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Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Thinking About: Washingtonian and Shaw

I really love Washingtonian Magazine and its online presence. Although some critics allege that it's geared more towards the bridge and tunnel crowd, I find a lot of D.C.-based inspiration from and use of its content. An anonymous commenter recently pointed me to a brief renewshaw.com shoutout (technically it was a remakingleslumhistorique.blogspot.com shoutout) in their June print edition, which was a fun source of blogging affirmation. With Washingtonian on my mind presently, I figured I'd make three totally unrelated Washingtonian observations:

First, in the July issue (which is on newsstands now and includes their annual Best and Worst poll), they interview real estate guru Ken Johnson, of DCmud.blogspot.com and DCRealestate.com to pick a few of his favorite—and least favorite—Washington-area neighborhoods, condo buildings, and more. Notably, Ken opines that Shaw is one of the best neighborhoods--in terms of value--in which to buy property right now (along with Petworth and Logan Circle, the latter requiring "less patience" than the former and Shaw; I'm guessing Ken means that Logan's already pretty much there in terms of widespread renewal and is probably more expenseive as a result).

Second, I love Washingtonian's online search engines, but they need a lot more Shaw content (I'll leave the rant about Shaw's grouping with U Street--but not Logan and/or not being designated as its own individual neighborhood apart from U Street or Logan--for another day). For example, their Restaurant Finder doesn't cover most (any?) of the lower 9th restaurants such as Vegetate, Chan's Mongolian Grill and Tokyo Sushi, Queen of Sheba, and Old Dom. Their brand new Happy Hour Finder, which is concededly a work in progress seeking additional content, misses a few notable Shaw happy hours, like those of Old Dominion and Vegetate. I'm sure a few emails to them would remedy this quickly, so peruse their searches soon and drop em a line on what they're missing!

Finally, I also love Washingtonian's various guides, like their Cheap Eats Guide. Shaw wasn't overlooked in the Cheap Eats guide (Etete and Oohhs & Aahhs, a place I've never been, made the list). While opinions on these types of lists always differ, I think we have a lot of awesome cheap eats in and around Shaw that didn't make the cut.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Buick said...
The Lily Ponds area is really quiet, excellent city services, convienient and good prices. You could power boat to work by renting a seasonal mooring at The Washington Yacht, hop the Blue line from Deanwood and shop in Old Town Alexandria or just up BW Parkway. Of course however Lily Ponds is way out in the countryside of Ward 7.

Anonymous said...

Off topic, I was walking around 9th street recently, and on L (I think?) and wrapping around lower 9th are signs on some of the dilapidated buildings, giving the name of a construction company and consulting firm......does anyone know if this means that a new development is coming?!

si said...

are you talking about A-1 Property management? those signs have been up for a while.

Anonymous said...

Oh darn. Yes, it was those signs. I guess that's probably not a sign of impending progress! Thanks for the info :)

si said...

Ask Jack Evans. He sent this on 3/23 in his newsletter:

"Convention Center Hotel - The hotel to be built across 9th Street, NW from the new Convention Center is to have 1,500 rooms and additional convention meeting space. As of this week, it appears DC has reached an agreement with Marriott/RLJ Companies to construct the hotel. In order to maximize our new Center, the hotel must be built;"

Only developments since then that I have seen are fresh ugly boards on the huge apt. building on L, & the closing of the family services center, also on L. Th rest is the same old grafitti, trash, & blight.

Anonymous said...

si
the huge building is The Eldon

si said...

ty rr forgot the name.

Anonymous said...

hmmm, i wonder if it's the convention hotel that's moving along then? that would be so great........