· RT @Lot38Espresso We have menus on paper now! Finally, right?! Just ask us for one the next time you stop by. #Lot38Espresso #illy (1:27 AM 1/28) · Abt an hour ago. // RT @DCPoliceDept: robbery investigation-1948 hrs 22 I St SE lof b/m 25y/o black mask medium comp//5959 (9:53 PM 1/27) · RT @YardsPark: This weekend we are testing the Yards Park fountain system. Please do not play in the fountain water. link (6:29 PM 1/27) · Hope it doesn't turn out that someone at #wmata pissed off the Anonymous folks recently. (1:52 AM 1/27)
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Records added or updated recently displayed here; click the "archive" links to see additional detail and older records. All data from DC Government databases and RSS feeds. JDLand takes no responsibility for errors, omissions, etc. (read CapStat disclaimer). Data is retrieved daily.
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1100 B/O HALF ST SE 
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| ROBBERY
/ F&V
| 01/26/12
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| 400 B/O K ST SE
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| STOLEN AUTO
| 01/24/12
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| 1000 B/O NEW JERSEY AVE SE
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| SEX ABUSE
/ ADULT 1ST
| 01/23/12
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| 1200 B/O 9TH ST SE
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| THEFT F/AUTO
/ 2
| 01/20/12
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| 7TH ST SE & L ST SE
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| THEFT F/AUTO
/ 2
| 01/20/12
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| 900 B/O NEW JERSEY AVE SE
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| THEFT
/ 2
| 01/16/12
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| 100 B/O L ST SE
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| THEFT
/ 2
| 01/15/12
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| UNIT B/O I ST SE
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| THEFT
/ 2
| 01/14/12
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| L ST SE & NEW JERSEY AVE SE
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| BURGLARY
/ 2
| 01/13/12
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| 400 B/O M ST SE
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| THEFT
/ 2
| 01/13/12
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| 1100 B/O NEW JERSEY AVE SE
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| THEFT
/ 2
| 01/11/12
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| UNIT B/O L ST SE
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| STOLEN AUTO
| 01/11/12
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| 100 B/O H ST SE
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| THEFT
/ 2
| 01/06/12
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| 1000 B/O 1ST ST SE
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| ADW
/ OTHER
| 01/01/12
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| 1000 B/O NEW JERSEY AVE SE
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| STOLEN AUTO
| 12/30/11
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Active Public Space Permits
| Archive
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1316 - 1499 B/O 1ST ST SE
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DDOE DDOE
ISSUED
Occup.: manhole access 1 yr
| 02/17/11
to
02/24/12
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926 3RD ST SE
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Wash Gas & Light Co.
Issued
excavation; new
| 04/29/11
to
05/21/12
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1001 4TH ST SE
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Wash Gas & Light Co.
Pending
excavation; new
| 06/24/11
to
06/22/12
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1027 4TH ST SE
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Wash Gas & Light Co.
Pending
excavation; new
| 04/29/11
to
04/27/12
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1200 - 1299 B/O 4TH ST SE
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FOREST CITY WASHINGTON, INC.
ISSUED
Occup.: construction staging area
*Also at: 1200 - 1299 B/O 4TH STREET SE, 400 - 599 B/O TINGEY STREET SE
| 12/19/11
to
05/31/12
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1000 5TH ST SE
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VERIZON
Issued
excavation; new
| 10/11/11
to
03/10/12
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1107 5TH ST SE
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COMCAST COMCAST
Issued
excavation; new
| 09/26/11
to
01/28/12
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1100 8TH ST SE
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Eddie Migues
Issued
new
| 03/08/11
to
04/17/12
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200 - 221 BLOCK L ST SE
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VERIZON
Issued
paving; excavation; new
| 12/20/11
to
03/16/12
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222 - 5315 BLOCK M ST SE
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PEPCO
Issued
new
| 11/22/11
to
06/09/12
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PEPCO
Pending
excavation; new
| 11/22/11
to
08/03/12
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901 - 1099 BLOCK M ST SE
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Wash Gas & Light Co.
Pending
excavation; new
| 09/06/11
to
09/04/12
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200 I ST SE
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S/C 225 VIRGINIA AVE LLC
ISSUED
Occup.: construction staging area
| 08/05/11
to
02/04/12
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MARCELO LOPEZ
ISSUED
Occup.: construction staging area
| 09/19/11
to
03/26/12
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Pepco PHI Holdings Inc
Pending
excavation; new
| 01/12/12
to
04/12/12
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S/C 225 Virginia Ave LLC
Pending
paving; streetfixture; landscaping; new
| 01/28/11
to
04/13/12
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Kalos Construction
Issued
paving; excavation; new
| 12/01/11
to
05/19/12
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200 K ST SE
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Pepco PHI Holdings Inc
Issued
paving; excavation; new
| 12/21/11
to
04/06/12
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303 K ST SE
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PEPCO
Issued
excavation; new
| 01/12/12
to
08/03/12
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324 K ST SE
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Wash Gas & Light Co.
