June 2009 MVSNA Meeting Notes

If anyone has any additional detail on the Douglas Development project beyond what was in the meeting notes it would be great if you could share =)

At the November presentation Paul Millstein mentioned an entertainment venue at 7th and NY that would "blow your socks off". Was anything mentioned regarding the possibility of an entertainment component at last night's meeting?

Posted By Paul / At 6/17/09 1:33 PM

Thanks for posting the notes.

Posted By Sam Farmer / At 6/17/09 6:55 PM

The transgender community in the District is not necessarily the the same thing as the "prostitution problem" you have in Mt Vernon Sq. The Mayor's rep may have mindlessly misspoke. I worked with a transgender attorney in a big law firm in San Francisco. There are transgendered prostitutes in MVS, but not all tranies are prosties.

Posted By martin / At 6/17/09 8:20 PM

There aren't several children's parks in the area. The Kennedy Recreation Center, "playground of the psychopathic gunslingers among us", is not exactly child safe with two shootings in the past 9 months. The children's play equipment at 2nd NW Coop has long been taken out because it couldn't be managed properly and the drug dealers and gang members probably scared away the good kids -- those they weren't able to take under their wings and hire. Old play equipment at Scott Montgomery was taken out for the renovation, previous equipment was taken out because it was covered with foul language and gang graffiti; but SME is getting new equipment in time for the new school year that will have limited access to the public to reduce vandalism.

The children's park at NJ & O Street, has not been created since final plans and budget were presented back in 2005. See: http://friendsofbundy.wordpress.com/njo-park/. (But Ledroit Park — "Ward 1" — is getting a park buily, even in a recession, within about a year, and that includes the demolition of the mammoth Gage-Eckington school building.)

If the Mayor's office and Jack Evans' office lived up to their promises, we'd have several safe children's play area s AND have a great space available for dogs east of the Bundy athletic fields.

Posted By martin / At 6/17/09 8:43 PM

I have a transgender friend who is a defense attorney. She is not a hooker.

Also, nice to know the BID waste transfer station is also called a storage unit. let me state for the record it is storage UNITS not a unit.

Posted By richard r. / At 6/18/09 2:58 AM

Richard, let me clarify. The Downtown BID has at 4th and L a couple of dumpsters (the "trash transfer station") which holds downtown trash until it is picked up. Those dumpsters are fenced securely. Outside the fence there is another dumpster-looking structure, which is actually a storage unit for equipment or whatever that the BID can't fit elsewhere. The prostitutes often use the area between the storage unit and the trash transfer fence to do their business. The storage unit is supposed to be gone by July 4 and I will hold them to it. The BID has not agreed, at this point, to get rid of the trash transfer station. I want that gone as well, but I will be happy to see some progress in at least getting some of this junk out of MVT in the near future.

Paul -- not much more detail on Douglas Development's project. They are focused on the waffle shop, which will be a separate building and will begin to move forward now (will still take about 2 years before it is open given necessary design development, HPRB approval, permits). Otherwise, they seem to be focused more on the properties south of NY Avenue than above at this time. Everything is still very conceptual. Still no residential. It will be offices above and retail/restaurants/entertainment below - but no specific tenants were discussed. Anyone else at the meeting like to chime in on what other details they recall?

Posted By Cary Silverman / At 6/18/09 7:16 AM

yes they did say they are actively marketing the historic buildings on 7th & L for lease. They also said they do not have an operator for the waffle shop yet. the parcel south of ny ave, they are negotiating with a prospective office tenant so might actually have it preleased before its built. delivery is estimated for 2013. ground floor retail is to be limited to about 20k sq ft :( but no dead blocks. No word about the big entertainment venue that was alluded to last time for the northern parcel.

Posted By Si Kailian / At 6/18/09 9:39 AM