My Blog

As much as I would like to ignore this issue and hope it goes away, I think it is best to address it so that my regular readers know what is going on in the comments sections recently. Last week I was photographed by Bisnow while on the DC-sponsored boat tour of the Anacostia River for people and companies interested in the RFEI at Poplar Point. The tour was open to the public, but you had to sign up ahead of time. (Knowing that my interest was personal, I offered to take part of a vacation day to attend.) The photo made its way to a daily email blast, which also linked to this blog and gave away my work information. At the time I considered it to be a good thing: new readers--especially from the development sector, who might read the blog and look at Anacostia in a new way.

What I did not know at the time was the possibility that the company I work for (a 24,000+ person commercial real estate firm, which, fyi, is not a development company) might have some involvement with the Poplar Point RFEI. Unfortunately this was interpreted by readers of a DC United online forum to mean that I am using my And Now, Anacostia platform as a way to infiltrate the Anacostia community and use it as a means of swaying the population against DC United's plans for Poplar Point.

I didn't want to dignify the misrepresentation and abuse (about 7 pages and counting...) I was personally receiving on that online forum, or from those who ventured onto this site and commented--some crudely--about the purpose of this blog and my "special interests" herein. However, it has reached a point where I don't want my regular readers, you all, to be confused about why someone might have called this blog "B___ Sh___" in the comments (since deleted-- this is a family friendly site).

Of course, it really comes down to whether or not you trust my intentions here--I hope you do. But I can't force that. All I can do is reiterate my purpose for this blog: to show a face of Anacostia that people outside of the neighborhood aren't used to seeing. To show that this is a place with a ton of potential, history, personality, and beauty. To say that there are galleries here that are completely worth checking out. To remind you of events and public meetings that help define what the neighborhood is and what it will become. My hope is that it will also be a place where residents visit to engage with their neighbors.

I may work for a company that is involved in real estate, but my interest here is as a resident and as a student of the concept and reality of place: that the wheres of the world are critically important, and that there are so many ways that we can improve our lives by improving the streets we walk on, the porches we sit on, and the rails we ride on. That is my special interest.