Ten years before Busboys & Poets arrived, but long after Ben’s Chili Bowl starting selling half-smokes, the 1600 block of U Street NW was home to a restaurant supply store, a crappy pizza joint, local dive Stetson’s Famous Bar & Grill, some vacant storefronts, and, across the street, fire and police stations.

Because half the block is dedicated to urban peacekeeping, it seemed destined to be ignored, relegated to the D.C. development dustbin. But entrepreneur David von Storch saw something in the tan brick building at 1612 U, formally known as E.B. Adams Co. and stocked full of cutlery and dining necessities. Von Storch had served hard time on D.C.’s gentrification frontier. In 1987, he helped usher in “the Georgetownization of Adams Morgan”—as one former D.C. Council chair called it—with the opening of the Dakota Nightclub/Montana Café. In the mid-1990s, he was a beer man running Capitol City Brewing Company. But he decided to take a chance on a new hard-knock neighborhood—and, in the roughly 15 years since, the area above and below 14th and U Streets down to Logan Circle has exploded. A surprising amount of that development has come out of his starter building. There are a few key personalities involved—and a few tangled stories between them. But they’re all connected to 1612, a place that’s much more than bricks, mortar, and hard bodies.

Read More “The Story of 1612 U Street, and a Bit Beyond: Four developers and businessmen flow in a tangled orbit around David von Storch’s starter building.” »

Ah, the goodbye blog post. I’ve been dreading it for weeks now. But last Friday, I started logging mental notes. And today, I’ve been plugging away at it in spurts since roughly 11 a.m.

(On that note, thanks Andrew Beaujon for ripping me out of my stream of consciousness moment at exactly 11:08 a.m. with your utterances of “Piece of shit software! Such a piece of shit.” )

As I see it, there are a couple of approaches to this: the (A) self-deprecating–but not really– “let me recount all my mistakes so that you may understand the breadth of my career while still finding me winning” approach; Or (B) perhaps the classic rumination on journalism and city life approach. Or (C) the typical blogger format of  “Hey I’m not blogging here anymore—but catch me over here [click for new blog link]” approach.

But as for (A) and (B), I really haven’t been doing this long enough ( September 2008) for those kind of pronouncements and (C) won’t work either because Housing Complex is staying put.  So maybe we’ll try this:

Read More “Farewell Readers” »

The redevelopment of the Franklin School downtown is starting to feel like a turf war. Every faction has a fair argument to make about why the place should fit their vision:

First, there are the homeless advocates crying “Reopen Franklin Shelter Now.” (That is, in fact, the name of their campaign.) And since the Franklin School was last used as a homeless shelter, and the homeless population has entered a bit of a crisis lately, their claim seems totally fair.

Then there are, of course, the private developers, who the city seems to be targeting in their push to redevelop the school. And since they can bring in the tax dollars and a spending boost to D.C.—and the city already deemed charter schools not economically “viable” for the space—their claim is also legitimate.

But then, there are the school advocates who say “Hello, the Franklin School is a school.” And you can imagine their thrust. The advocates are now a formal group,”The Coalition for Franklin School.” They sent out a press release on Jan. 19 about a proposal sent to the city with some suggestions for the building’s use:

Read More “Coalition Pushes City to Keep Franklin School An Educational Facility” »

Whether you’re planning a weekend tryst, or trying to persuade your parents to check into a hotel instead of crashing in your extra bedroom, Oyster Hotel Reviews is a fun resource to use.  Like a Michelin guide for temporary lodgings, Oyster sends in anonymous reviewers to make judgments according to a defined set of criteria. The website just launched in D.C. The Washington Post recently published a lengthy article about Oyster and other hotel review guides.

Oyster ranked local hotels by “Best Value Hotels” “Best Luxury Hotels” “Best Boutique Hotels” “Best Kid-Friendly Hotels” “Gay-Friendly Hotels” etc. It also apparently prides itself on the number of photos posted with each review. The description of The Jefferson comes complete with 259 photos. The Post story also captured one Oyster reviewer in action:

“We don’t stop at the pearl rating,” said Begeny [the aforementioned reviewer], who had previously worked with the New York Police Department, investigating firearm incidents. “We want to show every cranny. There’s no detail left unnoted, especially the bathroom.”

