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Near Southeast DC Past News Items
- Full Neighborhood Development MapThere's a lot more than just the projects listed here. See the complete map of completed, underway, and proposed projects all across the neighborhood.
- What's New This YearA quick look at what's arrived or been announced since the end of the 2018 baseball season.
- Food Options, Now and Coming SoonThere's now plenty of food options in the neighborhood. Click to see what's here, and what's coming.
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- Anacostia RiverwalkA bridge between Teague and Yards Parks is part of the planned 20-mile Anacostia Riverwalk multi-use trail along the east and west banks of the Anacostia River.
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- Virginia Ave. Tunnel ExpansionConstruction underway in 2015 to expand the 106-year-old tunnel to allow for a second track and double-height cars. Expected completion 2018.
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- Rail and Bus Times
Get real time data for the Navy Yard subway, Circulator, Bikeshare, and bus lines, plus additional transit information. - Rail and Bus Times
Get real time data for the Navy Yard subway, Circulator, Bikeshare, and bus lines, plus additional transit information. - Canal ParkThree-block park on the site of the old Washington Canal. Construction begun in spring 2011, opened Nov. 16, 2012.
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- Nationals Park21-acre site, 41,000-seat ballpark, construction begun May 2006, Opening Day March 30, 2008.
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- Washington Navy YardHeadquarters of the Naval District Washington, established in 1799.
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- Yards Park5.5-acre park on the banks of the Anacostia. First phase completed September 2010.
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- Van Ness Elementary SchoolDC Public School, closed in 2006, but reopening in stages beginning in 2015.
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- Agora/Whole Foods336-unit apartment building at 800 New Jersey Ave., SE. Construction begun June 2014, move-ins underway early 2018. Whole Foods expected to open in late 2018.
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- New Douglass BridgeConstruction underway in early 2018 on the replacement for the current South Capitol Street Bridge. Completion expected in 2021.
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- 1221 Van290-unit residential building with 26,000 sf retail. Underway late 2015, completed early 2018.
- NAB HQ/AvidianNew headquarters for National Association of Broadcasters, along with a 163-unit condo building. Construction underway early 2017.
- Yards/Parcel O Residential ProjectsThe Bower, a 138-unit condo building by PN Hoffman, and The Guild, a 190-unit rental building by Forest City on the southeast corner of 4th and Tingey. Underway fall 2016, delivery 2018.
- New DC Water HQA wrap-around six-story addition to the existing O Street Pumping Station. Construction underway in 2016, with completion in 2018.
- The Harlow/Square 769N AptsMixed-income rental building with 176 units, including 36 public housing units. Underway early 2017, delivery 2019.
- West Half Residential420-unit project with 65,000 sf retail. Construction underway spring 2017.
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- Novel South Capitol/2 I St.530ish-unit apartment building in two phases, on old McDonald's site. Construction underway early 2017, completed summer 2019.
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- 1250 Half/Envy310 rental units at 1250, 123 condos at Envy, 60,000 square feet of retail. Underway spring 2017.
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- Parc Riverside Phase II314ish-unit residential building at 1010 Half St., SE, by Toll Bros. Construction underway summer 2017.
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- 99 M StreetA 224,000-square-foot office building by Skanska for the corner of 1st and M. Underway fall 2015, substantially complete summer 2018. Circa and an unnamed sibling restaurant announced tenants.
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- The Garrett375-unit rental building at 2nd and I with 13,000 sq ft retail. Construction underway late fall 2017.
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- Yards/The Estate Apts. and Thompson Hotel270-unit rental building and 227-room Thompson Hotel, with 20,000 sq ft retail total. Construction underway fall 2017.
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- Meridian on First275-unit residential building, by Paradigm. Construction underway early 2018.
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- The Maren/71 Potomac264-unit residential building with 12,500 sq ft retail, underway spring 2018. Phase 2 of RiverFront on the Anacostia development.