Issued
paving; excavation; new
| 09/18/11
to
01/31/12
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200 L ST SE
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Pepco PHI Holdings Inc
Pending
paving; excavation; new
| 12/15/11
to
03/27/12
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300 - 329 B/O L ST SE
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EYA CONSTRUCTION, INC ADAM HAYES
ISSUED
Occup.: construction staging area
*Also at: 330 - 399 B/O L STREET SE
| 10/26/11
to
03/30/12
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361 L ST SE
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PEPCO
Issued
excavation; new
| 11/07/11
to
06/01/12
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700 L ST SE
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VERIZON VERIZON
ISSUED
Occup.: construction staging area
| 01/10/12
to
02/03/12
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VERIZON
Issued
excavation; new
| 10/18/11
to
02/04/12
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720 L ST SE
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MATTHEW BATTIN
ISSUED
Occup.: construction staging area
| 09/22/11
to
04/11/12
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17 M ST SE
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1015 HALF STREET SE LLC
Pending
excavation; new
| 07/28/11
to
02/29/12
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20 M ST SE
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K LEE
ISSUED
Occup.: construction staging area
| 09/29/11
to
03/30/12
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25 M ST SE
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Sheldon Williams
Pending
streetfixture; new
| 09/15/11
to
11/13/12
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55 M ST SE
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CHRIS HOLBEN
ISSUED
Occup.: ddot ppsa bicycle program
| 09/29/11
to
03/28/12
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Chris Holben
Issued
streetfixture; new
| 09/29/11
to
09/29/12
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200 M ST SE
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Wash Gas & Light Co.
Issued
paving; excavation; new
| 11/14/11
to
02/25/12
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Pepco PHI Holdings Inc
Issued
paving; excavation; new
| 12/21/11
to
04/05/12
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250 M ST SE
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PEPCO HOLDINGS INC
ASSIGNED
Occup.: construction staging area
| 11/08/11
to
01/30/12
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PEPCO
Issued
paving; excavation; new
| 11/29/11
to
06/07/12
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Wash Gas & Light Co.
Issued
excavation; new
| 09/09/11
to
10/01/12
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900 M ST SE
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PEPCO
Issued
excavation; new
| 11/17/11
to
04/23/12
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PEPCO
Issued
excavation; new
| 11/17/11
to
07/13/12
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500 - 899 B/O NEW JERSEY AVE SE
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MATTHEW FIERRO
ISSUED
Occup.: construction staging area
| 11/08/11
to
04/13/12
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LANE CONSTRUCTION
ISSUED
Occup.: construction staging area
| 09/12/11
to
04/13/12
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880 NEW JERSEY AVE SE
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SQUARE 737 LLC C/O WILLIAM C SMITH
ISSUED
Occup.: construction staging area
| 12/12/11
to
02/17/12
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Jason Griggs
Issued
excavation; new
| 12/12/11
to
03/25/12
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Wash Gas & Light Co.
Pending
excavation; new
| 07/13/11
to
07/11/12
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1100 NEW JERSEY AVE SE
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Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement CR BID
Pending
paving; new
| 03/08/11
to
04/03/12
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Capitol Riverfront Business Improvement CR BID
Issued
new
| 04/06/11
to
04/04/12
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125 O ST SE
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Damian Ruppert
Pending
excavation; new
| 11/14/11
to
04/13/12
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25 POTOMAC AVE SE
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CRANFORD MECHNICAL INC
Issued
excavation; new
| 10/19/11
to
02/07/12
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VULCAN MATERIALS CO. VULCAN MATERIALS CO.
ISSUED
Occup.: construction staging area
| 09/26/11
to
03/30/12
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2ND ST SE AND I ST SE
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ROSHAUN DENNIS
ISSUED
Occup.: construction staging area
| 01/05/12
to
04/07/12
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300 TINGEY ST SE
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Seyi Oyenuga
Pending
excavation; new
| 11/21/11
to
07/31/12
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1200 - 1299 B/O VAN ST SE
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K LEE
ISSUED
Occup.: construction staging area
| 12/12/11
to
06/08/12
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225 VIRGINIA AVE SE
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ROBERT PFEIFFER
ISSUED
Occup.: construction staging area
| 09/09/11
to
03/06/12
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733 VIRGINIA AVE SE
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Wash Gas & Light Co.
