M.V. Jantzen

Target, Columbia Heights.

Now reading: NPR’s “Big-Box Retailers Move To Smaller Stores In Cities“, which touches on both Walmart’s controversial decision to come to D.C. and the impact such retailers have had on neighborhoods like mine:

Outside the Columbia Heights Target, in a neighborhood of century-old rowhouses, there are mixed opinions about this contemporary attempt at an urban big-box.

Some people love the energy that the new businesses have created.

“It makes you want to come out and spend a little money if you don’t have any anyway,” says Washington native Niecy Stevens, whose car was parked at the curb in front of the store. “So, it brings people together, I guess.”

But neighborhood resident Anne Bouie, who lives nearby, says she is “conflicted.”

“I love Target; I’m not going to lie,” she says.” I’m in there every week. But they’re soul stealers from communities like these. … I mean, look at this. Does this have any spin, any flavor, any style by any criteria?”

This picture was taken at 9am this morning, when people were already in line for free pancakes from the new IHOP in DCUSA. There were jugglers, clowns, balloon artists and what looked like a giant, stuffed pancake strolling down Irving street, entertaining the crowd, who started chanting “Pancake, pancake!” during the opening ceremony, which featured members of the City Council and Mayor Adrian Fenty. Council Chair-elect Kwame Brown tweeted this amazing photograph of the Mayor, Council member Jim Graham and himself wearing blue IHOP cardigans. What a festive way to start the day, in Columbia Heights.

The sign in the window at DCUSA, with the "opening" date covered in tape.

Update: Councilmember Graham called me again, after making a phone call of his own: “The Owner of DCUSA confirms they are in default four times, to the tune of a million dollars.”

Earlier today, I posted about Councilmember Jim Graham and Ellwood Thompson’s not being on the same page with regards to DCUSA; Graham just called me and he’s not backing down from what he told Lydia DePillis over at the City Paper.

Speaking of “not backing down”, I asked him to clarify this much blogged-about quote: “they’re going to pay for this very bad decision.”

He replied, “That is not the best language to describe it…the fact of the matter is, there are financial obligations that result from this kind of default. That’s the information I have from people at DCUSA. As recently as just the other day, they indicated they were going to pursue their legal options. We were lead on. All manner of agreements were signed. Now they have to abide by them. There are consequences to not doing that.”

But the owner of Ellwood Thompson’s, Richard Hood, told TBD that “I don’t know why Jim Graham is saying this. We are not in default. We continue to work with the landlord to make this happen”.

Graham responded: “That does not comport with the information that I have from DCUSA ownership. If they’re continuing to try and work it out then that’s fine, but I’m going on the information that I have. I have been very involved in this. I have asked continuously what’s going on.

“If Ellwood Thompson’s overcomes this, that’s fine, but if they don’t, I know others are being actively approached at this point, which would suggest to me that the deal is in default.”

I asked about the dream tenant which is mentioned in every relevant DCist and City Paper comment thread about DCUSA or groceries: Whole Foods. If the issue which prevented the sought-after store was parking, was there a way to work around that?

Graham said, “Parking is always an issue because I think there are some retail establishments who want dedicated parking and I don’t think we can supply that, that’s what DCUSA tells me. Fact of the matter is, there’s more than ample parking there.”

Back to Ellwood’s:

“This deal is at a very advanced stage…it’s gone beyond being completed, that’s why default provisions will come in to play and it will be very expensive for Ellwood Thompson’s. From what I understand he’s in default. These are people I’m in regular contact with, the owners of DCUSA…unless they’re making something up. This happened months ago by the way, the clear indication of this deal falling through goes back to August. But I’ll call them and maybe some miraculous rebirth will occur here, maybe there will be a miracle. But what they’ve done is very upsetting.”

As soon as Graham got off the phone with me, he called the owners of DCUSA to ask about Ellwood Thompson’s. He called me and said, “The Owners of DCUSA confirm they are in default four times, to the tune of a million dollars.”

William Beutler

Artist's rendition of what the legendary DCUSA Ellwood's might have looked like...

Is Ellwood Thompson’s coming to DCUSA or isn’t it? The City Paper reported:

According to Councilmember Jim Graham, the Richmond-based organic food store recently ended its two-year flirtation with the DCUSA location–and will lose about a million dollars in breaking its agreements.

But then TBD had this statement from the owner of the Richmond-chain:

Richmond-based organic grocer Ellwood Thompson’s has not abandoned its plans to open a store at the DCUSA retail complex in Columbia Heights, according to company owner Richard Hood…”I don’t know why Jim Graham is saying this. We are not in default. We continue to work with the landlord to make this happen,” Hood said.

I called my Councilmember, Jim Graham and emailed two of his staffers to find out more but his office has not responded to my inquiries. Like many of my neighbors, I felt relief earlier today, when it seemed like this never-ending saga finally had a (any!) resolution. I should’ve realized that when it comes to Ellwood Thompson’s and DCUSA, any pronouncement should be taken with a lot of salt– if only I had a grocery store on my block, from which to buy it.

gnagesh

Z Burger in Glover Park.

I live in Columbia Heights. I end up at DCUSA, or what I call the “vertical strip mall“, almost daily. I was overjoyed that the Target within it expanded their grocery section because I avoid the Giant supermarket near 14th and Park unless it’s an emergency; the last time I was there, it was during a blizzard and the infamously-long lines stretched to the back of the store– and then wrapped around it.

I’ve dined at almost every establishment within a block of the Metro except for the ones that weren’t vegetarian-friendly. I write all of this to say that I know the commercial, congested two-block strip of Columbia Heights between where I live and the historic, Tivoli Theatre, and I know it well. And that is why I am concomitantly happy and annoyed that Prince of Petworth announced the impending arrival of Z Burger, a local chain currently serving Tenleytown and Glover Park.

