talking Anacostia on ReadySetDC.com

Check out my interview with ReadySetDC - a cool site that celebrates the homegrown culture, style, and energy of our fine city. Excerpt:

What made you decide to move to Anacostia?

Anacostia is affordable, has decent redevelopment and creative regeneration potential, and is literally one hop, skip, and jump to Capitol Hill. It is easily accessible to almost everywhere else in the city and region via both private and public transportation. It has art galleries, front porches, and a riverfront within walking distance.

A friend from Auckland stayed with me recently and remarked at how lucky I was to live so close to downtown. I had to smile because I usually find myself on the defensive when talking about the neighborhood and here was someone with no clue what Anacostia’s usually hushed-toned five syllables mean for DC and America and immediately recognized one of its best amenities.

The neighborhood is far from perfect, but it’s making strides toward something a lot cooler than the empty and forgotten status quo. I discovered that at about the same time I decided that I could either rent a basement apartment in an established neighborhood or buy a fixer-upper in a “just starting to reinvest and reinvent” neighborhood like Anacostia for about the same price. I’m the first to admit that there are times I’d rather be someplace else, but right now I’m not looking back.

Where do you see Anacostia in 5 years? 10 years?

5 years from now I see Anacostia as a neighborhood under construction – cranes and orange construction fencing downtown, streetcars finally winding their way up MLK, and the housing stock a little less affordable for the home-buying hopefuls because of the growing collection of neighborhood gathering places and the general sense that things are finally happening.

In 10 years it will be normal to hear about people moving to Anacostia, taking a date here for dinner, or being home to your nine to five. The wildly popular Yes! Organic Market or Anacostia Trader Joe’s (murals of the Big Chair, St. E’s, Frederick Douglass, and activity on the river) will have opened a few years before.

To read the full interview at ReadySetDC.com, Click Here