Abandoned part of DC General Hospital
In alley near Potomac Ave Metro Station
Bling Bling. Use HELOC to purchase!
Two rowhouses for sale. In DC.
The house I'm standing next to for rent.
400 block of 15th street NE
Boarded up rowhouse near 16th Street and Rosedale NE.
New rowhouses under construction
649 16th Street NE
647 16th Street NE
621 16th Street NE
Right near the above boarded house
649 16th Street NE
647 16th Street NE
621 16th Street NE
Right near the above boarded house
Posts
bryce,
ReplyDeleteI DO get around DC. I know it inside and out.
David
The old saw was that no one in their right mind should buy anything East of 16th St. NW.
ReplyDeleteThen the area around the Capitol started to gentrify, but there were still too many surprise encounters with drunks and threatening panhandlers, not to mention auto vandalism, etc.
Then Logan Circle started to change, and people started to risk it, but the jury is still out until we see if the city can keep control of crime in the area.
Now there is the U Street corridor, which was the seamiest few blocks of scummy bars and night clubs in town, but now is undergoing redevelopment of one kind or another. If property values are flat for five years will this move stop dead in its tracks as we see the new buildings surrounded by blight?
So what is the new rule for DC, or has the rule really changed?
David, thank you for thinking of me as you moved about in DC proper yesterday.
ReplyDeleteDid you drive or walk? Where are those after dark photos I suggested? Do you feel duly urbanized now that you are back in your suburban apartment? Did you feel fear while in DC and get a rush from it - and now you feel like a bigger person because you weren't hurt?
If you know DC inside and out, take a picture of Crispus Attucks park and post it here.
Why are you obsessed with boarded up windows on buildings that are easily 100 years old? I submit to you that you see only what you want: negative things. You are a negative person, and your world view is negative as a result.
Here is an example: I think the Cadillac billboard is hideous both aestetically and in the sense that "car culture" is too pervasive. You see the same billboard and think "housing bubble!" What's up with that? I see old brick buildings and think "what a great house that is going to make". You see old brick buildings and think "eww, give me a generic suburban home so I don't have to deal with reality" You'd make an awful citizen of modern Rome, or Milan, or Venice, or Paris for that matter; or London, or Madrid, or... you see my point. (lots of "character" in those cities, David. Old, old, old, buildings. I suggest looking into how building lots have been subdivided in Rome over the centuries and reporting back here)
Please, stay out of the nation's capital. It is my hometown and I'm proud of it. It doesn't need you.
Thanks.
bryce
"Near K & 3rd Street SE."
ReplyDeleteThis photo was clearly taken from a car. Get on your feet and walk, or ride a bike if you really want to "know DC inside and out".
Are you familiar with the neighborhood just outside the Marine Barracks? Ever talk to a Marine stationed there? (They hang out in the 'hood when they are off duty, David).
And please, stop driving in DC. We have enough cars with MD plates, thanks.
bryce
From the Friday, May 12, 2006, Washington Business Journal.
ReplyDeleteOf general interest.
Note the McMillan Sand Filtration site doesn't appear to be on the list.
DC Planners Plot Spots For New Homes
by Sean Madigan, Senior Staff Reporter
Ealier this year, a task force estimated DC will need about 55,000 units of new housing within the next 15 years. The city's planning office has issued a report that shows where that housing needs to be built.
The city only has 61 square miles of land and jus 2.2% of it is vacant.
The task force found about 8,900 units of housing already under construction. An additional 5,500 units are planned, while about 13,400 units are just in the concept phase. All told, that's about 28,000 units -- the vast majority of which will be high-rise and mid-rise apartments and condos.
City planners say that the additional units the city needs will most likely be built in neighborhoods that exist only in planning documents, such as the Southwest Waterfront (800 units), the Southeast Federal Center (3,000 units), Hill Eas near RFK Stadium (800 units) and St. Elizabeth's (1,000 units).
Counting projects already in the pipeline and residences that could be built in emerging neighborhoods, planning officials estimate that the District will get 38,000 to 40,000 units. They figure an additional 11,000 could be built on vacant land, leaving the city about 5,000 units short of its 55,000 unit goal.
To address the gap, planning officials suggest developers pack housing around Metro stations. They recommend at least 25 units per acre around high-density stations -- particularly Union Station, Southern Avenue, Capitol Heights and to a lesser deegree, Friendship Heights, Rhode Island Avenue and Tenleytown.
Planners also say that Georgia Avenue NW, H Street NE and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE can handle more housing.
Adding this housing won't be easy. The challenges planners cite include land costs, absorption rates, developer or contractor's building capacity, the city bureaucracy and competition from the suburbs.
Bryce,
ReplyDelete"Did you drive or walk?"
Both.
"Where are those after dark photos I suggested?"
I'll get some. :-)
"Do you feel duly urbanized now that you are back in your suburban apartment?"
I am duly urbanzized. I don't live in an apartment. My suburban local is very urban (more so then many areas of DC proper).
"Did you feel fear while in DC and get a rush from it - and now you feel like a bigger person because you weren't hurt?"
In some crime ridden neighborhoods there is a small amount of mild fear while walking around. It does not make me feel like a bigger person.
"If you know DC inside and out, take a picture of Crispus Attucks park and post it here"
Will do. :-)
"Why are you obsessed with boarded up windows on buildings that are easily 100 years old?"
