Florida Market Tour - Saturday, February 23

Join Richard (Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space) and Elise (Frozen Tropics) for another installment of the popular walking tours of the Florida Avenue Market, February 23, 2008 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

There are considerable development pressures on the area and it's important that the neighbors understand what is there now so we can better understand what stands to be lost or gained by development. There are many resources for more information on the Market, but none of these will replace walking the Market yourself.

» Capital City/Florida Market posts at Frozen Tropics
» "The Bigness Complex, Urbanism and the Florida Market" from Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space
» Capital City Market (aka Florida Market) blog (also in the sidebar)
» Capital City Market interactive piece from Josh Williams
» FreeRide's wrap-up
» DCmud on the redevelopment plans
» Sang Oh Choi's vision for the Gateway Market & Residences, "The Gateway to the Next Great Place"

Armed Man Dies After Shootout with Police

Police aren't sure if 23-year-old Gregory Thomas was fatally wounded before or during the gun battle with police. From WUSA9:

MPD is investigating a shooting involving two of their officers that left one man dead.

Police tell 9NEWS NOW it all began around 12:30am, when an off duty officer was on his way home and noticed a man firing shots into a courtyard at 17th Street & Benning Road NE.

The off duty officer approached the suspect announced that he was a police officer, and exchanged gunfire.

The suspect then jumped into a green and white vehicle and fled the scene toward a laundromat near 1342 Florida Ave NE.

An on duty officer encountered the suspects as they got back on Benning Road and exchanged gunfire with the suspect while he was trying to flee the scene.

A vehicle matching the description of the suspect vehicle showed up at a firehouse in the 1100 block of Morse Street NE and left a man suffering from gunshots in the driveway then fled. [Frozen Tropics notes that there isn't a fire station on that block, so it must have been the station on Florida Avenue. There's also some confusion over whether the initial intersection was 17th and Benning or 17th and Bladensburg.]

The man was taken to a local hospital were he was pronounced dead a short time later.

D.C. Police chief Cathy Lanier says the two officers involved were not injured.

The man has not been identified and police are looking for the driver of the car who left the man at the firehouse.

If you have any information about this case, please call MPD at 202-727-9099.

More:
» WaPo
» ABC7
» NBC4

Eckington/Edgewood Community Spring Clean-Up - Saturday, April 28th

Please join Eckington Civic Association, Emery Elementary School, City Year Young Heroes, Hands on DC, McKinley Technical High School, Edgewood Civic Association, North Capitol Main Street, XM Satellite Radio, and the DPW Helping Hands Program for the largest community improvement project we have ever held.

Where do we meet?
The event will start and finish at Emery Elementary School, 1720 First Street NE. Our day will run from 10am until 4pm with a break at 12:30 at Emery where lunch will be provided. We will break up into teams and head out into the community to work. Tools will be provided by City Year, DPW Helping Hands, and Hands On DC.

What will we be doing?
There are a wide range of project you may work on, painting murals, gardening and weeding in pocket parks, cleaning streets and alleys, painting inside Emery, painting parking lot lines, and creating a large tree box at the school. Our goal is to clean from North Capitol Street east to 4th Street NE and from Rhode Island Avenue NE south to Florida Ave NE. Collection points for the trash will be at First and R Streets NE, R Street and Eckington Place NE, and 4th and V Streets NE. We will be adding two more pick up sites between T Street and Rhode Island Avenue NE.

Why should I take part in this project?
We need your support to make this happen. 100 of our high school and middle school young people will be taking part in the clean up. Your time and effort will make you a true agent of change for a better DC!

Council Moves Forward on "New Town" Proposal

The Council has given preliminary approval - without minimal input from the current businesses and surrounding community - to Vincent Orange's "New Town" proposal which would raze the current Florida/Capital City Market. No, it's not pretty, but it's far from "blighted." I don't have time to comment right now, but keep checking in, and take a look at the reactions from both Frozen Tropics and Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space. You can also read the Post's take here.

Updates forthcoming....

Florida Market Tour - Saturday, July 29th @ 9am

I enjoyed last month's tour, but I'm mad at myself for skipping breakfast at Young's Deli, which closed quite suddenly just a little over a week after I was there....Details of Saturday's tour from Richard Layman:

The Capital City Market, more commonly known as the Florida Market, is the primary wholesale food distribution center in the city. A number of the businesses sell to retail customers. The cinder block "DC Farmers Market" building on Neal Street is comparable to Eastern Market, except it is privately owned, and less pretty.

The market area is under great development pressure because of its location and the attractiveness of the New York Avenue subway stop. The Office of Planning Cluster 23 Study proposes that the market be revitalized through a food-centered plan. An alternative proposal suggests demolishing everything and starting over. We're interested in showing people the assets that the market has to offer. The July issues of the Hill Rag and DC North had an article about the market and the issues involved (PDF versions).



On Saturday, Elise Bernard of the Frozen Tropics blog, and I will lead a free tour of the market. It will start at 9:00 a.m. at 4th and Morse Streets, NE.

We will visit one dozen places that sell retail, including the multi-vendor cinder block "Farmers Market" and the outdoor flea market, before finishing at Litteri's, which in my opinion, has the best Italian sub sandwich in the city (sorry Vace, sorry Mangialiardo's). We should finish up around 11 a.m.

New developments. In the month since we've done the last tour, Young's Deli has closed because the landlord wants to sell the building. Councilmember Orange announced at a Mayoral candidates forum that he has entered legislation with 11 co-sponsors!!!!!!!!!!!! to proceed with the "New Town" plan, which to go forward requires (1) hundreds of millions of dollars of city subsidies; and (2) eminent domain takings; because (3) the initiators of the New Town "plan" only control 10% of the land.

Also see this feature from the Post food section, published in May, "The Insiders' Market: For International Finds, Those in the Know Shop at Capital City in the Warehouse District."