The latest issue of the bi-weekly Voice of the Hill is now posted on their web site (a big ole' PDF), with a big Voters Guide in advance of the Sept. 12 DC Primary, with question-and-answer tables comparing the stands of the candidates for Mayor, Council Chair, Council-at-Large, and Ward 6 (where Near Southeast is located). There's also on page 36 a nice piece about the history of the Navy Yard, mentioning that the Latrobe Gate at 8th and M is celebrating it's bicentennial this year, with a ceremony on the boards for sometime in mid-September. The Commandant's Office (Building 1) was rededicated in August after it's renovation.

No news yet on the fate of the Herb Miller/Garages Wrapped With Development Goodness plan to solve the issue of parking at the new baseball stadium (despite the Sept. 1 date when the financing was supposed to be in place having now arrived), but the Post editorial page weighs in on the lonely plight of CEO Gandhi trying to make sure that the DC taxpayers' interests don't strike out.

The agenda for the September ANC 6D meeting has been released; items of Near Southeast interest include a vote on the request for alley closings on the east side of Square 701 and also a presentation on changes in the Florida Rock PUD in advance of it's Sept. 18 zoning hearing. (Perhaps the Square 737/739 alley closing will get added to the agenda as well, it was supposed to be referred back to the full commission from the Development Committee for this meeting.) The meeting is on Sept. 11 at 7 pm at 65 I Street SW.

Oops, I missed this badly. The August Hill Rag's report from the July ANC 6D meeting gives us our first description of what's being planned for 1st Street between M and N (just north of the stadium and part of the Ballpark District area): "a 515,000 square foot mixed use office, residential and retail development. The office building will be 11 stories[;] the apartment building, which will contain 252 units, will be 12 stories. There will be 499 parking spaces, more than a hundred more than the number mandated by regulation." This was revealed as part of the alley closing request, which was referred to the ANC's development committee, and will be reconsidered by the full commission at it's Sept. 11 meeting.

The DCRA has approved JPI's building permit application for its 70 I Street residential project, which is listed as valued at $20 million. Still pending is the permit app for 100 I Street, it's sister building to be built right next door. JPI has said that they planned to begin construction on this project in Fall 2006, so that would appear to still be on track. There's also an application filed for 909 New Jersey, JPI's other pending residential tower in Near Southeast (on the site of the Nexus Gold Club), which may also get underway by the end of the year.

NBC4 does a nice piece on the "green" roof at the new Department of Transportation headquarters, but alas can't look at a map and determine that the building is in Southeast, not Southwest.

I'm slow in posting this (political campaigning leaves me cold), but here's the WashTimes description from yesterday of a mayoral candidates forum it recently held, "Candidates Revisit Baseball Deal." Michael Brown's "plan" to halt construction on South Capitol Street and move the stadium to RFK (giggle, chortle) was attacked, and Adrian Fenty said that although he voted against the stadium plan, as mayor it would be his job to make it a success.

Yeah, I ranted a few hours ago about how I wouldn't be taking photos of the stadium every five minutes. But that fit of pique ran right up against the fact that it's been two weeks since I ventured up to my South Capitol Street perch, and the construction is really starting to look like, well, a baseball stadium. So I took a couple of new shots and added them to the Stadium Construction Photo Gallery. While I'm never going to be as up-to-date as the stadium webcam, I do have one leg up on it: different angles :-).

As promised by EYA, a sign announcing the impending Capitol Quarter project at Capper/Carrollsburg has indeed gone up at 4th and L, next to the soon-to-be-sales-center trailers. And with perhaps a stronger level of urgency now felt, the molasses-like demolition of the old Capper buildings on the block bounded by 3rd, 4th, I, and K has shifted into a higher gear, with one of the interior buildings finally demolished this week and demolition underway on the buildings facing 3rd Street. Photos of these terribly important developments are now on my Capper photos page. (I guess I might have to start transitioning out of calling this area Capper/Carrollsburg....)

