DC Metrocentric

Periodically we turn the site over to a different neighborhood blogger from the metro area and let them loose on a series of topics about what makes their neighborhood great. This week we are focusing on the Ward 8 neighborhood of Congress Heights.

Site Name: Congress Heights on the Rise

Neighborhood:  Congress Heights in Ward 8

Neighborhoods Best Kept Secret?

It is hard to say just one thing is our “best kept secret” because in reality we have so many great things in our community. Every time someone new comes to visit me at my home, they always say the same thing, “I had no idea it was so nice over here!” Congress Heights is really one of DC’s best-kept secrets. It is like living in the suburbs while living in the District with access to everything. Congress Heights is only a five-minute drive to Maryland and Virginia and a ten-minute drive to downtown DC. Our location is key. However, it is not just about where Congress Heights is located that makes us so special…

Congress Heights has a lot of beautiful federal parkland and we have diverse and thriving wildlife. It is rather common to see deer foraging in front yards, foxes scurrying down the street and bald eagles call Congress Heights home. Congress Heights is a great place to walk your dog because there are so many green spaces, hills and the views are amazing!

The parking is plentiful and there is plenty of room to go running or biking. The views are also amazing. From outside of my window I can see the Potomac, the Washington Monument and planes take off from National Airport. Congress Heights is also home to Town Hall Education Arts and Recreation (THEARC) [www.thearcdc.org] a $26 million, state of the art campus were you can take a variety of dance, Yoga and Pilates classes offered by The Washington School of Ballet. THEARC is also home to The Levine School of Music, the Metropolitan Boys and Girls club and The Corcoran Artreach Program provided by the Corcoran Gallery of Art. THEARC is a stunning peace of architecture and is the center of community activities and learning. Congress Heights is also home to the new Shops at Park Village that includes our new Parklands Library and the International House of Pancakes, Ward 8’s first sit-down restaurant.

While the new development is great, it is not the best thing about living in Congress Heights. Congress Heights has some of the most beautiful and charming historic homes in the entire District of Columbia. Congress Heights’s historic homes rival homes found in Georgetown or Bethesda. These are family homes and one of the few places in DC where you can purchase a beautiful historic home with lovely yards at affordable prices. There is a growing movement to have Congress Heights declared a Historic District much like Historic Anacostia. Congress Heights is special not only because of what is coming but what is already here – a wonderful location with beautiful homes in a community of residents who are committed, despite the challenges to fight for their community. Congress Heights is probably the only place in the United States where Martin Luther King Jr. Ave and Malcolm X Avenue intersect and at that location is federally owned parkland. There have been calls to have the park renamed “Freedom Park” in honor of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The park is also home to the Congress Heights Christmas tree which was planted over 25 years ago by the Congress Heights Civic Association, one of the oldest civic associations in the District. Congress Heights has something for everyone, to see it is to love it and to love it is to live here.

Favorite Neighborhood Building?

This is hard because I have several “favorites” but perhaps my most favorite building in Congress Heights is this charming house on Wheeler Road. Every time I pass by that house I get goose pimples…everything about it is just so perfect. It’s a perfect example of a historic Congress Heights home, a family home being cherished and loved and displayed with pride. My second favorite building would either by THEARC on Mississippi Avenue or the Old Congress Heights School on Martin Luther King Jr. Ave, although that latter is in disrepair and could use some TLC the potential is undeniable. Once the Old Congress Heights School is restored to its former glory it has all the potential of becoming what The Big Chair is to Historic Anacostia, not just a landmark but also a neighborhood jewel.

Least Favorite Building?

