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Chiller Site Condos
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1333 M St.
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Nat'l Community Church
Factory 202/Yards
SC1100
Completed
Thompson Hotel ('20)
West Half ('19)
Novel South Capitol ('19)
Yards/Guild Apts. ('19)
Capper/The Harlow ('19)
New DC Water HQ ('19)
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Virginia Ave. Tunnel ('19)
99 M ('18)
Agora ('18)
1221 Van ('18)
District Winery ('17)
Insignia on M ('17)
F1rst/Residence Inn ('17)
One Hill South ('17)
Homewood Suites ('16)
ORE 82 ('16)
The Bixby ('16)
Dock 79 ('16)
Community Center ('16)
The Brig ('16)
Park Chelsea ('16)
Yards/Arris ('16)
Hampton Inn ('15)
Southeast Blvd. ('15)
11th St. Bridges ('15)
Parc Riverside ('14)
Twelve12/Yards ('14)
Lumber Shed ('13)
Boilermaker Shops ('13)
Camden South Cap. ('13)
Canal Park ('12)
Capitol Quarter ('12)
225 Virginia/200 I ('12)
Foundry Lofts ('12)
1015 Half Street ('10)
Yards Park ('10)
Velocity Condos ('09)
Teague Park ('09)
909 New Jersey Ave. ('09)
55 M ('09)
100 M ('08)
Onyx ('08)
70/100 I ('08)
Nationals Park ('08)
Seniors Bldg Demo ('07)
400 M ('07)
Douglass Bridge Fix ('07)
US DOT HQ ('07)
20 M ('07)
Capper Seniors 1 ('06)
Capitol Hill Tower ('06)
Courtyard/Marriott ('06)
Marine Barracks ('04)
 
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Future Stadiums - A Modest Proposal
Letter #1
To: Dan Snyder, owner, Washington Redskins
From: JD
Dear Sir: I am writing to offer my services to photograph and blog about the construction of your new 100,000-seat domed football stadium at the current RFK site, should it come to pass. Please contact me for more information about my salary requirements.
Letter #2
To: Victor MacFarlane, owner, DC United
From: JD
Dear Sir: I am writing to offer my services to photograph and blog about the construction of your 26,000-seat open-air soccer stadium at Poplar Point, should it come to pass. Please contact me for more information about my salary requirements.
(What, you think I'd do this for FREE ever again?)
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Tommy Blogs About the Town Halls
Just posted on TommyWells.org is an entry from the councilman himself, summarizing some of the concerns he heard from residents at the two Performance Parking town halls, and how he thinks his plan addresses them. Issues such as enforcement, lack of surface lot options from the Nationals, people who don't want their blocks included in the plan, and the idea that the plan somehow actually is *encouraging* stadium-goers to park on residential streets (uhhhhh....?) are addressed by Tommy. There's also links to post or e-mail your comments. You can also read his Curbside Parking Management Proposal page, my two summaries of the town halls, and my original post explaining the plan if you haven't gotten caught up yet.
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Performance Parking Plan Town Hall #2
The second Performance Parking town hall has just wrapped up (read the FAQ on Tommy's web site, the bill itself, my post on it back in December, and my summary of Tuesday's town hall to get the background). Since this meeting was held on Capitol Hill, the focus was more on the impacts around Eastern Market, Pennsylvania Avenue, and Barracks Row. Since these areas are somewhat outside of my mandate, my report will be mercifully shorter than last night's.
It was a very different audience reaction than from the residents of Southwest at Tuesday's meeting--a surprising number of people spoke out about not wanting the plan on their blocks at all. But for those who think the basics are a good idea, there was a lot of talk about the need for serious enforcement (like immediate towing of non-residential vehicles) and concern about whether DPW is up to the task. And that even $50 tickets won't be enough to dissuade some ballpark goers from taking their chances on the residential streets. There was also a lot of griping about the shortage of surface lots and a strong feeling that RFK as free satellite parking won't work.
