Columbia Heights At New Heights
To stand at 14th Street and Park Road in Northwest Washington is to behold a new world created at whiplash speed.
A billion dollars’ worth of development, including a Target-anchored shopping center opening tomorrow, is rising in Columbia Heights, erasing the last vestiges of scars left by riots that ravaged the neighborhood 40 years ago.
[...]Even within the rush of construction that has swept across the District, Columbia Heights’ renaissance is singular, not only because of its scope but because of its locale, a residential neighborhood that is among the region’s most economically and racially diverse.
“What’s happening in Columbia Heights, in terms of sheer magnitude of investment, is nothing like anything we’ve seen in our neighborhoods,” said Neil O. Albert, deputy mayor for planning and economic development. “Nearly all our blockbuster projects are on large tracts of vacant land in parts of the city where few people currently live. In Columbia Heights, we’re seeing literally a billion dollars’ worth of development woven into a large, dense, urban neighborhood.”
In addition to DC USA, the block-long mall that features Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond and the District’s first Target, the panorama of changes includes six new apartment buildings, a 1,200-car garage, a repurposed Tivoli Theater, a dance school, a Giant supermarket and more than three dozen new restaurants, banks and shops.
As builders rediscovered the city in the 1990s, District leaders and developers gleaned a unique opportunity in the impending arrival of a Metro station in Columbia Heights within steps of seven virtually vacant parcels of land.
[...]
The benefits of the Columbia Heights development will be felt across the city, District officials say, whether through jobs or new shopping. In the meantime, the neighborhood is adjusting to a new role as a regional destination. Residents fret about traffic and crowds, and how it will all affect the neighborhood’s rhythms.
Just off 14th Street on Park Road, where two dozen or so small businesses are clustered, Ramon Compres’s deli is the place for a Dominican-style lunch and a game of dominos. Julia Grabito’s dusty Botanica offers incense, candles and a view of her wax-encrusted shrine to Saint Miguel.
[...]
Gracie Rollins, a social services provider in Columbia Heights for 40 years, said the emerging neighborhood must respect longtime residents.
In the meantime, she embraces the new view from 14th Street and Park Road: condos, stores and restaurants instead of emptiness, all of it so unimaginable even five years ago. “It’s like coming up to a new city, a brand-new city, that just came up out of the ground,” she said. “It’s a dream.”
Read it all
Filed under: Changing World
I haven’t been to the DC area/Maryland in 12 years but I remembered passing from Columbia Heights from a relative’s house. It wasn’t exactly the center of the universe back then. Maybe the next time I come to DC, I will check it out.
Even though I’m happy with the change, one must also be a little cautious about it. I’m not saying that Columbia Heights should remain it’s former self( Oh , God no!), but as I have seen in my home city of Atlanta and heard in a couple of other major cities, you’re not always going to get something for nothing. With change may also be higher taxes. There have been longtime residents who have lost their homes because they couldn’ t afford them.
Initially, I like the idea of it, but I didn’t like the idea of people being foroced from their homes because of it. I’m pro-progress, but not so much to the point that the people are being evicted from their homes.Progress should be inclusive of all people, but too often it is the poor and /or the longtime residents that end up paying the price for it. In spite of my mixed feelings, the change in Columbia Heights was long overdue.
Nice! Just in time for the coming of MR!
MR,
We look forward to having you in the area
Salaam,
Sometimes change is a good thing………in this case I think it was good…
I use to live 1 block from this corner last year. I have mixed feelings about the changes. they’re not a surprise at all… we all saw it coming and if you were smart you started to prepare long ago for the changes. This is harder for older people and I know in my apt complex they have a rent hold for older residents. Yes, rent is higher, traffic is tough but the upgrade was seriously needed. Some of these people were completely content with living like….well…. beneath their potential and still are in denial. When you trash your own neighborhood for years don’t be surprised when your forced out when the “new” residents move in. No one is going to sit back and pay all these high taxes to continue to live beside people who can be worst that zoo animals.
Don’t be fooled… they’re still a lot of Z.A.’s around.
I second hijabisoverrated’s reaction. I too have mixed feelings. Although it is sad to see poorer African Americans and whoever else who lived there get the short end of the deal to make way for the rich White/ other folks one can’t deny that a shiny new consumer complex brightens the neighborhood. Another benefit is that development brings new jobs to the neighborhood. Bro Tariq, some people might accuse you of just sounding resentful. How would you respond though, what is a viable alternative to gentrification? I mean no disrespect and I am not asking just to be contentious, I’d really like to know.
ma’as salaama
Salaam alaikum,
I know what Peaches is talking about. Just the other day, I was driving through Atlanta. There’s this goregous shopping center called Atlantic Circle. It doesn’t look that much different from the photo above. It’s also surrounded by a man-made pond and condos, plus more condos are being built around the facility. But like you, I don’t know what the impact will be. Insha’Allah, it will bring some growth but I do wonder about the social and environmental impact.
Asad,
I agree on the mixed feelings and have asked similar questions myself. I honestly don’t know. In all these years little was done to try to clean up the neighborhoods so outsiders (meaning outside of the neighborhood) came and cleaned it up.
Salaams Tariq,
I looked at the picture and felt a bit torn. Looks kinda like all the gentrified “urban” areas sprouting up all over the place on the West Coast. We just don’t have the brick. Those neighborhoods are so depersonalized. With all the talk of gentrification, I was inspired to write a piece on the negro hipsters who love to move in to these areas once many of the locals have been displaced.
As-Salaamu ‘alaikum
Rather than just pricing all the old residents out of the neighbourhood to attract “better” middle-class people, could they not have identified who the trash were that were causing all the problems and evicted them? In our country any “regeneration” scheme seems to result in most of the old residents being pushed out, and this has seen one working-class neighbourhood (black and white) after another turned into a rich people’s playground (Chelsea, Fulham, and Notting Hill being prime examples, but all around London now housing is ridiculously expensive). It may make the place look nice but if you push the merely less well-off out with the garbage, you don’t do much for the people.