My least favorite building is actually a collection of buildings – the neighborhood liquor stores and corner stores that sell primarily beer, while their exterior leaves much to be desired, what makes them my least favorite (and the least favorites of my community) is the blight that they bring to our neighborhood. The liquor stores that have been allowed to spread (nearly unchecked) throughout our community and remove far more than they give back is very upsetting. Not only do they cause an aesthetic blight to our community but also in many ways, they prey off the weakest members of our community, the poor, the addicted, and the mentally unstable. Liquor stores go hand in hand with my other least favorite building, the Saint Elizabeths campus. Although there are currently plans to redevelop part of the the Saint Elizabeths campus into the consolidated Department of Homeland Security, Saint Elizabeths has for years been a huge hindrance on the community. The mental and homeless patients that are housed at Saint Elizabeths overnight are turned out into the community during the day with nothing to do and no place to go other than the street or the local parks. As a result, during the day, we have a large homeless, mentally ill and drug and alcohol addicted population, which are abandoned to roam the neighborhood. Not only have they been turned out by the City into the community without so much as the basic of care but also the City has not and will not provide the neighborhood with the resources and assistance to handle them. Where the City has failed these people, these citizens, these human beings who have fallen on hard times the liquor stores, check cashing places and the local carry-outs have stepped up to take advantage of the situation. It is saddening and frankly maddening to see just how little regard the District of Columbia has for these people. It is as if they have fallen through the cracks and fallen right in the midst of our neighborhood without a second thought.

I often wonder about the DC residents who don’t live in Congress Heights or in Ward 8 yet who are so quick to write off our community as the crime and poverty capital of the District. I wonder if they realize how Congress Heights is picking up the slack for not only their DC neighborhood but the entire District of Columbia by housing a massive campus like Saint Elizabeths in our small neighborhood. A massive campus might I add that does not contribute any taxes to the community. The answer is not to ship poor people off to poor communities and literally dump them in the streets but to provide them with real services and programs, real solutions to provide lasting care. What should have never been allowed even temporarily has become long-term and what has become long-term is so common place that you wonder where is the outrage? Where is the City in all of this? Why are they turning a blind eye and ear and nose to this problem? Perhaps because Congress Heights is in Ward 8 and perhaps because Ward 8 has the reputation of being overwhelming poor and voiceless this practice of shipping homeless and/or mentally ill people to Saint Elizabeths and to group homes that only warehouse them. One thing is for sure and in this I have to agree with my wise, life-long neighbors completely– this would never be allowed in Georgetown, in Capital Hill or in any of the more “affluent” or racially diverse neighborhoods. I am sure the reasons why are complicated but the result is the same – they would not allow it and the city would not nearly be this complacent as they are in allowing it to happen here.

For Congress Heights residents this is not about “not in my back-yard” but more like “why does it always have to be my backyard…and my front yard…and my attic…and my basement” and if it has to be in all in my back-yard can you give you some supplies to make room so everyone doesn’t have to be in the street? Can you at least come and pick up the trash? Can’t there be a little more fairness in the distribution of the group homes, rehabs and transitional housing?

At the corner of Malcolm X Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in Congress Heights you will find a small park and in that park on any given day, Winter or Summer, rain or shine, you will find DC’s “last and the least” and no one in a position of power seems to care about them. And they sit, and they wait and they spend some time laughing…or crying or drinking thanks to the liquor store across the street where they are only too happy to cash their disability checks. Anything to pass the time until they are allowed to go back into the massive shelter at Saint Elizabeths or return back to the myriad of group homes that proliferate the surrounding streets.

Despite having, these large scale, sometimes daunting neighborhood the residents of Congress Heights have not given up. Congress Heights is full of hard-working, committed, caring neighbors and residents. Whether you rent or you own, live alone or have a family, are young or mature, are white-collar or are blue-collar there are a variety of options and possibilities for you in Congress Heights. There is a place here for everyone.

Wilson Court group home project funded by SOME on Mellon Street SE – this project currently under construction will have 71 units and is next to a large group home for teens run by Covenant House.

Biggest Current Issue for Residents?

