Happy New Year! I hope everyone made it through last night's festivities relatively unscathed, and are enoying a day of rest, relaxation, and college football. A lot of blogs are using the calendar change to look back and look ahead, but I generally wait until late January to do that as part of my annual State of the Hood report, so you'll just have to hang on a few more weeks. But it doesn't take a lot of surfing around the site to get a feel for the changes that came to Near Southeast in 2007--35 demolished buildings, one nearly completed baseball stadium, and a bunch of new skeletons and holes in the ground. I've updated my somewhat neglected Development by the Numbers today to accurately reflect the stats on construction in the neighborhood since the first wave of development began in 1999, and suffice to say the difference between "completed" and "under construction" tallies shows that things accelerated just a touch in 2007. But as I said, I'll be doing a much more complete report soon. In the meantime, I'm trying to charge my batteries for the onslaught that 2008 will bring, especially leading up to Opening Day.

* I'm not about to plunk down the $35 a month for a subscription to find out for sure, but this BidClerk.com posting on a search for a general contractor sounds pretty familiar: "Renovation of and a new addition to a multi-residential complex in Washington. Completed construction plans call for the construction of a six-story, 170-unit apartment building to include renovation of an existing four-story, 157,000-square-foot warehouse with a two-story, 49,000-square-foot addition above the existing roof. General contractor bids are due January 10, 2008." Could there really be that many buildings in the city other than the brown-and-white Pattern/Joiner Shop at The Yards that would so perfectly fit that description?

* If you're driving through the intersection at Half and I, you might be so distracted by the temporary blacktop that now cuts across the old southwest corner that you miss the new sign on the southeast corner advertising DRI/Transwestern's Square 696 project. There's a rendering but no other details.

* The DC Foreign Car garage at 31 K (on the 1015 Half Street site) has just a few hours to become the last demolished building of 2007. But maybe they're gunning for the honor of being the first one of 2008.

I also took some new photos to capture the progress at 55 M Street, plus the completion of demolition at 1345 South Capitol.

If you don't feel like clicking around on all those links, here's all the photos I've posted in the past week. Try not to be blinded by those blue skies!

A few other items of note: The BP Amoco station on the northeast corner of South Capitol and N has fences up around it--I can't believe no one let me know! It's owned by Monument Realty, and I haven't heard about any near-term plans for the site. This leaves only one gas station in Near Southeast--the Exxon way over at 11th and M. There used to be three gas stations on South Capitol, now there aren't any. (And I've lost yet another source for my Gas Prices page. Waah!)

Also, new fences have gone up around the 1015 Half Street site, taking up one lane on K Street and on Half Street. Some exterior work was done to the DC Foreign Car building, but the little building is still there. For now.

I hope to get updated photos of 70/100 I and the pile of rubble that used to be old Capper Seniors within the next week. There's just too much activity to document these days--I've got to break it up into manageable pieces....

This FAQ is now the default ballpark page, and replaces the old Stadium Renderings gallery, which has now been moved to a new page (after all, renderings are less important when the dang thing is just about three months away from opening!). So if your bookmarks have changed, apologies. The exterior and interior stadium photo galleries are still in their proper places.

(As for why on earth I didn't do a page like this a loooooong time ago, I plead insanity. Yeesh.)

I hope to go back within a few days and update the South Capitol Street views, since they're now almost six weeks old. (I was holding to a petulant moratorium of not updating those photos after the various run-ins I had had with security at First and N, though perhaps also I was just taking the opportunity for a bit of a rest break, which was sorely needed.) New shots from along N Street will probably come before too much longer, though the construction work along there as well as the low December sun will make it hard to get too many good photos along the ballpark's northern edge for a while.

Merry Christmas!

The meeting included updates on the road improvements in the area and the Navy Yard Metro station upgrades, both of which are still on track to be basically done by opening day (the Metro station might "still need another coat of paint", it was said, but will be "serviceable").

The Nationals are still working out their parking plans, not only in terms of the lots near the ballpark but also the satellite parking at RFK, and all the additional planning that goes with it (traffic flow, signage, shuttle buses, drop off/pick up locations, etc.). It appears as of now that there might not be season-ticket-holder lots in Southwest at all, not even at Buzzards Point. There was also mention that stadium-goers will not be funneled through the South Capitol Street exit of the freeway--the team is going to try very hard to move fans through all the other close-by freeway exits, but not South Capitol Street.

Circulator buses will not be part of the transit plans for the first season. But they're planning plenty of bike racks around the ballpark perimeter, and are also still working on a bicycle "valet" parking service.

Also, there's tentative plans for two stadium job fairs, possibly on Feb. 2 and Feb. 26 (details still being worked out).

And, everybody knows that the first few games will be "a challenge."

The general tone of the meeting was more cooperative and collegial than some of these meetings have been in the past (maybe because Tommy Wells was there for the first part and everyone wanted to be on their best behavior). There's plans for more meetings and workshops between these "stakeholders" (I really hate that word) to try to hammer out the best plans for traffic, pedestrian flow, and "curbside management" (aka on-street parking) before it's all then unveiled to the community at public meetings. There was also agreement that the group should get together after the first homestand in April to talk about what works/what doesn't.

UPDATE: Speaking of public meetings, here is the official announcement about the Jan. 11 city council Committee on Economic Development oversight hearing on "Parking and Traffic Plan for the Nationals' Stadium." It contains information on how to testify at the hearing, if you're so inclined.

Plus, buried at the end is this item that will perk up everyone's taste buds: "Another bit of welcome news: They're making a sign to go above a Ben's Chili Bowl stand. The legendary U Street eatery will have an outpost at the ballpark."

UPDATE II: DCist does a bit of calling around and determines that Ben's Chili Bowl at the ballpark is not quite a done deal: ""We are in a good faith conversation with them, but it would be premature to say it's definitely happening. There is no signed contract yet."

And all the stories about Gelberg signs in the past few days make a bit more sense now that I see that there was an unveiling of the ballpark's exterior signage today at Gelberg's offices in Northwest. (Here's a link to the PR NewsWire piece, but the site hasn't been responding for the past few hours.)