New Poll: New Sit Down PQ Restaurant

What’s disappointing me about this poll is that a third of the respondents refuse to spend $20 just once on a great addition to our neighborhood.

Twenty bucks! Would these people not spend $20 on a bar tab? And again and again and again? But that’s okay, right?, because that’s alcohol and they can get two or three drinks for that.

Most of these respondents, too, I think, will spend 20 bucks on a movie or some other entertainment venue. But supporting a new museum — just one time — that is introducing more culture in our neighborhood is “too expensive.” The Newseum is an investment in our neighborhood. Investments in communities generate growth; they lift property values.

Other posts on this blog have shown a good amount of negativity and even hostility to businesses coming to our neighborhood. There are still a lot of storefronts with “For Lease” signs on them. With the Gaylord National Resort Hotel and Convention Center in Maryland — not D.C. — sucking tourist and convention business away from downtown, Prince George’s will also attract entrepreneurial investments that could have come here. This will affect our tax base and the services we enjoy.

It’s dangerous to take a vibrant area like our downtown for granted. All it will take will be for the next sports arena to be built somewhere else — Prince George’s? — and then we’ll stop seeing growth and pine for the good old days.

These respondents need to wake up and smell the coffee. Unless, of course, that coffee is is being served in “another overpriced restaurant,” or another “fast food restaurant,” blah, blah, blah.

#1 Remember that the Newseum was a free museum for many years that is re-opening with a hefty admission fee.

From free to $20 is a bit of a sticker and culture shock to those of those who frequented the museum in its former incarnation.

I went to Newseum this weekend; forked over the $20.

It was quite disappointing. The exhibits were shallow and lacked thoughtful criticism. For instance, exhibits said “War is ALWAYS big news,” ignoring the fact that there are wars in the world that we hear little about. Some of journalism’s biggest gaffes, like its early cheerleading of the Iraq invasion, saw no criticism at all.

I don’t think $20 is inherently too expensive. Hey, I paid $19 to walk through a cave in Virginia (Luray Caverns) and I thought it was well worth it. But those propagandistic exhibits were not worth $20. Maybe worth $5.

It’s a matter of principle, not lack of cash, that stops many of us from going to the Museum. Hooters is also an investment in the neighborhood, but many of us also refuse to go there.
The complaints about negative comments are troubling. It seems many times here that complaints against “negativism” are paired with “boosterism”, which only provokes more “negativism”. Rational adults should be able to point out positives & negatives in a discussion of any topic without impugning the motives or psychological state of anyone.
As for one rationale advanced above: Are we to support any business or museum that opens in PQ? How about a KKK museum? How about a strip joint? No thanks, but thank you for considering this essay without malice

I agree with #2 — not only is it sticker shock, but the Newseum is located across the street or down the block from some of the world’s finest museums, all of which are free. So as for #1’s comments, I would tell you that I do most of my drinking at home with friends, because it’s more reasonable than drink prices at bars — similarly, I will almost always choose to patronize free museums rather than the Newseum. How about a half-price day at the Newseum for local residents who can bring proof of residence in Penn Quarter? That would be a good faith effort by the Newseum to show us that the product is worth the expense, and if the product is stellar, perhaps some of us will revisit on occasions as an expensive “treat”.

Interesting–I don’t remember signing any “commitment to neighborhood development” form when I moved to my condo a few years ago. Oh yeah, I didn’t,

When retailers, museums, and restaurants move into the area that I enjoy, I will go to them. When I don’t have a particular interest in a place, I am not going to visit it just because of a mythical obligation that #1 dreamed up. If a place dries up from lack of support and is forced to close, then so be it.

generally, I will walk into a new retail establishment at least once after it’s opened even if there is a price for admission. IMHO restaurants, for example, don’t reveal their true character until you’ve had two food service experiences (lunch/dinner/appetizers).

as a media junkie and vested resident, I’ll definitely be going to the Newseum to check it out. it’s what I find inside that will determine whether or not I visit again in a month, a quarter, a year or a decade. my hope is that I’ll find it worth repeat visits and a spot on my ‘go see when visitors come to town’ list. it could go the other way though.

running a good museum in an expensive, new structure takes moola and the Newseum is not federally subsidized (that I know of). people will compare prices (free vs. not free) because there is an alternative in this town but I think the fairest comparisons can only be made against other pay museums such as the Spy Museum (bring your fedora), the Kreeger (Monets everywhere!) and the to be opened Museum of Crime and Punishment (you! up against the wall!). in LA, Chicago, Boston, NYC you can’t get in to a museum without handing over some bling for admission. I’m sure that this point is not lost on Newseum management.

