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…

Read the rest of this entry »

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 well known neighborhood of Georgetown.

Site Name: The Georgetown Metropolitan

Neighborhood: Georgetown

Neighborhoods Best Kept Secret?

The industry-standard answer to that is Montrose Park. But I’m not so sure that’s much of a secret these days: the parking spots around it get filled with out-of-state plates on sunny days. I’d say the other best kept secret about Georgetown is that it’s not that expensive to live here if you look hard enough. There are plenty of apartments owned by random people (i.e. not managed buildings) that go for prices at or below what you pay to live right near a Metro stop. Just learn to ride the Metrobus and you’ll be fine.

Favorite Neighborhood Building?

That’s a tough one. I just got married at the Dumbarton House, so that will always have a special meaning to me. I’ve always loved the architecture of Christ Church. It’s like it’s reverse foreshortened (the details are smaller the closer they are to the ground) which makes it seem huge without really being that big. I always smirk walking by the Hamilton House remembering that it once was a den of beatnik bacchanalia. But if I had to pick a favorite: there’s something about 1237 30th St. that I’ve always loved. Maybe it’s the single candlelights outside every window or the tiny spitehouse next door. I just always love walking by that house.

Least Favorite Building?

Read the rest of this entry »

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 our friendly neighbor to the north Bethesda.

Site Name:  The Thes (http://www.the-thes.com/) 

Neighborhood:  Downtown Bethesda (What we call “The Thes” for short.)  Your bloggers are two twenty-something transplants who love DC but appreciate the quasi-urban lifestyle.  We have almost 200 restaurants, plenty of bars, photo galleries, art galleries, two movie theatres, a live theatre, the NIH, and shops.  Bethesda offers everything young professionals need and is also just a metro stop away from DC as well.

Neighborhoods Best Kept Secret? 

Hands down, the best kept secret in Bethesda is Cornucopia, an authentic Italian specialty food shop and cafe, and it’s owned by a real Sicilian?  (Inconceivable!)  They serve artisan cheeses, cured meats, breads, gelato, gourmet cookies, rustic pastas, tea, espresso,  and other foodstuffs.  The food is always exquisitely presented and the service is friendly.
 
Favorite Neighborhood Building? 

The recently renovated Bethesda Theatre sits where the original Bethesda Theatre opened in 1938.  Though it is used for live performances today, it was originally a movie theater.  The new renovations kept many of the interior finishes and original lobby area.
 
Least Favorite Building? 

Read the rest of this entry »

Each week 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 District’s smallest quadrant, Southwest.

Site Name: SWDCBlog- Developing Stories in DC’s Southwest Quadrant.  Your Bloggers are Glenn and Greg, residents of opposite corners of the neighborhood.

Neighborhood: The “neighborhood” of Southwest, where almost everyone in the quadrant lives, is everything west of the new National’s stadium, east of the Maine Avenue Fish Market and south of I-395.  It’s bordered entirely on the south by the Potomac riverfront, the oldest waterfront in the city.

Neighborhood’s Best Kept Secret:

Glenn: Everyone says, “Oh, Southwest, the Fish Market,” but they’ve never checked it out.  Never haggled with a fishmonger.  It’s at Maine Avenue and 9th, and, since the mid 1800s, has offered anything you’d want to find in the ocean.

Greg: The swingers’ club down on Half Street keeps a pretty low profile too.

Favorite Neighborhood Building:

Glenn: The old Randall School has been through a lot, but still has a great neo-colonial character.  It’s set to be renovated as the new Corcoran College of Art and Design.

Greg: Tiber Island. Yes, it’s another one of Southwest’s high rise projects built on concrete stilts in a fit of 1950s zoning conformism. But this development doesn’t look worn at the edges and achieves a formal lightness, lifted above its surroundings rather than squatted on stubby pillars.

Least Favorite Building:

Read the rest of this entry »

Each week 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 emerging neighborhood Mount Vernon Triangle.

