"Weird Al" Yankovic must be the most underrated singer/songwriter of our generation. The man writes parodical lyrics to established songs and makes them successful. (If you think that's easy, try it sometime.) But his talent goes beyond poking fun at recording artists and established songs. The man can also write parodies of musical styles, in a generic sense and in a specific sense. The following is a prime example:
It's obvious to anyone who has a pulse on the vein of pop culture that Bob Dylan is the inspiration of this song and video. The black and white video. The nonsensical words. The half-singing-half-speaking. The cue cards. The harmonica.
But wait! What is this ... this ... spark of genius? "What genius?" you ask. "It's Weird Al, for Pete's sake."
Okay. Try this on for genius. How many songwriters do you know can write an entire song in palindromes? That's what I thought. Play the video and enjoy the genius.
30 June 2007
29 June 2007
Rules for the Restroom
I get it. We're guys and we work under different rules. But c'mon ... we're still human and should act as such. And so, I submit to you my rules for the restroom.
They're fairly easy rules to understand and follow. Please, for your sake and ours, try to follow them. Thanks.
- If you're going to use the stall to urinate, lift the toilet seat before you start. While the vast majority of us choose not to sit and pee, I have yet to meet the man who is able to stand while "taking care of other business". I'm sure I speak for all men when I say that we would appreciate a dry seat.
- A courtesy flush is considered good form for the more odiferous movements. Even though we know what you're doing behind that closed door, we'd rather not know what you're doing. Capice?
- When you're done, don't just flush and walk away. Stick around a minute and make sure you haven't left any gifts for the next guy. That second flush will add to your treasures in heaven.
- I don't care if you were raised in a Third World country. I don't care if you were raised in a barn. I don't care if you were raised in the forest by a troop of gorillas. You live and work among the civilized now. Wash your hands each and every time with soap and water! (You dirty little monkey you.)
They're fairly easy rules to understand and follow. Please, for your sake and ours, try to follow them. Thanks.
28 June 2007
An Update from the Chief
Some of you may have heard about the fracas over Chief Cathy Lanier's decision to decentralize the District's Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit that sort of dusted up earlier in the month. Well, a friend of mine forwarded to me the following e-mail which should shed a bit more light onto this story.
The following is a clarification on the role of the GLLU and its future from Chief Lanier:
Dear GLBT Community:
In the past few weeks, there has been a great deal of confusion regarding my vision for the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit. I apologize to the GLBT community for the miscommunication regarding my plan to expand the reach of the GLLU. As Chief of Police, I take full responsibility for the Department failing the GLBT community by not getting the message out in the right way and with the right input from all of you, and for that I apologize.
It has never been my intention to disband the award-winning unit, and in fact I have set a goal for my Department to train every Metropolitan Police Officer to respond to calls from the GLBT community and to encourage more officers to join GLLU.
The GLUU is critical to the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and to the GLBT community. The services provided by the dedicated officers who make up the unit are invaluable, and I am fully committed to ensuring the GLUU continues to provide the same services to every GLBT resident who needs them. The reach of GLUU must extend into every neighborhood and into every ward because the GLBT community contributes to our diverse population of residents — and those residents are not limited to only one geographic area of the District.
Over the next few weeks, Sergeant Brett Parson, along with Lieutenant Alberto Jova, will schedule group meetings in all seven districts to solicit your input about the GLUU and how it can be improved.
For those who are unable to attend the meetings, the MPD has created an e-mail address enabling members of the community to provide suggestions and/or concerns regarding the GLUU. The address is mpdc.liaisonunits@dc.gov.
The information gleaned from these meetings will be incorporated into a final plan for enhancements to the GLLU. A representative from each of the meetings will be asked to meet with the Chief so that she may inform them of the\ plan for each of the units. Rest assured that I am committed to hearing the views of the GLBT community before finalizing any plans to enhance the GLLU. With your input, I believe that we can come up with a plan that will not only broaden the reach of the GLLU, but improve the services this unique unit provides.
Cathy L. Lanier
Chief of Police
Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department
More Stuff for National HIV Testing Day
The Washington Post has an article in today's paper in which city officials announced an effort to increase the amount of HIV testing among city youths.
Why am I pressing this issue so hard lately? For one, I know people who are positive. For two, you might too ... you might be one and not even know it.
Why am I pressing this issue so hard lately? For one, I know people who are positive. For two, you might too ... you might be one and not even know it.
Perhaps a quarter of the more than 1 million Americans with HIV are not aware of their status, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health experts say detection is key to stopping the spread of the virus, because people who know they are infected are more likely to seek medical care and change their behavior.As I've said the past couple days, if you haven't been tested for HIV in the past three months, get tested today. You can find a good list of free testing locations here.
National HIV Testing Day
It doesn't matter if you're gay or straight. It doesn't matter if you male or female or in-between. It doesn't matter your race. Get tested today!
26 June 2007
A Post on HIV
As I was reading through The Washington Blade online, I ran across a post by Andrew Sullivan. I have to admit that my face started to get a little heated. But I didn't want to get pissed off without more information. So I followed his other links to get the whole picture. Let me give you the links you need to read, in order.
Read this first, then this one second, and finally this one last. I'll wait for you to come back.
Okay. Done? Good. Welcome back. Now ...
