Boston wonders if they can re-support nightlife based on the results so far from the World Cup

People waited to be seated outside The Union Bar. Photo: Christian Kantosky, Boston Globe.

The Boston Globe has been writing about the impact of the World Cup on the city's nightlife.

Where the Scots cleaned out alcohol supplies ("‘We’ve never seen anything like it’: Patrons emptied bars and liquor stores in Boston this weekend"), the city extended open hours till 3 am ("Governor Healey signs bill allowing 3 a.m. last call for the World Cup, expanding public drinking through July"), outdoor public drinking zones, like Bourbon Street in New Orleans, etc.  

So the Boston Globe wonders if "Boston nightlife is in the midst of a grand social experiment. Can the good vibes last?."

As someone who worked on commercial district revitalization for 20 years in DC and wrote a lot about this issue, they missed the biggest possible point and difference, the addition of many tens of thousands of people from out of the area who were there for nightlife.

-- "Aging cities | Maintaining economic dynamism in the face of aging populations at the city and metropolitan scale" (2025)

-- "Richard's Rules for Restaurant-Based Revitalization: New business models are needed for 2025" (especially the comments where I quote from relevant articles I come across)

-- "Experience economy/nightlife: Boston, LA, Pittsburgh, London, Santa Monica" (2025)

-- "Planning programming by daypart, month, season: and Boston Winter Garden, DC's Holiday Market, etc." (2016)

Bourbon Street.

Temporarily, World Cup cities are functioning more like 24/7 nightlife districts in Las Vegas, Miami, and not quite NYC, plus Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Beale Street in Memphis?.  People go to those cities to party.  

I follow Reddit Las Vegas and people write about going there and being drunk and/or high for most of their stay.  Maybe the Scots were like that.  Not Bostonians.

Plus the super posh clubs with bottle service and all night dancing, massive pool parties in Vegas, etc.

Beale Street.

A traditional city, at least in the US, just doesn't have that kind of latent populations always going out, and willing to be shitfaced and then go to work.  Concerns like:

• Having to work two jobs
• mobility when drunk
• the impact of smartphones on entertainment choices, less ability to socialize
• the cost of going out
• consumption of experiences
• labor for the establishments and the the rise of the cost of goods sold, 
• rents and changing business models due to work from home reducing office visits
• people drinking less
• People consuming edibles instead of drinking, 
• mocktails (just as expensive to produce, lower margins, 
• etc.

Make it a lot harder to go out.

Revitalization of the wholesale food Union Market in DC to a consumer focus

Was a major project I was involved in from a grassroots perspective, in the face of an urban renewal focused effort by Ward 5 interests (bowling alley, etc.).  See "Retail planning and the Florida Market" [2009].  I'm reminded because the Washington Post had an article over the weekend about remaining wholesalers ("The last wholesalers of Union Market"), and a couple months ago there was an article about the last original vendor in the DC Farmers Market selling out ("Soko Butcher Shop Takes Over Historic Harvey’s in Union Market," Eater).

Photo: Craig Hudson, Washington Post.

Since then it has been massively revitalized, beyond anything I could imagine.  Mixing apartments and hotels, with food counters and restaurants, with a marked shift to prepared foods.

With the broadening and upscaling of the range of stores and restaurants ("All the places to eat and drink at Union Market" and "D.C.’s Minetta Tavern is an alluring chip off the old block in N.Y.," Post), you could argue that "gentrification of the market" isn't any different than urban renewal.

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Produce vendor Joe Giordano shown in a 1993 Inquirer Magazine feature about peaches. Michael Bryant / Staff Photographer

Cf "A landmark food business in the Italian Market has closed after a century," Philadelphia Inquirer, which discusses vacancies in a similar market there, Italian Market.  

The produce business has changed with competition from supermarkets and other retailers, of course, but more recently has suffered with the rise of delivery, said John Giordano, 64, who started working in the store at age 5 when he got home from kindergarten.