I’ll spend $20 on admission to the Newseum as soon as I get my refund from the Spy Museum. About as useful as a mandatory DoD security seminar with none of the free coffee.

#4, the “matter of principle” is what troubles me. I agree with #3 in that there is no inherent value in $20. It’s the value I get from my $20 that I care about. Your straw-man argument about supporting any business that comes to the PQ — such as a KKK museum — misrepresents my point and is plain silly.

#6, no, you didn’t sign any “commitment to neighborhood development” when you moved here, nor did you sign one to be a good neighbor and citizen, nor to be involved in your community. While those are good things, nobody is saying you have to, so don’t.

The good news is that while a third of respondents ruled out ever going to the Newseum because it’s “too expensive,” it was only 62 people. My gut instinct is that the majority of people in our community see the Newseum as a good thing for our neighborhood and will visit it at least once.

@CityLiving – What was a perfectly cool (and appropriately priced) museum in Rosslyn is now a $20 spectacle, overtly aimed to the visiting tourist who is much better positioned to say, “Hey, I’m on vacation, what’s $80 for the family” than I am to say, “it’s Tuesday, howzabout me and the Mrs. drop $40 at the Newseum.” Especially when I can cross the street and go to a sweet art museum.

If the Newseum really needs the financial support of the maybe 4,000 downtown residents, they’re royally screwed. Take it for what it is: a tourist place that you’ll maybe go to when the in-laws visit. Don’t hope for what it’s not: an essential, integrated and vibrant anchor to the neighborhood.

Dino,

If you’d bother to check this out closer, you’d know that it would not likely cost a family of four $80 to visit the Newseum, unless they were all adults. I’m not going to do your work for you; do it yourself.

Nobody said — repeat nobody — that the Newseum is going to depend upon 4,000 downtown residents to survive. Why is this so hard? Give it a little thought.

My point is that as residents I think we have a role to support businesses like this in our neighborhoods that take risks and invest here.

The Mrs. and I will also drop 40 bucks at the Newseum and at other museums, movies and theaters, because what’s 40 bucks if we enjoy ourselves? We also won’t think anything about dropping $40 on a bar tab, nor do I think that most people living here would.

And you’re totally mistaken: every major museum and business that invests in our neighborhood is an anchor and attracts not only tourists but new residents here. Our downtown is vibrant only because of the investments here. You obviously were not around here several years ago. It wasn’t pretty.

Yes, you can cross the street and go to a “sweet art museum,” but those free museums have been here for many decades and did not create a downtown community of residents. What changed all of this was business investments, which have created the anchors.

It’s already been pointed out, but I just wanted to stress that the Newseum isn’t completely new. I went once when it was free and never returned, so the $20 admission doesn’t fit with my expectations.

On the new poll, you should add an option “Haven’t tried ALL of them.” As it is now, none of the options works for me. I was planning on visiting Leeloo soon… any suggestions on what to try?

Does everyone go to Hooters?
Should everyone go to every business that locates in PQ, no matter what the business is?
Business did not create PQ [the neighborhood]; people – residents – create the neighborhood.
As for the double L lounge, try the shrimp.

The Newseum – is it really a museum? It is really a series of exhibits to lobby for the Fourth Estate and tries very hard to avoid any independent self exploration. They put the Newseum on the Mall for political purposes. It is very different than an arts or sciences museum.

Will a PR blitz of the media change our opinions, at a time when Americans are less informed than people in other countries, despite the rise of the information age, and at a time when the independent Media failed to question the rush to war in Iraq?

Your first two arguments have already been presented and debated. From your comment about residents, not businesses, creating the PQ neighborhood, I deduce that you also contend that people don’t shoot people; guns shoot people.

Lee Lou also cooks a mean hamburger!