Looking southward to Downtown, from 13th Street near Cardozo High School in Columbia Heights

Looking southward to Downtown, from 13th Street near Cardozo High School in Columbia Heights
Originally uploaded by rllayman

If you ever wonder why space is so contested in Columbia Heights?

It's the views. Now that it feels safer, people with choice want to live there, to be close to things, to have access to amenities, and transit, and to be able to walk around in a nice neighborhood and have attractive vistas.

I worked on the 2000 Census, and in 1999 probably there was a lot of controversy about rental property building violations and a step up in enforcement, which led to many tenants being kicked out of what were termed uninhabitable locations.

When I worked on the Census, one of the buildng complexes I had to go in, I think was the Clifton Apartments. Now the Clifton Lofts are market rate housing. Then over what 6 buildings, there were about 40 tenanted apartments. Clearly, the buildings were being warehoused for conversion to market rate housing.

Why?

The views. And Columbia Heights is close to Downtown and other attractive locations in NW DC...

Walking around those apartment buildings put the code enforcement actions into a new light for me...