... while I understand the point that Andrew would like to have made (that testing HIV+ is no longer the immediate death sentence it once was), I agree with Gabriel 1000% in that Andrew is simply irresponsible in the exact words he used. Let me tell you why. Before 1996, I knew one ... count that - ONE ... person with HIV. He died of AIDS complications at too young an age. Since then, I have had three people I care deeply about tell me that they tested positive and I have learned of two acquaintances who also have HIV.
One before 1996.
Five after 1996.
Mr. Sullivan, this is NOT progress. This is NOT something to celebrate.
Read this first, then this one second, and finally this one last. I'll wait for you to come back.
Okay. Done? Good. Welcome back. Now ...
... while I understand the point that Andrew would like to have made (that testing HIV+ is no longer the immediate death sentence it once was), I agree with Gabriel 1000% in that Andrew is simply irresponsible in the exact words he used. Let me tell you why. Before 1996, I knew one ... count that - ONE ... person with HIV. He died of AIDS complications at too young an age. Since then, I have had three people I care deeply about tell me that they tested positive and I have learned of two acquaintances who also have HIV.
One before 1996.
Five after 1996.
Mr. Sullivan, this is NOT progress. This is NOT something to celebrate.
(Green)peace and Quiet
It seemed as if every volunteer for Greenpeace was out today and mulling around Chinatown. I couldn't take five steps without bumping into some gung-ho tree-hugger who wanted to convert me to The Gospel According to Albert Arnold Gore Junior.
I can usually give someone a few minutes of my time to listen to their spiel, but I was at lunch and a bit pressed for time.
It was plenty obvious enough that I was in a hurry. I had my hurry face on and wasn't making any eye contact with people. (No-eye-contact is universal body language for "leave me the &#!% alone".) Besides, I looked like I just stepped out of an RNC poster (or a goodfellas movie). What hippie in their right mind would think, just by looking at me, that I would care about saving the environment?
Still, volunteers ... especially ones who believe ... are a tenacious group. The first one asked for a second of my time and a second is what I gave her. I stopped, politely told her that I was running late returning from lunch, and that I didn't have time today. And then I walked on.
I stopped for the second person and told her the same thing I told the first person.
The third bloke still got the polite "&#!% off" but he didn't get me to stop. I repeated that for the next two volunteers.
By the time I passed the last one, I was beyond irritated. "Excuse me, sir. Can I have thirty seconds of your time?" she asked. "I can't today," I replied without stopping or looking up. "Well, maybe I can walk wi...," she started. At this newest tactic I turned and looked at her with smoldering eyes. "I'm sorry, but I just don't have the time right now," I interrupted. "You people are literally three feet apart from each other. How could you not see that I've said no to every other one of you on this block?!" is what I wanted to yell at her. But I guess I'm a nice guy at heart.
Serves me right.
I can usually give someone a few minutes of my time to listen to their spiel, but I was at lunch and a bit pressed for time.
It was plenty obvious enough that I was in a hurry. I had my hurry face on and wasn't making any eye contact with people. (No-eye-contact is universal body language for "leave me the &#!% alone".) Besides, I looked like I just stepped out of an RNC poster (or a goodfellas movie). What hippie in their right mind would think, just by looking at me, that I would care about saving the environment?
Still, volunteers ... especially ones who believe ... are a tenacious group. The first one asked for a second of my time and a second is what I gave her. I stopped, politely told her that I was running late returning from lunch, and that I didn't have time today. And then I walked on.
I stopped for the second person and told her the same thing I told the first person.
The third bloke still got the polite "&#!% off" but he didn't get me to stop. I repeated that for the next two volunteers.
By the time I passed the last one, I was beyond irritated. "Excuse me, sir. Can I have thirty seconds of your time?" she asked. "I can't today," I replied without stopping or looking up. "Well, maybe I can walk wi...," she started. At this newest tactic I turned and looked at her with smoldering eyes. "I'm sorry, but I just don't have the time right now," I interrupted. "You people are literally three feet apart from each other. How could you not see that I've said no to every other one of you on this block?!" is what I wanted to yell at her. But I guess I'm a nice guy at heart.
Serves me right.
The Dame and the Princess
To me, the story in this Washington Post article isn't that Julie Andrews was in the District today. Nor is it that Ms. Andrews read to a room full of people from a book she had written. It isn't even that she took the time to pose for pictures. No, to me, the story in this article is in the second and third paragraphs ...
Oh, they start so young these days.
*wipes tear from corner of left eye*
Seriously, though, it struck me how pedestrian those two paragraphs were ... how natural they were to read ... as if it were nothing out of the ordinary. Nevermind that this nine-year-old is a boy and that he's dressed at characters that Ms. Andrews has portrayed. What is important here is that this child idolized Ms. Andrews and he was able to meet her. I applaud the Post for depicting it as simply that.
But 9-year-old Graham Walker noticed only the voice, that clipped, hills-are-alive British accent that's pure Julie Andrews and that was reading to him and 11 other children yesterday at the District's Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library.*wipes tear from corner of right eye*
Graham knows that voice, too. He's such a Julie Andrews fan that, when he was 3, he dressed as Mary Poppins for Halloween, and he went as Maria to the singalong of "The Sound of Music."
Oh, they start so young these days.
*wipes tear from corner of left eye*
Seriously, though, it struck me how pedestrian those two paragraphs were ... how natural they were to read ... as if it were nothing out of the ordinary. Nevermind that this nine-year-old is a boy and that he's dressed at characters that Ms. Andrews has portrayed. What is important here is that this child idolized Ms. Andrews and he was able to meet her. I applaud the Post for depicting it as simply that.