Pending
excavation; new
| 01/25/12
to
01/23/13
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Recent Issued Building Permits
| Archive
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801 2ND ST SE
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01/20/12
SQUARE 737 LLC / JOHN H THOMSON (AFO)
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1006 3RD PL SE
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01/25/12
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA HOUSING AUTHORITY / VINTAGE SECURITY LLC (AFO); FREDERICK W. BROKAW (AFO)
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1008 3RD ST SE
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01/25/12
DAVID LEINER / VINTAGE SECURITY LLC (AFO); FREDERICK W. BROKAW (AFO)
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1100 3RD ST SE
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01/24/12
CQ TOWNS SUQARE 800 LLC / CHARLES CONAWAY COCKEY (AFO)
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1102 3RD ST SE
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01/24/12
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA HOUSING AUTHORITY / CHARLES CONAWAY COCKEY (AFO)
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1104 3RD ST SE
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01/24/12
CQ TOWNS SUQARE 800 LLC / CHARLES CONAWAY COCKEY (AFO); CHARLES CONAWAY COCKEY (AFO)
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1108 3RD ST SE
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01/24/12
CQ TOWNS SUQARE 800 LLC / CHARLES CONAWAY COCKEY (AFO)
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1110 3RD ST SE
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01/24/12
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA HOUSING AUTHORITY / CHARLES CONAWAY COCKEY (AFO); CHARLES CONAWAY COCKEY (AFO)
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1112 3RD ST SE
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01/24/12
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA HOUSING AUTHORITY / CHARLES CONAWAY COCKEY (AFO)
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1114 3RD ST SE
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01/24/12
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA HOUSING AUTHORITY / CHARLES CONAWAY COCKEY (AFO)
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929 5TH ST SE
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01/17/12
CHRIS FRENCH / CHRSTOPHER FRENCH (AFO)
INTERIOR RENOVATION OF EXISTING 2 STORY ROWHOUSE AS PER PLAN.
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1240 12TH ST SE
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01/11/12
WASHINGTON GAS LIGHT CO / MICHAEL C FRY (AFO)
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200 I ST SE
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01/20/12
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA / S/C 225 VIRGINI AVE LLC (OWN); KIM MITCHELL (AFO)
ADDING SECURITY HARDWARE TO 3 EGRESS STAIRWAY IN THE BUILDING. NO CHANGES TO EXISTING FIRE ALARM SYSTEM.
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307 L ST SE
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01/23/12
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA HOUSING AUTHORITY / CHARLES CONAWAY COCKEY (AFO)
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300 M ST SE
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01/20/12
FEDERAL CENTER LP /
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01/20/12
FEDERAL CENTER LP /
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1201 M ST SE
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01/26/12
WASHINGTON GAS LIGHT CO / DRAPER LABORATORY (AFO)
REVISION TO PERMIT B1200602 TO RELOCATE ONE ELECTRAL PANEL AS PER PLANS.
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1111 NEW JERSEY AVE SE
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01/12/12
NJA ASSOCIATES LLC / COLIN CLARK (AFO)
REVISE PERMIT #B0802147 TO CHANGE EXPIRATION DATE TO 1 / 19 / 2013
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1500 SOUTH CAPITOL ST SE
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01/25/12
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA / JIM CALABRESE (AFO)
INSTALL TO THE EXISTING BALL PARK STADIUM WITH DAS EQUIPMENT ISIDE EXISTING TELECOMUNICATIONS ROOM AND MAKE PROPER MODIFICATIONS PER PLANS
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301 TINGEY ST SE
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01/11/12
SEFC 160 LLC / PAUL M. VITO (AFO)
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01/26/12
SAME AS ABOVE / DERRIC SCHAEFER (AFO)
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AH = After Hours; B = Alteration & Repair; D = Demolition; E = Electrical; FB = Boiler; M = Mechanical; P = Plumbing and Gas; PC = Post Card; R = Raze; SG = Sign; TL = Tenant Layout; TN = Tent; RW = Retaining Wall;
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| 1200 - 1210 CUSHING PL SE
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11/10/11
$ 4,944,113
COFELD/CAM VENTURE LLC
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| CUSHING PL
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11/10/11
$ 4,944,113
COFELD/CAM VENTURE LLC
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August 3, 2008
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September 11, 2011
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2nd (Mid) at I,
Looking
South-Southwest
(see more)
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  When last I visited the Foundry Lofts, it was about a month before the first residents moved in. I took a pile of photos, but while model units were furnished, a lot of the shared spaces were still being worked on. So I finally made a return visit this week to see all the finishing touches on the interior courtyard, lobby, community room, etc. And I took one or two photographs, of course. The leasing office tells me that the 170-unit building is now about 65 percent leased and 40 percent occupied, and construction on the non-retail spaces is not far from 100 percent completion. The four priciest units--the corner penthouses, which were announced with rents in the $4,500 range--are all taken. And the two eateries in the ground floor--Potbelly and Kruba Thai and Sushi--have their building permits and are working toward opening within 90 days.  Also, because I can't walk past the Boilermaker Shops without taking pictures, I added a few new shots to that page, including the panorama at right that I got from one of the Foundry Loft patios. As if this all isn't exciting enough, here's a first terribly not exciting photo of the excavation underway at the 1212 4th/Teeter site a block east of the Foundry Lofts and across the street from Boilermaker. Plus, since I had to walk down 4th Street to get to all of this, I snapped some shots of the continuing Capitol Quarter progress at K and L.
