Monday, July 24, 2006
Abdo In The News
The Post offers this piece on Jim Abdo (the highest profile developer involved in the condo developments on the site of the Children's Museum). The article mentions H Street, but focuses on the NY Ave site Abdo plans to redevelop. Though this site is a bit removed from here, its redevelopment could have a large impact. For more info on recent developments on the Children's Museum site (Senate Square) click here.
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11 comments:
Interesting article. I know residents on my street worry about their taxes going up and about 1/2 are elderly so while I look fwd to Whole Foods, etc. being nearby I also read this with interest and hope I can find out more: "Now they listened as Price, 44, calmly walked through tax-break programs that could keep older residents on tight incomes in their homes, even as their property values rose."
Hmmm, what about a dedicated bus that just made the loop Bladensberg-Florida-New York? If a public-private partnership brought us the metro station, maybe one could also bring this about. Have it be a city line that works w/ our SmartTrips, but with a guaranteed subsidy from the condos & retail. I know living in Trinidad I often wish I could get a bus on the weekend to the NY Metro. It would also serve Gallaudet, these new Condos, make getting to the Arboretum easier via public transportation...
Gauladet already has a shuttle that makes the rounds consistently from campus to Union Station.
We shoul dget the new DC pedicabs to start making routes around H st. That would be sweet.
This is OTR's site on all the various tax credits, deferrals etc. of real estate taxes. It strikes me that fear that real estate taxes will force the elderly or lower income persons out of their homes is quite overplayed -- although the District may not do a good job of publicizing that these programs exist and I don't have great faith in their efficiency (given that they have lost my homestead audit papers.)
http://otr.cfo.dc.gov/otr/cwp/view,a,1330,q,594338.asp
Here's a clickable link to the OTR tax credit page.
The article referred to the Abdo project at H & 2nd NE as a conversion of a former convent. Every other article I've ever read about that project stated that it was a conversion of the former Children's Museum. I realize that they could both be right - it was a convent, then a museum, and soon will be condos. It just seems odd that I've never seen the building's history as a convent mentioned before since that strikes me as a pretty interesting fact; certainly at least as interesting as the fact it used to be the Children's museum. Does anyone out there know anything about the building's former life as a convent?
A quick internet search reveals that the building was a Sisters of Mercy convent. In my search I found the following article: http://www.law.georgetown.edu/ccp/notes.html
It's a very long article that begins with the constructio of the new campus for Georgetown's law school, but continues into wide-ranging discussion of the area's history and development. Here's a sample: "To the northeast lived poor whites, recent immigrants, and African Americans who had moved north during and after the war. Land values to the north and east of our site were among the lowest in the city because of the swamps and marshes caused by the Tiber Creek. Until 1880, the only street paved in the northeast quadrant of D.C. was H street, which linked Washington with the Bladensburg turnpike. The notorious Swampoodle neighborhood, a shanty town bounded by 1st Street, N.W. and 2nd Street, N.E., between G street and K streets, was home to poor, mostly Irish, immigrants. During the Civil War, soldiers were warned to stay out of the area because it was so dangerous. By 1880, it was well known for crime, tuberculosis, typhoid, and malaria." Fascinating stuff.
Thanks for the useful information.
RE: Shuttle bus, the NY Ave metro's closer...I just wish a bus went there on the weekends. Not complaining too much...the D4, D8 and X2 are fine.
For more on Little Sister's of the Poor, see also:
VOH: A Study of Capitol Hill North / Near Northeast
In particular, see Installment #3 March 2003 [pdf] (p. 2-3)
I hate to say this but there ain't a chance in hell for pedicabs on h street. They are either going to get hit by a car and killed, shot and killed, or get the crap kicked out of them in a robery
I want to use "Swampoodle" (referenced in mose's comment) as the neighborhood name for that end of H St. That Beats "H St.Corridor", "Near Northeast" etc any day.
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