I've been remiss in not posting this piece from May's Hill Rag: "
Navy Yard or Capitol Quarter?" which talks about what to call the neighborhood I've devoted this web site to. The article says: "City planning maps say 'Near Southeast' but nobody uses that name." I'd argue with that (after all, this site has been called "Near Southeast DC Redevelopment" for 3 1/2 years now), and I would also note that, even as far back as the 1930s, the Washington Post was referring to the area as "Near Southeast." I know that some people want to call the neighborhood "Navy Yard," but I find that a little hard to work with, given that the Navy Yard itself is as large as some neighborhoods in the city--if a few years from now someone says, "Hey, this great restaurant opened in Navy Yard," isn't the response always going to be, "Do you mean the Navy Yard neighborhood, or within the Navy Yard itself?" I would imagine that eventually the neighborhood's image will be very much tied to the stadium, and also to the waterfront, and a name will assert itself from there, and not from attempts by developers and consultants to name the entire area based on their own projects...