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- DC Crossing/Square 696Block bought in 2016 by Tishman Speyer, with plans for 800 apartment units and 44,000 square feet of retail in two phases. Digging underway April 2018.
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- One Hill South Phase 2300ish-unit unnamed sibling building at South Capitol and I. Work underway summer 2018.
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- New DDOT HQ/250 MNew headquarters for the District Department of Transportation. Underway early 2019.
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- 37 L Street Condos11-story, 74-unit condo building west of Half St. Underway early 2019.
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- CSX East Residential/Hotel225ish-unit AC Marriott and two residential buildings planned. Digging underway late summer 2019.
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- 1000 South Capitol Residential224-unit apartment building by Lerner. Underway fall 2019.
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- Capper Seniors 2.0Reconstruction of the 160-unit building for low-income seniors that was destroyed by fire in 2018.
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- Chemonics HQNew 285,000-sq-ft office building with 14,000 sq ft of retail. Expected delivery 2021.
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(Decided to move this to its own entry.) As expected, it wasn't anywhere close to a full house at Nationals Park tonight. I wandered over to South Capitol Street at about 6:30 and traffic wasn't even backed all the way up the exit ramp from the freeway, and M Street was all but empty. The T and U lots at Capper didn't seem to get more than about 30 cars between the two of them, though the E, F, J, K, and L lots were pretty full. And I see that the garage at 80 M Street, which is not an official Nats lot, is offering cash parking for $20. (Looked like the Positive Nature folks on New Jersey Avenue are running a cash lot, too?) Lots of people coming out of the Navy Yard station at Half and M at 6:30ish--if you arrived that way and walked to the Center Field Gate, you were greeted by the Budweiser Clydesdales. Inside the park, lines were shorter (since there were fewer people) but there's definitely still grumbling about the speed of service.
What was your experience tonight, either getting to and from the park or inside?
As for media reports, the Post paints a similar picture to what I saw, that the evening went smoothly. WJLA focuses on the glitchy scoreboard, apparently not finding anything else of note to report from the evening. Announced paid attendance was 20,487, says AP, noting that Metro says they noticed almost no difference from a normal rush hour. Another AP story talks about the scoreboard problems and the fact that the ballpark was less than half full. Next stop, Wednesday's triple threat with the Nats, the Wizards, and DC United all in action at the same time. And with warmer weather on the way, finally.
UPDATE: A few more media reports: WJLA reports on overzealous towing (and note the interesting use of an un-cleaned-up quote from an angry resident). The Examiner focuses on Metro having little trouble.
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Residents and commuters should remember that tonight is the first weeknight game at Nationals Park (vs the Florida Marlins), scheduled for a 7:10 pm start time. Dr. Gridlock has a good roundup on all the different ways to get to the ballpark on his Get There blog, and here's Metro's press release from Friday on how they're preparing. Let me know how the evening goes for you, either as stadium-goer or commuter. (Reports again on how you got to the game and any counts on the number of cars using the parking lots would be great, too, since I can't get to all the lots myself. Post 'em in the comments.)
With the weather setting up to be icky again (my kingdom for a sunny day), and with tonight being the NCAA basketball championship game, and with the visiting team being, well, the Marlins, I'm not sure if this game is going to set any attendance records, meaning it probably shouldn't be used as a real indicator of how weeknight games will go. But the commentariat will certainly be watching for any meltdowns to jabber about.
To tie this into the *real* big sports news of the weekend, tonight's pre-game ceremonies will have Cristobal Huet, Mike Green, and Coach Bruce Boudreau of the Capitals throwing out the first pitch and announcing "Washington, Let's Play Ball."
ADDING: The Nats are home six of the next seven days (tonight, then Wednesday through Sunday). Wednesday night will bring issues with Nats Express parking at RFK because DC United will be playing and with Metro thanks to a Wizards Game at Verizon Center, and Friday will have the Caps playing their first playoff game vs. the Flyers at Verizon Center at the same time as the Nats are playing on South Capitol Street.
