While relatively self-contained due to federal security requirements, DHS will bring many new workers to Congress Heights and may provide demand for commercial development on the hospital’s East Campus, which would be a direct economic benefit to the existing community. General Services Administration and is expected to be occupied this spring by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The West Campus of the former hospital grounds is being developed by the U.S. The site is now home to the Washington Mystics and the NBA G League’s Capital City Go-Go and serves as the practice facility for the Washington Wizards. Elizabeth’s Hospital complex, near the Congress Heights metro stop. Last September, the District of Columbia opened a 4,200-seat Entertainment and Sports Arena on the East Campus of the sprawling St. It shows that even before Amazon’s announcement, parts of Congress Heights were changing in ways that were unimaginable even a few years ago. Recently, the students completed an analysis of the community’s housing, transportation, health, education, and other key resources. “You can’t just wait for city-wide policies to implement themselves communities need concrete strategies to be hands-on and shape their own fate.” New Development Brandes’ class exemplifies this new approach, which faces issues like community preservation straight on.Ĭonfronted with the ongoing flow of private capital into vulnerable communities, “we could sit on our hands and do nothing, or we could try to envision positive outcomes and create new strategies,” Brandes said. Now they are taking a more active role in helping to set up community partnerships and crafting strategies to help achieve equitable development. Traditionally, city planners have focused on setting the ground rules for public and private development, said Brandes. Co-taught by Peter Byrne (Law) and Uwe Brandes (Urban Planning), this spring’s class represents an ongoing collaboration between the two instructors. Comprising students from both the Urban & Regional Planning program and Law Center, the class is devising an urban planning strategy for Congress Heights, which it will present to community leaders this spring. While located in Washington, D.C., Congress Heights, with a large park and many single family homes, is sometimes considered one of the city’s first suburbs.Īn urban planning studio at Georgetown University is giving it a try. But she doesn’t want the rising home prices and rents to force out the very people who have waited so long to benefit from it. She wants to see more economic development: Indeed, she’s worked for neighborhood investment and revitalization in Ward 8 for much of her adult life. Now even these areas “are beginning to see the effects of D.C.’s hot real estate market.” A Mixed Blessingįor Monica Ray, a 26-year resident of Congress Heights, this sudden interest in her community is a mixed blessing. Some of Washington, D.C.’s least expensive properties lie just across the Potomac in the Bellevue and Congress Heights sections of Southeast-an easy commute to Crystal City over the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. “Amazon’s plans for the new headquarters in Crystal City provide a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to flip homes and improve housing values in the Arlington and Alexandria areas,” wrote Daniel Huertas, CEO of Washington Capital Partners, in Forbes.īut those opportunities aren’t limited to Northern Virginia, Huertas said. That would mean an estimated 25,000 new jobs paying an average salary of $150,000 a year. Amazon, soon to be named the world’s richest company, had just picked the Crystal City section of Arlington, Virginia, to be the site of a new headquarters.
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