Richard's got a well written post responding to the DCmud post I mentioned yesterday. That post concerned a proposed project at 1242 H Street. DCmud is, as Richard says, a very pro-development/developer blog. People often send me links to DCmud posts. The reason I don't regularly read their posts is because:
1. The posts are basically puff pieces produced off of press releases (or similar info) from developers. This means, for instance, that you can read all about the great stuff Clark is about to build behind the Safeway. Except that Clark isn't building anything behind the Safeway right now. They are playing wait and see the same way they have been for at least four years. Not that I blame Clark, I'm sure they'd rather wait for street construction to wrap up, and the economy to improve. But I don't need to read a bunch of junk about how Clark is about to build something they aren't close to building.
2. Some of the authors seem very ignorant about the neighborhoods, and even the history of the projects, about which they write. Do a little research people.
3. The writing is uneven, and sometimes downright bad/insipid.
In short, I get annoyed. Don't get me wrong, sometimes they turn out some good stuff, and they do have sketches, and plans. I'm just saying that a little quality control might be in order. Until then I can't deal with reading them regularly.
One odd thing in Shaun's post:
1. "An empty lot could become one of the first new commercial enterprises on the 1200 block of H Street NE"
+Maybe Shaun defines "new commercial enterprise" differently than I do. I would have considered the following to fall into that category:
Philadelphia Water Ice, Souk, Stella Bleu (now closed), Palace of Wonders, the Red and the Black, the Pug, H Street Martini Lounge, Doctor Granville's, Merry-Go-Round, and Drew. Maybe Shaun meant new construction.
Overall, the developer is asking for a lot here, and the deviation from the plan is significant. I'll back the ANC on this one and say the project need to be better. Why do they need four stories, again? And the building is just plain. I know it's infill on a vacant lot, but come on. I think we can do better.
9 comments:
FT;
Well, thanks for the coverage, I guess. We do in fact spend a great deal of time researching our stories, more than you would think. In fact our biggest bottleneck is in getting developers to talk with us; they often do not want publicity prior to construction (it stirs up community input), and often will not comment. Some of our posts naturally come from press releases, but a small percentage.
We do generally favor development of this city to help realize its full potential, but we like to see good and thoughtful design and architecture. For the record, I didn't like this design at all; and posting about it should be construed as unequivocal support, it was not intended that way. We liked the height but the ANC had good points - but we try to be objective.
Thanks
...that is, should NOT be construed as unequivocal support. Thanks
ken: can you answer this question for me, since it's not getting answered over on the dcmud blog itself?
why can't we click on the images anymore to get larger versions of them? the janney school article today, for example, won't allow that. clicking on pictures now just takes you to dcrealestate.com
Ken,
sometimes you guys do have good stuff. I didn't take your post to be unequivocal support. I'm just saying the blog generally has a certain tone to it. I read it on occasion, but certain things just stop me from being a regular reader.
DCMud is useful for seeing info on really large projects. But you are right in that they often won't update to say a project has been delayed. And that in and of itself ends up meaning they put out incorrect information, which is not good.
I think it's pretty clear even to a casual reader that they are in the real estate business, and they aren't pretending to be some sort of neighborhood blog.
Having said that, though, they do provide a lot of useful info, particularly on large scale projects.
And whether we like it or not these large scale projects often have a FAR greater impact on our community than the latest hip sushi bar opening does. Sushi bars come and go. A giant 250 unit building tends to last a bit longer.
Yet we don't cover them in much detail, because they just aren't as sexy as other subjects, I guess.
Also, all blogs have some sort of point of view. You take the good with the bad.
For instance, this blog has a lot of useful information, usually presented in a pretty straight-forward way.
But even this blog has had questionable source stories. Remember the great story about the auto supply / parts store (sorry, I forget exactly what the business was) supposedly dumping oil products into the city drain? We all got our panties in a knot over that, in large part because of the sensationalistic coverage in this blog, and turns out the business did absolutely no dumping.
And this blog of course has a point of view. How many times has it posted, verbatim, press release information, new menus, etc., from favored H Street businesses?
And how many stories are phrased in that young idealist liberal 'aren't we all special flowers' point of view that so many young-uns in DC seem to favor, until they actually live a while.
That's just as much a point of view as a 'pro-development' point of view is. Whatever 'pro-development' means. Everything gets developed. It's only a question of as what. Does a burned out vacant block of land remain that? Or does it get redone as townhouses? Or as a big apartment building or office? It's all development. Even if it's primary development is as an open air drug market and hooker hunting ground.
Of course Frozen Tropics provides a lot of useful neighborhood information that goes far beyond just shilling for new businesses (and I use the term 'shilling' in a non-judgmental way).
So you take the good with the bad.
since it's your blog, not mine, I feel freer to write how I would characterize DC/MUD although I agree that it is very useful.
They look at development as if it were a wet dream (orgiastic) without deep consideration about what the development is and what it will result in.
I always say I am not against development, I am against crappy development.
I wish that DC/MUD could help us get to that point more easily than it is to try to reach today.
Richard is right. DC Mud isn't really in the business of pointing out the negatives of large scale development projects.
But that's not to say they aren't a useful and somewhat unique source of information.
As for the small project in question, I got no opinion on them going four floors.
But I do think they should be required to have retail on the first floor. It's a retail block, and they knew that when they bought there.
And a requirement for some architectural detail doesn't seem unreasonable to me, given the nature of the rest of the block.
Not that anyone asked my opinion.
I saw some guys putting in plumbing into a newly-poured concrete slab a few months ago at this address, followed by some concrete blocks going up. Does anyone know if they have permits? If not, that explains the plywood boarding up the front now.
If you go to Google Street View, compare that image with what you can see now.
Actually, just noticed this...goto maps.google.com and type in 1242 H St NE washingotn, DC 20002. When it comes up, click Street View. They actually have a photo of guys in there doing construction work.
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