The Mystery of the Thirteen Lockboxes

Above are the lockboxes outside of Quincy Court at 1117 10th St NW. Not quite Logan, not quite NOMA. Near the convention center and loads of other condo/lofts. Walkable to downtown. (A transitional 'hood going from abandoned to "upscale," somewhere on the road from dangerous to no man's land.)

The 13 lockboxes look dramatic and suggest the condo bubble is bursting because there are soooo..... many unsold units. So how come the MLS only has six units listed accordning to ZipRealty?

Upon closer inspection two of the six units are list by JP Real Estate Group and another two by condo marketer McWilliams/Ballard Inc. The JP Group website lists yet another unit as well, so seven total. Sounds fishy. What's going on here? How many units are there? Have the realtors forgotten to remove thier lockboxes after a unit sold? Unlikely.

My dear Watson, units being mothballed by the developer!!! Indubitably. Or maybe not. Prices have begun to creep up, but that could be artificially created by developers holding on to units. If I had deep enough pockets that what I would be doing too.

It's Not Just Shiloh

Shaw, NOMA and Logan Circle are plauged by more than 100 vacant, dilapidated properties the Mount Vernon Square Neighborhood Association complained to DC, the WashExam reported.

MVSNA wants the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs to devote more resources to fix the problem, to ensure vacant properties are assessed at the appropriate real estate tax rate — five times the standard levy — and to better maintain government-owned properties.

No word on whether Shiloh Baptist owns any of these properties. The church is in the habit of letting the buildings it owns in the area rot. MVSNA identified 71 were vacant buildings and 29 were empty lots. The area the group focused on is the area bounded by New York Ave. NW to the south and N St. to the north, between 1st and 7th St.

Why do landlords sit on these buildings when the city is reviving? Can you say condos? Too bad much of the property is probably in the hands of DC, which is in the habit of letting property it owns go underutilized.

The "Masterplan" Is Working

In 2000, blacks made up 60 percent of the District's population. By 2006, that figure was 55 percent, according to the US Census Bureau.

"What you see are whites moving into the city because they are able to afford the pricey housing in all these areas that are gentrifying and becoming much more middle and upper-middle class," said William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, told the WaPo.

“A lot of neighborhoods are going through a process of change and growth,” Brookings Institution demographer Audrey Singer told the WashExam, which noted changes in neighborhoods such as Chinatown and Capitol Hill.

DC Bubble hates the defensiveness and guilt surrounding these numbers. While some African American fear there is a "masterplan" to turn Chocolate City into a place only for the blonde-and-blue eyed, many whites engage in hand-wringing because they are forcing out black families. How many blacks have been forced out of Noma or downtown where the condos were built on brownfields? Or sorry can you feel for the black family that moved from DC to PG county where the schools are better?

FRIENDLIER STREETSCAPE FOR NOMA SOUGHT

To improve what could be the least pedestrian friendly spots in DC, the NOMA business improvement district is seeking $12 dollars to improve First St. NE and the intersection of New York and Florida Aves., according to Globest.com.

“Right now it doesn't look or feel like the center of a new neighborhood,” Elizabeth Price told GlobeSt.com. “The streets need to be resurfaced, sideways rebuilt, there needs to be a public space built for art exhibits and such.”

In short, there was too much emphasis on moving cars and not enough attention paid to the poor pedestrian.

In addition to the BATF building nearing completion, other projects nearing completion include: Landmark Lofts and the related Senate Square, which is what Ben Franklin's crib would look like (see below) if he were alive today.