While we're all mourning the loss of the TIGER II grants, which would have funded transit improvements from Bikeshare to Union Station, today brought something to celebrate in the world of federal largesse as well: A $3 million chunk of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Sustainable Communities funding, awarded to the District's Department [...]
Last week, we started a series of walking tours with folks in the know in their neighborhoods. Who else would be interesting? Let me know.
When Duane Gautier first came to Anacostia from his native New York City, to intern for a congressman in 1961, the neighborhood was thriving: Most every shopfront filled, and owner-occupied.
When he [...]
A couple of months ago, we learned about how a massive tenant purchase in Columbia Heights had slowly fallen victim to city sluggishness and unrealistic expectations. In early June, Mayfair Mansions met a similar fate—it went into foreclosure, putting the tenants essentially back where they started.
We’ll begin at the beginning.
Mayfair Mansions, a 569-unit apartment complex [...]
Near the corner of Sherman Avenue and Girard Street NW, there’s a narrow house with a dilapidated porch and a mailbox with a sign reading “PRAYER BOX.” Every Sunday morning, the interior resounds with a joy that belies the shabby façade.
“We thank you for the future, father!” cries a young man at the front of [...]
Driving up Martin Luther King Avenue in Anacostia, on the left you'll see two once-grand old houses, now derelict and boarded shut.They're known as the "Big K" properties, at 2228-2238 Martin Luther King Avenue SE, recognizable by the large K on the side of Big K Liquors.
Since 2005, their namesake, the Kushner family, has wanted [...]
Cary Silverman has an excellent post this morning investigating the Home Again program, a project that the Department of Housing and Community Development started in 2002 to round up nuisance properties and dispose them to both for-profit and non-profit developers in bundles of five or more at a time. Under the disposition contract, the [...]
The District dispatched with 18 falling-down and unbuilt properties this afternoon, in a brisk auction with a clear takeaway: While investors are willing to pay top dollar for eyesores in good neighborhoods, there’s still little interest in marginal markets on the eastern end of the city.
Case in point: before the auction began at the Washington [...]
Tomorrow, 18 District properties–several in Congress Heights, a few in Columbia Heights, Old City, Deanwood, Barry Farms, and Woodridge–are going on the block as part of the Department of Housing and Development's second-annual property disposition auction at the Washington Convention Center. There are all sorts of rules associated with buying and rehabbing these houses and [...]
After months of drafting, commenting, redrafting, and final production, the Department of Housing and Community Development's Comprehensive Five Year Plan is available for your perusal (a couple days after the promised May 18th date; apparently their web person was away). It's actually a fascinating overview of the District's housing situtation, and all the moving parts [...]
Two District entities will consider action on two different properties in the next couple of days, both significant projects that have flown under the radar for quite a while now.
The first is a DHCD hearing tomorrow on the proposed disposition of a city property at 5734 13th Street NW to the District of Columbia Students [...]
