A Few Quick Items: SW Waterfront House Legislation Advances, Fish Market is Location of the Month, SEU to be Removed from Metro Name, Maine Ave Road Work Delayed

- Last week, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee passed DC Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton's bill to allow the development of the Southwest Waterfront as currently planned to proceed. H.R. 2297 clears up some legal issues regarding the transfer of the Southwest Waterfront that occurred between the Federal government and the District back in the 1960s which will allow the construction of piers that extend out to the Washington Channel. The bill will also ensure the Maine Lobsterman statue and Titanic Memorial will be maintained, although the Lobsterman statue may be moved to another area of The Wharf. An affirmative vote in the full House and Senate will allow the development to proceed. Rendering courtesy of Hoffman-Madison Waterfront

- DC's Office of Motion Picture and Television Development has designated the Maine Avenue Fish Market as the One City Location of the Month for the month of November. Back in March, the MPTD began the monthly designation to help bring attention to sights in the city that can be used as filming locations. The fish market was most recently featured in the film "State of Play". Arena Stage was designated back in April.

- WMATA decided in a meeting last week to make some changes to Metro station names ahead of a reworking of the Metrorail map needed to reflect service changes as well as the introduction of the Silver Line. In Southwest, the Waterfront-SEU station will revert back to its original name - Waterfront. Since Southeastern University is no longer in existence, that appendage has been dropped. A bid to add Arena Stage to the station name, which was supported by ANC 6D, was rejected by the Metro board. Also, a proposal to add National Mall to the Smithsonian Metro station name was rejected. The Navy Yard station in Near SE will become Navy Yard-Ballpark. These changes will be implemented in the fall of 2012.

- ANC 6D 01 Commissioner Bob Craycraft reports on his Facebook page that DDOT has pushed back the completion date of the road work on Maine Avenue near the fish market to the end of November. The road work was originally scheduled to be complete back in mid-October. Below is a description from DDOT about what is being done to the road:

The project will replace the existing 4-foot-wide sidewalk with a new 14-foot-wide trail, accommodating both bicyclists and pedestrians, and replace the existing road surface. Installation of new storm water drainage elements, bio-retention areas, trees, lighting, signs, curb, gutter and fencing is also included in the project. To accommodate these amenities, on-street parking in this area will be eliminated. The number of vehicular lanes will be reduced from two to one and some driveway entrances to businesses will be realigned. 

Southwest = Nats Flats?

That's what the Washington City Paper states in its Hoods & Services section of the DC Neighborhood Guide that it published a couple weeks ago. The neighborhoods comprised of Southwest, Navy Yard, and Buzzard Point are lumped together under the heading "Nats Flats." The description of the neighborhood in the article isn't flattering...out of 23 neighborhoods profiled in the story, Nats Flats was ranked next to last based on some artibrary categories including Kid-Friendliness, Housing, Eats, Consumer Goods, Nightlife and Culture, and Intangibles. Nats Flats fared better than Drive Over Country, which includes neighborhoods along the banks of the Anacostia River including: Mayfair Parkside, Eastland Gardens, River Terrace, and Greenway. The highest ranked neighborhood is just to the northeast of Nats Flats, which is C-SPANistan (Capitol Hill, Lincoln Park, Stanton Park, and Rosedale). According to the article, the best category for Nats Flats is Nightlife and Culture. This is what the article stated about Nightlife and Culture in the area: "Well, again, you’ve got the stadium. And, although most of the museums are on the Northwest side of the National Mall, the Hirshhorn, Sackler, and Freer galleries, Air and Space, African Art, and American Indian museums are all technically on the Southwest side of the mall. Plus, there is Hains Point and the East Potomac Golf Course. On the nightlife front, there are mega-clubs H20 and Zanzibar, but the Waterfront after hours is best known for cruises on the Odyssey, which isn’t that cool of an outing, unless it’s prom night." The lowest ranked category is Consumer Goods. Here's what the article stated about Consumer Goods in the neighborhood: "Apart from the stadium and the slim pickings inside of the federal employment area and L’Enfant Plaza, which isn’t really considered part of the Waterfront/Navy Yard area, there is not much retail to be found in Southwest or the M Street section of Southeast." Isn't that the truth!