I'm grateful that so many neighbors have chosen to contact me via phone and email over the last six months, but nothing beats face-to-face interaction. I'm going to start hosting some informal "office hours" for folks in the neighborhood to stop by, say hi and chat about anything on their mind. I'll start with once every six weeks or so and see what demand is like. 

Inaugural office hours: 

Sunday July 28, 2013
10:00 a.m. to noon 
Bakehouse - 1407 T St NW (try the iced coffee!)

Topics of conversation may include: parking, rat abatement, the 17th St liquor license moratorium, growth on 14th St, historic preservation, and more!

Please stop by and introduce yourself and let me know what's on your mind. I look a lot like the guy pictured to the right. Hope to see you there,

Noah

This weekend, the Washington Post ran what has become a commonplace story on the exceptional growth our neighborhood has encountered in the last several years. The paper also published an interactive map of the area showing new restaurants and housing units that have opened recently.

Though the story is certain to spark a lengthy conversation among neighbors, I’m more interested in the questions that Ben Harris posed in his Greater Greater Washington piece on the topic. Ben is a former Logan Circle resident and previously ran the blog 14th&U with his wife. His writing has focused more on the impact that the economic growth has had on the neighborhood and its residents:

I think we all struggle with these questions and how best to strike that balance. Of equal importance may be the practical question of how we control our own destiny and help shape a neighborhood that we’d want to live in for decades to come.

There is no denying that these questions are in many ways tied to our recent discussion on a liquor license moratorium; but there seems to remain a broader anxiety about the future of the neighborhood as Ben points out so well.

I moved to the area because of the great neighborhood options including entertainment, dining and shopping, but also for its grocery stores and parks and coffee shops. I continue to think about where the balance is between “destination” and “neighborhood” and how the two can co-exist.

There are clearly no easy answers, but there are 155 comments on GGW now and counting, so I know folks have a lot to say - what do you think?