Read More “Oyster Hotel Reviews Now Available for Washington” »

Earlier this week, I posted a less edited version of this complaint, asking readers how they would handle this situation. Anyway, here’s my advice on the matter:

I’ve lived in a Dupont studio since 2006 because of its location, pet friendliness, affordable rent ($1,000/month with utilities included) and free washer and dryer in the building. I don’t want/can’t afford to move, but the last 10 months have been miserable.

From January through end of March, there was no hot water in the apartment for showering or cooking. After 1.5 months of no response, I reported both of them to the DCRA. Reparative action was taken only in March.

Read More “ASK HOUSING COMPLEX: My Landlord Ignores My Requests for Months—What Do I Do?” »

A familiar, long-running story is back in the news—and that’s definitely a bad thing.

For years, D.C. officials have wanted to build a hotel to support big groups hosting events at the Washington Convention Center. That project—despite the economic downturn—was rejuvenated this summer when Councilmembers Kwame Brown (At-large) and Jack Evans (Ward 2) decided it could wait no longer.*

And so we got our convention center hotel after a new financing deal was inked! Two thousand jobs were on the way! An August 2009 press release from the city stated that “the development team expects to break ground on the hotel project this fall and it is expected to be complete in 2013.”

Yet, fall has come and gone, and I recall no groundbreaking. Instead, D.C. was served with another roadblock, this time in the form of a lawsuit from a competing developer.  The Washington Post covers all the latest twists—”No construction bonds have been issued, and a D.C. Superior Court judge has twice refused to dismiss the case”—in a story published yesterday.

On its face, the lawsuit by Wardman Investor, a company controlled by Chevy Chase-based JBG Companies, is a protest against the bidding process. The city selected Bethesda-based Marriott several years ago to develop the hotel, but when financing grew scarce, increased the public subsidy before the deal was finalized last summer.

Read More “The Convention Center Hotel is Seriously Stalled–Again” »

(1) What Ever Happened to the Skinny House?

(2) Meet Real World DC Cast Member Mike

(3) Big Chair Coffee—Anacostia’s First Stand-Alone Coffee Shop That Anyone Can Remember—Opened Today

(4) Krystal From the Real World DC Discusses Her “Once in a Lifetime Experience”

(5) Meet Real World DC Cast Member Ashley

Image by Darrow Montgomery

I know. I know. You cannot believe it.

For months, we’ve been hearing about how METRO will be upping its fares while decreasing its service hours. But today, the Washington Examiner is reporting a bit of comforting news: If METRO keeps you waiting for too long, you’ll be able to recoup the fare under some circumstances, if a revised policy goes through.

The new policy will be modeled on a program used by Philadelphia’s transportation authority (according to the Examiner piece):

SEPTA service guarantees that its transit trips will arrive within 15 minutes of their scheduled arrival time, offering a free trip when it doesn’t meet the standard. Kissal said the program was expensive for SEPTA in the beginning but now costs little. SEPTA could not provide any estimates of how many free rides it awarded annually.

Read More “Metro Considers New Policy That Will NOT Require You to Pay More Money” »

Okay folks, there’s another Ask Housing Complex coming out in this week’s issue. My response is in final draft form. It will be placed in layout sometime later today most likely. And either Wednesday or Thursday of this week, I’ll post the entire thing here on the blog.

But before that happens, I’d like to know what other people think about this particularly lengthy, exasperating concern. Here’s the gist: A lady living in Dupont decides she’s willing to put up with annoyance after annoyance—and laziness and negligence bordering on abuse from her landlord and manager—because she can’t bear the thought of moving.

How much would you put up with before deciding to move? Would you have split in March? In June? Would you have tolerated all of it? Here’s the complaint:

I’ve lived in a large Dupont basement studio since 2006 because of its location, quiet atmosphere, pet friendliness and affordable rent ($1,000/month utilities included with free washer & dryer in the building. I don’t want/can’t afford to move, but the last 10 months have been miserable.

Read More “Just How Much Crap Should One Renter Be Willing to Tolerate?” »

Last night, with spotlights swooping across the sky, David von Storch—owner of businesses Vida Fitness, Bang Salon, Capitol City Brewing Company and the building at 1612 U Street—debuted the pilot of his reality show at Town Danceboutique near 8th and U Streets NW.

He financed the filming himself and is now marketing it to various TV networks.

“I was looking at my iPhone all night, praying that my agent from L.A. would call with good news, but I can tell you that it is very encouraging that we will be picked up,” von Storch told the packed crowd right before the screening.

Read More “Pilot Premieres for von Storch’s “Complicated Order”” »