I find it a waste of valuable resources. They should be rehabbed.
"I submit to you that you see only what you want: negative things. You are a negative person, and your world view is negative as a result"
I am not a negative person. DC is a wonderful place in many ways. :-) Let me list a few things I like about DC:
1) The Metro system
2) The historic architecture
3) The diversity pf people, ideas, etc.
4) DC street grid
5) Monuments
6) 1700 block of church st nw
7) Rock Creek Park
8) The Awakening
9) The incredible views from the ridge east of the river
10)Potomac River
It maybe fair to say that on this blog my negative side comes out more. But in reality I am not a negative person.
"This photo was clearly taken from a car. Get on your feet and walk, or ride a bike if you really want to "know DC inside and out"."
Sometimes, I walk. Sometimes, I drive. I do agree that to true know the city you need to walk as well as drive.
"Are you familiar with the neighborhood just outside the Marine Barracks? Ever talk to a Marine stationed there?"
Yes. Never talked to a Marine there.
"Please, stay out of the nation's capital. It is my hometown and I'm proud of it. It doesn't need you."
No way. I work in DC. I do much soild work to help the residents of DC. You should be proud of DC there is so much to like here.
Fair enough. But you should be fully aware that you come across as being anti-DC a majority of the time on this blog.
ReplyDeleteI suggest that you have a conflict of interest in wanting to see the value of RE decline in a disaterous fashion, while wanting good things to continue to come to DC. Both things cannot happen simultaneously.
A flattening, with a slight dip, of RE values in DC over the next 5-10 years will be a GOOD thing, because it means long term homeowners (read: underprivilidged people) retain their sizable equity gains. (remember, these places cost tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands only 30 years ago, and many of these places have been in the same family for generations) Further, flattening of values is fine with recent buyers who actually WANT to LIVE in the city rather than exploit it by flipping their purchase. Finally, a flattening/slight dip in values is good for the continued renewal taking place all over the city. It means it is sustainable, and makes continued rehabbing an economically feasible proposition.
Are you really not against the economic and cultural rebirth of your nation's capital? You come across that way. Honestly, you do.
But you don't appear to be an anti-dentite. (tip of the hat to Spongeworthy) :-)
bryce
"But you should be fully aware that you come across as being anti-DC a majority of the time on this blog."
ReplyDeleteI wan't aware of that. Thanks for pointing it out. I'll look into it.
"Are you really not against the economic and cultural rebirth of your nation's capital? You come across that way. Honestly, you do."
I am for the rebirth of the city. I also hope their are more afforable housing opportunities in conjuction.
"I suggest that you have a conflict of interest in wanting to see the value of RE decline in a disaterous fashion, while wanting good things to continue to come to DC. Both things cannot happen simultaneously."
I never said I wanted to "see the value of RE decline in a disaterous fashion"
"Bling Bling. Use HELOC to purchase!"
ReplyDeleteThat billboard is right across the street from Arnold & Porter and diagonally across from Hogan & Hartson. Covington, Latham, Baker Botts, Howrey, Kirkland, and Morgan Lewis are all within a stone's throw (as are many other law firms). In other words, the people in that neighborhood can buy that car with cash.
Thanks for taking the time to take these pictures and post them on your site. I live in what some call "near-northeast" Cap Hill, but I don't get the chance to explore the streets as much as I would like. I had no idea new rowhouses were being built in the 1200 block of G st.; I'm going to go check that out. I love this neighborhood and would like to see the great housing stock here continue to get the TLC it needs; there are fewer boarded up buildings than there used to be, but there is still a ways to go before there won't be any.
ReplyDelete"Further, flattening of values is fine with recent buyers who actually WANT to LIVE in the city rather than exploit it by flipping their purchase."
ReplyDeleteToo bad a big share of "recent [DC] buyers" are flippers who never planned on living in those 52,000 condos coming onto the market over the next two years. What investor is "fine" with a depreciating asset? Who watches their profits vanish but is "fine" with it because it's non-"exploit"ative?
Jerkstore
Nice to see some pics of my neighborhood. The bubble is definitely moving east of 16th st. That boarded up piece of crap on the corner of rosedale and 16th is on the market for $250,000! It's been abandoned for a while and looks like it would need a complete gut rehab to make it livable. And while I love my hood, there are still some sketchy characters holding down the blocks along 16th st., making an investment of that kind of money into a ratty shell somewhat risky. and, right across the street there are two completely rehabbed houses for sale (1602 and 1600 rosedale) that are asking for between $250 and $300 I believe. Though 1 block down on 16th and Gales the vacant lot recently sold - my neighbor said the ask was $240K and the seller bought it a year earlier for $99K at a tax sale.
ReplyDeleteThe townhouses you showed along 16th are actually pretty nice and have already sold. On my block alone there are 5 houses under renovation and a permit was just posted on a sixth last week though no work has begun. Also there are roughly a dozen houses by my count either under rehab or completed rehab and now for sale in that square block that runs from 15th to 14th between G and F. absolutely amazing in this market. I guess people are trying to test the bubble.
-shelley
"but if someone really loves DC and wants to see it become a thriving, lively city, they'll need to make it more friendly for middle class families."
ReplyDeleteYeah, right. Every successful city is full of middle class families. Tell you what - you stay in the burbs and leave the cities to people with good jobs and extra money.