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From the Nats: "The Washington Nationals today announced that the public and tour groups will have the opportunity to take tours of Nationals Park. The tour program will begin on Saturday, April 19. On all non-game days, the team will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the ballpark through an hour and fifteen minute tour. Led by a Nationals Park guide, tours will begin at the Center Field Gate and encompass many areas of the ballpark the public cannot usually access, including the premium club areas and suites, the Shirley Povich Media Center and the Nationals dugout, batting cages and bullpen." There will be four tours a day (seven a day on the first two days), and times, prices, online ticket purchase, and additional details are available at nationals.com.
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This morning's Post has an interview with Deborah Ratner Salzberg, president of Forest City Washington, the company behind The Yards and much of the Capper/Carrollsburg redevelopment. Bullet points of interest:
* Salzberg says that they're "just beginning construction" on the 170-unit Pattern Shop Lofts, with work starting this summer on the 45,000-sq-ft Boilermaker Shop retail space and the Waterfront Park. All three are expected to be opened by fall of 2009 (though I think there will be later phases of the park with additional offerings, such as the water taxi piers she mentions). The Boilermaker Shop will have "restaurants, a bookstore and possibly a climbing wall."
* She says (as we heard a few weeks ago) that construction will begin this summer on the Capitol Quarter mixed-income townhouses at Capper.
There's going to be more of the interview posted today on the Post's WashBizBlog; I'll add the link when it's available. UPDATE: Here's the complete interview.
This would have been a fabulous time for me to post those new photos I took in The Yards this weekend, but alas, I haven't gotten to them yet. Soon, I promise.
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The sunlight wasn't fabulous when I ventured out yesterday, but I still took a pretty complete set of photos along First Street between I and N. With 909 New Jersey now peeking up above ground level, and Velocity racing upwards, the skyline is morphing yet again. And of course work continues on Onyx and 100 M (both due to be completed this summer). As I've mentioned a few times lately, the streetscape improvements to First Street have made the stretch from I Street southward pretty much unrecognizable from what it was a year or so ago (or even three months ago).
While you can look at the complete set of photos I took yesterday, I'd suggest taking a little extra time and looking at these new shots by intersection, where you can see the 
photos paired with their "befores": check out First and I, First and K, First and L, First and M, and First and N (above); and there's also some updates at Half and N by the ballpark Center Field Gate and New Jersey and I thrown in as well. Click on the 
wherever you see it to see the photos between the Before and the After (or, more precisely, the "During").
photos paired with their "befores": check out First and I, First and K, First and L, First and M, and First and N (above); and there's also some updates at Half and N by the ballpark Center Field Gate and New Jersey and I thrown in as well. Click on the wherever you see it to see the photos between the Before and the After (or, more precisely, the "During").Soon I'll post some additional photos from yesterday of portions of The Yards, which is now more accessible thanks to the new parking lots. And if the sun ever comes out again, I'll venture along Half Street and other locations that need updating.
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This just in, from a Nats press release: "The Washington Nationals today announced they will offer individual game parking passes to fans for all 2008 home games at Nationals Park. The opportunity to purchase individual game parking is only available online by visiting nationals.com/waytogo." The lots/prices are: $15 per game at Green Lot HH (under the freeway at South Capitol Street); $20 per game at Orange Lot W (the old Capper Seniors lot at 7th and M); and $40 to Red Zone parking (lot unspecified). See my Stadium Parking map to see where these lots are (I'll update it with this info momentarily).
Quoth Stan: "After careful review of the experience of the first weekend, the team is pleased to make available yet another amenity for fans, daily parking spaces at various price levels." After some lots were pretty empty on Opening Night, this offer isn't surprising.
And note, again, that single-game parking in these lots is available only online--you have to buy it before you go to the game, because it won't be available by just driving to the lot. This presumably is being done with an eye toward mitigating the congestion that would arise when people wander around looking for parking. We'll see if they were *too* successful on Opening Night, and some people who dutifully took Metro or the Nats Express from RFK and saw few traffic problems and empty lots decide to now arrive by car, reversing the initial success.
