Downtown BID Includes Penn Quarter/Gallery Place/Chinatown

World-class is very aspirational, though achievable with more competent city managers.

How many people agree it is inconsistent to have street drummers on the sidewalks day and night and still consider Penn Quarter “a world-class… residential destination.” and a “beautiful experience for residents, visitors and merchants, property owners and investors.” How about he excessive density of mentally ill walking in the neighborhood? Where the local police substation only has funding to stay open until 10 pm, not midnight or later when the action can really turn up? We have world class potential being squandered by greedy developers and city services entrenched in patronage.

While our neighborhood has many improvements yet to be made, I think we are past the “aspirational” stage of development. Just take a look at the number of museums and restaurants our neighborhood has. Plus the proximity to the National Mall, gov’t agencies, etc. It really is something special.

Just to add my thoughts to your points:

I think that many tourists, who literally shower the bucket drummer with money, may disagree with you about his worth to the street corner (during normal daytime hours, that is).

But, I don’t understand how “greedy developers and city services entrenched in patronage” affect our quality of life? It seems like the mentally ill seek refuge in one or more of our local homeless shelters, which even a competent city manager can’t do anything about, can they? And the greedy developers are the ones who built most of our Penn Quarter homes.

Also, the police substation isn’t very visible in our neighborhood, IMHO. From its appearance, it is staffed mostly by desk workers and is buried inside an office building.

Just my thoughts..

GPLiving, My comments were specifically about the quality of life, not the quality of tourists’ life. The only world-class thing in the neighborhood is the recently opened museum. Is the neighborhood special, yes. Is it world-class? C’mon. That is aspirational. What types of neighborhoods do you think of when something is called World Class? Miracle Mile in Chicago? Museum Mile in NY? The best neighborhoods in Rome, Paris and London? or does Penn Quarter honestly come to mind? We don’t even have a grocery store. Special – yes! World – Class? What do others think?

i think of the three names as essentially one hood.

in terms of marketing and logistics i think this makes sense. historically they are different, but as times change so do the boundaries.

“Chinatown” as such, is dead. gallery place was originally termed as an “arts district” that failed in the 70’s-80’s, with the final nail on the coffin with project space and wilson gallery closing shop.
Penn Quarter, the most recent term seems to be the strongest nomenclature and has the best organization, with due credit to Ms. Neuhaus.

still, the areas flow together easily nowadays.

On another note…it looks like the one room for the BodySmith Gym has been completly cleared out. Does this signal the pullout of the location?

On the homeless-crime issue the real problem seems to be our total lack of representation on the city council or in the police hierarchy. This is often overlooked, but having individuals living in your neighborhood that have a say in the halls of power (politics and policing) makes a difference. All of the other major neighborhoods in town have this (G-town, Foggy Bottom, DuPont, Adams Morgan, SW Waterfront).

Another problem seems to be a lack of a constant “visible” police presence (that neighborhoods like G-Town certainly have). Without seeming too aristocratic the presence of not just street performers, but also the mentally ill, whose idea of street entertainment seems to be to stand in the middle of the street (in front of Jaleo) directing traffic and yelling at passersby is concerning to me.

This issue not only posses an image and safety problem now (especially at night, and in all due respect to gpliving, while tourists are important, their amusement is secondary to area residents’ safety and enjoyment of property they pay for long after the tourists have gotten back on their busses). But it also posses a risk to the future. We tend to forget that our neighborhood was once the best in the city, the fashion district as it were, perhaps even more developed than it is now. After a few years of turmoil and high crime, all culminating in the ’68 race riots, the neighborhood became a shell (much of it burnt to the ground). We may think ourselves sitting pretty now, but we our in a fragile position. There are still a lot of vacant spaces, unfinished and unsold condos. If the homeless-mentally ill problem is not taken care of or at least controlled we risk allowing our neighborhood to slip back to the shell it once was.

What we really need is some representation. Too bad none of our more prominent residents are not running for the city council this time around. With the anti-business Fenty leading in the polls for Mayor, it would have been nice to know that our business oriented district had some representation on the council.

anon 11:36 rightly points out that economic development in our part of town still is not finished. we’re well done when it comes to office and commercial space. plenty of hotels and museums. retail shopping is done medium with some chain stores but lots of retail vacancies. residential retail shopping is still “very pink.” we have a CVS, an Olsson’s, a sketchy video store and the Chinatown Market. it is up to the community’s residents, in part, to make enough noise and attract enough attention to continue cooking up a grocery store, a video store, or a family restaurant (not a place with $10, $12, $15 martinis).

having representation in city government at any management level significantly enhances that effort.

disclaimer: I like $10 martinis but I also like a $9 plate of lasagna every once in a while. Listrani’s on McArthur Blvd. comes to mind.

