(From the e-box) about Uline Arena...

(Am cleaning up my emailbox because it's skating on full and I found this from May 28th, 2003. Besides sending this to neighborhood lists and activists, I sent this to themail@dcwatch and H-DC and it generated amazing press coverage. Today, the Uline Arena is landmarked...)

Guess what, LG Industries wants to tear down Uline Arena, right now.

AN application for a raze (DEMOLITION) permit for the Uline Arena has been filed, probably by LG Industries. Despite its historical relevance, the Uline Arena is not a historically designated building, so it has no protections according to relevant DC historic preservation laws. I am not sure enough about the law to know if DCRA is required to communicate this application to the ANC Commissioner (Daniel Pernell) in the affected Single Member District, or to the ANC.

The way that DCRA works, this building could come down INCREDIBLY FAST, with no notice to the community or community input whatsoever.

There is a great history associated with Uline Arena, from its location as the site of perhaps the first professional basketball and hockey teams in Washington, the beginning of Red Auerbach's (famed coach and general manager of the Boston Celtics) early coaching career, the first Beatles concert in North America, to E.D. Henderson's successful campaign to end Uline Arena's segregated event policies. (Before this, the facility was open to African-Americans for separate events.) Among other notable events, my understanding is that Malcolm X spoke in this building as well. In short, Uline Arena, later called Washington Coliseum, was the first "MCI Center" for the Washington region, holding everything from dances and lectures to the Ice Capades.

Plus, people in the neighborhood have been working to make the building conducive to some type of neighborhood activity, after so many people worked for so many years to successful shut down the trash transfer station that had illegally operated within this building (with the assistance of the Institute for Public Representation of the Georgetown University Law Center).

I do think that some federal laws might be relevant to this situation ( Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act) because the argument can be made that the construction of the new Metro Station has significantly altered the economic environment of the neighborhood, and this station is being constructed in part with federal funds. The argument would be something like this (from an email I sent to the ANC6A listserv on 10/22/01):

"For example, the building of the new Metro station at 1st and M Streets NE will increase demand (and therefore prices) for homes in the northern part of our neighborhood. People who live in that area say this is happening already. At the same time, the new metro station makes the same area attractive to commercial developers.

The reality is, the survey and ultimate designation might be the only thing that prevents the wholesale destruction-demolition of a large part of our neighborhood. Otherwise, what is to prevent developers from buying up the homes adjoining the railyard and building nice new office buildings a short five minute walk from the new Metro station?

Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero."

The M Street NE entrance for what is called the "New York Avenue" station will be less than 100 yards from the Uline Arena site.

In addition, other federal undertakings immediately adjacent to our neighborhod: (1) the location of the Securities and Exchange Commission at the under construction Station Place development east of Union Station on 2nd St. NE; (2) the construction of a new headquarters complex for the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (since renamed under the creation of the new cabinet level agency the Department of Homeland Security); and (3) the sale of the development rights (air rights) over the Union Station rail yard by the U.S. General Services Administration to the JBG Companies; in combination have a substantive aggregate and cumulative impact on the neighborhood, so that any action with regard to the Uline Arena should be reviewed by appropriate federal agencies, in this case the National Capitol Planning.

Note: this is suggested not because Uline Arena activities are federal undertakings, but that federal undertakings in the immediate neighborhood have and will continue to have significant impact on the value of redevelopable parcels and buildings that are commercially zoned, an impact that can simultaneously have a significantly negative impact on the residential character of the adjacent neighborhood.

The other reason any change in the nature of the Uline Arena site is so important is that ANY "incursion" east of 2nd Street NE of a primarily commercial nature poses great threat to the residential character of the surrounding neighborhood, increasing the pressure to demolish housing in favor of commercial construction. As commercially developable land within the traditional downtown area gets used up, our adjacent location becomes mighty attractive to developers. (Cf. the acquisition of the development rights for Air Rights over the Union Station trainyard by JBG Companies, rights that most developers say are "worthless" because of the high costs involved. But when land runs out, commercial developers are forced to develop what's available, even to the extent of building a platform over a train yard.)

For this reason we need to be incredibly vigilant about any new development along the Second Street corridor, such as the building proposed on the 1000 block of 2nd & 3rd Streets (Ronald Cohen), at the 200 block of H Street (Potomac Development), the 300 block of H Street, etc.

While all of us favor some type of redevelopment of these parcels, we need to be very careful to ensure that what is built supports and complements the neighborhood, rather than threatens it or puts it otherwise at risk.

If the 200 and 300 blocks of H Street became "Oliver Carr-like" office buildings, what is to prevent the north side of the 600 block from being converted into big office buildings, or the replacement of H Street Connection with office buildings (800 and 900 blocks, south side), or the Autozone site on the south side of the 1200 block, etc.