Will Gray ever give Connecticut Avenue a partial facelift?

[Anonymous]

Last night I got diverted from Missouri Avenue (due to the murder/carjacking) and found myself on Kennedy and 4th Streets NW. One block with an historical looking theater was completely renovated. The store fronts (empty now) were beautifully restored, and the sidewalks to die for. As a longtime DC taxpayer in Chevy Chase, I just felt frustrated that no part of Connecticut Avenue has been restored as such. Chevy Chase, Cleveland Park, and Woodley Park are all dumps. (Don't try to deny it!) Moving over to Wisconsin: Tenleytown has the new library and is getting some renovation soon, but that is all being privately funded. Friendship Heights has improved, but most of it over the line. South of Mazza is a dump. I'd be thrilled to have even one section of Connecticut Avenue restored. Wouldn't that bring even more tax dollars????

I'm fine with Kennedy and 14th Streets being massively overhauled (I love driving down 14th now and shop at that Target rather than going out to the MD burbs) but if Fenty couldn't even do it, there's no hope of Gray ever getting some money redirected to Connecticut Avenue is there? I do stay away from Bethesda for the city, but I'm wondering when I can hope to have better streets and store fronts in my neighborhood?

[Anonymous]

P.S. Forgot Van Ness....another dump

[Anonymous]

OMG! Kennedy Street was a battle zone. If any part of Connecticut were like Kennedy was, I would be all for improvements. But there are so many parts of the District that are in greater need that I cannot imagine how you have the chutzpah to complain that one area has been renovated while Connecticut Ave has not!

[Anonymous]

See capa-dc.org

Grey supports this.

The Tenley library has taken about 10 years to come into form. The forces of NIMBYism have stifled change in Tenleytown, Cleveland Park and Friendship Heights.

Research the ANC races and support the new blood who is running and trying to make a difference in these communities.

[Anonymous]

Are you hoping for a Clarendon or Bethesda Row type of look, then? Where they knock down all the actual 1920s buildings and then rebuild them to look like new versions of 1920s Ye Olde Shoppes @ Towne Centre?

It sounds to me that you believe "dump" = "anything that doesn't look slick like the gargantuan developments in Columbia Heights, complete with gigantic Big Box stores like Target." So, Full of Beans on Conn. Ave = "dump", but (god help me) Bed Bath Beyond = excellent "facelift."

No thanks.

[Anonymous]

There is no justification for Van Ness, as far as I can see. Nothing to bring you there.

Everything about it disgusts me.

It should just go directly from Cleveland Park to Chevy Chase: since Van Ness is neither fish nor fowl.

[Anonymous]

I think until New York Ave., N. Capitol, Georgia Ave., and Bladensburg (to name a few) get updates, that Connecticut Ave. will have to wait its turn.

Also, have to totally with the PP who questions your personal aesthetic. 14th St. in Columbia Heights looks like the suburbs. It's like tearing down an orange grove to make cookie cutter houses and call it "Orange Grove Estates" where every house has a single new *pine* tree seedling in the front yard.

[Anonymous]

OP here, I suppose that because I live in CC I do have a lot of chutzpah no matter what I do. (But, if you had read my post I said I was all for it, but frustrated that Connecticut Ave wasn't in line.) And, because I have even mentioned a "partial" facelift for my neighborhood I have found the NIMBY folks who immediately attack my personal aesthetic. I suppose we'll never agree. While I feel that 14th Street does look like a suburb I'd rather shop at Target in the District than in Maryland. And, that establishment brought in all kinds of cute stores just south of there that didn't exist a few years ago.

16:37 thanks for the link and letting me know that Gray supports it!

[Anonymous]

OP, I'm glad that you found that one block of Kennedy to be beautiful. Rest assured, the rest of that stretch is a dump. It sounds as though you didn't drive past the three (or more?) piles of rubble on the north side in a nearby stretch, the remnants of demolished buildings which no-one has bothered to clear away.

And did you notice that the "beautifully restored theatre" is actually the front of a funeral home?

You should ride the E2/E4 sometime from Friendship Heights to Fort Totten. It will give you a good view of Kennedy Street.

[Anonymous]

12:05 thanks for clarifying things for me. I'm not sure how it matters that it's a funeral home, there was one across the street, so no biggie.

I just had a question, and thanks to the one person who answered it. I'm sorry that I used the word "dump"; that was inflammatory. I should have said "tired." Anyhow, it's clear that everyone thinks I'm an asshole, but I'm really not. I'm just a mom like you who is trying to do the best that I can. I'm not angry, I said I was "frustrated," but since I live in CC I apparently don't have the right to be. Let's end the thread.

[Anonymous]

A while back on the Kojo Nmandi show, there was a discussion about this. It appeared that for a long time, the ANCs in Chevy Chase DC did not support redevelopment. There has been a lot of concern because people are fleeing over the line in MD to shop, etc. They also talked about the Giant on Wisconsin Ave. Apparently, Giant has been trying to build a new store forever, but the neighborhood would not support it. They were saying that things were changing and the neighbors and ANC chairs are being more supportive.

[Anonymous]

OP, start reading the Chevy Chase DC listserv and you will figure out why. All the NIMBYs pride themselves on the mom-and-pop shops and love that there are few chain stores. I hear you. I wish everything felt cleaner and there was a decent place to get a sandwich (besides going over to Broadbranch).

[Anonymous]

OP, start reading the Chevy Chase DC listserv and you will figure out why. All the NIMBYs pride themselves on the mom-and-pop shops and love that there are few chain stores. I hear you. I wish everything felt cleaner and there was a decent place to get a sandwich (besides going over to Broadbranch).

Here is a thought: the quasi-governmental ANCs have absolutely nothing to do with the name on the rental agreement in that commercial strip. If 14 national chains wanted to rent there, side by side, they could.

Here is a second thought -- CC residents who like, for example, Catch Can are in no way impeding the property owners from power washing the building to make it, how did you put it, "cleaner."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is no justification for Van Ness, as far as I can see. Nothing to bring you there.

Everything about it disgusts me.

Werner Herzog? Is that you?