A surprising concern mentioned was Congress getting up in arms about the plan if their staffers who park all day on local streets with little fear of ticketing suddenly start getting clobbered with tickets, or if a Congressman's car gets towed under some zero-tolerance plan like some were advocating.
As with Tuesday night, questions on guest passes and church parking were met with "we're working on it."
Capitol Hill Tower residents should note that one of your own expressed a number of concerns about the parking plans for New Jersey Avenue and streets close by, and Tommy said he wants to set up a meeting at CHT to talk about issues specific to that block and the areas right around it.
There was no uniformity of opinion, but I'd characterize the meeting as definitely more intense and skeptical than the one with Southwest residents.
If you want to weigh in on anything you've heard about Performance Parking, go to the parking page on Tommy's web site and you can post your comments there.
Next step is the council hearing on the bill, on Jan. 30 at 6 pm. And I should also mention here that on Monday (Jan. 28) at 6:30 pm ANC 6D is having a special meeting to discuss and vote on whether they'll be supporting the parking plan at the council hearing. That meeting is at the ANC 6D offices at 25 N Street, SW, 2nd floor.
UPDATE: Be sure to see this blog post by Tommy Wells where he responds to some of the concerns brought up at the town halls.
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Gifford's Ice Cream Coming to the Ballpark
From a Nationals press release (emphases mine): "The Washington Nationals today announced a partnership with Gifford's Ice Cream & Candy Co. as the team enters its first season in Nationals Park. Gifford's, founded in Silver Spring, MD, will serve scooped ice cream and novelties through 2011 at the Nationals' new home in Southeast Washington. Gifford's will have a branded concession stand on the main concourse featuring their scooped ice cream. Additionally, Gifford's has partnered with the Washington Nationals Dream Foundation to create the "Dinger", a vanilla ice cream and chocolate cookie sandwich which will be sold at various concession stand locations and at Gifford's carts, located throughout the ballpark. A portion of the sale of each sandwich, also offered at all Gifford's locations, will be donated to the Dream Foundation. The "Dinger" will make its debut on March 30, 2008 at the Nationals Opening Night game vs. the Atlanta Braves at 8:05pm."
Also, if you go to a Gifford's between now and the end of the month wearing a Nationals shirt or hat, you'll get 10 percent off.
UPDATE: To prove I'm not lying, here's WBJ's report on the deal.
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Ballpark Public Safety Amendment! Oooh! Oh, Wait....
My eyes widened a bit late last week when I saw in the DC Register news that the "Ballpark Public Safety Amendment Act" had been introduced at the City Council's January 8th meeting. What tidbits could I find in this, I thought as I scrambled to find a copy of the bill (my District Extra column makes me a lot more desperate for content than you might imagine).
I found someone to send me a copy, I opened it up.... And found that it basically does nothing more than add ", the Ballpark as defined by D.C. Official Code ' 47-2002.05(a)(1)(A)," to four existing laws about various public safety issues so that the new ballpark is covered the way RFK and the Armory are.
But, for the record, here's what this new bill allows for:
* Police will be able to erect barriers to direct the flow of traffic or to keep the public out during riots or other emergencies;
* No one can bring disposable beverage containers into the ballpark (unless they're vendors);
* Unauthorized entry onto the stadium playing field is prohibited; and
* The ballpark is exempted from DC's law prohibiting smoking in public places (as RFK and the Armory are already exempted).
You can dig through the online version of the DC Code to find the existing pre-amended laws, or see a handy combined version here.
There will be a hearing on this earthshattering legislation on February 7 at 10 am by Phil Mendelson's Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary.|
UPDATE: No, I don't know how the "disposable beverage container" law is interpreted. I heard at an ANC meeting that containers at the new ballpark would be handled the same way they were at RFK--but I'm not familiar enough with how that worked to weigh in on what it means.