I am excited because Z Burger serves what I think is the best veggie-burger in town. When I lived in Georgetown, I hiked up the street several times a week to consume it. I am annoyed because of the whining and unrealistic expectations of some of my neighbors, who bemoan that we are getting something so declasse and pedestrian. Sometimes, I feel like grabbing their lapels and beseeching them to explain why they live here, when they are clearly under the delusion that this neighborhood is or should be…something else. More on that, in a bit.

The best objection I’ve heard to Z Burger is that Five Guys is but a block away. That’s fair but I would point out that unless I want a wee grilled-cheese sandwich coaxed from a slapped-together, inside-out hamburger bun combined with orange dairy product, there is nothing vegetarian on the menu. I have no quibble with Five Guys; my partner loves their hamburgers and their fries, though on the soggy side for my taste, are often quite good. But Z Burger also has onion rings, cheese steaks and milk shakes. So it does offer something different and this life-long vegetarian is eager to patronize it, once again.

To each their own, right? But that’s not the case with many of the people I encounter every day, who are dissatisfied with the chain stores and casual dining this neighborhood offers. They want more. They want different. They want better. See this comment, on Prince of Petworth’s Z Burger post, asking why we can’t have Shake Shack (!) or Ray’s. Shake Shack is opening in D.C.– but in Dupont, on Connecticut Avenue, where Fuddruckers used to be. Considering that there is only one Shake Shack outside of New York City (in Miami), I don’t know that D.C. will get two locations anytime soon. But that’s addressing the question/lament literally. Let’s talk about the subtext– which to me sounds like, “Why isn’t something *better* coming to Columbia Heights?” A better example of this mentality can be found on a different PoP thread– this comment was under a post announcing that Sports Zone was coming to DCUSA:

I guess Columbia Heights hasn’t \arrived\ enough for any chain to consider a flagship store (Adidas, Apple, etc) there? I’ll be impressed when it can support something like a Kiehl’s or L’Occitane. Hello, gentrifiers. [link]

Hello, gentrifiers, indeed. This is exactly what I’m talking about, and what gets this Capricorn’s goat. There is already an area of D.C. where one may find Adidas, Apple, Kiehl’s and L’Occitane; it’s called Georgetown. It’s a lovely neighborhood, with good things and bad things, like everywhere else (I, for one, do NOT miss the summer roaches and the winter rats). This is not Georgetown. No, we haven’t “arrived”, if that’s the narrow, obnoxious definition of “arrived” we’re examining.

Whenever anyone mentions Ellwood Thompson’s, the Virginia grocer whose storefront on Irving Street languishes as a dusty, empty monument to bad PR and a worse economy, you can inwardly count “3, 2, 1…” before the inevitable griping about the lack of high-end, organic produce commences. Columbia Heights “deserves” Whole Foods (never mind that there already is one on 14th Street), or at the very least, Trader Joe’s. Can’t everyone see? There are wealthy people here and these low-end stores like Marshall’s or Radio Shack are attracting the wrong elements! It’s positively embarrassing to have one’s relatives visit from Connecticut or California, and see the teeming masses, shlepping their giant bags of diapers or toilet paper to the Metro from Tar-zhay.

I appreciated the words of these PoP commenters:

That Columbia Heights has developed the way it has over the past 4 years is remarkable. I expect things to accelerate once the economy turns, but DCUSA looks the way it does today because that was the best of a very limited number of options.

Finally, if you don’t like the sorts of people who need to buy things at Marshall’s or Target, and who travel there on the metro because stuff is cheap and times are tough, Mr. Poon kindly requests that you relocate out of his neighborhood. [link]

The majority of residents of CH are low income. A couple rich blocks and a smattering of the young professional class notwithstanding.

You want high end s***? Take the metro to Friendship Heights where the majority of residents have extra money to spend on that stuff.

DCUSA attracts tenants that can do a high volume of business with the demographics in place in the neighborhood.

It’s very simple really. [link]

It is pretty simple. We can accept where we live and be realistic about our expectations while appreciating this vibrant, diverse neighborhood for all it has to offer or we can continue down a less gracious path, where entitlement blinds us to reality, and we refuse to acknowledge that for some of our city’s residents, for some of our neighbors, being able to feed and clothe their families while living paycheck to paycheck is a higher priority than procuring shea butter-enriched hand cream or a $2,000 computer.

…in Columbia Heights. They had everything from individually-wrapped baking potatoes to Target-brand Naan-bread. I wasn’t sure what to expect (I shop at this Target weekly, if not more frequently) but I was surprised by the items they now carried. Other shoppers were discussing how the prices measured up to Giant and Trader Joe’s. I saw juices and two-bite brownies like the ones sold at Whole Foods. It feels like an ambitious effort.

Sheeds/Air Force 1s. SportsZone is known for sneakers.

DC USA, the crowning retail establishment of gentrification-central (Columbia Heights), is about to get another new business (finally). Prince of Petworth has the scoop:

I’ve just learned that the newest tenant coming to DC USA will be a SportsZone. They are a sports and apparel company with locations in MD, VA and DC. They’ll be located between the Lane Bryant and Staples on the 14th St, NW side. They are looking to open by the end of Nov.

SportsZone is a local chain. Some of you may know its flagship location near Wisconsin and M St in Georgetown; it’s the store with the massive photographs of athletes in action displayed above its doors . Their other DC locations include Howard University, H Street NE and Alabama Ave SE. I have fond memories of SportsZone because a decade ago, they helped me locate three pairs of my favorite running shoe, ever.