If yesterday's news about the brewery coming to the Boilermaker Shops in the Yards wasn't enough, today I can pass along that the liquor licensing process looks to be getting started for Xavier Cervera's two upcoming locations in Near Southeast, the Canal Park Tavern planned for the pavilion at Canal Park and the Willie's Brew and Que sports bar also at the Boilermaker Shops. Both have been added to the agenda for ANC 6D's ABC Committee next meeting, on Jan. 31 at 7 pm at King Greenleaf Rec Center. Hopefully at this meeting there will be some details on both places (seating capacity, hours, when they expect to open, general menu concepts, etc.). With the Tavern expected to open along with Canal Park sometime this summer and WBQ probably not until late fall or beyond, this is a pretty early start to the ABC process, so don't get your taste buds primed just yet. But all evidence of forward progress is worth noting.
 There hasn't been much said so far about the restaurant planned for the Boilermaker Shops at the Yards by the Birch and Barley/Churchkey team, but the Post's All We Can Eat blog posted some morsels today: * The still unnamed venture will "contain a full-scale production brewery, a brewpub-like tasting room [...] and a 200-plus-seat restaurant." * A head brewer has been hired: Megan Parisi, former lead brewer at the Cambridge Brewing Company in Massachusetts. And, as a fun side fact, Parisi used to play clarinet for the US Navy Band, right next door at the Navy Yard. * "Barrel-aged sour beers" will be a major focus. A comparison is made to Belgium's lambic beers, which means I'll be camping on the doorstep (Lindeman's Peche is a personal favorite). Owner Greg Engert called it all "a giant experiment." * The operation will "open in about a year." The brewery's neighbors in the building at 4th and Tingey SE, as announced so far, will be an Austin Grill Express, brb ("Be Right Burger"), Buzz Bakery, Huey's 24-7 Diner, and Willie's Brue and 'Que sportsbar, which will be another option for drowning any Prince Fielder-related sorrows, though by the time these places open the Nats will have had a fabulous 2012 season and no one will remember any of the recent drama. Right? Right?
 This is little more than an off-topic I-want-to-try-it exercise, but after reading JD Antos's latest crunching of the Capital Bikeshare trip data that came out last week, I decided to see what it would be like to map the movements of a particular bike. I picked bike W01000, for no reason other than I saw it while I was browsing through the tables and thought it looked like a nice round number--I make no statements as to how representative it is of other bikes, except that it was in the system for all of 2011, except for a few brief periods when it either didn't hit the rider lottery or was out for maintenance. (And I ignored trips less than a minute long.) So, want to know where Bike W01000 went on December 1, 2011? Or July 4? Or my birthday? Or any day of your choosing? Take a look and see. Of course, the green lines for "trips" are just as-the-crow flies, and are not the actual routes taken by riders (since the bikes don't have GPS transponders THAT WE KNOW OF!!!). There's also a table below the map that shows the trips broken out in order for that day, which is handy on days with a number of trips where sometimes the push pins on the map get piled up on each other. Also, note that some trip lines end without a push pin--that's because the pins mark the start of trips, and so if a bike got re-balanced to another station, that ride's endpoint will be pin-less. You can also browse by month, but it's pretty spaghetti like. This is quick-and-dirty, so there are probably bugs.