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Ballpark Expected to be Ready for Opening Day
The Washington Times reports on what's left to be done at the ballpark: "There are 66 days left until the Nationals open the new ballpark with an exhibition game against the Baltimore Orioles on March 29. Opening Day follows the next evening, with a nationally televised game against the Atlanta Braves.
But much work still remains to be done, particularly on the portions of the stadium not immediately visible to passers-by on South Capitol Street. [... ] In theory, baseball could be played at the new ballpark now. The field is in place, nearly all the seats have been installed, and team clubhouses and the press box are nearing completion. Heavy work remains, however, on the concession and food-service areas, offices, control rooms and team store."
Some things might not be ready by Opening Day, though: "Mr. Haas and Mr. O'Dell acknowledged that some work on the stadium will continue even after the season begins. A video board the Nationals requested be installed in center field may not be ready, and some areas will lack final coats of paint and finishes. Sculptures and other artwork will be midseason additions." But, the last word from Stan: " 'I promise you that with two weeks left, in the middle of March, people are going to look at [the ballpark] and say, 'I don't see how it's going to be done,' ' Nationals President Stan Kasten said. 'But it will be done.' "
And, repeating this from last night, Wednesday's Post has a piece about how the architects of the ballpark have worked to bring the stadium from paper to reality.
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2006 Satellite Photo Showing Ballpark Construction
With thanks to a diligent web searcher who taught me to check maps.live.com from now on, we've got the first satellite images I've seen of Nationals Park under construction. They look to be from Fall 2006, maybe early October, as best as I can tell from the ballpark progress as well as the cleared lots at 100 M/Onyx and 70/100 I. Capitol Hill Tower and Capper Seniors #1 are finished, DOT is getting there, and 20 M and 400 M are progressing.
Buried deep here at JDLand is my From Above page, comparing Near Southeast satellite photos from 1988, 2002, 2004, and 2005, and I've now added this new 2006 shot. And I also took the new one and highlighted what's already changed from when it was taken, only 16 months ago.
And speaking of the ballpark, Wednesday's Post has a piece about the ballpark's design as it speeds toward completion.
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Performance Parking Plan Town Hall #1
I've just gotten back from the first of the two town halls on Tommy Wells's Performance Parking plan to address on-street parking near the stadium, and it seemed to go pretty well. (I did not see any pitchforks or vats of boiling oil.) I'm not going to summarize the plan again, so please read the new FAQ on Tommy's web site as well as the bill itself and my post on it back in December to get up to speed. The audience comments were mainly to take issue with portions of the proposal (or to pose questions that indicated they had not digested much of the information Tommy and his staffer Neha Bhatt had just spent 30 minutes presenting), but no one rose to say the entire plan was bad.
As the meeting's scheduled ending time drew near, the topic was finally brought up of how on-street parking will be handled on Opening Day and until Tommy's pilot can be enacted. It appears that DDOT is going to be able to cobble together an initial version of the eventual plan; here are my notes on how they expect it to work, keeping in mind that this was not an official presentation of the plans and that the map displayed was hard to read (so don't take any of my boundaries or descriptions as gospel):
* New multispace meter kiosks will be installed to control and price parking on streets from Second Street, SE, over across South Capitol to Second Street, SW, north of M (I, K, and L streets), including New Jersey Avenue, and on the two frontage streets next to the freeway (I Street and Virginia Avenue). These will be "ballpark-area retail streets" as described in the plan, where on gamedays the meters will allow parking for four hours, but at a rate of $4 or $5 an hour. (There will also be "retail street" multispace meters installed on Pennsylvania Avenue, at Eastern Market, and along Eighth Street, but I'm concentrating here on Near Southeast boundaries.)
* New multispace meters will be installed on M Street SE/SW, First Street SE, and Potomac Avenue south of the ballpark, but no gametime parking will be allowed on those streets. These will allow parking for two hours at all other times.