25 June 2007
Don' Be Scur'd
It's been almost a year and a half since my last relationship ended. During that time, I've slipped inside of myself and closed myself off to pretty much everyone. I've kept conversations to safe, common topics. I've kept people at an arm's distance. It's become my cold comfort to rely on myself, to answer to myself, to keep my own company ...
... until I had a long conversation with a very good friend. Usually, I am the one imparting the advice. This time, although I never asked for it, it was my turn to soak in some wisdom. He told me some things I already knew but didn't want to acknowledge. He reminded me of who I was before I became this emotional recluse. He urged me to allow myself the opportunity to be truly happy again.
Trying to learn from his counsel, I have taken some small steps toward recovering the pieces of me that I left to the universe many, many months ago. It isn't easy. I have spent so long building this safe, enclosed space for myself that I can't remember what it's like to allow anyone inside. How much of me is too much? What if my pace in opening up is too slow? What if I get hurt again? Yes, there are rational answers to all of those questions. But I'm not completely rational right now.
I have had a good couple of days since that long conversation. I find myself daydreaming and anticipating. My heart has started skipping again. I've felt that fire ... that burning in my soul ... that I thought had long since extinguished itself. I even feel like a little kid some of the time.
Yet I can't quiet the doubt in my head. Maybe I have nothing remaining to offer. Maybe I left all I had on the table the last time I played this game. Maybe I am too much of a reclamation project. Maybe there is nothing of me that anyone could want for very long.
It all is equal parts rapturous and frightening. I hope I truly am up to this new chapter of my life.
... until I had a long conversation with a very good friend. Usually, I am the one imparting the advice. This time, although I never asked for it, it was my turn to soak in some wisdom. He told me some things I already knew but didn't want to acknowledge. He reminded me of who I was before I became this emotional recluse. He urged me to allow myself the opportunity to be truly happy again.
Trying to learn from his counsel, I have taken some small steps toward recovering the pieces of me that I left to the universe many, many months ago. It isn't easy. I have spent so long building this safe, enclosed space for myself that I can't remember what it's like to allow anyone inside. How much of me is too much? What if my pace in opening up is too slow? What if I get hurt again? Yes, there are rational answers to all of those questions. But I'm not completely rational right now.
I have had a good couple of days since that long conversation. I find myself daydreaming and anticipating. My heart has started skipping again. I've felt that fire ... that burning in my soul ... that I thought had long since extinguished itself. I even feel like a little kid some of the time.
Yet I can't quiet the doubt in my head. Maybe I have nothing remaining to offer. Maybe I left all I had on the table the last time I played this game. Maybe I am too much of a reclamation project. Maybe there is nothing of me that anyone could want for very long.
It all is equal parts rapturous and frightening. I hope I truly am up to this new chapter of my life.
I Cannot Wait
Yeah, it will probably suck monkey balls, but I'm so looking forward to seeing this movie. The only issue I have with it right now is that a certain character has gone from this to this. But that's just the purist in me complaining.
With the recent rash of TV-cartoon-to-cinema-live-action movies, I think it's only a matter of time before we see a live action G.I. Joe movie. There's already talk about a Voltron movie.
But what about that other cartoon series? You know, that bastard step-brother of Transformers? Seriously?! That movie would be so friggin' cheesy it would rock!
With the recent rash of TV-cartoon-to-cinema-live-action movies, I think it's only a matter of time before we see a live action G.I. Joe movie. There's already talk about a Voltron movie.
But what about that other cartoon series? You know, that bastard step-brother of Transformers? Seriously?! That movie would be so friggin' cheesy it would rock!
19 June 2007
Helping the Homeless
If you're like me (and some of you are I just know it), you're a bit hesitant to give a homeless person money. When approached by a panhandler, you may ask yourself, "What will they use this money for - liquor, drugs, food?" It's a valid question and one I have asked myself every time before giving a homeless person money.
Today I came across a homeless person who was asking for money. One dollar to be exact. It's not the first time I've seen him. And it wasn't the first time I gave him money without hesitation. And, he's not the only homeless person out there asking for exactly one dollar.
See, this homeless fellow is a vendor, an entrepreneur, a salesman. He's out there every day (in this case, on the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Q Street, NW) giving copies of Street Sense for a dollar donation. (You can give more than a dollar, if you so wish.) Street Sense, for those of you who don't know, is a bi-monthly newspaper written by the area's poor and homeless. It is "sold" by the area's poor and homeless as a way to make some money, as opposed to panhandling. Each person (vendor) is essentially their own company ... an outsourcer, if you will. One quarter of every dollar goes to the publication; the other seventy-five cents go to the vendor. The vendor makes an honest living and the buyer learns a bit about the area's poor and homeless. It's a win-win for everyone.
My point is simply this: if you see someone on the street in a yellow "Street Sense" vest selling Street Sense newspapers for a dollar, do you both a favor and give that person two dollars. He's simply doing his job.
Today I came across a homeless person who was asking for money. One dollar to be exact. It's not the first time I've seen him. And it wasn't the first time I gave him money without hesitation. And, he's not the only homeless person out there asking for exactly one dollar.