Just a small reminder/plea.... Construction at the stadium is proceeding briskly, and people are of course very excited about it. However, my goal at this site is really to document an overall feel of change, not necessarily every single iota of progress. I'm getting e-mails from people along the lines of "you should know they poured another concrete pillar today" (a bit of an exaggeration, but not as much as you might think). If you want minute-by-minute views of the stadium's construction, the Clark/Hunt/Smoot Stadium Construction Webcam is the site for you. I'll continue to take photos every few weeks as I always have and put those on my Stadium Construction Photo Gallery, so that you can see how the blocks are transforming, but bookmark the webcam if you're wanting more.

A short blurb from Friday's Post: "D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi asked the city's attorney general yesterday to rule on the legality of a plan for a private developer to build a mix of parking garages, condominiums and shops adjacent to the new baseball stadium. In a two-page letter, Gandhi expressed concern that the plan would violate the $611 million stadium cost cap adopted by the D.C. Council and a ban on using the money the city would receive from development rights near the stadium to build the garages. Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) and other city officials are aiming to complete an agreement by Sept. 1 with developer Herbert S. Miller to build the garages and condos." (Boy, I've enjoyed these past few weeks without any news on this. But I'm guessing next week this'll be back with a vengeance. Blech.)

The parade of alley closings and street closings/realignments this year in Near Southeast continues, as the National Capital Planning Commission has on its September meeting agenda the proposed closing of a public alley in Square 701 (the square bounded by 1st, M, N and Half Streets, SE--see my cruddy tax parcel map for assistance on where the squares are). I figured that this was going to be the alleys in the footprint of the Monument/WMATA properties, since Monument has made clear it's plans to move forward with developing the land along Half Street, but instead I find out that the alley closings being requested are on the east side of the Square, between Cushing Place and 1st Street, where the land is owned by the Cohen and Camalier families, who have said little about their plans for these properties. Does this mean we'll be seeing development coming to 1st Street south of M soon, too? And believe it or not, as I was writing this very entry, I received word that Monument has now filed it's application for alley closings on the west side of Square 701 as well as one small alley on Square 700 (behind the Amoco Station). Note that neither of these applications request closings of Van or Cushing. These applications follow successful alley closing requests already this year for Square 0743N as part of the 100 M and 1100 1st Street projects, the street/alley closings for the new ballpark, and the closed alleys and new streets for Capper/Carrollsburg--plus there are the still-pending requests to realign the streets in Square 737 in preparation for William C. Smith's big mixed-use project at 2nd and H and the Lerners' request to close a small portion of an alley in Square 697 as part of their 1000 South Capitol office project (no bills for these yet appearing in the DC Council legislation database).

Within the last 24 hours, two well-appointed cream-colored trailers (or small manufactured homes, if you prefer) have been deposited on the now-cleared-and-smoothed lot at 4th and L, smack dab in the middle of Capper/Carrollsburg. I have no information, I'm merely speculating, but these trailers look very much like the trailers that developers use to house Sales Centers before a project's construction begins. And EYA's Capitol Quarter info page still says "Coming Fall 2006." And it's almost fall. Make of it what you will. And I'll see if EYA has anything they'd like to share. Again, I know nothing for sure, I'm just passing along what I saw. UPDATE: EYA confirms to me that the trailers are indeed for the Sales Center, and that a sign should be installed this week as well, with construction on the Sales Center to begin within a week or two. And, if this is a project that you are interested in, I'd suggest registering on EYA's web site to be contacted with more information when the time comes--people on those types of lists tend to get first crack at the offerings.

I've been told by Opus East, the developer of 100 M Street, that the work being done along 1st and along M this past week or so has been the capping of the utilities in preparation for demolition, which should be starting next week (the week of Aug. 28).

