More breaking news on Southeast Development

JDLand also tells us that Adrian Washington has resigned as president of the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation, following Anthony Freeman's resignation as president of the National Capital Revitalization Corporation.

These organizations have been beleaguered, facing City Council opprobrium in the guise of a bill put forward by Councilmember Evans to dissolve the two corporations.

This was discussed also in last Friday's Kojo Nnamdi Radio Show/WAMU, click here for the show, but I didn't record exactly at what minute this discussion started, maybe around 43:00, but this is what Mayor Fenty said:

"We don't think that the government should be owning anything. We don't think that the government should be leasing stuff and developing stuff. Government should facilitate development." (This is between minute 45:00 and minute 46:00)

I think a big lesson with these corporations is instead of getting local people with relatively limited experience doing big development, either get local people with a lot of experience doing big development, or get non-local people with a lot of experience doing big development to run these operations.

Having other local people with relatively limited experience doing this kind of big development--locally elected and appointed officials--probably isn't a step forward. (Most city construction projects, schools or not, have problelms. Of course, I will say that DC residents are hard to please, and that's even given the rampant embrace of mediocrity that is so prevalent.)

Say what you will about NYC's Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Rebuilding Daniel Doctoroff--lately he's a step or two above what we seem to strive for in DC.

Here's the entry from JD Land:

AWC CEO Adrian Washington Resigns (2/13 5:17 PM) Not posted on the AWC web site yet, but here's a portion of the press release: "The Board of Directors of the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation (AWC) announced the resignation of its President and CEO Adrian G. Washington today. Washington, who served in that capacity from December 2005 to now, is returning to the private sector to resume his previous activities as a local developer and entrepreneur. [...] Mr. Washington's resignation is effective immediately." ... here's a PDF of the press release.

JDLand will send you Daily E-Mail Updates about development activities along the Anacostia Waterfront.