See, this homeless fellow is a vendor, an entrepreneur, a salesman. He's out there every day (in this case, on the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Q Street, NW) giving copies of Street Sense for a dollar donation. (You can give more than a dollar, if you so wish.) Street Sense, for those of you who don't know, is a bi-monthly newspaper written by the area's poor and homeless. It is "sold" by the area's poor and homeless as a way to make some money, as opposed to panhandling. Each person (vendor) is essentially their own company ... an outsourcer, if you will. One quarter of every dollar goes to the publication; the other seventy-five cents go to the vendor. The vendor makes an honest living and the buyer learns a bit about the area's poor and homeless. It's a win-win for everyone.
My point is simply this: if you see someone on the street in a yellow "Street Sense" vest selling Street Sense newspapers for a dollar, do you both a favor and give that person two dollars. He's simply doing his job.
15 June 2007
A Low Blow
LaRon Landry is hurt in a bad place. And here I thought "team-building outings" were supposed to, you know, pull teams together. Maybe this is the way football players initiate each other? Ah well, no one ever accused defensive players of being smart.
The Man Gets No Respect
Poor Marion Barry. If he's not being targeted for embarrassment, he's being unjustly portrayed in the media.
It's so hard to be Marion Barry.
It's so hard to be Marion Barry.
And So It Begins
Here it is - the first post of a new blog. What a terrible and wondrous day! How to begin such an auspicious moment? I know ... a couple random thoughts!
==========
I stepped on the elevator to go home tonight. This older lady was already inside. She stared at me as I entered, but I barely noticed as I was in my own musical world at the time. As the doors closed, she made a gesture that I caught out of the corner of my eye ... you know, the kind of gesture one makes before one says something to a total stranger.
"Has anyone ever told you who you look like?" she inquired.
"No, not lately," I replied, only mildly wondering where she was going with this.
"You know who you look like," she countered.
"No, I really don't. Who do I look like?" I asked.
"You look like Robin Thicke. I've only just started listening to his music," she said.
"Well, he hasn't been out all that long," I replied.
And that was the end of our conversation.
==========
I haven't had a drink of alcohol in over a week. Not a single drop. When I go to the bars to hang with my friends, I've been drinking water or soda. (I didn't do this on some whim. There's actually a medical reason for it that I don't care to get into.) Being sober in a bar while surrounded by your drunk friends is quite an interesting experience. I've noticed how out of hand they tend to get. (I never noticed that before, usually because I'm out of hand with them.) I have also enjoyed being out late at night and waking up the next morning ... tired but not hung-over. It's a good feeling.
If there's one drawback to the whole sober-in-a-bar thing, it's that I have no patience for stupidity. And there is more stupidity among drunk people than you can shake a drink stirrer at.
Will I continue on this path of sobriety? Eh, probably not. I won't drink as much as I did before last week but I think I'll still have a drink or two when I'm out (if for no other reason then to tolerate the inebriates).
==========
I don't know what it is about Capital Pride weekend. It's on my Must Do list every year. Pride is a lot like Christmas - you have your assumptions and expectations of how it's going to be, but you really have no idea what you're gonna get.
The Pride Parade this year. Hmm. What to say. It was the Leather Man show. Am I the only one who thought that half of the parade consisted of hairy men bearing their asses to the world? (Pun intended.) What happened to the Latino float? Why can't we get some rides for the religious groups? Where were my bare-breasted lesbians? How about a bit more diversity next year? Ah. Yes. And politicians. I was good to see our mayor, our "Congressional Representative", and about half of our City Council walk in the parade. But there was one politician who marched in our parade yet was conspicuously missing. I don't have a problem with any politician trolling for the "gay vote"; but if you want to be part of our parade, at least have the decency to show. Otherwise it comes off as ... well, you know what it comes off as. What I'm saying is that an enlarged poster of your face doesn't cut it.
Now the Pride Festival. It always seems like the Scrub Show to me. Don't get me wrong - I think using local talent at the Festival is good and all. But c'mon. Rachel Panay? So last year. Crystal Waters? So last decade. Boys, boys boys ... we can do better than that for our main performers, can't we? (Well, God-des & She did rocked the joint.)
==========
I stepped on the elevator to go home tonight. This older lady was already inside. She stared at me as I entered, but I barely noticed as I was in my own musical world at the time. As the doors closed, she made a gesture that I caught out of the corner of my eye ... you know, the kind of gesture one makes before one says something to a total stranger.
"Has anyone ever told you who you look like?" she inquired.
"No, not lately," I replied, only mildly wondering where she was going with this.
"You know who you look like," she countered.
"No, I really don't. Who do I look like?" I asked.
"You look like Robin Thicke. I've only just started listening to his music," she said.
"Well, he hasn't been out all that long," I replied.
And that was the end of our conversation.
==========
I haven't had a drink of alcohol in over a week. Not a single drop. When I go to the bars to hang with my friends, I've been drinking water or soda. (I didn't do this on some whim. There's actually a medical reason for it that I don't care to get into.) Being sober in a bar while surrounded by your drunk friends is quite an interesting experience. I've noticed how out of hand they tend to get. (I never noticed that before, usually because I'm out of hand with them.) I have also enjoyed being out late at night and waking up the next morning ... tired but not hung-over. It's a good feeling.
If there's one drawback to the whole sober-in-a-bar thing, it's that I have no patience for stupidity. And there is more stupidity among drunk people than you can shake a drink stirrer at.
Will I continue on this path of sobriety? Eh, probably not. I won't drink as much as I did before last week but I think I'll still have a drink or two when I'm out (if for no other reason then to tolerate the inebriates).