Site Name: The Triangle, not just parking lots anymore

Neighborhood: The Mount Vernon Triangle’s boundaries comprise 15 blocks within the east end of downtown bordered by Seventh Street on the west, New York Avenue on the north, New Jersey Avenue on the east, and Massachusetts Avenue on the south. Our blog covers the Mount Vernon Triangle in depth and occassionally posts on topics related to neighboring Chinatown, Penn Quarter and Mount Vernon Square.

Neighborhood’s Best Kept Secret?

Tunnel Fine Wine and Spirits is a small boutique wine shop at 4th and H Streets NW with high end spirits, cigars and engaging ownership.

Favorite Neighborhood Building?

The City Vista development is the anchor for the neighborhood with the Safeway, Busboys and Poets, 5th Street Hardware, Results Gym, and Chevy Chase Bank. The project offers still more potential as nearly 12000 square feet of retail space is still available for lease. Focusing on design rather than amenities I like 455 Mass Ave within the Triangle and the Carnegie Library, Yale Lofts and Avenue across the street from our formal borders.

Least Favorite Building?

Read the rest of this entry »

Each week 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 Historic neighborhood of Bloomingdale.

Site Name: Bloomingdale Neighborhood

Neighborhood: Bloomingdale plus Eckington, NoMa, Truxton, and LeDroit Park, with an occasional H street envy.

Neighborhoods Best Kept Secret?

Our secret park or the Old Sand Filtration Plant.

New Development you are looking forward to?

There are a number of projects happening or threatening to happen here in and around Bloomingdale. To me, the ones i find the most hopeful are the upcoming restaurant at the old fire house on North Capitol and the potential tavern at first and t nw. The potential reuses for surplussed school buildings is pretty exciting too, but we’ll see which way that goes.

If you could live anywhere else in DC or the World, Where and Why?

Around H NE, Logan, U Street and Shaw, Capitol Hill, and Mount Vernon Square are the areas in DC to which i’m most drawn. I like tight neighborhoods with single family rowhouses instead of spaced out areas with lawns or high density areas with high rise apartments. i like knowing my neighbors, and i think the styles of buildings and the communities that these neighborhoods have meld with that. When it comes down to it though, i don’t see myself leaving bloomingdale, or DC. I like my place, my neighbors and the convenient accessibility that bloomingdale has to the rest of the city.

Favorite Neighborhood Building?

Read the rest of this entry »

Each week 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 our northern neighbor Silver Spring.

Site Name: Silver Spring, Singular

Neighborhood: Silver Spring is a big place and the borders are a bit
nebulous, so generally I focus on the portion inside the Beltway.

Neighborhoods Best Kept Secret?

Ghar-e-Kebab restaurant. It’s a tiny little hole in the wall, but it serves the best Indian/Nepalese food I’ve had in the area. Plus, they deliver!

Favorite Neighborhood Building?

The AFI Silver Theatre. It’s a fantastic working example of a 1930s Art Deco movie palace. The interior is beautifully restored and it has more legroom than any theatre I’ve been to. On top of this, it always shows a great lineup of new and classic films.

Least Favorite Building?

Read the rest of this entry »

Each week 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 DC neighborhood of Trinidad.

Site Name: Frozen Tropics

Neighborhood: I’m cheating and talking about multiple neighborhoods, not just Trinidad, because they are all clustered right there and it’s hard to separate them. Trinidad, H Street, and the larger area north of Capitol Hill. Trinidad is almost entirely residential, and H Street is the nearby commercial corridor.

Neighborhoods Best Kept Secret?

A few years ago I would have just said the neighborhood, but I guess that’s changing. Maybe Litteri’s Italian deli and grocery, or K. Young’s Korean deli.

Litteri’s- 517 Morse  (202) 544-0184 (carryout only).
K. Young’s Deli- 325 Morse (202) 548-0060 (dine in, or carryout).

Favorite Neighborhood Building? 

I don’t really have a favorite, but I will say that the Joseph Cole Recreation Center sticks with you, so I will call it the most oddly memorable. You wouldn’t believe how many people have told me they’ve had dreams about that place. Another odd one is the Uline Arena. Not only is the design unusual, but how many places can claim to have been both the site of a Beatles’ concert, and a trash transfer station?