If I were to offer advice, I'd say that buying a parking pass isn't a bad idea for weekend games, but I'd still counsel caution at the idea of driving to Near Southeast during a weeknight rush hour.
UPDATE: The Post writes about the new parking options, and also about Monday night's game being the next big test for getting fans to and from the ballpark.
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* Metro has put out a press release (one of many to come, I'm sure) describing their plans for the first weeknight game, the April 7 game at 7:10 pm. This comes right during rush hour, and the Green line isn't exactly empty at that time of night, and until they get more of their new railcars into service Metro can't add trains, so this might be the first blemish on the Nationals Park commute. Ditto with folks driving to the lots close to the ballpark. There will be plenty of trains after the game, but an early (or late) arrival might be advisable.
* Tonight's ballpark Open House has been cancelled, but you can still go on Saturday (read how to sign up). And there may still be time to sign up for those singing auditions!
* Until then, we can take one more look back at what went right over the inaugural weekend via WTOP with Mark Seagraves's column: "The fact is very few people thought this past weekend would happen in the almost flawless fashion that it did. District officials built a state-of-the-art stadium, the first sports stadium to certified environmentally friendly, and they did it in only 22 months." He mentions that the ballpark construction itself was on budget (arguments can continue until the end of time about land acquisition costs and other "soft" costs); I'd add that three other pretty big ballpark-related projects were also completed on time over the past two years: the upgrading of the Navy Yard station west entrance (remember the wailing a few weeks back about how it wasn't done yet?), the streetscape upgrades to Potomac, First, and I (remember what I Street looked like about three days before Opening Day?), and the summer 2007 Douglass Bridge Extreme Makeover and accompanying improvements to South Capitol Street.
I must say that I'd been dreading this week for about three years now, imagining the gallons of ink and millions of electrons that were going to be spilled complaining about the ballpark not being finished, or detailing the massive cost overruns, or the traffic meltdown, or the transit catastrophe, or any combination therein. In fact, I've hardly known what to do with myself over the past few days since there's been so little news (which I'm sure is equally true for the media on the ballpark beat who no doubt expected to be writing all those stories).
I think the era of four or five new posts a day at JDLand is over, which hopefully most people won't see as a bad thing. But be prepared that there might not be new posts every day anymore, if there's nothing to report. There will still be photo updates every few weeks, though!
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The Washington Blade has an article about the possibility that Ziegfield's and Secrets--two gay bars at Half and O SE that were shut down in 2006 to make way for Nationals Park--may be reopening in Buzzards Point, at 1824 Half St., SW. The first part of the article is about how DC police chief Cathy Lanier had to weigh in after initial comments from 1D commander David Kamperin made it sound like the police would oppose the relocation. The rest of the article deals with the application for a liquor license, for which a hearing is scheduled May 14.
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From a press release, word that you American Idol dreamers have two chances at glory at the ballpark on Sunday: "Washington Nationals fans will have the opportunity to audition to sing the 'The Star-Spangled Banner' at a 2008 Washington Nationals game. Fans interested in participating in the auditions must e-mail anthem@nationals.com. The first one hundred fans to sign up are guaranteed a spot in the auditions; walk-ins will not be accepted. Contestants will be asked to sing the National Anthem in under 90 seconds, the length of the anthem during pre-game ceremonies. Fans selected to perform the anthem at a Nationals game will be notified throughout the season."
Following those auditions, "the Nationals will host tryouts for one 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' performer as part of MLB's 100th anniversary celebration of the song. Five finalists will be chosen from these auditions and one winner will be selected to perform 'Baseball's National Anthem' during the Seventh Inning Stretch at the Nationals game on May 19th vs. the Philadelphia Phillies. The final winner will be chosen through a fan vote at a later date. [...] To participate in this competition fans must RSVP at entertainment@nationals.com."