==========
I don't know what it is about Capital Pride weekend. It's on my Must Do list every year. Pride is a lot like Christmas - you have your assumptions and expectations of how it's going to be, but you really have no idea what you're gonna get.
The Pride Parade this year. Hmm. What to say. It was the Leather Man show. Am I the only one who thought that half of the parade consisted of hairy men bearing their asses to the world? (Pun intended.) What happened to the Latino float? Why can't we get some rides for the religious groups? Where were my bare-breasted lesbians? How about a bit more diversity next year? Ah. Yes. And politicians. I was good to see our mayor, our "Congressional Representative", and about half of our City Council walk in the parade. But there was one politician who marched in our parade yet was conspicuously missing. I don't have a problem with any politician trolling for the "gay vote"; but if you want to be part of our parade, at least have the decency to show. Otherwise it comes off as ... well, you know what it comes off as. What I'm saying is that an enlarged poster of your face doesn't cut it.
Now the Pride Festival. It always seems like the Scrub Show to me. Don't get me wrong - I think using local talent at the Festival is good and all. But c'mon. Rachel Panay? So last year. Crystal Waters? So last decade. Boys, boys boys ... we can do better than that for our main performers, can't we? (Well, God-des & She did rocked the joint.)
16 August 1999
"Lofty Visions for New York Avenue; Can a Dilapidated Gateway to the Nation's Capital Become a Hotbed of High-Tech Activity?"
NOTE: The following article is being posted in its entirety. The original article, written by Maryann Haggerty, was published in The Washington Post on 16 August 1999 and was taken from HighBeam Research.
=================================================
Title: Lofty Visions for New York Avenue; Can a Dilapidated Gateway to the Nation's Capital Become a Hotbed of High-Tech Activity?
Date: August 16, 1999 Publication: The Washington Post Author: Maryann Haggerty
Think about New York Avenue. For just a few minutes, ignore the barbed wire fences that surround the old warehouses. Ignore the traffic jams. Ignore the junky parking lots and the boarded-up buildings that line the road.
Instead, try to imagine a Parisian-style traffic circle where happy couples stroll beneath blooming trees. Or imagine smart young techies flocking to hot companies housed in ultra-cool lofts.
It may all seem like fantasy. Over the years, planners, politicians and developers have produced countless studies and announced as many proposals to rebuild New York Avenue, the District's congested, dilapidated gateway from the Northeast. So far, those efforts have accomplished little, derailed by the District's political and financial problems as well as by economic cycles.
Despite a few new buildings completed over the past decade, the area is largely an amalgamation of underused, out-of-date warehouses. When Federal Express opened a new distribution center at New York and Florida avenues in 1989 and BET Holdings Inc. moved its headquarters to the neighborhood four years later, there was talk from the District and business officials about how those companies would be magnets for further economic development. That hasn't happened.
Once again, though, there are signs of new commercial activity along the corridor, a broad area that stretches from the eastern edge of downtown to the Maryland line. Construction projects are under way, and rumors abound of more new businesses to come. Local landowners and the District have pledged money to build a Metro stop near the intersection of New York and Florida avenues NE. If the federal government signs on, the station could open the way for even more development in the coming years.
Is it finally New York Avenue's turn?
"I think we don't know the answer yet," said Marc Weiss, a former economic development consultant to the city who has remained active in New York Avenue-area redevelopment groups. "But in a realistic sense, this is the best opportunity that's ever come along, because it's grounded in the most solid {economic} expansion that's ever taken place."
The Metro stop could be a "huge step" in luring more development, said Keith Lavey, a research analyst in the Washington office of Grubb & Ellis, a commercial real estate brokerage. "Every time the {real estate} market heats up, this area is focused upon," he said. "But it seems to have fizzled out as the market has fizzled. I think it can work this time if the market sustains itself."
The focus of current development activity is around New York and Florida avenues, where the Metro stop is envisioned. The most tangible sign of an upturn in the neighborhood's fortunes is the transformation of two old warehouses into new commercial space.
One project is the renovation of an old printing company warehouse at 1500 Eckington Pl. NE into a 238,000-square-foot building targeted at telecommunications companies and other high-tech users. Qwest Communications International Inc. of Denver has agreed to rent almost half the building for a switching center. The company picked the location primarily because it's close to fiber-optic lines that run along the railroad right of way.
The other project is the renovation and expansion of the former Peoples Drug warehouse at 77 P St. NE. Local developer Douglas Jemal has enough land to build as much as a million square feet of office and retail space; steel is now being erected for the first 370,000- square-foot building, which is scheduled for completion before year- end. Jemal has no tenants for the project, but he thinks it will attract a federal or local government agency.
So far, Qwest is the only new employer to sign up for the area. But there are plenty of other deals about to happen, according to boosters and the ever-active real estate rumor mill. Among the rumors:
There will soon be another sizable high-tech tenant at 1500 Eckington. "By the end of the summer, I'll have something to announce," said Stephen Muller of Union Realty Partners, a District company that is working on the project along with the Bernstein Cos., another D.C. development firm. The most persistent rumors are that the tenant is either XM Satellite Radio, a Washington company developing a new type of radio broadcast, or Enews.com, also District-based, which sells magazines over the Internet. No one directly involved is commenting.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is seriously evaluating a District-owned site at New York and Florida avenues for a large new headquarters with space for about 1,000 workers. The General Services Administration, the federal government's real estate agency, plans to complete a study of the site over the next two months.