“Our business has moved into wholesale — pizza places, restaurants, and everything like that,” Giordano said Saturday, as he and workers cleaned out the property, setting out boxes of bric-a-brac salvaged from an upstairs apartment to offer to passersby. The garage doors were rolled down, unheard-of on a Saturday.

Revitalization Lessons.  In terms of Italian Market as a whole, it's proof to maintain it as best as possible, you need a manager.  In Union Market, that manager became Edens Realty which bought out one property holder with a preponderance of parcels, leaving Edens with the critical mass necessary to make significant change ("Two years in, Union Market thrives," Post, "Vendor's Game: Meet the Chef Behind Union Market," Washington City Paper).

Richard's Rules for Restaurant-Based Revitalization: New business models are needed for 2025

* Maybe instead of "New business models are needed for 2025" what's required is a lot more conservatism and hewing to the old models.

SIN, Philadelphia.  "Experience ‘vibe dining' at SIN, a new Italian steakhouse in Northern Liberties," NBC10.

I wrote a piece in the series pretty recently, in December in "Richard's Rules for Restaurant (Food) Based Revitalization, Salt Lake City and DC's Chinatown."  

20 years later, perhaps the title is a bit of a misnomer.  When I first wrote about this in 2005, it was about "how do you get activation in neighborhood commercial districts when there aren't a lot of restaurants, and the neighborhoods are just beginning to improve, that is, attract more residents and businesses.

While that's still a factor today, now it's more about how do you keep restaurants alive as neighborhood commercial district activation devices, given the extranormal changes in business conditions.

The DC area Restaurant Association of Washington put out a study stating that 40% of DC restaurants are likely to close, and it attributes this to higher labor costs due to DC's change to a much higher minimum wage for employees.

But the fact of the matter is there are so many things going on: 

• yes labor, which is why some restaurants are shifting to counter ordering ("Seattle restaurants get creative to make numbers work after wage hike," Seattle Times)
• during covid, fewer people went out to eat, and it is difficult with narrow margins for restaurants to catch up for the revenue losses from those years
• post-covid inflation makes restaurant meals much more expensive--according to Crain's Chicago Business, restaurant meal costs have increased 30% over the past few years
• over-storing in that because restaurants are easier to open for entrepreneurs compared to other retail categories, many places have too many restaurants relative to demand
• one example of over-storing is food halls--which commercial property owners resort to because of a desire to activate empty space.  Although one advantage is the cost to open is less than a stand-alone restaurant
• revenues are down significantly, between more choices and a declining number of people going out to eat because of high cost meals (the Technomic food consultancy did a study finding 31% of the respondents were going out less often)
• downscaling, shifting patronage to lower cost restaurants, including take out from Whole Foods and Trader Joe's (DC now has 6 TJ's)
• with lower revenues, rents are too high--the metric is that a restaurant shouldn't pay more than 15% of its gross revenue as rent, but rents (and property values) haven't shrunk relative to the change in business prospects.

Lower revenue, both from too many competitors and the drastic increase in the cost of going out to eat,  and rents are what is making restaurants close.  Not crime, not necessarily higher wages (and sometimes a business model out of sorts with its location).

The last hurrah at Brookland’s Finest with Stephanie Coleman, wife of co-owner Tony Tomelden, being comforted by longtime friends Danica Petroshius and Lori Hamilton at the crowded bar. (Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post)

The Washington Post has an article, "‘It’s just not sustainable’: D.C. restaurants pushed to the brink," about the closure of a reasonably good presumably popular neighborhood restaurant, Brookland's Finest.  Back when we lived in DC, we were patrons.

Part of the issue with restaurants like Brookland’s Finest is that they’re in neighborhoods with low population densities, says John Asadoorian, a retail real estate broker in Washington. Because of Washington’s height limits, communities such as Brookland have a smaller pool of potential diners to keep restaurants afloat when economic conditions force people to cut back on spending. These diners may also choose to spend their discretionary income instead on restaurants in nearby neighborhoods with more robust and trendy dining scenes, such as Union Market, NoMa or Shaw, Asadoorian says.

