100 Bryant St. N.W. in Bloomingdale, which was bid up to
$380,000 in a January Auction.

Back in January, the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) held an auction for some 30 vacant homes and properties around D.C.

Sure, most were slummy—boarded up windows, austere yards, watermarked brick—but buyers recognized the few jewels, and in two cases threw down nearly $400,000.

In total, the properties could have generated up to $4.845 million if all the sales went through. Unfortunately, some didn’t.

Read More “DHCD Lists Four Vacant Properties for Sale” »

MANNA Up: Jim Dickerson and Frank Demarais say the city’s stiffing affordable condo owners.

Tanya Davis spends most of her hours on the couch, watching cable television shows depicting graphic surgeries and other invasive medical procedures.

It’s not that she’s lost her job or depressed. She’s bed-ridden, waiting for her baby—“Ella” is the chosen name—to be born, and the due date is in December.

Pregnant for the first time at 40, Davis’ delivery anxiety is driving her TV habits: She wants to familiarize herself as much as possible with health care jargon and hospital-speak. Fortunately, that particular worry will fade; the real stress point is what happens after the baby comes.

If Davis feels imprisoned in her apartment now, she suspects the sense of entrapment will only grow. These two bedrooms, this living room nook, and this open linoleum kitchen in her condo are sufficient—for the moment. But three years down the road, her toddler will be running around bumping into things, and Davis and her husband might want another child. Then what? Move?

Read More “D.C.’s Designated Affordable Condos Are Great—Just Don’t Move Any Time Soon” »

A number of retail spaces in Columbia Heights have remained empty for a near eternity. That, coupled with the endless road construction and constantly snarled traffic, has seriously hindered the neighborhood from reaching its full potential.

Thankfully, 11th Street is coming along, with the opening of wine bar Room 11, and construction of a small office/retail building up the street. But the area just got another boost (this very morning, actually, according to Prince of Petworth.)

One of its longstanding vacant retail spaces is open for business,  with Tynan Coffee and Tea. It’s on Irving Street, by Five Guys, near the 14th Street intersection—a perfect location for loading up on caffeine before braving the DC USA crowds.

Image by Intangible Arts, Flickr Creative Commons

This graph exhibits the median “Zestimate valuation“—Zillow’s estimated market value of properties—for homes in these neighborhoods in the last five years. The values along the side of the graph–rather squished out right now, despite my best efforts–are $680 K to $380K. Here are the  current vlauations for each neighborhood: Columbia Heights: $ 406,200; Adams Morgan: $ 454,500; U Street: $ 429,300; Mount Pleasant: $ 601,400.

Turns out Central Union Mission will not be developing the land it owns by Georgia Ave. and Newton Place in Park View/Columbia Heights/Petworth. (Note: I’ve had enough of you neighborhood name police! It’s a blurry area! Get over it.)

DCmud reported yesterday that the newly-selected developers for Park Morton will be “absorbing” Central Union Mission’s land into their gigantic $130 million “New Communities” project.

Read More “The Latest News on Central Union Mission” »

I’m trying to be fair and balanced here. I’m really, really trying.

So after weeks of posting about homeless shelter closures and Petworth and Columbia Heights residents rejecting a planned shelter in their neighborhood, I typed up a post entitled “A (Tiny) Bit of Good News for D.C.’s Homeless.”

It was about roughly 15 homeless people moving into new, publicly-funded apartments this month.

Read More “City Chops $20 Million from Homeless Services Budget” »

This story will run in this week’s print edition of the Washington City Paper.

Update: Central Union Mission Still Pursuing the Gales School.

In September, representatives with the Central Union Mission went before community members from Petworth and Columbia Heights to explain plans for a big project on Georgia Avenue NW. The mission wants to launch a development with office space plus 37 units of affordable housing for people making between 50 and 80 percent of the area median income.

“Affordable housing” + community groups = jitters.

A rash of questions emerged about just what Central Union Mission had in mind. “The initial concern was that it was going to be low-income housing, basically,” says Columbia Heights ANC Commissioner Lisa Kralovic about one recent meeting. And that initial concern has some roots in local history.

Read More “Central Union Mission and Georgia Ave.’s Nimby Politics” »

In Columbia Heights, a bench is not just a bench.

For more explanation, see this week’s cover story on the triangular park at 14th and Ogden Streets NW. Artist Sarah Tooley installed a temporary art installation of fully functional benches that helped reveal the history the park, and why benches were previously removed.

Tooley never expected her benches to stay forever–she just thinks the plan for the park’s upcoming renovation is ridiculous: It includes stone stools placed at a liberal distance from each other because benches apparently facilitate drug dealing and people ominously hanging out together.

Read More “Stools: The Most Loathsome Park Seating of All?” »

For this week’s cover story, I stepped a bit outside the bounds of housing and development. But not that far out. The article’s about a tiny triangular park in Columbia Heights: Some people love it–other people see it as a drug dealer hangout that produces more crime, anxiety and heartache than good. Live in many D.C. neighborhoods, and these are the little conflicts that shape whether you enjoy your home, and whether you feel that you belong.  A house, after all, is more than  what’s inside the front door. Here’s the story:

For roughly a year, artist Sarah Tooley had observed people coming and going from the green benches at the tiny triangular park at 14th and Ogden Streets in Columbia Heights. Through her back bedroom window, she watched the rhythms of the neighborhood take form.

The park had no name and no perks: No fountain. No statues. No flowers. Not even any grass, just a brick surface with some weeds poking through. And some drug-dealing Tooley says she was too naive to recognize at first. But at least there was the seating—until one day, even that disappeared.

Read More “In Columbia Heights, a Few Benches Can Cause a Neighborhood Uproar” »

You don’t see something quite like this on every corner. Classic rowhouse: Red brick walls, well-trimmed lawn, deftly maintained shrubbery…and then random wood-shingled window in the middle.
Read More ““Statement Window” at 13th and Irving NW?” »