(nifty map from UrbanTurf)

Last week, UrbanTurf asked me and a handful of others who make it their business to have opinions about such things where they thought could be the next [insert-your-emerging-neighborhood-of-choice-here]. I went with the counterintuitive Mt. Pleasant, choosing to believe in the power of an existing community underserved by its nearest commercial strip. For the record, though, I also chose Historic Anacostia–or, more specifically, the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Good Hope Road SE–which has a ton of exciting stuff going on, from Big Chair Coffee to Uniontown Bar and Grill to the little galleries springing up left and right.

Does it feel slightly imperialistic to point out the next site for rampant gentrification? Yes. My stomach turned a little. But I think it's also fair to contend that interest from newcomers paired with aggressive preservation of affordable housing and retail options can make for a diverse, vibrant neighborhood.

Which is why I must respectfully disagree with the eminences who chose places like Rosslyn and the Southeast Waterfront as highly desirable places to live, at least in the next five years. It'll take a long time before these overbuilt, inorganic urban wastelands feel like real communities to the degree of some of the other choices, like Brookland and Truxton Circle. But cities are fickle things–it's quite possible that come 2015, I'll be proven all wrong.

Today's Washington Post includes a front page story that takes a sprawling look at stalled development projects across the region. The authors take particular care to focus in on the jumble of projects by the Southeast Waterfront near Nationals Park:

Perhaps no area is more central to the District's long-term ambitions than the streets around Nationals Park. At every opportunity, Fenty talks of a cosmopolitan destination featuring new parks, offices, stylish apartments and restaurants, all of it along the Anacostia River.

Yet, how soon that vision materializes is fraught with uncertainty.

A half-mile from the ballpark, the Corcoran Gallery of Art and developer Monument Realty intended to turn what was once a public school and then a homeless shelter into an art school and apartments. But Monument withdrew in August, as its equity partner, Lehman Brothers, collapsed, leaving Corcoran to find another developer.

Along Half Street SE, the block leading to the stadium's entrance, Monument hung slick black banners promising "a whole new playground" — new apartments, new dining, new hotel rooms and new shopping. Behind the billboards is a crater that is more than half a city block long and three stories deep.

Monument had planned to complete several hundred apartments and a hotel by the end of 2009. But construction crews are working only on an underground parking garage, while the developer searches for financing for the buildings. "Could it be completed by the end of 2010? Yes," said Russell Hines, a Monument executive, while acknowledging that "it could be longer."

Three blocks east on M Street SE, William C. Smith & Co. put up a red, white and blue billboard announcing that an office building, Federal Gateway II, would be completed in 2008. But unable to sign a major tenant, the developer is using the land as a parking lot, a decision that threatens to defer more than just construction on a single street corner.

The project's anticipated tax revenue was slated to help the District finance $24 million worth of sewers and sidewalks nearby, infrastructure needed to serve 500 homes and revive several now-barren blocks once occupied by a public housing complex.

"If the infrastructure isn't there, you can't build the town homes," said Larry Dwyer, the District Housing Authority's projects manager. Crews were to begin excavating for that phase of the development in mid-2009, Dwyer said, but "if this market doesn't correct itself, it could easily be delayed."

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty along with executives of Florida Rock Properties on Monday unveiled plans for more than a million square feet of development at the foot of Nationals Park along the Anacostia River...

As a condition of the zoning approval, Florida Rock agreed to donate $800,000 to the District to help pay for the construction of Diamond Teague Park, which will be built alongside the concrete plant site, providing a green gateway between Nationals Park and the Anacostia River.

Florida Rock’s “Riverfront on the Anacostia” will include about 560,000 square feet of residential and hotel space – with 29,000 square feet reserved for affordable housing. It will also include about 545,000 square feet of commercial office space, at least 80,000 square feet of retail and a large waterfront plaza with a waterfront promenade. Construction could begin as soon as 2011.

Diamond Teague, as it turns out, was a member of the Earth Conservation Corp, a group of D.C. teens that clean the Anacostia River. He was murdered five years ago, when he was 19, according to the press release. WAMU interviewed his mother, who said that former mayor Tony Williams once met her son at an event, and later promised to name something after Diamond after he died. For more on the waterfront plans, check out the developer's renderings here.