Hands down, it has to be the poor treatment of our community by the City government. Never have I seen before such a practice of overlooking a community for basic services such as trash removal, public transportation, upkeep of schools, etc yet the City is so quick to cram group home after group home after group home in our small neighborhood. To be fair, this problem is not only unique to Congress Heights but to Ward 8 in general. For years, the city government has treated neighborhoods East of the River as the spare closet and backyard for city services. To be clear, the residents of Congress Heights are not against all group homes, shelters and sober houses they just wish that there would be more of a balance in placing them in communities throughout the District – not just the more perceived impoverished ones, the ones without the political connections to be considered a serious “voting block”. On a six-block radius in my neighborhood I could point out over 15 group homes, often side by side, sometimes large scale (30 or more units) squeezed between small residential properties, all directly across the street from the Saint Elizabeths campus which houses the Districts most lost citizens. Almost none of the streets have the brown trashcans you find in other parts of the city, in response to requests for trashcans the Department of Public Works tells residents “we don’t install trash cans in residential neighborhoods.” Despite the lack of cooperation, you see Congress Heights residents get up early every day and pick up trash from the street, sweep the sidewalks and provide their own litter cans and bags for those that are forced to use the neighborhood streets as impromptu waiting rooms. My Congress Heights neighbors have pride and that pride is translated into the care they apply to their homes, their blocks and their neighborhoods. Everyone looks out for each other because there is no other way. Who else will? The Mayor? The City Council? The Ward 8 Councilman?
Congress Heights is a place where you neighbor looks out for you, because there really is no other way. Despite our challenges and we do have challenges and hurdles Congress Heights is not only a good place to live it is a great place to live. Congress Heights like so many of us is a work in progress but the work is good and the rewards are limitless.

New Development you are looking forward to?

The new development I am most looking forward to is not coming in the form of a brick and mortar change – it is coming and that is great but the development I am most excited about is more community and grass-roots based. Residents, both new and old are really becoming more engaged, more empowered and more vocal about our communities. Two years ago, there was one or two blogs dedicated to River East neighborhoods – now there are over twenty East of the River blogs! Residents are in the streets and online effecting positive changes for our neighborhoods, not just the Congress Heights neighborhood but also the Ward 8 community and the River East/East of the River community at large. I can say without a doubt never before in my 15 years living in the DC area, including my time at Howard University have I ever met such an intelligent, focused, driven, honest and community conscious and committed group of people. We really are all in this together and despite the occasional growing pains, the vast majority of Congress Heights and Ward 8 residents are great people who love their community and who work hard every single day and night to effect positive change, to do the right thing, to be good people and good neighbors.

Anything you would like to ask the DCMetrocentric readers?

To be honest I have a hard time writing these type of articles about Congress Heights or Ward 8 in general for people who do not live here. It is not something you can explain and I have learned that it is not something that you can show people in an article. Sometimes it can be more than a little frustrating –maddening actually– to hear someone’s negative (and often over-exaggerated portrayal) of the “dangerous” life of living in Ward 8 and these comments are almost always from someone who has never lived in Ward 8! Most people who do not live here do not even know that Anacostia is the name of a neighborhood in Ward 8, not the name of the entire Ward. Most people do not know that “Southeast” is actually comprised of Northeast, Southeast and Southwest quadrants. Most people do not know that white people, middle class people and two-parent families call Congress Heights and Ward 8 home and love it here. There is more to life East of the River than is portrayed on the evening news. We walk our dogs, take out the trash, go grocery shopping, have barbeques, go to work, spend quality time with our family and friends. Life in Congress Heights and in Ward 8 in general is pretty nice. All that we ask is that people ask questions, do their research, and hopefully visit and they will learn that many of us who are new to the community have already discovered. Life east of the River while not perfect is definitely good, at times is even great. Our neighborhoods are no different than most District neighborhoods.

In closing even if you haven’t been convinced (yet) that Congress Heights is “on the rise” (shameless plug) then hopefully you will at least consider it as an option when you are looking for your next home, job or business location.
I suppose what I would have to ask your readers is what would it take for them to consider not only Congress Heights but East of the River in general as a housing, work or business option? There are many great things here and even more to come. Come on over! Sometimes the grass is greener on the other side!