The auditions are Sunday (April 6), with the anthems starting at noon and the 'Ballgame' singers starting at 4:00. Alas, the events are not open to the public. But if you're close by, you might get to hear anyway.
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* The Post's District Notebook finds out that council member David Catania is "over" the financing deal for the ballpark that he so vociferously opposed: "Catania quickly put a damper on [Kwame] Brown's enthusiasm, saying the stadium still is not worth the more than $611 million of public money. 'I will never think differently,; Catania insisted. 'I'm over it.' "
* WTOP has another stadium-related shocker to add to its Hall of Fame: the car and schedule magnets being given out at the April 10 home game could demagnetize your Metro farecard if they get too close to each other! Don't let this happen to YOU.
* The Post's DC Wire blog posts about the plans for the four-game high school baseball series to be held at Nationals Park on May 31 (first reported by the WashTimes in early February). There will be a fundraiser for the event on May 3, asking for "corporate contributions up to $15,000 and individual contributions up to $3,000."
* My Ballpark and Beyond column in the Post's District Extra this week is about the surprise approval last month of the design for RiverFront on the Anacostia, on the Florida Rock site just south of the ballpark. See my project page for renderings of the plans as well as photos of what the 5.8-acre site currently looks like.
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* If you haven't been inside the ballpark yet and want a free visit on either Friday night (April 4) or Saturday afternoon (April 5), WTOP tells you how. (Hint: it involves signing up for the Nats promotional e-mail list.)
* The credit crunch on Wall Street has caused the interest rates on a small portion of the stadium bonds to skyrocket, says the Examiner.
* WTOP says that Metro feels pretty good about its performance on Opening Night (as do most riders, at least evidenced by the comments you folks have been posting), but they've got a few tweaks in store for the homestand next week. They'd like you to stretch out on the Navy Yard platform, please, and will put in more trash cans so that people can toss drinks and food and cigarettes when they get to the station.
* Speaking of the Navy Yard station, if you've done that walk up Half Street and want information on what's planned there beyond the renderings on the east-side fences (or want to see what was there up until about 18 months ago), check out my Monument Half Street page. Plans for the west side of the street, where the Southeastern Bus Garage has now been vacated by Metro, are stalled thanks to a lawsuit brought by Monument against WMATA after the land was sold to Akridge in a way that Monument contends was unfair.
* This is a little old, but I'll toss it in anyway (I *think* I haven't already linked to it; it's all just a blur now)--MLB.com reports that Stan Kasten was very happy with how Opening Night went in terms of the fan experience.
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As I wrote a month ago in an entry that was visible for about five minutes thanks to all of the ballpark news, the first new-construction buildings at The Yards are now winding their way through the zoning process. It's two buildings that look like one--a 320,000-square-foot 10-story office building at 401 M Street and an 11-story 180ish-unit apartment building to its south at 400 Tingey Street. They would both have ground-floor retail, but it's what's planned for 401 M that will probably have everyone's attention, because a grocery store is proposed for that space, just inside the historic wall and sentry tower on the southeast corner of Fourth and M. The office building would be LEED certified, and the 20 percent of the residential building would be affordable housing units (up to 50 percent of the area median income).
The Parcel D plans have already been reviewed by the National Capital Planning Commission in advance of its meeting tomorrow (April 3), with the executive director reporting that the buildings are not inconsistent with the Comprehensive Plan and do not adversely affect any other federal interests.
The Zoning Commission Southeast Federal Center Overlay Review of the plans and three associated variance requests is now rescheduled for April 24. ANC 6D will be bringing it up again at its April 14 meeting, after electing not to vote on the project at its March 10 meeting because of the lack of a community benefits package--see the summary of the meeting in the April Hill Rag (I was out of town, and so don't have any additional details).