The pandemic also had a yo-yo effect on communities and the businesses they support, real estate experts say. At first, as downtown buildings shut down, office staff and other nonessential workers spent more time in their neighborhoods, which was a boost to businesses, says Tracy Hadden Loh, a fellow at Brookings Metro who tracks commercial real estate and development. (Tomelden, incidentally, says Brookland’s Finest didn’t benefit from the shift: “We’re ringing half of what we did before the lockdown. There’s a certain bunker mentality that was starting to be a fact of life in general.”) [emphasis added]

The article touches on drops in revenues

... “One of the biggest reasons why the restaurant industry suffered across the board everywhere is just the cost of going out to eat,” says chef and restaurateur Robert Wiedmaier, who closed two restaurants in Washington last year, including his fine-dining flagship, Marcel’s.

“It’s expensive to go out to eat. It used to be if you went to a really fine-dining restaurant — and it’s still like that — you’d drop $300 to $400,” Wiedmaier adds. “But now you’re dropping $250 for four at a mediocre restaurant.”

but focuses on labor.  Brookland's Finest revenue is half what it was in 2019.  No wonder it's closing.

Plus, I'd say Brookland's Finest pricing wasn't favorable to multiple times per month patronage--$28 for a burger and fries (the menu doesn't say fries are included); $27 (sandwiches $19 to $24 plus a side, I think), for spaghetti and meatballs (entrees from $24 to $33), etc.

Customers flocked to Brookland’s Finest before it closed. (Deb Lindsey/For The Washington Post)

Note that the rents/commercial property tax regime for DC retail businesses has been an issue more generally.

For years I testified that DC's property tax methodologies over value commercial property when it comes to retail stores.  

I stopped testifying when I realized that the city's elected officials either didn't understand or care.  They seemed able to focus on a legacy business or two worried about displacement (like Ben's Chili Bowl) but they couldn't grapple with it being a systematic problem affecting all retail businesses, thus requiring a systemic-structural solution.

-- "Displacement of retail businesses through increasing property tax assessments," (2005)

-- "Forcing Displacement by the disconnection of tax assessment models from public policy goals," (2005)

-- "Displacement of retail businesses through increasing property tax assessments," (2005)

-- "Dupont Circle's changing retail environment covered in today's Post ," (2006)

-- "Is there a link between historic designation and chaining up of retail in neighborhood commercial districts?," (2006)

-- "Testimony -- Historic Neighborhood Retail Business Property Tax Relief Act," (2006)

-- "The real estate market replicates commodity, not community," (2007)

-- "Avoiding the real problem with DC's property tax assessment methodologies," (2007)
-- "Cleveland Park Retail: My off-hand evaluation, the rents are too high," (2009)

-- "Revisiting the issue of neighborhood commercial district property tax methodologies," (2013)

-- "Further evidence of DC being an international/national real estate market," (2018)

The Virginia Inn is shown in downtown Seattle in 2019. (Erika Schultz / The Seattle Times)

As an example of the difficulty of renegotiating rents, a decades old restaurant in Seattle's Pike Place Market, the Virginia Inn, is closing because of intransigence by the Market, owner of the space, to renegotiate rents ("Virginia Inn, Seattle restaurant that predates Pike Place Market, will close," Seattle Times).

“The one sticking point that I had with our lease was the percentage-based rent that [the PDA] charges on top of the base rent and the maintenance,” Perez said, “and that is 6% of our total sales after $1.2 million.”

Getting back to the rent metric, a 30% or more increase in cost of goods sold, and a 5x increase in wages, with increased sales prices not accompanied by net revenue increases, the rent metric should be negotiated downward.  Especially for percentage-based rent, which should exclude no net revenue cost increases from the base.

A different issue is business models out of sorts with their location.  I wrote about this in the comments on the earlier blog entry, "Richard's Rules for Restaurant (Food) Based Revitalization, Salt Lake City and DC's Chinatown," with the failure of Makan in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of DC.  