I guess I'm not unhappy that there's not much to pass along right now, given the firehose of content sprayed from these parts last week. So, while we all wait to find out whether Prince Fielder is going to be a new neighbor, here's the best I can come up with: * The Atlantic Cities writes a paean to the Yards and the Yards Park, noting that Washington "is finally getting a green waterfront to be proud of," after years and years of poor waterfront access throughout the city for residents. UPDATE: I'll toss this in, since I'm short on content: a writer at the Hill is Home is bummed that the Lumber Shed is going to be enclosed for retail space (and Forest City's offices upstairs), and is taking a poll to find out who does or doesn't agree. * Exterior work continues to wrap up at 225 Virginia/200 I, with the new parking deck at 3rd and I mostly completed. Visitors to the building will park on the deck's upper level, via an entrance on 3rd just south of Virginia, while staff will enter the deck's lower level on I Street; there is also employee parking in the building's basement. I imagine traffic on 3rd is going to get even more interesting when the building opens to three city agencies later this year.
 From ground level, it's not especially easy to see (or photograph) the current state of Canal Park's construction--lots of fences, equipment, and bad winter sunlight, and the only above-ground action is hard to photograph through cyclone fencing. But on Thursday I got to see the progress from higher up, where not only is it easier to get a good overview of the site, but you can now see the outline on the southern block of both the plaza *and the ice rink*. (Shadows still wreaked some havoc, alas.) I added a number of these images to my Canal Park progress page, for your perusal. As I worked on these, I got to thinking about some photos from high up in 1100 New Jersey many moons ago, when the surrounding landscape looked very different. A few have been sprinkled throughout the site, but I was a little embarrassed to find out I'd never put them in my Overhead Photos Archive, which has now been rectified, and you can see them here. They are from September 2004, so most of the old Capper buildings are still visible, and the USDOT and Capitol Hill Tower lots are just holes in the ground. (And there's one cool view of the buildings at the Yards that sure won't ever be replicated.) I paired them with shots from Thursday where possible.   Then I remembered all the photos I took from the top floor of 1015 Half Street during the BID's annual meeting last week (there were a bunch besides just the " majestic" one). Not exactly a trip down memory lane, but they're now posted as well. At this point, with a deep breath, I ventured into the folder where I've been dumping my rooftop/on-high photos "to deal with later," and found:    * A series of strangely blue pictures I took from the roof deck at Onyx in October 2008, just as the building was opening; * Shots from 100 M Street taken at the BID's annual meeting on a dreary day in December 2008; and * Photos from 55 M taken during the kick-off for Artomatic in May 2009. (Nyaah, nyaah, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, I was taking pictures of you!) For those of you who live and work in the "high-rise" buildings in the neighborhood, many of these views won't be anything exciting, and given the lack of new projects on the west end of the neighborhood, not really much has changed since the 2008-2009 shots. But now they're in the Permanent Collection, to be paired with more photos down the road someday. If you haven't wandered through the overhead archive before, there's a ton of other photos, including the pictures from atop the Courtyard by Marriott taken from 2006-2010 that really highlight the demolition-and-construction that happened west of New Jersey Avenue. There's also a series of images taken from the roof of the old Capper Seniors building right before it was demolished in 2007, plus all manner of pictures of the waterfront taken from the ballpark's southeast viewing platform starting in 2007 (which I can't wait to update in a few months). And other locations, too. Hope you find them enjoyable, especially on a Friday afternoon when you might happen to be looking for something to do other than work.