* On pretty much any other street in Near Southeast I didn't mention above, and on most Southwest streets other than Buzzards Point and at the waterfront, the "residential" profile will be implemented, but because there won't be enough multispace meters yet, these streets will be controlled by signage and by supposedly very aggressive enforcement by DPW (which was met with a fair amount of derisive laughter). On these residential streets, Zone 6 stickered vehicles can park without restriction on either side of the street. However, non-Zone 6 vehicles must only park on one side of the street (marked with signs until the meters arrive), and can only park for two hours. Fines are expected to be raised to perhaps the $50 level for parking longer than two hours, and it's possible that non-Zone 6 vehicles parked on the residential-only side of the street will get towed. Eventually, when the meters arrive, parking will cost some nominal amount on these streets.
The questions that still are being worked on include how parking will be handled for guests of residents, and how church parking will be handled. Apparently some in the city government are wanting to not have any sort of enforcement on Sundays, but that did not go over well with the crowd and Tommy seemed to indicate a preference for extending the parking plan to Sundays and working with the churches on extra guest passes. There was also concern that the plan in its current state does not include Maine Avenue and Water Street, which could be inundated with stadium-goers if the parking there isn't regulated. Also not yet determined is when to extend the residential parking hours to in the evening, since some streets only have parking restrictions now until 6:30 pm--should it be extended to 8 pm, or 10 pm, both of which would thwart stadium-goers from trying to use those spaces?
I'm sure there will be more written about this in the coming days by other media outlets, but at least the first real news of how curbside parking will be handled on Opening Day has seeped out. Wednesday's Town Hall, at Brent Elementary School at 301 North Carolina Ave., SE, will probably focus less on stadium-area parking and more on Pennsylvania Avenue/Eastern Market/Eighth Street.
Maps and specifics will be coming from Tommy's office within a few weeks, after boundaries have been decided on.
There's also continuing concern about how Pope Day will work on April 17, since it's a weekday/workday and most parking lots will be filled with commuters. I have come up with a brilliant solution that I'm attempting to float at all levels of the DC government, so please pass it on: In DC, April 16 is now a city government holiday known as Emancipation Day. My simple solution is to move Emancipation Day one day forward, to April 17, to at least get non-essential city workers off the streets and out of the subway on that day while we're overrun with Benedict fans.
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Land Costs Push Ballpark Over Budget
Well, at least the "on-time" portion of the mantra still holds. From the Examiner: "The costs of acquiring land needed to build the Washington Nationals ballpark have exceeded original estimates by $50 million, busting the publicly financed stadium's $631 million budget with more increases yet to come, documents show. Thanks almost entirely to land acquisition, the tab for the stadium is now pegged at $674 million, an increase of $43.2 million over the original budget, according to a Jan. 16 report provided to the D.C. Council by the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission." Except that: "Land acquisition was not included in the stadium's $611 million price cap, meaning the sports commission can bridge the budget gap with excess revenues from the ballpark fund -- composed mainly of stadium sales taxes and a 1 percent tax on D.C. businesses. It also means that while the project is technically over budget, it has not breached the statutory cap."
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Nats' Parking 'Situation Room'; Town Halls Reminder
Tuesday's Post has a feature on the work the Nationals are doing to try to get the parking and transportation for the new ballpark figured out: "Team executives, D.C. police representatives, officials from the city planning and transportation departments and Metro, and D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission staff members meet regularly in the situation room, working out the details of moving 41,000 fans in and out of the ballpark -- from identifying parking lots to figuring out where traffic officers will be." Not really anything new in it, but brings together items of note mentioned recently various other media reports (and blog entries) of late.
But this is a good place to sneak in yet another reminder about the two town halls on Tommy Wells's Performance Parking bill, with the first being Tuesday (Jan. 22) from 6:30 to 8 pm at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 400 I St. SW. It then gets repeated on Capitol Hill on Wednesday at Brent Elementary School (Third and North Carolina, SE).
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