Speaking of which, any updates on Balducci’s? A month and a half into their supposed two month reevaluation has there been any progress? I walk by almost every day and haven’t seen a single soul, not one person…and no progress. Any updates?

Just slightly to the north is the Mount Vernon Triangle Community Immprovement District which will bring a world class grocery store to this area!

Ha. Balducci’s. Ha. I still can’t believe people thought they would come back and build a store. No chance.

Well whether or not Balducci’s goes in that space, one thing is for sure – some grocery store has to. This I know. How do I know this. Because Balducci’s signed a long term, multi-year lease that they have to pay on until they find a replacement. Furthermore, both the city and JPI have zoned and designed that space so that the only, and yes I do mean the only, store that can go in that space is a grocery store. So whether Balducci’s goes in or not, I do not know, but what I do know is that everyday some grocery store is not in there Balducci’s is loosing money.

As far as the Mount Vernon development, that is not “in” our area. There are plenty of grocery stores “close” but not in our area. They all require a car or a ride on the metro….as would the Mount Vernon Triangle grocery store. Also, any grocery store that would go in there will be some time off…much further off then any store that would go in the Balducci’s space. Also, I doubt a “world class” grocery store would go in that area before ours. Gallery Place/Penn Quarter is far more attractive than the Mount Vernon Triangle. We have more people, we have more money and higher incomes, we have more development and more mixed development, we have more offices and more workers, we have more tourists, we have more day traffic, we have more night time traffic, we are further developed, we have a space that is already zoned and semi-renovated to carry a high end grocer, our area leads the mixed use office trend (every building having retail, office, and residential space…a trend other cities are now following). Only the galacticly silly (I would say stupid but I want my blog approved 😉 ) would choose Mount Vernon Triangle over GP/PQ.

Well I’m not going to get in to some silly comparison between GP and Mount Vernon as I like both areas.

But, as reported here
a “lifestyle” Safeway based on Whole Foods will open in June 2008.

Exactly. In 2008. Like the person said….a long way off…a lot longer off than any grocer that would go into the Balducci’s space.

And so what. It’s not in our area. The fact that it’s closer than other grocers doesn’t matter. It’s not close enough. You still need a car/cab/metro to get to and from it if you are in the GP/PQ area. So for those of us who want/need/desire a within walking distance (when we are getting more than one bag of groceries) grocery store it does us no good.

And you said “world class grocer” I assumed you meant something other than the Safeway. Hahahaha a “world class Safeway” now that’s an oxymoron if I ever heard one. Not even a “lifestyle” Safeway could come close to that description. I will admit that outside of the district the Safeways are half way decent (but that’s it). In DC, however, they are atrocious. Just ask the folks in the Watergate, one of the most expensive condos in the city…not even there, in a high end neighborhood like that, could the Safeway manage to be respectable.

So by “world class grocer near us” you meant a semi-decent, lower end grocer, close enough to drive to, coming in 2-3 years…um….yeah, I’ll take something in the Balducci’s space please.

the comments make me wonder how many blocks you would walk to a grocery store.

to me 5th and k is very walkable from gallery place. but i like walking.

To those of you that live in Gallery Place:

Are there neighborhoods elsewhere in the country that you would model your area after? what directions do you want it to take?

Like the person said Scenic, “within walking distance (when we are getting more than one bag of groceries)” You may like walking, but do you like walking with five or so bags of groceries for a half hour or more? How about when it is filed with cans/jars/ice cream? Does DC’s hot humid weather change your mind?

Oh, just grab one bag at a time you say? Okay, I’ll take an hour of walking time (30 there, 30 back), plus what ever time I use in the store, to just get a few items. Should I do that every day scenic? 2 hours not in gym, at work, reading, relaxing, etc., but going to and from the grocery store? Is that what you meant, Scenic?

But of course you retort, a second rate neighborhood with a second rate grocery store is far more desirable to we in PQ/GP then a top notch one in our own neighborhood. Well I disagree.

What type of neighborhood do we want to model ours off of? Why do we need to do that? Can’t we be unique? Creative? Pioneering? How about we decide to be a well run, efficient, smart development community. We have already lead the way with our use of mixed use development (residential, retail, and offices in just about every building). So how about we just be GP/PQ?