 While there has been lots of news over the past few months about Near Southeast getting some of the amenities that it has lacked for a long time (restaurants, grocery), one service that the neighborhood continues to be without is an open elementary school within walking distance. DC Public Schools closed Van Ness Elementary at 5th and M SE back in 2006 because of a lack of school-aged children in the neighborhood thanks to the emptying of the Capper/Carrollsburg public housing project in advance of its reconstruction as Capitol Quarter, but kept the building in its inventory knowing that eventually the neighborhood would fill back up and a school would again be needed. Fast forward a few years, and the neighborhood now has a number of families with small children, who get to look at unused Van Ness every day while sending their children across South Capitol Street to Amidon/Bowen Elementary in Southwest. So the Parents of the Capitol Riverfront organized themselves to advocate for getting Van Ness reopened, and put together a "delightful" public meeting with then-interim chancellor Kaya Henderson. But DCPS announced last March that the numbers didn't yet support the reopening of Van Ness, saying that it was most likely the school would not reopen before 2015. But area parents have continued to try to find a solution, and when word got out a few months ago that the well-regarded School Within School at Peabody Elementary was looking to expand its program and would need a new and larger space, Near Southeast parents began to investigate what it might take to get SWS into the neighborhood, whether in the Van Ness building or in some other solution, perhaps even using the modular classrooms (i.e., trailers) that Capitol Hill Day School has been occupying at 5th and K during its building's renovation. But today a statement from Henderson being sent out to various neighborhood mailing lists seems to put the kabosh on this movement. While the notion of using the CHDS trailers is "an interesting one," Henderson says that school system "already has too many schools that are too small to sustain themselves," and so it would be a "poor stewardship of the public's resources" to pay rent to put SWS in trailers or wherever if there are already a number of available facilities that could be used. Plus, those other facilities are located where placing SWS "could have an equally or potentially greater positive impact." The statement doesn't specifically explain why Van Ness itself is not an option to house SWS, and perhaps someone who's been close to the many meetings that parents have apparently had with DCPS could explain that in the comments. It seems to still boil down to the neighborhood just not having enough students to support a school, whether it's SWS or a "normal" elementary school. Van Ness is currently home to some administrative offices, plus needs what has been rumored to be a couple million dollars in renovations to get it ready, and it does appear that DCPS is holding fast to its previous ruling that Van Ness won't be back in the system before 2015. But it's also not hard to imagine that neighborhood parents will continue to try to get a school, any school, as soon as they can.
   Uh oh, the old bat is bringing out the photo albums.... Yup, it's time for me once again to mention that it was on January 19, 2003 when I made my husband drive me around that neighborhood south of the freeway, which we rarely ventured into, so that I could take some pictures (without getting out of the car, of course), since I'd heard there were some plans to revitalize the public housing and also the areas right along the Anacostia River. (Yeah, right, that'll be the day, we said to each other.) I had no grand plans to launch an all-consuming project that would document what might be coming--I just felt like getting some photos.  And now here we are, starting Year 10 of this. I'm saving deep ruminations on the journey until (if?) I successfully cross the First Decade finish line, so for now I'll just say my heartfelt thanks to everyone who reads, comments, passes along information, and provides assistance, because there's no way I'd still be here without all of you. And I think folks should prepare themselves for the coming avalanche of posts and photos, because 2012 looks to be Near Southeast's busiest year since the golden Nationals Park construction/opening era.
There's been a whirlwind of "big" posts as 2012 has gotten underway, so here's a few items I've neglected: * BID Reports: At its annual meeting last week, the Capitol Riverfront BID released both its annual report and the "Green Print of Growth" study they commissioned, which showed that the portion of the Green Line from the Navy Yard station to Georgia Avenue/Petworth has become over the past 10 years a "regional leader" in "capturing highly-prized young professional housing demand and high-wage employment," just nosing ahead of the Orange Line's Rosslyn-Ballston corridor and outstripping the Red Line's stretch in Northwest DC when looking at household growth in the 18-to-34 demographic. The report also says (shocker!) that "the analysis conducted suggests that the Capitol Riverfront--given its Green Line access at the Navy Yard Station and its significant amount of development capacity--is among the most competitive locations in the region for households, companies, and retailers." You can read the executive summary, the complete version, and the slides that RCLCO's Shyam Kannan displayed during his presentation at the meeting. (Additional coverage from WBJ and CapBiz.) This was followed by a commentary by BID chief Michael Stevens in Monday's Washington Post/Capital Business in which he argued: "It's time for business and residents to recognize and acknowledge a new reality: The Green Line corridor has emerged as a powerful economic engine for the District and the region. And it's time for Metro, the city and the private sector to invest more in the area to support this growth trajectory." UPDATE: Also coming out of the annual meeting, the BID voted to change how it handles its taxes, which still needs to be approved by the city council to take effect. (WBJ) * On a parallel track, though it doesn't have to do with Near Southeast specifically, the Post's Steve Pearlstein wrote over the weekend about how signs suggest "that the next phase of growth in the Washington region will focus on these underdeveloped areas in the eastern quadrants of the District and some of the region’s older, closer-in suburbs."  * New Views: While I was at the BID's meeting, I took the opportunity to get some photos of the inside of 1015 Half Street, plus one shot looking out that shows not all views of the U.S. Capitol dome are, by default, "majestic." (Alternate caption: "Would you like fries with that democracy?") One Twitterer suggested that the rock circle at far right, on the Capitol Hill Power Plant's property, is where the ritual sacrifices are held. So, if you see the Congressional leadership skulking around I Street late at night.... * Artomatic Decision: The Post's Jonathan O'Connell tweeted this morning that Artomatic is headed to Crystal City. Organizers had been looking at both 1015 Half and the old National Geospatial Intelligence building at 101 M. * CSX: The Virginia Avenue Tunnel web site now has public comments on the Nov. 30 "concepts" meeting, as well as the transcript of that session. Comments are still being accepted through the end of January. * Protest: A reader who lives on 7th Street just across from the Marine Bachelor Enlisted Quarters has passed along that the neighbors on that block have decided to lodge a formal protest at the liquor license renewal of the 7th and L Market, thanks to having witnessed multiple examples over the past few years of public drunkenness and urination, loitering, littering, drug dealing, indecent exposure, and even one proposition by a prostitute. There's no doubt that that market is a bit of a throwback to the neighborhood's previous incarnation; it will be interesting to see how this proceeds, and also how the eventual arrival of the National Community Church on that block changes (or doesn't change) things. * AIIIEEEE!: Don't have enough to worry about these days? How about rising sea levels inundating areas along DC's waterfronts? (WaPo/Capital Weather Gang) * Neighborhood News Roundup: The Post's new Where We Live real estate blog has a rundown and photo gallery today on the latest progress on the development and food fronts in Near Southeast. If it all looks and sounds strangely familiar, that shouldn't be a surprise.