And this about larger districts, "Experience economy/nightlife: Boston, LA, Pittsburgh, London, Santa Monica."  

Makan had average entree costs significantly out of step with being located in a neighborhood, not Downtown or key restaurant districts like a Georgetown DC, where patrons go out for special meals, often on business accounts (Also see "Why restaurants are fighting to avoid being special-occasion spots," Crain's Chicago Business).  Makan's meals cost $22 to $29, while Takoma Park's Kin-Da Thai restaurant costs $14-19.

From the article:

Dining out at certain restaurants has become so expensive, many customers now view it as a treat, affordable only on special occasions. Chicago restaurant owners are fighting to make sure their establishments do not slip into that category. To be relegated as a special occasions-only spot in a customer’s mind is akin to being friend-zoned. It’s a difficult designation to come back from, being considered too expensive for a casual meal. And in this economy, it could be a death blow for restaurants.

Getting customers to return again and again is the name of the game for sit-down restaurants these days, said David Henkes, senior principal at market research firm Technomic. A Technomic growth metric correlating to customer traffic declined 1.5% last year.

The cost of eating out has risen about 30% in the last five years. People are eating at restaurants less frequently. Some are trading higher-end restaurants for more casual spots. Owners want customers to celebrate with them. What they don’t want is for customers to view their restaurants as places they can only afford to visit once or twice a year.

“The goal is for our clientele to come often, not just an occasion type of place,” Richard Vallejo, partner at Botánero, a new Mexican agave lounge and restaurant in Wicker Park, told Crain’s in December. “That just doesn’t work for today’s business model.” 

To combat this concern, higher-priced restaurants are rolling out more affordable offerings. The hope is that customers view the restaurants as spots they can afford to dine at several times a month. For owners, success in this area comes in the form of a reputation. They want to be viewed as the neighborhood spot, a refined but casual go-to place to grab dinner.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the SIN restaurant in Northern Liberties has closed  ("SIN, the Northern Liberties steakhouse that brought ‘vibe dining’ to Philly, closes").  In a "gentrifying neighborhood" not particularly upscale, the restaurant had a DJ at night, and a focus on bottle service, with a brunch bottle package at $700.  WTF?  

Only cities like Las Vegas, Miami, maybe NYC, and Los Angeles have enough high rollers to make such a concept workable.  And the restaurant even says so on its website.

A vibe-dining concept incorporating upscale cuisine with a taste of Miami, New York, and Las Vegas nightlife

It's a perfect example of a "special occasion restaurant" in a regular neighborhood, not being enable to sustain itself on local business, but reliant on an entire metropolitan area for its patronage. 

Experience economy/nightlife: Boston, LA, Pittsburgh, London, Santa Monica

I wrote about this issue recently, in "Ain't got that soul (when younger demographics leave the city): and musings about the nightlife economy" as well as some other pieces.  

This does not look very congenial.  BG photo.

This Boston Globe article,  "Downtown Boston is trying to find its post-pandemic identity. It’s fighting an uphill battle," hits a home run on the topic, that cities need to reshape their downtowns to remain relevant, that mixed use neighborhoods are more popular, that people tend to stay closer to home, especially if they don't work Downtown.  From the article

Measures of foot traffic and office vacancy haven’t fully rebounded. Hybrid work remains pretty common. Car traffic is worse. Empty storefronts persist. But more than anything, we just don’t mix like we did before.

A Northeastern University study of cellphone data found that when COVID hit, inhabitants of Greater Boston became far less likely to interact with people of different socioeconomic backgrounds. Those numbers have been recovering, but for many parts of the region, particularly in the suburbs, levels of what researchers call “social exploration” have fallen sharply.

And that’s bad news for a city whose culture and economy have, for centuries, been built on people mixing, connecting, and sharing ideas, said Northeastern University physicist Esteban Moro, who’s leading the study. Bad enough that it raises questions about what cities like Boston are for, now, and how we make them places that people connect once again.

