Amy Mazur
Office phone: (202) 994-1511
E-mail: amazur@gwu.edu

Don’t let someone who obviously disregarded the law to the greatest degree get away with it.

That said, I’m sure that when you buy in an historic district, all the covenants and restrictions that come along with that require your signature at closing, recognizing that there are things you can’t — and things you must — do as part of that historic designation. It’s complete BS that someone who didn’t want to live by those terms could basically just let a house fall into such disrepair that the obligations they had under the law get waived. Regardless of what happens to the house, it would be nice if DCRA had some authority to impose punitive measures on these folks, the same way they can nail you to the wall to the tune of $10,000 for every permit violation.

Moreover, I am very sympathetic to the neighbors here. There are common structural elements with the other attached homes, and it’s almost certain these dopes have royally screwed over their neighbors with their negligence. As someone who owns an attached rowhome, I learned the hard way that shoddy structural work by a neighbor along the shared wall can have really nasty effects — from wall sagging that damages finishes to the creation of space that water can get into. Rowhomes are such a common architectural feature in this town, whether you’re in a historic district or not, DCRA’s permissiveness and lack of enforcement in these situations really allows a lot of this type of sh*t to get passed on to unsuspecting neighbors and calls for greater oversight. I hope the neighbors sue the pants off them.

aside from that, its dumbfounding that people don’t understand the intrinsic value in historic buildings. think about all the interesting places and neighborhoods in DC. does west end come to mind? k street? how about NoMa? maybe you prefer Roslyn over the architecturally older neighborhoods. most people don’t. we look at our older neighborhoods as our definitions off our city. we go out to eat and drink and socialize in old rows. we make decisions there. it informs our sense of who we are. and most importantly, we spend money there.

there is inspirational value, creative value and hard economic value in historic buildings. they are and should be treated like a resource.

the argument that there are plenty of historic buildings in our city and therefore we shouldn’t be too worried is a massive failure of understanding. Yes, we have more historic buildings and areas than nearly any city our size, and bigger. but we’re the capitol of the USA. we should. plus, we’ve little else to offer. the future of american cities is arts and entertainment. history is part of this cultural tourism. we have a competitive advantage in this regard.

*steps off soapbox and goes back to filling out TPS reports*

Can you imagine if your neighbor decided to build a plywood shack nextdoor? Or a chicken farm? Or run a slum tenement like this place? Because of this we have zoning and historic preservation laws.

Bottom line – there outa be a strict law against demolition by negelect, and the property rights folks should all move out to Idaho where they can enjoy their unfettered property rights!