As for start dates, documents earlier in the year had the office portion getting started in 2008 for a 2010 delivery, and the residential portion starting "based on market conditions." However, a reader is reporting that a sign now up at Fourth and M says "Coming 2011." I'll see if I can get any further details. (UPDATE: Yup, 2011 is now the current "estimate" for the project. So, don't stop shopping at the Capitol Hill Safeway just yet.)
In the meantime, work on renovating the Boilermaker Shop at Third and Tingey into a 46,000-sq-ft retail pavilion should be starting Any Minute Now, as should the rehab of the Pattern Joiner Shop across the street into a 170-unit apartment building. Both are expected to be finished in 2009. (Did you see the light displays being projected onto the Pattern Joiner building during the ballgames?) The Factory 202 residential rehab of the old Gun Mount Shop at Fifth and M, which is a joint project between Forest City and PN Hoffman, also now has a "Coming 2011" sign.
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If you're interested in knowing everything about the food at the ballpark, check out all the Washington Post offerings today, starting here. There was also a chat with folks from the Food section staff. UPDATE: For a different point of view on today's Food section offerings, I point you to the Washington City Paper's City Desk blog.
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From NBC4, word that on Tuesday the city council unanimously passed legislation to allow street vending at Nationals Park: "On Tuesday, [Ward 3 council member Mary] Cheh introduced emergency legislation requiring Mayor Adrian Fenty to come up with 40 vending spots in 21 days, including 23 spots for veteran vendors of RFK. The spaces will be distributed by lottery." The council had passed legislation to overhaul of the city's vending rules last month, but the new regulations weren't getting written quickly enough to get vendors in place by the ballpark. The Post has more.
The council also voted unanimously to "create a body within the D.C. Auditor's office that will perform a one-time audit of completed projects on land that is now controlled by Neil Albert, deputy mayor for economic development, but was once under the control of the defunct public-private National Capital Revitalization Corp. and the Anacostia Waterfront Corp.," according to the Washington Business Journal. This would include Canal Park and Diamond Teague Park, and is being done to "ensure that developers keep promises to build affordable housing, meet environmental standards, hire District workers and involve local and disadvantaged businesses when they receive public land or financing."
Meanwhile, Bruce Johnson reports on his blog (with photo credit in place--thanks!) that there's been some behind-the-scenes battling between the city council and the mayor's office over who would control the complementary tickets to the two suites at the ballpark designated to the city. It sounds like an agreement has been reached where the mayor will control tickets to one suite and council chair Vincent Gray the other. (Geez, even *I* could have come up with that solution.) UPDATE, 4/2: Now Bruce says there's still no agreement. Part of the problem is that the executive branch, city council, and sports commission had 148 tickets to work with at RFK, and only have 48 at Nationals Park.
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Based on my own observations and some others that have come my way, it seems that the parking lots put together by the Nationals for Opening Night near the ballpark were not anywhere close to filled to capacity, despite months of dire predictions that even these 4,000 or so spaces would not be anywhere near enough to handle just season ticket holders, let alone people who just had tickets for that night and wanted to park near the stadium. For instance, the 110-space lot T at Third and K wasn't even opened on Sunday night, and lot U was nowhere near capacity. On the other hand, some reports say that Lot 8 at RFK was completely full, and there was overflow parking at Lot 7.
So, I'm looking for some information, and I'd love responses from readers. If you went to Opening Night, how did you get there? If you drove, did you have a parking pass for one of the lots? Which lot did you park in? Did you have a pass, but opted to take Metro or go to RFK? If you took Metro, how did you arrive? (Navy Yard, Capitol South, Union Station, N22 bus, other bus, etc.) Did you walk? Did you bike? Leave your information in the comments. Thanks!
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I have to say that I didn't expect that the day after Opening Night would end up being so quiet around here. But, here's some stories worth mentioning:
* WTOP trumpets the crime wave around the ballpark that everyone feared--16 Arrested Near Nats Park Over the Weekend! Grab the children! Run for the hills! So, just what were the dastardly crimes committed by these ne'er-do-wells? "All the individuals arrested were charged with scalping tickets on the street." The article also says that more than 100 cars were towed from the surrounding neighborhood.
