Where the Fk is Litteri's?
New Town at Capital City Market, rendering (redevelopment of DC's Florida Market area)
Originally uploaded by rllayman.
Also where the hell is Litteri's in this Disneyfied suburban wet dream? I love Litteri's and once you have discovered the magic of that cramped wonderland of Italian food, you realize how unique it is. I don't want it to be moved or even temporarily relocated, because what is going to make it (or any other business) come back? People have free will and agency and when the city tells you in its own eminent domainish hostile way to go away, why pack up a 2nd time and come back?
Want to know why this project is all wrong in so, so many ways? Read more on Richard Layman's blog entry on New Town. Richard points out another problem. Let's call it the Brentwood Shopping Center. Does that place excite you? Oh, a Home Depot that never has what you want & don't bother complaining about lack of knowledgeable sales people, I find that in many HDs. I know I'll have better luck at Logan Hardware.
Could the Capitol/ Florida Market area use some spiffying up? Yes. But it doesn't need to be turned into a little piece of Fairfax, Co.
posted by Mari @ 13.12.06
17 Comments:
My thought this morning is that this model should be applied to the redevelopment of Brentwood Shopping Center in place today.
I am writing to Vincent Orange immediately to complain and also to other members of the DC City Council. I urge other residents to do the same-- let's try to stave off this horror as quickly as possible.
to: vorange@dccouncil.us, lperkins@dccouncil.us, elloyd@dccouncil.us,
Councilmember Orange,
Add me to the list of constituents very disappointed by your handling of the New Town proposal. I find both your ethics and aesthetics off-putting.
The shopping area you developed around Home Depot is very unpleasant. You constituents want locally owned stores and *urban character* , not cheap, sterile, psuedo- suburban spqce unfriendly to pedestrians and to users of public transporation .
(Have *you* ever tried to walk to Home Depot from the Brookland metro? It's dangerous and almost impossible to do with a cart.)
Please consider working with the knowledgable urban revitalization advocate Richard Layman to develop New Town in a way that your constituents will most appreciate.
Yeah, this thing looks horrendous. Ugh. But, that Giant re-development you speak of is actually happening. I heard some rumors a few months ago that they were planning to shut it down & make condos out of it, so I contacted Giant HQ. They told me that yes, the O St Giant is being redeveloped, but that they plan to keep a store there. I certainly hope that's true!
Zeul,
Several years I heard the same thing at a Shaw Mains Streets meeting in the basement of the Waltha Daniels Library. I will believe it when they actually put up signs saying they will close the Giant on [Month] [Day], 200[?].
Litteri's...yeah, and where's all the free parking and the Hess gas station. where the hell is the gas station?
also, former councilmember john ray supports this development and he knows how to pull cats out of hats.
I don't get the uproar. This actually looks like an OK plan to me. Medium-high density use. No parking lots separating the buildings from the foot traffic. Close to a Metro station -- maybe there could even be an underground tunnel to link directly with the subway?
I never really thought much of the Florida Market anyway, though, and thought a lot of it was wasted and ugly space -- defintiely what's good that's there could be condensed to make room for other uses.
JS
The uproar is for those of us who like the place, have found value in it and see it's uniqueness. It doesn't look bad, for say PG Co or some other suburban area, it just looks wrong for the place they plan to shoehorn it into.
Looking at some of the details there is supposed to be about 1,200 parking spaces in a structured bldg. I read, above ground parking garage. I have only seen 1 parking garage that didn't look like crap and it was in Winter Park, FL.
In the picture I cited in the main article you don't see it, but the one I cite in this comment you do, the buildings dwarf the residential housing across the street.
The proposed Metro connection? It looks.... odd. Please provide current examples of such a connection (with similiar length) that exists in the Wash, DC area.
The scale just seems wrong in my opinion.
the capitol city market is thriving. it is not "blighted", as Mr. Orange so blindly has noted.
But also it is unique. not rare or even uncommon, but UNIQUE in dc. We dont need to market to be sterilized and pristine, just a place to shop.
I can think of a number of other areas that are not unique nor are they thriving. north capitol comes to mind........
its funny( read: annoying) that the trend in the suburbs is to build little urban villages ( kings farm, kentlands, rio) but in the city we are having an influx of designers with suburban sensibilities.
Please, if you like the layout of the suburbs, go live there. and design there.
some housing and restaurants would improve the situation. it's easy to get in and out of if you drive and very close in for walking, biking, subway or bus and the views of the city are quite nice too from atop the hill. i was hoping they'd develope the parcel on the northside of new york avenue at the intersection of penn and new york avenue. a few 11 story loft type buildings over the railroad tracks would be fabulous there.
Penn & New York? We talking Pennsylvania Ave? Those don't touch. NoMa where the metro station sits is getting developed, don't worry your head about that. That's where the restaurants are going to service the office drones over there on the other side of the tracks. It is going to be HUGE! HUGE! The tracks are the only thing bringing the landscape back to human scale. You're going to have this monster office park on one side of the train tracks and when you cross things are a residential and even the warehouse area is majorily 2 stories, maybe 3. Why let the monster jump the tracks and overpower the residential area south of Florida?
from what i understand there is to be a large scale building on that triangle north of the station. where New York and florida intersect. there is a gas station there now, which i hear is going to be removed.
There has been talk of a traffic circle or newly configured road network where the wendys is.
The fairfield project fell through though, even fter ANC support. ( and a big community payoff)
with all due respect dear owner go the the PNC bank on the corner of Penn and New York NE and you will see a street sign saying: PENN
good, cause that SUNOCO station is too close the the ATF.
Apparently the makers of my spiral bound DC map thought PENN was important enough to split down the middle and so it is Pe (barely an extra E) and on the next page where it does not obviously line up N ST. Also from a car those side streets (and their signs) aren't obvious on NY Ave @ 40mph and there is no way in hell I'm biking along NY Ave east of 1st St NW.
While we are on streets, I'm very tied to the L'Enfant system, east west streets letter, north-south number, diagonal or weird directions are states and anything above Florida will just confuse me. And that's why I have the ADC map. Also noticed that the market area does not appear on my wall maps. But the problem with the wall map is that it is circa 1890. So a lot of north of FL Ave isn't there.
Anyway, we digress. I'm sad to hear about the Fairfield project. It seemed like a good deal, providing housing and a little retail without destroying something else. Was it Pepco that nixed it, I forget?
i had read that csx, who owns the land, couldn't settle on the parcel. or wouldnt.
either way, they nixed it.
Also, i solidly disagree that any housing will benefit the market, if thats where the poster meant.
one luxury condo owner being woken up to semi's unloading at 4:00 am spells the end of the market.
a(nother) restaurant? sure! more retail? sure!
You have got to be kidding me. The Capitol City Markets have been there since the turn of the 20th century and represent the last true realistic glimpse at the history of yesteryear in DC. The place booms and the commerce is very real and exciting.Go down and check it out and take in the ambiance of when life was not so quick paced , clean ,packaged , and sterile. To think that Litteri's will be displaced is a true disservice to our future children....one of a kind food , wine and accomodating service at reasonable prices..
Every other metropolitan city has a yesteryear wholesalers market and it thrives !!!!!!Why does the District not get it ? Oh yeah, I forgot , the fat cats who control the city are looking at the front end profits from redevelopment that they and their buddies will get . What a travesty !!!!!
Why does the greed of a few have to overrule the common sense of many ? I guess it is time to pitch them out.
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