look what's being tweeted about the neighborhood

I present to you the last four tweets about Anacostia:

Uniontown Bar & Grill Opens TODAY

Today's a big day for Anacostia. Opening day of its first sit-down restaurant and alcohol-serving bar: Uniontown Bar & Grill. Stop on by to 2200 MLK Ave SE for lunch, dinner, happy hour, or a nightcap -- the option is now here!



Official opening is at 11AM for lunch. Regular hours are 11AM-9PM Sunday through Thursday; 11AM-2AM Friday and Saturday; Happy Hour is from 4PM-7PM Monday through Friday.



Contact information for Uniontown:
Website: www.UtownDC.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/UniontownBar
Phone: 202-445-4021

Sheridan Station Taking Shape

Have you noticed the massive dirt hill / construction site just past the Anacostia Metro station along Sheridan Road? Once home to failed housing projects, the site is fast transforming into Sheridan Station: an assortment of brand new, mixed-income apartments and townhouses - with some offices space as well. In total, there will be 344 new housing units.


the utility lines are conveniently not shown in the rendering below


there will be office space on the ground floor (dentist offices, etc)

Adjacent the multi-family rental shown above will be the townhouses, 165 of which will be for-sale units.





Sheridan Station is the first of two major HOPE VI "housing projects to mixed-income neighborhoods" programs in the vicinity of Anacostia. The other, Barry Farm/Park Chester, has not yet begun demolition and construction.



Click Here for a map of the Sheridan Station project in Google Maps for better context

Streetcar Survey + Happy Hour

In case you missed last week's meeting, there is an online survey to give input on the next phase of the Anacostia streetcar line. One of the reasons I first invested in Anacostia was because I was excited about positive changes like the streetcar - and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone. Let's support this improvement and help it get here ASAP!

Click Here to go to DDOT's survey

Also, check out Greater Greater Washington's ideas for running the line down MLK Avenue. Why have the line if it isn't conveniently located?

** Update 1/21/11 **

On Thursday, January 27 at 6PM, the DC chapter of the Sierra Club will hold a happy hour for streetcar supporters to celebrate recent victories and to discuss what next steps should be taken in their campaign to make streetcars a viable transportation option for as many residents of the DC metro area as possible. The happy hour will take place at SOVA, which is located along the route of the proposed H Street / Benning Road NE line. To learn more about DC's streetcar initiative, visit www.streetcars4dc.org

Restoration on 1600 Bl. U Street

There's a new restoration taking place on the 1600 block of U Street SE - and it looks like it's gonna be great. (How do I know? Because it looks nasty now, and because the same folks just did one a few houses down)


a very typical "Anacostia look" house - awesome potential


the fake brick asphalt shingle siding has been mostly removed


looks like the porch floor needs a complete rebuild, but glad to see original columns and decorative elements in place

This is the house on the same block that the same builder just completed and sold. Looks great from the outside, and original wood siding was restored!



It makes such a big difference in the neighborhood when people actually care what the end product looks like ... the city and its future are very thankful.

Anacostia Streetcar Meeting Tonight!

Late notice, I know, but there is a kick-off meeting for the environmental and historic preservation impacts of Phase 2 of the Anacostia Streetcar tonight from 6:30-8:30 at Savoy Elementary. Phase 2 is the section that will bring tracks from the Anacostia Metro, down MLK Ave, to the 11th Street Bridge. In other words, this is the section that really affects the Anacostia neighborhood!




View New Anacostia Streetcar plan in a larger map

The sections in green and blue above is the line that this meeting is about. It would be great to have a good showing at the meeting from neighborhood folks.

map courtesy of Greater Greater Washington

New Supermarket - Survey!

The Anacostia Warehouse Supermarket has been purchased by the Anacostia Economic Development Corporation and will be undergoing a major renovation, re-concepting, and new management-ing. Exciting! But they need your help in determining what exactly the new concept will offer. More organic? More fresh foods? More attractive exterior?



Click Here to fill out the survey (it's fast, it's easy, and it will benefit everyone!) ...and please call for them to do something about unattractiveness of the building. Kind of an eyesore right now...

Anacostia on HGTV Tomorrow

Set your DVRs for tomorrow's episode of HGTV's "My First Sale", which features Historic Anacostia (and me and the house I just sold...).

Click to Enlarge


I believe the episode will be available online later on as well. Click Here for the description of the episode and to find local TV station listings.

Wednesday 1/5 - Blank Space Open House

Blank Space, the new "permanent pop-up" space in Historic Anacostia is having an open house tomorrow from 11am-7pm.

Blank Space SE welcomes all professional, experimental, visionary, original artists and organizations to use the space as their own temporary creative home, as it is meant to be the ideal rental venue for all forms of creative projects and outlets.

Blank Space SE, located at 1922 MLK Ave SE, is available for many different projects, including (but not limited to): the production of your own art exhibit, a dance or theatre event, a workshop or classroom, a short term studio, a think tank, a creative crucible, a pop up boutique, or business.

Check out the Blank Space website: www.BlankSpaceSE.com

Sounds awesome, right? Love that there are creative forces at work in the 'costia.

Scare Tactics, Part 2

In Part 2 of this series, I'm posting another email I received about tactics that are being used to scare certain people away from the Anacostia neighborhood (and I'm sure other neighborhoods across the city).



This email comes from a resident who has witnessed an increase in negative and racial comments since posters appeared across the neighborhood advertising an effort to "Keep DC A Chocolate City":

Keep DC a Chocolate City - Stop the War On the Black Community! Gentrification and home foreclosures are just a few of the tools used to remove black people from their homes and move whites into the community.

This was the message on the intense yellow posters that were attached to every telephone pole along MLK Avenue as I walked from the Anacostia Metro to my home after work a few weeks ago. The posters brought on a feeling of confusion. Had I misinterpreted the views of my neighbors towards me these past two years? I tried to shake off the feeling of judgment that crept into me as I walked past the Thurgood Marshall Academy. The after school groups of kids were hanging out as per usual, except that day someone mumbled “better get on home whitey” and another of “get off our street”.

I chose to live in Anacostia for the same reasons that my non–white neighbors have in the past couple of years: affordability, short commute to work, the views of the city, and the friendliness of the people that live here. People say hello to each other here, we greet each other, we still take time to really talk with our neighbors. Maybe I have taken these posters too personally, but in a city that just elected Vincent Gray as Mayor with a mission statement of “One City”, I am dismayed and angered by these blatant words of racism plastered in my neighborhood. I like to think that all of the many varieties of chocolate can be equal, including white.

These signs and efforts come across as a desperate way to preserve some artificial sense of uniformity. Is this just a mirror of the integration fears many predominantly white communities held in 20th century?