* WJLA recounts the stories of people not going to the ballpark whose cars were ticketed and towed. Here's the parking restrictions map, again. Tell your neighbors and friends.
* City Paper wishes everyone would stop calling it a $611 million stadium.
* Channel 9 recounts the story of a tourist forced by the Secret Service to delete photos taken of the security checkpoints at Opening Night. I wish they had tried that with me. The quote from the Secret Service is classic: "We have the authority to ask them to remove the picture from the camera." And, if standing on public property, we all have the authority to say "no." Don't forget it.
* Monday's Post talks to neighbors across South Capitol Street about how they feel the stadium is doing nothing for them. And the Kojo Nnamdi show on WAMU covers similar territory, about how the new ballpark may affect the concept of "community" both close by and farther away.
* Tuesday's Post says that the Nationals, DDOT, and Metro are pleased with how the weekend went in their realms, though they plan to spend this week until the next home game tweaking their plans. Hungry fans will be pleased to know that addressing the long lines at concessions is on the list: " 'Lines were a concern for us. They're not necessarily where we want them to be. We expect it to better by Monday,' team President Stan Kasten said. 'Once a problem happens, it doesn't happen again.' " On the other hand: "Combining [Sunday's sellout] with the newness of the ballpark, the lines for virtually everything from food to parking to Metro to the shuttles were probably the longest they will be." The article also says that 716 parking tickets were written over the weekend, though the $100 towing fee was waived "as a courtesy." The WashTimes also covers similar ground.
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* Metro says that just under 21,500 fans used the Navy Yard Metro station for Sunday night's opener at Nationals Park, following the 15,141 who did so for the Saturday exhibition. (I wonder how many used Capitol South, or got off at Union Station and took the N22.) WJLA and others say that the station was cleared within a half-hour of the game's end, which can be verified by looking at last night's shots from the 55 M construction web cam.
* Moving on to the next huge event, the WashTimes says that 45,000 bar-coded tickets to the April 17 mass by Pope Benedict have arrived, and should be going out to parishes next week. Scalpers will be condemned to eternal hellfire and damnation.
* There's a nice piece in the April Hill Rag (UPDATED: now online) about this here Obsessive Compulsive Time-Sucking Vortex. And there's also a shout-out in this Virginian-Pilot story on the ballpark.
* On the flip side, I can't help but cackle at what was written in an online column by the San Antonio Express-News [emphasis mine]: "If you're craving actual photos of [Nationals Park] -- including work-in-progress updates -- go to the ballpark homepage for the Near Southeast DC Redevelopment agency. Sure, these people have a vested interest, but they also have lots of photos, a construction webcam and a well-done Q-and-A section on the park." I'm an agency now? Usually I'm just a development company. But, a note for readers who don't realize it: I'm none of the above. (I don't work for the Nats, either.) I'm just me.
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You may have heard that Washington DC christened a new baseball stadium on Sunday, one that appears to have been met with wide-eyed enthusiasm and appreciation by most of the 40,000 in attendance (although not by the Post architecture critic). And, after listening to months (if not years) of predictions of traffic meltdowns and catastrophes at the new site in "a formerly blighted part of the District," would you believe that car, rail, bus, and foot all seemed to work, so much so that newspaper columnists appear incredulous that fans weren't griping. The next test will be when crowds arrive for the first time at the end of rush hour, at a Monday night game on April 7.
I took some photos around the ballpark as I arrived and worked my way from top to bottom, but once I arrived at my seat far far away (you'll love the small red speck in one photo that is President Bush), I decided to put away my camera and heed a directive issued recently by a Mr. S. Kasten to "watch the damn game." So I fear I don't earn a passing grade for documenting this historic day on South Capitol Street, but after 4 1/2 years of detailing the birthing process in thousands of photographs and probably tens of thousands of words, I needed some time to take it all in and say "Whoa."
