contract bonus of Latin American players.

*Even the Post's critic hated the stadium's look.

*Nationals Park made history as one of the worst attended new stadiums ever.

*The Lerners and private companies built way too many parking lots.

*The city depended on private developers to pay for other projects. When the private development started failing, projects got stalled.

*Last year, I wrote a silly little blog item wondering about how housing prices could be so high just because the homes were located near Nationals Park. I noted that the surrounding area hadn't quite developed:

"The neighborhood surrounding the ballpark hasn’t changed all that much. It’s still mechanic shops and liquor stores. Aside from the ballpark, the new amenities include a Subway sandwich shop, a Starbucks, and a Five Guys. Those things are all great. Who doesn’t want to eat fresh? Who doesn’t like a super strong cup of coffee? Who can’t resist a juicy burger? But still–$579,000 for a town house?"

I was hammered by Matthew Yglesias for being short-sighted. Looks like I turned out to be right. A Five Guys and a Starbucks still doesn't mean economic development. And a future of skyline of yuppie Lofts is not happening in the near future. What scares me is supposed liberals like Yglesias and neighborhood boosters like JDland are really pining for those Lofts.

JDLand has a personal stake in the revitalization of the neighborhood. It drives traffic to her blog. It makes her feel better. Whatever. JDLand's blog is practically an ad for these new Loft and premo apartment towers. I wonder if she's ever noted the displacement of all those low-income tenants from Arthur Capper? I wonder if she cares what happens to the residents of James Creek who live directly across from the stadium?

So far the discussion concerning the ballpark is all about: when are those lofts coming, when will they be filled with tenants? I hope the discussion turns into a broader one that includes not just the new tenants but the displaced tenants as well. And all the ones that feel left behind to deal with all those empty lots.

*photo by Darrow Montgomery.

From the desk of Shaw ANC Commissioner Alex Padro: Shiloh Baptist Church is back to making promises about its vacant properties stinking up around the Convention Center and its surrounding blocks. The church has announced "that they will present their current plans for all the vacant properties," Padro writes in an e-mail, at ANC 2C's meeting today at 6:30 p.m. at the Kennedy Recreation Center (1401 7th Street NW).

Before anyone gets their hopes up, the church has a long history of making promises and community presentations about its vacants. The promises have been going on for years. At different points, church leaders formed a community development corporation to deal with the properties. Among its proposals: a skyway connecting some of its buildings. Can anyone imagine a skyway on 9th Street?

In recent years, the city condemned the church's properties. While its properties grew boards, the church got busy protesting at least one Shaw restaurant's application for a liquor license. Someone even started a blog about the church's issues. And many of its most senior members within the church leadership waged a campaign to oust its pastor over allegations of financial mismanagement. The lawsuit dragged on and on. The band of plaintiffs suggested that the church was using petty legal maneuvers to bankrupt their efforts at exposing the church's allegedly crooked books. I'm not sure where the lawsuit stands now.

Padro is not so optimistic about tonight's presentation. He writes:

"It is important to note that Shiloh's pastor, Rev. Wallace Charles Smith, at last night's Convention Center Community Association meeting, stated that financing was not yet in place for the renovation and new construction at 1531-33 9th Street, NW, much less for the more ambitious redevelopment of the church's buildings on the west side of the 1500 block of 9th Street, which include ground floor retail as well as affordable housing.  Specifically, the project for the buildings north of the Henry C. Gregory, III Family Life Center will not move forward without District of Columbia subsidies, which Smith said were not presently forthcoming.

This community has seen a number of renderings for proposed redevelopment of Shiloh's buildings along Woodson Row over the past decade, and perhaps even before.  It seems unlikely that these latest plans will move forward anytime soon.  But the plans for 1531-33 9th Street, NW are moving to the Historic Preservation Review Board this month, and with minor modifications, should receive approval.  If Shiloh is able to complete this project, it would certainly be a demonstration of good faith on Shiloh's part after so many years of lack of progress."

*photo by DCist.

Bloomingdale (for now) has an update on the debate over the streetscape proposal around the Howard Theater.

The 42 reports that Park Road between 16th and Mount Pleasant Streets is getting its sidewalks back: "And they are much wider now than before. I'd say a good two feet wider. That formerly narrow stretch of sidewalk is much trafficked and was due for an upgrade any year now. Enjoy it."

D.C. Foodies tries out pulled pork from their slow cooker.

Frozen Tropics has a hot environmental tip: "Is this Washington, DC AAMCO station (1001 Bladensburg Rd NE) dumping transmission fluid down the sewer? At the least, it's spilled all over the ground. The fluid is still on the sidewalk..." The post includes pictures.

Our own Black Plastic Bag reports that Frodus is getting back together! The band is playing a show at Murky Coffee on Wednesday.

For the last two days, I've had the pleasure of driving around Ward 7—specifically in and out of the Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue NE corridor.

I had spent a ton of time there four years ago for a story about a father who got burned out of his house after he started fighting the local hoodlums. The hoodlums had great nicknames and a terrible alibi. The father had amazing kids, an antique shop on 14th Street NW (that's no more), and a failed dream to turn that home into a real home (it had a pool in the backyard).

Without a huge investment in development, it was interesting to see what has survived, what is boarded up, and what has overcome serious obstacles.

That particular pocket has a lot going for it–great access to transportation with a Metro stop nearby and of course, 295. It also has good green space including one well-kept park and a creek that runs behind Gault Place NE.

The Wendy's is gone. The liquor store just off Hayes is gone. The key shop appears dead. The Dean Ave Cleaners is still around. I didn't see Wiggles or Baldy or Beaver.

Their perch has grown boards like so many other properties.

My story took place along the 4400 block of Gault. The apartment building that was boarded up four years ago is still a shell. In fact, most if not all the boarded up places I saw then are still vacant.

The only change: the burned-out house is now occupied. There's a vintage Volvo in the driveway.

DCmud reports that an Adams Morgan mixed-use development project has hit a roadblock—the tanking economy. The new residential has been nixed. The Popeyes has beaten death.

Borderstan warns 'Beware Roof Top Burglars in Borderstan." In other Borderstan news, the Borderstan name suddenly has some respectable converts in the media.

Free In DC highlights a show this Wednesday: "Community Sing with Ysaye Barnwell of Sweet Honey in the Rock will be this WED, Dec 17th at 7:00pm at the Levine School Campus at 2801 Upton St, NW. This is a wonderful opportunity to see, hear and sing along with Ysaye and the others in attendance. All are welcome, no musical training required." Sounds like there is gonna be some audience participation. Yikes.

One Photograph A Day posts an awesome photo of a window display featuring Obama, some bikini-clad ladies, and the Virgin Mary.

Congress Heights On The Rise has the details on tonight's Ward 8 Holiday Party. Hot and cold refreshments will be served.

The Vinyl District is posting MP3s of some great Beatles Christmas Fanclub records.

*photo courtesy of One Photograph a Day.

Prince of Petworth spotted some more storefront closings in Columbia Heights: Carvel and Cinnabon have closed. The two shops were located in the Tivoli. Isn't that now three storefronts that have failed in the renovated theater space?

Is Target to blame? Or is this simply that both shops were just sucky? They always seemed to have long lines but maybe this was because the service wasn't all that great. Is the great Columbia Heights renaissance over?

I feel foolish for even posing that question. I'm sure it isn't.