 When word gets out that some new data set has been posted in an easily digestible format, I am pretty much helpless before its power. So I spent the Friday night of a holiday weekend knee deep in Bikeshare Trip History Data, culling out the nearly 30,000 more than 28,000 records for trips that either originated or ended at Near Southeast's two docks in 2011. Then I fired up up the Google Maps API to bring it all to you in interactive map form. You'll choose whether you want to see inbound or outbound data for the dock at New Jersey and M in front of the US Department of Transportation or the dock at 1st and N just across the street from Nationals Park. Optionally, you can filter by month of the year or even a specific date. (Tip: green means starting point, red means ending point.) Then there are tables beneath the map that show, for your chosen data set, the number of registered vs. casual users and the top usage days. It shouldn't be surprising that the docks at the Eastern Market Metro Station and at 4th and M SW (Safeway) are very popular destinations/starting points for the Near Southeast docks, but I'm surprised to be surprised that the top dock for New Jersey & M trips in both directions is Union Station. Capital Bikeshare is apparently going to release this data quarterly, so I plan to keep the map/search app updated as long as there's data coming. And there should be a new dock in the neighborhood sometime in 2012, at 3rd and Tingey. PS: Speaking of Bikeshare, read this fascinating piece on one man's transformation into a bicycling commuter thanks to Capital Bikeshare being a "gateway drug." (Any full disclosure I need to make about this link should be pretty clear in the second and fourth paragraphs.) UPDATE: After reading this great post by JD Antos with scads of analysis of the city-wide Bikeshare trip data, I dug into my tables a little more closely to clear out "rides" of less than 60 seconds' duration at a single station and found that I had inadvertently doubled the records where the both start and stop stations were the two Near Southeast stations. (Argh.) Not a huge change in the data (about 1,250 records out of nearly 30,000), and most likely the data people would have been looking at today would have been for the trips outside of the neighborhood, but I have now cleaned out that boo-boo. And I've deleted 167 sub-60-second trips at a single station as well, just because. UPDATE II: I added both Union Station and the new dock just north of the freeway at 3rd and G to my Live Transit Data page, which includes a table of the closest docks and their capacity status, along with other live data like Next Train, Next Bus, and Where's My (Circulator) Bus?
In March 2011, I posted on the proposed 2012 tax assessments for the 900-plus tax parcels that I track as Near Southeast properties, which valued the neighborhood at just a teensy bit under $6 billion ($5.994B). But there's a reason those are just "proposed": property owners need a chance to prostrate themselves before the city to try to get their assessments revised. In addition, new properties come onto the rolls during the year as projects get completed. So, I can now report that the 2012 tax assessment total for Near Southeast is: $6.06 billion. Since the final assessments for 2011 came in at about $5.81 billion, 2012's number is a $248 million increase for actual assessments year-over-year.  There were 15 properties that received reductions for their 2012 bills, totaling about $148 million. The big property owners managed a few hefty cuts, with JBG's US Department of Transportation building leading the way with a $47.7 million reduction to just under $615 million, followed by CSX's empty lots near the freeway north of I Street getting a $46.3 million haircut down to $66.2 million. Many of the other shiny new-ish buildings of the neighborhood also got their tallies reduced, such as apartment buildings 70/100 I and 909 New Jersey and office buildings 20 M, 55 M, 225 Virginia, and Maritime Plaza I and II. But these reductions were offset by $216 million in upward revisions. Most of this is thanks to 1015 Half Street finally being completed, taking that parcel's assessment from last year's $41.1 million to just a hair under $144 million. Three other buildings (80 M, 100 M, and 300 M) received higher final assessments as well. Plus, 32 townhouses in Capitol Quarter came onto the rolls as completed buildings, bringing just under $14 million in new tax revenue. (Yes, yes, PILOT/payment in lieu of taxes--don't stop me when I'm on a roll.) And, because people always want to know, the ballpark's assessment for 2012 remains the smidgiest smidge under $1 billion, unchanged from 2011, at $999,982,800. Alas, I can't give good year-to-year comparison numbers on final assessments in previous years because I didn't really grasp this whole revision thing until last year (oops), but I can say that proposed assessments were just a mite over $6 billion in both 2010 and 2011, after having been at $4.47 billion in 2009. My March post has the year-by-year proposed assessed values for the neighborhood, if you want those numbers. If you feel like digging deeper (since you don't pay me enough to just post all my numbers for you to use), here's the the current assessments database, which you can search yourself. Tune in this March to see what the city proposes for 2013 values, and then in January for what the values really end up being....