BET Holdings Inc., parent of Black Entertainment Television, wants to add two technology-oriented buildings to its existing three- building headquarters campus. They would provide incubator space for small companies as well as room for BET's own growing operations. The company has already submitted a proposal to acquire the necessary city-owned tract; it's impossible to say when the city will decide.
Railroad company CSX Corp., a major landowner in the area, may have a buyer in sight for the 20 remaining acres at its Capital Commerce Center, the decade-old office/industrial park where Federal Express and State Farm already have buildings. Bill Cromwell, assistant vice president of CSX Real Property Inc., said he couldn't comment because he was bound by a confidentiality agreement -- often a sign that a deal is pending.
Other high-tech firms may be considering space in the former Woodward & Lothrop warehouse at 131 M St. NE. A "large technology company" supposedly is eyeing at least some of the space at the boarded-up building, which is owned by Bristol Group of California on behalf of its pension fund clients. The most frequent subject of those rumors is MCI WorldCom Inc. Again, no comments.
Beyond those buildings, there are even more dramatic dreams for the area. Weiss and others say it's perfect for more high-tech companies that would be drawn by the funky spaces that can be carved from old warehouses, a sort of lower-Manhattan-on-the-Anacostia. When he was working for the city, Weiss dubbed the eastern part of the area NoMa, or North of Massachusetts Avenue, in conscious imitation of New York City; one task force proposed a plan for redeveloping it into a mix of commercial and residential space with an artsy, techy flavor.
"The tech companies that have showed up at our door -- and it seems that everyone who shows up at our door is a tech company -- have all made the decision that they want to stay downtown," Muller said. Maybe it's cheaper to move out to the suburbs, he said, "but it's an issue of culture and location." Overwhelmingly, growing technology companies are choosing Virginia locations, but in a few cases, the reasoning is that young, often single employees just don't want to live in quiet family-oriented suburbs.
Turning the neighborhood into a tech haven is a modest goal, compared with Ron Linton's vision. Linton led a mayoral task force that in 1996 produced a $2 billion proposal for overhauling the avenue from Seventh Street NW to the Maryland line. He now heads a group called Save New York Avenue Inc. and continues to push the plan.
The plan calls for a 1.2-mile traffic tunnel to funnel Interstate 395 traffic under the street, a deck over the railroad that would create a huge space for new office buildings, and the redesign of the avenue into a grand boulevard. Part of that redesign: a "grand circle," Paris-style, at New York and Florida avenues.
While it's easy to be skeptical about anything that requires $2 billion of federal money, Linton thinks his group's plan could become real. A federal loan, he said, could be repaid from special assessments levied on the office space that would be built on those decks over the railroad tracks.
He said, "It's not inconceivable in a perfect world that it could all be done by the time that the city is getting ready to host the 2012 Olympics." That, of course, is not exactly a sure bet either.
Whatever happens, New York Avenue as it is now has serious, persistent traffic problems that could become even worse if more companies move there. Just because the plan is highly ambitious is no reason to shelve it, said Diane Pratt, a government relations and economic development consultant who was on the task force and was involved with some neighborhood economic development efforts when she was a city employee.
"Ron has helped put on paper a clear vision," she said. "Now it becomes, what is an implementation strategy?"
If ATF chooses to move to the New York Avenue site, that would be a major impetus for local and federal planners to think about traffic fixes, she said. "How do we prioritize what makes sense to start with?"
Other plans have gone nowhere. For example, in 1993 then-council member John Ray pushed a proposal to establish a New York Avenue development commission similar to the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corp., which spearheaded the overhaul of that street from tawdry to world-class.
"I always felt it could have as great an impact on the city as the redevelopment of Pennsylvania Avenue, and ultimately could mean more and produce more jobs and improve living conditions and provide services to D.C. residents," Ray said recently.
Even though his proposal went nowhere, Ray said he's still a New York Avenue booster. "I think there's a feeling something really can happen out there," he said.
Why does New York Avenue attract all this attention, anyway? It's a matter of geography equaling destiny. Linton points out that before the interstate highway system, Rhode Island Avenue was the primary gateway to the city from the Northeast because it carries U.S. 1, once the East Coast's major highway. But in 1954, the Baltimore- Washington Parkway opened, and I-95 followed.
So all those New Yorkers were now coming into the District via New York Avenue, even though the longtime industrial and warehouse district provides a very ugly welcome to the nation's capital.
In more recent years, real estate developers have rebuilt almost all of the District's downtown west of where New York Avenue connects to I-395. The area around Union Station has also been transformed in the last dozen years or so. So the next place development can creep eastward is the New York Avenue corridor.
"This is really one of the last undeveloped areas in the city, if you think about it," Pratt said.
The corridor's commercial areas could hold 20 to 30 million square feet of development -- a third again of the city's existing base of office and industrial buildings.
"It creates a good area to start with a clean slate and develop large-tenant buildings," said Steven Peay, executive vice president of local development firm Steven A. Goldberg Co. and a leader of the business group backing the Metro stop. "There's no place left in Washington to do that."
Peay said, "There's a lot of junky stuff that will all get bulldozed. It's a competitive alternative to downtown."
"It's an obvious extension of {the neighborhood around} Union Station," said Kurt Stout, another research analyst at Grubb & Ellis.