And then they won the damn game, on a walk-off homer by Ryan Zimmerman. That's how you christen a ballpark.
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Nationals Park
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It's late, I'm only just now finally getting warm again, and it's not particularly hard to find photos from tonight's first major league ballgame at Nationals Park, so I have just tossed together three Quick Galleries of the festivities, a selection of images that are nowhere near complete when it comes to capturing the look and feel of Nationals Park during its first big test. I'll caption them Sunday before heading off to do it all again at the "real" Opening Night.
Page One is photos from when the gates opened and during batting practice; Page Two has close-ups of the pre-game ceremonies with all the representatives of the city (but no Mayor Baseball!); Page Three has photos from during the game showing various vantage points.
The media has full coverage of course, but I'm not going to go on a linking spree (here's the Post homepage to start you on your own hunt). The initial storyline seems to be that it basically went well, with fans and players alike gaga for the ballpark, but with some snafus when it came to long long lines for food (especially at Ben's Chili Bowl) and for the subway and Nats Express shuttle to RFK after the game, though nothing that was catastrophic. We'll see how it goes with a full house on Sunday. But I must say it was a bit of an out-of-body experience to be walking among a huge throng of people along M Street SE between First and New Jersey at 9:30 pm on a Saturday night. This is not your father's Near Southeast anymore.
Check back late Sunday (or early Monday) for photos from Opening NIght.
UPDATE: Captions now added. Oh, and the Nationals won 3-0.
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While I spend the weekend running around trying to figure out how to be in six dozen places at once, I'll leave up this entry with what you might need to know if you're going to Nationals Park:
* Are you taking Metro? Read this. (Getting off at Capitol South? Use the JDLand.com Suggested Route.)
* Are you driving? Learn about traffic restrictions, flow, and other important information.
* Are you driving, and have a parking space reserved? Find the route the Nats want you to take to your lot.
* Are you driving, but don't have a space? Read about the free Nats Express shuttle service from RFK.
* Are you driving, and thinking you'll just "find some spot on the street"? Good luck with that. And bring the number for DPW with you, so you can find out how to retrieve your towed car.
* Are you biking? Read about the bike racks and bike valet.
* Are you walking? You win! Best option!
* Are you wondering what festivities will greet you when you get there? Here's Saturday's lineup, and Sunday's.
* Are you wondering what there will be to eat, or where to find other facilities? Look at this interactive map.
* Are you wondering about the rules and regulations and all other important pieces of information about the ballpark? Read the new official A to Z Guide.
* Remember what your mother taught you, that patience is a virtue.
If you're not going to either of the games, you can still watch them: Saturday's is on MASN at 6 pm, and Sunday's is on ESPN at 8 pm. And watch out for intermittent closures of the Douglass Bridge and South Capitol Street on Sunday night between 7:30 and 9:30.
And....
In the midst of the excitement, I'd like to just take a moment to make sure that stadium-goers and other curious folks wandering through here get a feel for what we've witnessed over the past two years while this ballpark has gone up, as a small reminder of exactly what has happened on South Capitol Street since April 2006.
If you pass through the Center Field Gate, think of this:
If you come down South Capitol to N Street, think of this:
If you want to see more, here's the photos I took of the ballpark footprint and perimeter before demolition started in April, 2006, including some that haven't been posted until now. (The Ballpark Before-and-After gallery pairs many of these photos with how things look now, with links to see all the photos between the Before and the After.) If you want to see photos from other locations throughout Near Southeast, use the Photo Browser to pick spots on the map.
And a most sincere thank you to everyone who's written me over the past few days with such kind words about this little project that has turned into such a monster. It's in some ways a very bittersweet weekend for me, because the ballpark's opening means that this totally unexpected chapter in my life is coming to a close. JDLand isn't going anywhere, but the rest of the ride won't ever quite have the rush of the past few years. Then again, I may actually get some sleep.
Feel free to post what you see and experience (good or bad) in the comments.
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