 Developer William C. Smith is announcing today that the apartment project we've been referring to as 880 New Jersey will be called the Park Chelsea, and is expected to get underway sometime during the second quarter of this year. And there's even a rendering now, and an official web site. As I reported a few months ago, it will be 13 stories, with 433 units, which I understand will be broken down as 58 studios (about 466 avg sq ft), 281 one-bedrooms (606-738 sq ft), 92 two-bedrooms (1094 sq ft), and 2 three-bedrooms (1788 sq ft). There will be a courtyard garden, club room, gym, pilates/yoga studio, Jacuzzi, and 75-foot indoor lap pool on the ground floor. Then, up on the roof there will be a second pool along with the now-ubiquitous lounging/grilling area, as well as a "community garden" and dog exercise area. There will also be 1,500 square feet of "convenience" retail space on the ground floor, and three levels of underground parking. (They previously mentioned to me a bicycle entrance to a sizeable storage room separate from the car parking areas--I'm assuming that's still part of the plans, but I haven't confirmed.) It's easy to notice that site clearing that has begun along New Jersey--this is the start of the pre-construction infrastructure work that Smith needs to do in order to relocate some very very deep pipes beneath the block. The company also tells me that they expect DPW to be moving out of their site just to the south of 880 New Jersey about a month from now, which can begin the chain reaction of getting the old trash transfer building demolished so that lots can be split and land transferred along the to-be-built I Street axis. Vertical construction on 880 NJ can't begin until all of that happens, so that will be a pretty easy-to-watch guide to when real work on the new apartment building can begin.  Once started, construction should take about two years. This is the first phase of Smith's plans for Square 737, seen at right back in 2008. Originally the company had planned two residential buildings and two office buildings, but now they're looking toward filling the block with apartments, totalling around 1,200 units in four buildings. (And note that the entire four-building project is "matter of right," so there will be no zoning reviews or PUDs.) It's anticipated that there will be greater amounts of retail in the two buildings that will front 2nd Street, near Canal Park and across from 225 Virginia. If you want to see more photos of Square 737 and get additional background, check my project page and previous posts. While this will be William C. Smith's first apartment project in Near Southeast, they have been working in the neighborhood for a number of years, and literally working here since 2004 (when they opened 1100 New Jersey Avenue and moved their offices there). They have also been a big player in the creation of Canal Park, and are part of the Capper PUD team as the developers of the planned 250 M Street office building.
 The meeting probably isn't even finished yet, but if you didn't (or did) stop by the first of DDOT's public meetings on their nine-month M Street SE/SW Transportation study, you can browse the presentation slides and take the stakeholder survey, already posted on the new web site for the project. There were a pile of high-powered bloggers and transportation geeks in attendance, so I'm sure there will no shortage of coverage of both this meeting and the entire study that I will happily link to, but there wasn't much news coming out of this first session--it was mainly to introduce the study, talk about the methodology (which you can see in the slides) and then break up into small groups to stand around maps and give feedback about what attendees see as issues that need addressing. (But first, just as at the 2010 meeting, one woman who is particularly anti-bike once again made her feelings known.) DDOT's representatives say they will be using some 33 other studies that have been done on the area in question as part of this overall study, covering the area from 14th St. SW to 12th Street SE south of the freeway down to the waterfront(s), though that then brought a comment from the audience about when studying is going to stop and there's going to be action.
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Conditions at Nationals Park at 4:54 AM:
