I had friends who bought near the U St Metro in the early 90’s: Yes, they had to be careful how they walked home. It took several years for the U St. Corridor to become more used. Perhaps the Reves Center is a factor, but I doubt it. A larger factor seemed to be the 9:30 club moving to 815 V St, from their old digs downtown.

The thing that anchored U St. on the east side is the 17th St. Corridor (Dupont East), and the 18th St. corridor (Adams-Morgan). As people got pushed out of Dupont (due to pricing), they moved nearby: First East, then North-East. The East end of U St (At 18th) had a few stores and resturants.

So, on the East of U, we have the bottom of Adams Morgan. On the West of U, the 9:30 club created a draw of dives (Velvet Lounge?) betwen 9:30 and the Subway. Over towards 11th, little Ethopia moved in. The rest is basically infill, from Chi-Cha over. You will notice, 14th St near U sucked for years, and really only got “better” when Busboys and cardboard moved in.

Give it time. The Columbia Heights Corridor (by Irving) will get better, and really has. In another eight years I’m sure it will be much nicer, and all the storefronts will be occupied. Perhaps not with chi-chi coffee within 150 yards of Starbucks, but occupied.

This corridor is 8 years behind U St. More important is the former Nemiah Shopping Plaza, and what happens if Bed Bath & Baloney goes out of business.

my $25

One thing that is forgotten in the “organic growth” discussion / assumptions is that CH has some serious limitations that U Street did not. U Street first of all had (one of Barry’s few positive legacies) the Reeves Center as an anchor plus some great infrastructure / historic places like the Atlas Theater, Ben’s Chili Bowl, etc. It got a head start on CH due to the metro going in there a few years earlier. It is right between Logan and Dupont, so the “organic” growth naturally flowed outword from those neighborhoods, unlike in C.H. And U Street, perhaps most importantly, did not have the biggest concentration of section 8 housing (none of which has any retail) making a large stretch of 14th street impossible / inhospitable for this so-called “organic” growth. Without some centralized planning / pushing for major development around the metro, there may well have been none, or far less than we have now. Lots of businesses were atttracted by the prospect of a huge amount of pedestian traffic generated by DCUSA. Sure, I love Logan and U Street, but to assume that organically that would have been replicated in CH seems to ignore many of the very substantial differences between those neighborhoods.

What seems to have a TON of development potential is GA Ave. and it can only become more desirable as the cheap rents/properties vanish from Logan Circle, Admas Morgan, 14th street, and U street. The whole legnth of GA ave. & 7th street just waits for those first retail pioneers to jump in. Development on U street has now pressed on all the way to 8th & U st. with the night club “Town” and the 9th & U street hot spot.

Hopefully development on GA ave. can be more “organic” and indie. I spoken to some of my neighbors about an overlay for parts of GA from Kenyon down to Ecuclid that will provide neighborhood input into development.

So, I think it is safe to say GA ave. is probably the last chance we have for nearby funky/organic (whate ever we want to call it) development!

You’ve got it backwards. The restaurants exist to support the offices and condos. There were offices in downtown Bethesda long before the fancy restaurants and bars moved in. My dad lived and worked in downtown Bethesda for 17 years before it became all fancy, and only a few of the restaurants around at that time still remain. My mom grew up there. It was a residential/commuter enclave long before it was a fashionable/hip place to be.