So I have heard Niketown is opening in Georgetown in August

[Wes_Tiny_Abe_]

I love this thread. And I'm enjoying the show WTA is putting on here -- being more or less a newbie, I'm seeing posts by you for the first time, WTA.

Of course there are a lot of elements here! The time 25 years ago, which you remember so fondly, I was already looking at and mind wandering back to a time 25 years earlier! I was thinking "the '80s have ruined everything." To prefer the time when you were young... it's inescapable.

Someone in this thread mentioned remembering when gas was 99 cents a gallon. I remember when it was 25 cents a gallon! And you got a free carton of cigarettes w/ a fill-up! Then again, I remember one late '60s day in Chicago when I left my apartment, walked halfway up the block, and then headed back home. The air was so polluted that it was near impossible to breathe.

Not all change is bad, and a high price for gasoline is fine if it means you can breathe the air!

Once again the only reason I mentioned 25 years ago was as a reference to my snowball fighting, kickball playing, bicycle riding, and dog walking days which I might add are well behind me.

Why full grown ADULT transplants choose to engage in such childish attention seeking activities is beyond me.

[Wes_Tiny_Abe_]

DC has undergone massive change since I moved away 7 years ago.

Honestly, I prefer the 1998 version of DC. The Starbucks/CVS vibe really is over the top. I stayed next to the Verizon Center my last visit in December. The city, at this point in time, feels forced and ungenuine. It's as if a suburban strip mall infected downtown.

Amen!

[Wes_Tiny_Abe_]

DC has undergone massive change since I moved away 7 years ago.

Honestly, I prefer the 1998 version of DC. The Starbucks/CVS vibe really is over the top. I stayed next to the Verizon Center my last visit in December. The city, at this point in time, feels forced and ungenuine. It's as if a suburban strip mall infected downtown.

You need to know where to go. Go to Shaw/Blagden Alley. Go to 11th Street in Columbia Heights. Check out Eckington/Bloomingdale. Go to the newly opened Union Market. Go to Chinito's Burritos on FLorida Avenue across from Galludet. Check out the new Yards Park on the Southeast Waterfront.

As some neighborhoods get developed and the national chains move in, others develop character and flavor with a more authentic feel. We all just need to get out and explore a little bit.

The Capital Centre parking lot (before and after a concert) had more character, flavor and more authentic feel than most of DC at this point.

Have you ever seen a gentrifier try to dance to merengue and latin music?
Character and flavor are not exactly the first 2 words that come to mind.

[Wes_Tiny_Abe_]

Are dollar stores, liquor stores with bullet proof glass, and walled off, unused storefronts better though? That's what Good Hope Road looks like now. There's an art gallery there now, and around the corner someone tried to open a cafe, "Big Chair Cafe," that didn't take off, and across the street they opened Uniontown Bar and Grill, and we've been campaigning to get Busboys and Poets to open up a franchise there (it would occupy a currently vacant space). The currently vacant warehouse where they had the Anacostia art fair might become the home of a theater group. Anacostia is filled with nice people who deserve for their neighborhood to improve enough to provide jobs and other opportunities for them.

And if that neighborhood takes off, yeah, there'll be some cvs's, and there might be a starbucks. There's a starbucks on 8th st SE, and a Chipotle's, and probably a cvs somewhere, but there's also Ted's Bulletin, a cuban joint, a thai place, the most upscale liquor store I've EVER seen and tons of people walking around having fun on the weekend.

Yeah, I got dropped into downtown DC in 2009. I didn't grow up here. I'm just looking at historic Anacostia NOW. I think what people are trying to do there would be good for Anacostia if they succeeded. Unemployment in Anacostia is what, 20%? 25%? I look at U st NW and H and 12th st NE and 8th st SE and I see locally owned businesses providing jobs and opportunities -- that's why the rents are going up. I'd like to see the same thing happen in Anacostia. Is that so wrong?

Wow. 2009?
You really are an urban pioneer.
LOL.

