Penn Quarter’s Sister Neighborhood: Columbia Heights?

Columbia Heights has been a thriving neighborhood for many years, at least since I’ve been here in 2001. Yes it has changed a bit over the years- big box retailers have moved in making it more like a Virginia suburb, but as a neighboring resident – in Mt. Pleasant- it is amusing to see someone just now recognize the community that has been developing in columbia heights. Moreover, it is kind of sad that this blogger’s faith in the hype surrounding Columbia heights is measured in her retail options. Only now with the additions of the big boxes has columbia heights begun the plunge into souless suburbia that penn quarter experienced several years ago with the invasion of retsil on 7th st.

i showed my friend this post she asked who wants to live in the urban museum setup solely for tourist? Her response:

Tourists and Virginians who find the rest of DC to scary, and don’t want to transfer from the yellow line.

I would hate to see Columbia Heights end up like Penn Quarter.

It’s spelled Deja “Vu”, meaning “already seen”. Deja “Vous” would mean “already you.”

Thanks Reid!

There are a lot of small, independent restaurants adjacent to DC USA.

Big box isn’t necessarily bad, as long as its not all you have and I’m not seeing that in Columbia Heights.

Its people, not retail that give a neighborhood soul, or no soul.

No..because Columbia Heights still has some character…PQ is pretty much TJ McFunster land at this point (one boring a$$ bland condo and chain retail store after another).

Although with the condos and new apartments on top of the metro along with Bed Bath and Beyond, I could see how one could confuse the two.

There are some similarities, but many huge differences:
1. Population of CH is much higher than PQ
2. PQ has the Downtown BID; CH does not (and badly needs one)
3. cultural options more limited in CH
4. CH has more grocery options!
5. crime is more prevalent in CH than PQ
6. PQ is tourist central; they generally fear to tread in Columbia Heights

That said, I think a lot of people live in CH and work in PQ, as I do, and they are connected by the Green Line, so I do feel an affinity for PQ even though I live in CH. I’ve worked here in PQ for longer (13 years) than I’ve lived in CH!

i do like the new columbia heights blog as well.

CH is shaping up to be very dynamic. taking nothing away from what it’s past. the metro stop transformed the negihborhood. if for better or worse, that’s in the eye of the beholder.

CH and PQ people are cut from the same cloth deep down….always whining about something. Is it really going to make a difference if you keep comparing neighborhoods? Maybe PQ will open a restaurant like Dorsia soon?

I live in PQ and as a new resident, I’m thrilled (other than the lack of grocery stores, and the zoo outside of Hard Rock and ESPN). I initially put money down for a condo in CH and the condo flipped to apartments. CH has a lot going for it and even though the big retailers have gone in, it makes it a lot easier for those of us in other parts of the city without cars to go to target, giant etc.

I don’t see the comparison at all. PQ is full of high-end retail, nightlife and restaurant options, nothing like the options in CH.

Agree with 1:15 poster. I live in PQ and get very frustrated with the trafic/congestion in CH, particularly on 14th street. So much so I am tempted to shop at the Target in VA.

#12, I don’t think the comparison is PQ today to CH. It’s PQ 3-to-5 years ago to CH today.

General comments:
Of course everyone has there own criteria. I think CH has more pure potential as a great residential community. You’ve got a mix of mid-rise condos, rowhouses and neighborhood serving amenities. PQ doesn’t have the diversity of housing stock. It’s all high-rises condos/apts and offices. It’s goal is to be a vibrant 24 hour community and our Central Business District. Therefore it will never be apples-to-apples with a CH, H Street NE, etc..

While part of the lifestyle CH had to offer was more appealing to me, I ended up buying a condo a block north of PQ in MVT. Living downtown you are at the core of our transit system. Almost anywhere in the city I need to go is a short metro or circulator ride away. I can go a week without ever starting my car. But I also have the easy highway access I wouldn’t have in CH. That would not have been important if I was new to the district. But I’ve been living in the area nearly a decade and 80% of my closest friends are in Arlington, Annandale, Reston, Centreville, Sterling, etc… So I still need that quick freeway access in & out of the city.

Just so you know, saw Tony Bourdain filming his show in the P Quarter farmers market like 20 min ago. Too bad none of the sellers were open and its like a million degrees outside during a time of year no one is around… what brilliant production editor planned that?

I echo FourthandEye. transit access of all kinds + downtown DC = a good formula (for me).

CH & PQ are not the same but they now share more similarities than a year ago.

CH has always been residential and commercial, your area, PQ use to be called the central business district for a reason.

Uh no. Columbia Heights actually has a grocery store.

Luke, Josh, and Loganmo

Totally agree with you. Now people in Shaw are getting all hyped up about the “New” O Street Market. It’s going the way of PQ and CH: Soulless big box chain retail, “luxury” condo, drivel courtesy of well connected “developers”.

To the people that buy into this hype: Please read Life and Death of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs.

Why would a tourist or anyone who didn’t live in CH want to go to CH?

You’re only too cool for PQ until you get mugged in CH.

Right on Josh – Luke – Loganmo – Ed. A neighborhood is much more than the retail stores. The two neighborhoods are totally different. CH has people from Latin American! CH is – or was – a self-sufficient neighborhood, the same as the other neighborhoods in town, Dupont, Georgetown, etc. PQ – Chinatown – was downtown & had Chinese & black people living here. Now it’s just the same boring stores one finds anywhere, over-priced cloned restaurants serving the same tapas, & insufferable yuppies who expect the same boring life they experienced in the suburbs. As P. Kennicott in the Post said, PQ is a suburbanite’s fantasy of city living. If people here in PQ read books – the Jane Jacobs book is a classic – maybe we’d still have a bookstore & maybe there’d be some kind of authenticity in the neighborhood.

you will find a much wider scope of humanity than just insufferable yuppies that live, work and have their being downtown.

Would everyone like for DC’s neighborhoods to go back to what they were 10-20 years ago?

Would you like for DC to be unattractive to retail? It was not too long ago.

I was around for those dark days.

I’m not convinced some posters really know what you want.

I’m just happy to have a place within the district where a person can buy curtain rods or a laundry basket without having to trek to the suburbs. We don’t want to become big box central, but amenities are important!

#22 How many families with children live in PQ? Or elderly?

#23 Brave anonymous Yeh, it was so much better in the old days! Give me a break. DC is still unattractive to retail of the small independent business owner type.

Some posters do really know what they want. Visit an authentic and dare I say “hip” neighborhood like Williamsburg in Brooklyn.

#24 You can get said items at small independent locally owned hip stores on 14th Street (probably in CH too). You should check it out.