Least Favorite Building?

Read the rest of this entry »

Each week 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 Columbia Heights or is it New Columbia Heights?

Site Name: New Columbia Heights

Neighborhood: Columbia Heights, which I think is about the east side of 16th to Georgia Ave, and Florida to Spring. It’s kind of amorphous - ask the people near the Petworth Metro where they live and you’ll get a bunch of different answers.

Neighborhoods Best Kept Secret?

El Rinconcito II is a tasty Salvadorean place across from the Giant

Favorite Neighborhood Building?

The church at 13th and Fairmont is pretty nice and classic looking, it could be in some Italian village. The Carlos Rosario Charter School is a pretty impressive neo-Gothic (?) building, and the old mansions along 15th and 16th are great.

Least Favorite Building?

Read the rest of this entry »

Each week 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 downtown confluence that is Penn Quarter.

Site Name: Penn Quarter Living

Neighborhood: Penn Quarter/Chinatown/Gallery Place/East End/Downtown

Neighborhoods Best Kept Secret?

The National Building Museum (401 F St, NW) for it’s striking but cleverly hidden interior. The Lincoln House Restaurant and Deli (504 10th St, NW) because you can get breakfast all day long thus keeping the spirit of the Waffle Shop, which used to be just up the street, alive and well.
 
Favorite Neighborhood Building?

On the historic side, the Hotel Monaco (700 F St, NW) because of its Greek revival neoclassical design, beautiful preservation and current use as a Kimpton hotel which includes the yummy Poste Brasserie. Built in two phases (1829 to 1844 and 1855 to 1866), it served as the DC General Post Office until 1897 after which the “newly built” post office at 12th and Pennsylvania Ave took over postal duties. It was one of the first public buildings in Washington to be lighted by gas.

On the modern side, kudos go to the Sidney Harman Hall (610 F St, NW) opened last year by The Shakespeare Theatre Company. It is a fabulously modern, multipurpose performance venue and a wonderful place to go see a production of any kind. It’s a real add to the neighborhood.

Least Favorite Building?

Read the rest of this entry »

Each week 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 historic Shaw neighborhood.

Site Name: In Shaw (an historically gentrified blog) 

Neighborhood: Shaw, which in my mind includes a family of smaller neighborhoods within it, Logan Circle, Truxton Circle, U Street, Blagden Alley/Naylor Court, the undetermined Mid-City, parts of Thomas Circle, and small parts of Mt. Vernon Square.

Neighborhoods Best Kept Secret?

It wouldn’t be secret if I told you.

Favorite Neighborhood Building?

I don’t really have a favorite. Some of the most imposing buildings are monstrosities of the urban renewal period like Dunbar, which can be seen blocks away. There are buildings and personal residences I like and admire like houses on Marion, in Logan Circle, parts of Amstrong School, etc. The Phyllis Wheatley YWCA on Rhode Island is nice on the outside.

Least Favorite Building?

Dunbar. Big & ugly.

Biggest Current Issue for Residents?

Crime and litter…

Read the rest of this entry »

Each week we are going to 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 Near Southeast… or is it the Ballpark District?

Neighborhood: Near Southeast/Ballpark District/Navy Yard/Capitol Riverfront (Near Southeast is the official neighborhood name, though all sorts of rebranding attempts are underway)

Site Name: JDLand (or Ballpark and Beyond, or Near Southeast DC)

Neighborhoods Best Kept Secret?

That it exists at all? Most of the city didn’t even know about it until it was decided in 2004 to put the new Nationals baseball stadium here.

Favorite Neighborhood Building?

Nationals Park, The Boilermaker Shop at The Yards, due to be turned into a 46,000-sq-ft retail space by the end of 2009. Of course, there aren’t actually all that many buildings in the neighborhood right now. More than 150 of them have been demolished since 2003. Until there’s more buildings, you can see my favorite before-and-after views from all over the neighborhood to see how much it’s changing.

Least Favorite Building?

I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings…..

Read the rest of this entry »