[Wes_Tiny_Abe_]

Zonk, it's coming to Anacostia. Not as quickly as you like, but there's a lot of momentum behind developing St. E's -- and the recent Microsoft announcement will be the engine of some positive growth. There's going to be a ton of additional retail at the Sky;and Wal-mart as well.

Retail rents are pretty strong and vacancy is low in both the Giant and Safeway centers. That IHOP does extremely well. I have a couple of clients that have kicked some tires, but are still leery of the low incomes that show up on the demographic reports.

The Uniontown thing is a real shame -- a really wasted opportunity by that woman. I have heard -- and this is total hearsay -- that Andy Shallal (the BB&P guy) isn't interested for whatever reason. But it would seem to me that someone will be able to take advantage of that situation -- there's so much investment that has already been done in that building.

Yeah man. Those damn low income people. They just ruin it for everybody dont they?

[Zonkerbl]

Are dollar stores, liquor stores with bullet proof glass, and walled off, unused storefronts better though? That's what Good Hope Road looks like now. There's an art gallery there now, and around the corner someone tried to open a cafe, "Big Chair Cafe," that didn't take off, and across the street they opened Uniontown Bar and Grill, and we've been campaigning to get Busboys and Poets to open up a franchise there (it would occupy a currently vacant space). The currently vacant warehouse where they had the Anacostia art fair might become the home of a theater group. Anacostia is filled with nice people who deserve for their neighborhood to improve enough to provide jobs and other opportunities for them.

And if that neighborhood takes off, yeah, there'll be some cvs's, and there might be a starbucks. There's a starbucks on 8th st SE, and a Chipotle's, and probably a cvs somewhere, but there's also Ted's Bulletin, a cuban joint, a thai place, the most upscale liquor store I've EVER seen and tons of people walking around having fun on the weekend.

Yeah, I got dropped into downtown DC in 2009. I didn't grow up here. I'm just looking at historic Anacostia NOW. I think what people are trying to do there would be good for Anacostia if they succeeded. Unemployment in Anacostia is what, 20%? 25%? I look at U st NW and H and 12th st NE and 8th st SE and I see locally owned businesses providing jobs and opportunities -- that's why the rents are going up. I'd like to see the same thing happen in Anacostia. Is that so wrong?

Wow. 2009?
You really are an urban pioneer.
LOL.

Yup. That's when I got divorced and had to find a new place.

[Wes_Tiny_Abe_]

Are dollar stores, liquor stores with bullet proof glass, and walled off, unused storefronts better though? That's what Good Hope Road looks like now. There's an art gallery there now, and around the corner someone tried to open a cafe, "Big Chair Cafe," that didn't take off, and across the street they opened Uniontown Bar and Grill, and we've been campaigning to get Busboys and Poets to open up a franchise there (it would occupy a currently vacant space). The currently vacant warehouse where they had the Anacostia art fair might become the home of a theater group. Anacostia is filled with nice people who deserve for their neighborhood to improve enough to provide jobs and other opportunities for them.

And if that neighborhood takes off, yeah, there'll be some cvs's, and there might be a starbucks. There's a starbucks on 8th st SE, and a Chipotle's, and probably a cvs somewhere, but there's also Ted's Bulletin, a cuban joint, a thai place, the most upscale liquor store I've EVER seen and tons of people walking around having fun on the weekend.

Yeah, I got dropped into downtown DC in 2009. I didn't grow up here. I'm just looking at historic Anacostia NOW. I think what people are trying to do there would be good for Anacostia if they succeeded. Unemployment in Anacostia is what, 20%? 25%? I look at U st NW and H and 12th st NE and 8th st SE and I see locally owned businesses providing jobs and opportunities -- that's why the rents are going up. I'd like to see the same thing happen in Anacostia. Is that so wrong?

Wow. 2009?
You really are an urban pioneer.
LOL.

Yup. That's when I got divorced and had to find a new place.

My condolences. I hope you signed a prenup beforehand.
One mistake in this area can be one mistake too many.
I know somebody who is currently living in an efficiency apartment with his new girlfriend because his ex wife walked away with the house and the kids.