Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, Trader Joe's is coming to Chevy Chase Pavillion.

FH could be incredible if it was connected on the MD side. You could create another Reston Town Center or whatever they call the area in Rockville/North Bethesda with the REI and LL Bean.

You have a wasted surface lot behind the new Mazza replacement, wasted surface lot at the Saks in CC MD. You have the Lord & Taylor site...it seems crazy to turn that into the new bus depot...although I guess that opens up development of the current bus depot.

It needs to be far more mixed-use...apartments, retail, entertainment (Dave & Busters, Pinstripes type places), etc.

Turning Friendship Heights and AU Park into some high rise city with Dave & Busters? No thanks.

That would be awesome. Right now it is basically nothing and wont be converted into a SFH or open space area…so what would you suggest?

BTW…I don’t care nor even understand what Smart growth is. I want a fun, dynamic destination with lots for everyone to do.

Building lots of townhouses makes more sense than apartments and condos. Increasing density without drastically altering the area.

the region invested billions into the metro station. you don't build low density townhouses on top of such a regional investment.

I get it, you live in a single family home not far from Friendship Heights. You chose to purchase there based on proximity to metro and other amenities. Guess what, other people want to enjoy the same benefits. You can enjoy what you have and let new people also enjoy it as well.

Beautiful! the "new" people can move into the existing SFHs and rowhomes in the neighborhood when they come on the market! Then "other" people can enjoy the same benefits.

Where you and I part company is when you think I should have thousands of _additional_ people living within a mile of me -- in multifamily housing that doesn't yet exist. And for which there is not demonstrated demand, as shown by flat in-migration and empty new construction apartments a mile down the road.

Don't worry, you won't have thousands of people living within a mile of you in multifamily housing that doesn't yet exist. It is very difficult, if not impossible, for people to live in housing that doesn't yet exist.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But do working class families want to live in condos or will they move to the suburbs where townhouses are available. I still say what we really need in this city are modest townhouses under a million.

Agree 100%. And they can be built throughout DC. Many cities are based on townhouse communities. Even large parts of Baltimore City are.

You either have to subsidize the homeowner or the developer for this to happen. I mean nobody is just going to build brand new townhomes in CC and sell them for $1MM.

One of the 1990s townhomes in the development behind the CC Pavilion just sold for $1.6MM.

Zoning can dictate to some extent what gets built.

To a large extent.

Anonymous wrote:Il’m not the previous poster, but please don’t make this into Ballston or Pike and Rose. Why would people live in DH if it just mimics those other places and they have lower taxes and better schools. Let’s rebuild Fh in a way that retains what’s special about the city. And yes, I’d live to see townhomes rather than tiny condos/apartments. We need places for families.

What is "special about the city" in your opinion?

Families live in apartments, too.

What's the incentive to rebuild Friendship Heights when the city currently enables criminal behavior while failing to protect law abiding residents and small businesses?

Il’m not the previous poster, but please don’t make this into Ballston or Pike and Rose. Why would people live in DH if it just mimics those other places and they have lower taxes and better schools. Let’s rebuild Fh in a way that retains what’s special about the city. And yes, I’d live to see townhomes rather than tiny condos/apartments. We need places for families.

I want new retail and amenities…townhomes won’t bring any of that and would probably go for close to $2MM anyway. No point.

I don’t really care about housing…my dream is for the Lord & Taylor to become a Costco.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess my fear is that NWDC will become just very wealthy people (lawyers) living in SFHs, singles living for a few years in expensive condos, and previously homeless people filling up the condos with the tax $$ of the rich. We need middle or upper middle class families -- those with an income of $300k or so -- to live here too.

No, we really really do not need middle class people as immediate neighbors. As long as there are middle class and UMC people living somewhere in the general area, we're all good. And what do you know, the area has a ton of such people. Quite literally millions of middle and UMC people distributed throughout DC, Montgomery, PG, Arlington and Fairfax counties.

The only people who benefit from shoehorning additional middle class households specifically into FH -- vs. Rockville, or Hyattsville -- are developers.

It's funny. The existing buildings up and down Conn AND Wisconsin and some larger side streets are crammed with apartments and condos. I lived in them on a salary far below 300K and consider myself middle class. You just need to make space trade offs. I have friends who live in rent control, and that was helpful to a lot of elderly as well. Then Bowser started flipping them for vouchers, which have been a disaster. Part of this whole growth argument came from folks whining (I've heard them at ANC meetings; often young professionals "I grew up in this neighborhood and now I can't immediately afford a house as I begin my career kind of thing") that everyone should be able to afford the larger housing in NW, and since they can't, we will subdivide SFHs into 6 units etc. Which kind of takes you back to where you started. Makes NO sense to me. But the developers are loving the logic fail.

Anything is better than the current set up but you’d think they could come up with less boring and cookie cutter designs. Like the library is very modern and nice. More of that?

This looks so boring. Also thank you thank you DH for not letting me buy anywhere near Wisconsin. Phew!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But worse than 2000-2020ish

I think that is generally schools everywhere though. The pandemic really did a number on schools and teachers.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/1axhne2/the_public_needs_to_know_the_ugly_truth_students/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But worse than 2000-2020ish

Maybe 2007-2020…they didn’t turn around until Michelle Rhee and it took a couple of years…but they are not materially worse.

Sheesh, this again? Rhee killed DCPS.

Anonymous wrote:But FH will be developed for better or worse. Would you prefer townhomes or high rises? I say this as someone who generally opposes development, but I don't see the point of lots of one bedroom condos that will ultimately be filled with voucher holders.

Voucher holders? That isn't who "affordable housing" is designed for. Are you really opposed to DCPS teachers or Second District MPD or Tenleytown Fire House first responders living in the neighborhood? Because they aren't voucher holders but they are the ones who would be eligible for this kind of housing.

Anonymous wrote:I guess my fear is that NWDC will become just very wealthy people (lawyers) living in SFHs, singles living for a few years in expensive condos, and previously homeless people filling up the condos with the tax $$ of the rich. We need middle or upper middle class families -- those with an income of $300k or so -- to live here too.

"previously homeless" are not "affordable housing" recipients. You have a huge understanding gap here. Please get up to speed on this before embarrasing yourself further.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But FH will be developed for better or worse. Would you prefer townhomes or high rises? I say this as someone who generally opposes development, but I don't see the point of lots of one bedroom condos that will ultimately be filled with voucher holders.

Townhouses preferred.

Townhomes make a lot more sense. There needs to be a mix of housing options and that is what is missing.

Anonymous wrote:But FH will be developed for better or worse. Would you prefer townhomes or high rises? I say this as someone who generally opposes development, but I don't see the point of lots of one bedroom condos that will ultimately be filled with voucher holders.

Townhouses preferred.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But do working class families want to live in condos or will they move to the suburbs where townhouses are available. I still say what we really need in this city are modest townhouses under a million.

Agree 100%. And they can be built throughout DC. Many cities are based on townhouse communities. Even large parts of Baltimore City are.

You either have to subsidize the homeowner or the developer for this to happen. I mean nobody is just going to build brand new townhomes in CC and sell them for $1MM.

One of the 1990s townhomes in the development behind the CC Pavilion just sold for $1.6MM.

Zoning can dictate to some extent what gets built.