Neighborhood Development
Columbia Heights – In Transition To Better Times

 

Charles Dickens described the era of his Tale of Two Cities as "the best of times and the worst of times." It is a description that might very well apply to the changing fortunes of Columbia Heights, a neighborhood in the District that has experienced both.

Columbia Heights (generally delineated as extending from Florida Avenue north to Spring Road between 11th and 16th Streets, Northwest) took shape as a sleepy, semi-rural suburb of the Federal City in the post-Civil War era. Starting in the early 1900’s, the neighborhood underwent a wave of development of Victorian-style townhomes that still today define its architecture and that attracted the academics of near-by Howard University. Later, entertainers, such as Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong, put the proliferating jazz clubs along U Street on the national music map as the "Black Broadway." U Street had become so grand by the mid-1930’s, it was said, that "to go there you had to wear a tie."

Meanwhile, the neighborhood had become the second largest retail district in the city. When downtown department stores closed early on Saturdays, shoppers headed north for the thriving 14th Street corridor. But the out-migration to the suburbs after World War II began to take its toll on Columbia Heights – a trend suddenly and violently accelerated by the riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in April, 1968. With 275 of its commercial establishments damaged, and with roughly half of all the property loss registered in the city, Columbia Heights receded from the best to the worst of its times.

But today, thirty-five years after the smoke has cleared, Columbia Heights is stirring once again with the promise of new vitality. Along with that promise, however, there are stirrings of another less hopeful kind in the displacement tensions that invariably accompany rapid new up-scale development.

The catalysts that sparked the development surge are cited succinctly by Bob Moore, president and CEO of the Development Corporation of Columbia Heights (DCCH): a new Metro station (1999); newfound investor confidence in the District; the region’s economic boom in the late 90’s; and, finally, that housing stock of Victorians – some grand and all convenient to downtown. A drive through the neighborhood provides very visible evidence of the in-fill development that is dramatically changing the economics of home ownership in the area.

Between 1996 and 2002, average sale prices of homes in Columbia Heights zoomed from $50,000 to $113,000 (2 BR, 1 BA), and from $86,000 to $193,000 (3 BR, 2 BA). Average selling prices, of course, only tell of the property value story. In 2001, the highest selling price recorded for two bedrooms and two baths was $319,000. A five-bedroom home fetched $1.4 million.

In parallel with (and sometimes across the street from) market-rate housing, the construction and rehab of affordable housing is proceeding at an equally robust pace. Columbia Heights has been designated by the Mayor as a target neighborhood for concentrated public investment to stimulate revitalization. A report of the Office of Planning (fourth quarter, 2002) notes eighteen publicly assisted residential developments underway that will provide 1,277 rental and 75 ownership housing units with affordability controls concentrated at 50% to 60% of the area median income.

Happily at work in the midst of these efforts is the DCCH, which has completed over 120 affordable apartments, co-ops, condos and single-family homes for renters and first-time buyers. Among other current projects, the DCCH is serving as development consultant to assist a tenant association in the acquisition and rehab of a 218-unit apartment complex. The concentration of public investment is also taking hold in retail development, with two highly visible projects now underway: Tivoli Square, a mixed-use development incorporating retail, anchored by a 55,000 square foot Giant Food, commercial space and condominiums with a low-income set aside, had its eagerly awaited ground breaking in May. DC USA, a 550,000 square foot retail and entertainment complex, anchored by Target, is being developed by the same project team that completed the much publicized Harlem USA in New York City. As a partner in both projects, DCCH will focus its efforts on meeting set aside goals for employment of District residents and for leasing to local and minority-owned businesses.

Clearly, Columbia Heights is stirring once again, not only as a residential enclave in transition but also as a retail destination in revival. A conversation with Bob Moore reveals his confident optimism in the development prospects of his neighborhood, but that optimism is tempered somewhat by a concern for long-time residents facing a sea of change. "We were going nowhere. Now, we’re going somewhere fast." The new money fueling long-awaited revitalization, he points out, is also straining the original social order of the community. "If a neighborhood kid graduates from Howard and finds he can’t come home and live here because he can’t afford the rents, well then we have a problem." That’s the generation he is most concerned about – the younger generation of Columbia Heights starting out to make a life. He would like to keep that generation home to grow with the neighborhood.

How the revitalization of Columbia Heights finally works out will determine whether the neighborhood goes on to enjoy the best of times. One thing is certain: now is another time of changing fortunes for Columbia Heights.

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