Today's Washington Times reports that DC mayoral candidate Michael Brown has vowed to "stop construction of the Washington Nationals' baseball stadium on South Capitol Street and instead would refurbish RFK Stadium for the team." He will apparently be holding a press conference this week to detail his plans. Additionally: "Mr. Brown acknowledged the apparent difficulties in gaining the approval of all interested parties for a new stadium deal but said he can do it. 'I didn't say it was easy, and there are a lot of different moving pieces.' " In other the-stadium-is-a-boondoggle highlights from the weekend, the WashTimes editorial board compares the financing for the new Yankee stadium to what DC "negotiated" to get the Nats to DC (i.e., stop pointing the gun at us, Bud, we'll give you everything you want, just so you'll finally put a team in one of the biggest markets in the country), but also uses it to once again castigate the Lerners for standing in the way of the city's desire to recoup some money by building the Garages Wrapped With Development Goodness. In addition, local muckraking institution DC Watch has had much discussion from its readers over the past few weeks about the stadium and it's financing, and addresses it specifically in its current issue.

I don't post most crimes reported in Near Southeast, because in the months that I've been watching the stats (at crimereports.com and now crimeindc.org) they've all been pretty much car thefts or thefts from cars, which I don't reproduce here because you'd all die of boredom. But here's a good one: on Thursday Aug. 17 at 9:11 pm in the 1000 block of South Capitol Street SE, "c3 was approached by c1/2 in reference to an incident that occurred on a previous day. c1 then attacked c3 pulling c3's hair extensions out [emphasis mine]. c1 at this time began punching c3 about the body with closed fists. witnesses separated c1/2 from c3." This was actually reported as an Assault With a Deadly Weapon--was that the fists or the extensions? (On a more serious note, while this is technically across the Great Divide and out of my purview, I'll link to this story about a shooting on Friday night at 1st and P SW, because the Post couldn't stop mentioning how close it is to the new stadium site.)

From today's Washington Business Journal print version (available online to subscribers only for 30 days), news that Monument Realty, which owns most of the land facing Half Street between M and N not controlled by WMATA, has stopped waiting for the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation to get the Ballpark District rolling and has submitted an unsolicited proposal directly to WMATA to incorporate the Navy Yard Station's Half-and-M entrance and the adjacent WMATA parking lot into an office building that Monument wants to build. Metro then put out a Request for Proposals so that other developers could bid on the land (bids are due by 3 pm Aug. 21). If Monument's bid is successful, they say they can move forward "more promptly" with their plans for an office building with ground floor retail at that spot. AWC doesn't really seem all that concerned; Adrian Washington is quoted as saying "Our goal is to redevelop the ballpark district. We're fine either way." Monument, which would manage the government-funded $15 million expansion of the Metro station, says that they need to get control of the property ASAP in order to be able to have the station upgrades completed by Opening Day 2008. The article also notes that AWC expects to have a land disposition agreement completed by next month for Forest City Washington to purchase a portion of the WASA land at 1st and O; but color me a bit skeptical on timeline announcements from AWC these days.

This is a little old at this point, but here's the prepared remarks of CFO Natwar Gandhi when he testified before the council's Committee on Economic Development on July 6 about his concerns with Herb Miller's proposal for the Garages Wrapped With Development Goodness.

It appears that the work being done at 1st and M (wrapping back toward L Street) is plumbing/pipe work of some sort under the street and sidewalks, not any-second-now demolition of On Luck and the other buildings (although I imagine that's not far behind, given that construction on 100 M Street is supposed to start "late summer 2006" according to Opus East). And the Sunoco station at 50 M Street is indeed now being dismantled. But still no announcement of any big deal for that lot.

With 20 M Street and Capper Seniors #2 both in the midst of the Speedy, Obvious Progress Being Made phase, I'm taking a lot of pictures of them, and so have posted new photos yet again. And since I got a wide-angle lens for my birthday last week, you'll note that some of the pictures have a different look to them than my usual fare. No, the buildings aren't in danger of falling over, it's just the lens doing what's necessary to get a 10-story building into frame from a vantage point across the street, rather than three blocks away :-).