He said, "There's no question it's a fringe market, but so was the East End nine years ago."
When BET built its headquarters building in 1993, "the District at that time promised us we'd have all sorts of tenants," said President Debra Lee. That didn't happen; instead, BET has expanded to fill the space, and it needs more.
The company's isolation has not been a problem, she said. "We've become very self-sufficient. We can just live inside the building." She joked that she's not bothered by the building's railroad-track view, because "we're so busy over here, we don't have time to look out the window."
Still, Lee said, "it might be nice to have some support services, like restaurants, grocery stores or dry cleaners."
If her company completes the new high-tech buildings it has proposed, it plans to try again to lure some business neighbors to the new space.
"We just always have had that vision for over here, especially with the high tech," she said. "We'd like to be part of encouraging businesses to locate here."
Copyright 2009 The Washington Post
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Title: Lofty Visions for New York Avenue; Can a Dilapidated Gateway to the Nation's Capital Become a Hotbed of High-Tech Activity?
Date: August 16, 1999 Publication: The Washington Post Author: Maryann Haggerty
Think about New York Avenue. For just a few minutes, ignore the barbed wire fences that surround the old warehouses. Ignore the traffic jams. Ignore the junky parking lots and the boarded-up buildings that line the road.
Instead, try to imagine a Parisian-style traffic circle where happy couples stroll beneath blooming trees. Or imagine smart young techies flocking to hot companies housed in ultra-cool lofts.
It may all seem like fantasy. Over the years, planners, politicians and developers have produced countless studies and announced as many proposals to rebuild New York Avenue, the District's congested, dilapidated gateway from the Northeast. So far, those efforts have accomplished little, derailed by the District's political and financial problems as well as by economic cycles.
Despite a few new buildings completed over the past decade, the area is largely an amalgamation of underused, out-of-date warehouses. When Federal Express opened a new distribution center at New York and Florida avenues in 1989 and BET Holdings Inc. moved its headquarters to the neighborhood four years later, there was talk from the District and business officials about how those companies would be magnets for further economic development. That hasn't happened.
Once again, though, there are signs of new commercial activity along the corridor, a broad area that stretches from the eastern edge of downtown to the Maryland line. Construction projects are under way, and rumors abound of more new businesses to come. Local landowners and the District have pledged money to build a Metro stop near the intersection of New York and Florida avenues NE. If the federal government signs on, the station could open the way for even more development in the coming years.
Is it finally New York Avenue's turn?
"I think we don't know the answer yet," said Marc Weiss, a former economic development consultant to the city who has remained active in New York Avenue-area redevelopment groups. "But in a realistic sense, this is the best opportunity that's ever come along, because it's grounded in the most solid {economic} expansion that's ever taken place."
The Metro stop could be a "huge step" in luring more development, said Keith Lavey, a research analyst in the Washington office of Grubb & Ellis, a commercial real estate brokerage. "Every time the {real estate} market heats up, this area is focused upon," he said. "But it seems to have fizzled out as the market has fizzled. I think it can work this time if the market sustains itself."
The focus of current development activity is around New York and Florida avenues, where the Metro stop is envisioned. The most tangible sign of an upturn in the neighborhood's fortunes is the transformation of two old warehouses into new commercial space.
One project is the renovation of an old printing company warehouse at 1500 Eckington Pl. NE into a 238,000-square-foot building targeted at telecommunications companies and other high-tech users. Qwest Communications International Inc. of Denver has agreed to rent almost half the building for a switching center. The company picked the location primarily because it's close to fiber-optic lines that run along the railroad right of way.
The other project is the renovation and expansion of the former Peoples Drug warehouse at 77 P St. NE. Local developer Douglas Jemal has enough land to build as much as a million square feet of office and retail space; steel is now being erected for the first 370,000- square-foot building, which is scheduled for completion before year- end. Jemal has no tenants for the project, but he thinks it will attract a federal or local government agency.
So far, Qwest is the only new employer to sign up for the area. But there are plenty of other deals about to happen, according to boosters and the ever-active real estate rumor mill. Among the rumors:
There will soon be another sizable high-tech tenant at 1500 Eckington. "By the end of the summer, I'll have something to announce," said Stephen Muller of Union Realty Partners, a District company that is working on the project along with the Bernstein Cos., another D.C. development firm. The most persistent rumors are that the tenant is either XM Satellite Radio, a Washington company developing a new type of radio broadcast, or Enews.com, also District-based, which sells magazines over the Internet. No one directly involved is commenting.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is seriously evaluating a District-owned site at New York and Florida avenues for a large new headquarters with space for about 1,000 workers. The General Services Administration, the federal government's real estate agency, plans to complete a study of the site over the next two months.
BET Holdings Inc., parent of Black Entertainment Television, wants to add two technology-oriented buildings to its existing three- building headquarters campus. They would provide incubator space for small companies as well as room for BET's own growing operations. The company has already submitted a proposal to acquire the necessary city-owned tract; it's impossible to say when the city will decide.
Railroad company CSX Corp., a major landowner in the area, may have a buyer in sight for the 20 remaining acres at its Capital Commerce Center, the decade-old office/industrial park where Federal Express and State Farm already have buildings. Bill Cromwell, assistant vice president of CSX Real Property Inc., said he couldn't comment because he was bound by a confidentiality agreement -- often a sign that a deal is pending.
