It's time once again for me to take a step back from the minute-by-minute piecemeal nature of news blogging to summarize all that's been going on in Near Southeast over the past 12 months, as well as to make some not-legally-binding guesses about the near future. Yes, it's my
2011 State of the Hood, and admittedly, like most addresses of this kind, it's not an essay of soaring prose, but more of a laundry list to help readers catch up with the the big milestones, especially those folks who don't obsessively follow every twist and turn by closely reading blogs that obsessively follow every twist and turn.
I don't want to give away too much (just
read it!), but the theme is similar to what the neighborhood saw in 2009: there still haven't been any big non-publically funded holes in the ground dug since 2008, but the residential population continues to grow, office leases are picking up, stalled projects re-started, and the
Yards Park's many events
will be bringing lots of visitors to the neighborhood. (That big building where the Nationals play might continue to draw some folks, too, even in a year that will be mostly Strasburg-free but may still become Werth-y of attendance.)
You'll see the latest residential occupancy numbers (*spoiler*: buildings are almost all full up), lists of all the projects underway and completed, a reminder that new retail offerings aren't completely unheard of, and other highlights and lowlights of the year (9th Most Dangerous Neighborhood? Really?). It wraps up with a look forward, with the projects that are said to be starting in 2011, along with other milestones that might be in the offing. In other words, it's not short.
You can also browse back through the previous SOTH posts (
2010,
2009,
2008,
2007) to be reminded of how much this neighborhood has seen in what really is a very short period of time.