Speaking of history, historic preservation, and seeing the city

L'enfant Plan for the City of Washington, 1791.

I have been saddened at recent "outbursts" against historic preservation in various parts of the city. I'm shocked because it's such an example of "biting the hand that feeds you" that I am practically speechless. Today, the city's neighborhoods would be nothing without the hard slogging work and perserverance of citizen preservationists devoted to stabilizing and improving the City of Washington over the many decades that center cities have been the step-child of state and federal policies.

Historic preservation was essential to the stabilization of the city during the long period of decline and disinvestment associated first with suburban out-migration and later with business out-migration spurred by the civil disturbances in 1968. Despite this fundamental change in the planning and land use paradigm that put suburbs first, historic building stock in cities attracted people willing to put up with all the trials and tribulations of living in a neglected city, and the decades they spent focused on improving their houses, neighborhoods and the broader city.

Today's increase in demand for urban living has been driven in large part by the existence of quality, attractive housing stock eligible for historic designation as well as properties and districts already designated. (Of course, location, the presence of a great collection of nearby transportation assets, and until recently, relative affordability, are key factors as well).

So in my opinion, residents of this city owe historic preservationists a great debt for leading the way in stabilizing and improving a great number of neighborhoods that now are in high demand. You wouldn't even want to live in the neighborhoods that you are now extolling, if it wasn't for historic preservation.

In that vein, CulturalTourismDC sponsors WalkingTownDC, which is a set of tours of various parts of the city. Starting this year, they are doing this twice a year, in the spring and the fall.

This fall's tours are on Saturday October 1st. Perusing the schedule in detail finds that CTDC has taken the tours to another level, and providing a level of celebrity...

I will be away at the National Trust for Historic Preservation Annual Meeting, which I don't regret, but that means I'll miss the bike tour along the Anacostia River ("Anacostia by Bike"), led by DDOT Director Dan Tangherlini, or the tour of Hillsdale and Old Anacostia led by Stanley Jackson, Deputy Mayor of Planning and Economic Development.

There are many other tours of interest including "Cluss, Downtown, and the Redbrick City," tours of Shaw led by Alex Padro (one of the stars in the Main Streets program in DC, Alex is the executive director of Shaw Main Streets), U Street, the Congressional Cemetery (which has an incredible viewshed of the hills east of the river), and many neighborhoods including Brookland, Mt. Pleasant, and Georgetown.

I am continually amazed at the fount of beauty and variety in the City of Washington, which is a pretty small place of 60+ square miles.

The Walking Tours sponsored by Cultural Tourism DC give you the opportunity to experience more of this beauty than you are likely to encounter otherwise.