Other high-tech firms may be considering space in the former Woodward & Lothrop warehouse at 131 M St. NE. A "large technology company" supposedly is eyeing at least some of the space at the boarded-up building, which is owned by Bristol Group of California on behalf of its pension fund clients. The most frequent subject of those rumors is MCI WorldCom Inc. Again, no comments.
Beyond those buildings, there are even more dramatic dreams for the area. Weiss and others say it's perfect for more high-tech companies that would be drawn by the funky spaces that can be carved from old warehouses, a sort of lower-Manhattan-on-the-Anacostia. When he was working for the city, Weiss dubbed the eastern part of the area NoMa, or North of Massachusetts Avenue, in conscious imitation of New York City; one task force proposed a plan for redeveloping it into a mix of commercial and residential space with an artsy, techy flavor.
"The tech companies that have showed up at our door -- and it seems that everyone who shows up at our door is a tech company -- have all made the decision that they want to stay downtown," Muller said. Maybe it's cheaper to move out to the suburbs, he said, "but it's an issue of culture and location." Overwhelmingly, growing technology companies are choosing Virginia locations, but in a few cases, the reasoning is that young, often single employees just don't want to live in quiet family-oriented suburbs.
Turning the neighborhood into a tech haven is a modest goal, compared with Ron Linton's vision. Linton led a mayoral task force that in 1996 produced a $2 billion proposal for overhauling the avenue from Seventh Street NW to the Maryland line. He now heads a group called Save New York Avenue Inc. and continues to push the plan.
The plan calls for a 1.2-mile traffic tunnel to funnel Interstate 395 traffic under the street, a deck over the railroad that would create a huge space for new office buildings, and the redesign of the avenue into a grand boulevard. Part of that redesign: a "grand circle," Paris-style, at New York and Florida avenues.
While it's easy to be skeptical about anything that requires $2 billion of federal money, Linton thinks his group's plan could become real. A federal loan, he said, could be repaid from special assessments levied on the office space that would be built on those decks over the railroad tracks.
He said, "It's not inconceivable in a perfect world that it could all be done by the time that the city is getting ready to host the 2012 Olympics." That, of course, is not exactly a sure bet either.
Whatever happens, New York Avenue as it is now has serious, persistent traffic problems that could become even worse if more companies move there. Just because the plan is highly ambitious is no reason to shelve it, said Diane Pratt, a government relations and economic development consultant who was on the task force and was involved with some neighborhood economic development efforts when she was a city employee.
"Ron has helped put on paper a clear vision," she said. "Now it becomes, what is an implementation strategy?"
If ATF chooses to move to the New York Avenue site, that would be a major impetus for local and federal planners to think about traffic fixes, she said. "How do we prioritize what makes sense to start with?"
Other plans have gone nowhere. For example, in 1993 then-council member John Ray pushed a proposal to establish a New York Avenue development commission similar to the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corp., which spearheaded the overhaul of that street from tawdry to world-class.
"I always felt it could have as great an impact on the city as the redevelopment of Pennsylvania Avenue, and ultimately could mean more and produce more jobs and improve living conditions and provide services to D.C. residents," Ray said recently.
Even though his proposal went nowhere, Ray said he's still a New York Avenue booster. "I think there's a feeling something really can happen out there," he said.
Why does New York Avenue attract all this attention, anyway? It's a matter of geography equaling destiny. Linton points out that before the interstate highway system, Rhode Island Avenue was the primary gateway to the city from the Northeast because it carries U.S. 1, once the East Coast's major highway. But in 1954, the Baltimore- Washington Parkway opened, and I-95 followed.
So all those New Yorkers were now coming into the District via New York Avenue, even though the longtime industrial and warehouse district provides a very ugly welcome to the nation's capital.
In more recent years, real estate developers have rebuilt almost all of the District's downtown west of where New York Avenue connects to I-395. The area around Union Station has also been transformed in the last dozen years or so. So the next place development can creep eastward is the New York Avenue corridor.
"This is really one of the last undeveloped areas in the city, if you think about it," Pratt said.
The corridor's commercial areas could hold 20 to 30 million square feet of development -- a third again of the city's existing base of office and industrial buildings.
"It creates a good area to start with a clean slate and develop large-tenant buildings," said Steven Peay, executive vice president of local development firm Steven A. Goldberg Co. and a leader of the business group backing the Metro stop. "There's no place left in Washington to do that."
Peay said, "There's a lot of junky stuff that will all get bulldozed. It's a competitive alternative to downtown."
"It's an obvious extension of {the neighborhood around} Union Station," said Kurt Stout, another research analyst at Grubb & Ellis.
He said, "There's no question it's a fringe market, but so was the East End nine years ago."
When BET built its headquarters building in 1993, "the District at that time promised us we'd have all sorts of tenants," said President Debra Lee. That didn't happen; instead, BET has expanded to fill the space, and it needs more.
The company's isolation has not been a problem, she said. "We've become very self-sufficient. We can just live inside the building." She joked that she's not bothered by the building's railroad-track view, because "we're so busy over here, we don't have time to look out the window."
Still, Lee said, "it might be nice to have some support services, like restaurants, grocery stores or dry cleaners."
If her company completes the new high-tech buildings it has proposed, it plans to try again to lure some business neighbors to the new space.
"We just always have had that vision for over here, especially with the high tech," she said. "We'd like to be part of encouraging businesses to locate here."
Copyright 2009 The Washington Post
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