... It’s an indicator of the diminished role that downtown plays in the daily lives of Bostonians. According to recent figures from the Downtown Boston Alliance, about 20,000 fewer people work downtown than they did five years ago, and they come in, on average, about three fewer days per month. Add it up, and the work trips into the core of the city district have fallen by almost half.

... “The fundamental thing that we’re asking is where are people?” she said. “Where is the center of gravity in the city, whether for shopping or for hanging out or for work? Where do people come together?”

Increasingly, that’s neighborhoods where people do more than work. While foot traffic downtown remains below pre-pandemic levels, according to city data, it’s nearly back citywide, and up in places such as Fenway and Longwood. What’s the difference? These “multipurpose” neighborhoods, as Moro describes them, provide chances to live, work, and play in more equal measure.

... To Crockett, even the word “downtown” feels a bit archaic, as it implies we’re all going to the same place. In this more splintered age, we aren’t. “If people are going to venture out of their home for any reason,” she said, “it’s to have a particular experience.”

And experience is a big part of how developers aim to draw people out now. Food halls, for instance, are springing up across the city, not just catering to office workers seeking lunch but also tourists, families, and after-hours crowds into the night.

... A slew of for-profit “Instagram museums” and immersive art experiences have recently taken up residence in hollowed-out storefronts. A Harry Potter exhibit has lately drawn throngs to an empty old Best Buy at the CambridgeSide mall. “Competitive socializing” is all the rage in the Seaport, where different venues offer mini-golf, ping pong, bowling, pickleball, or darts. And the recent arrival of new spaces where people can both shop and linger — be it at Beacon Hill Books & Cafe, or the batting-cage-boasting Dick’s House of Sport in Back Bay — are models for how businesses can transform an errand into an event.

Complementary articles I've come across and/or written about over the past few months are "Once LA's nightlife epicenter, the storied Sunset Strip has a murky future," from the San Francisco Chronicle, "An interesting public space development project in Downtown Pittsburgh: extends the range of after-work activities to keep office workers engaged," about a forthcoming space in Downtown Pittsburgh that has some of the characteristics of experiential interaction discussed in the BG, and the Los Angeles Times, "‘Experiential’ retail surges as landlords try to lure customers back to the mall," mostly about Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade and its need for change in the face of the decline of traditional retail--it had been anchored by at least two department stores, and about the reproduction of a 1970s study on people's use of public spaces ("People aren't "hanging out" as much outdoors during the workday in the center city").

Plus, this "The suffocation of Soho: how London's creative rogue is being sanitised," on London's SoHo (Evening Standard).  It's more about how permanent residents want to put strictures on businesses. 

 Westminster borough has put together a report, After Dark, about their desires to quiet things a bit.

So I guess I shouldn't have been as derisive of Mayor Bowser's similar effort in DC ("Know your market #2: DC commercial property incentives"), the issue wasn't so much an overfocus on big things and converting office into residential, but that many steps are necessary especially because there is a hard ceiling on how many people want to live Downtown.

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Also see, "Getting a filling — at the mall. Why dentists and other wellness tenants are in big demand," Los Angeles Times. and "A $100M bet on experiential entertainment by Chicago restaurant vets," Crain's Chicago Business.

Along the lines of the Pittsburgh project, "A historic gas station in Glendale becomes art when an artist fills it with color," Los Angeles Daily News, a streamlined old gas station maintained as a public art space, and "Pacific Science Center and Seattle Center forge new partnership," Seattle Times, on continuing to redefine and improve programs and spaces.

Since their creation for the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, Pacific Science Center and the adjacent Seattle Center campus have operated independently: Seattle Center as a department of the city of Seattle and PacSci as a science and education nonprofit with its own buildings.

That’s now changing. Pacific Science Center and the city announced Wednesday morning their plans to integrate the two campuses as one public space, open to all, though PacSci will retain ownership of its buildings. The organizations will also explore city funding options for courtyard renovations and expanded public access.

The deal opens the door for more city funding and involvement for PacSci’s iconic but aging buildings. It likely also speeds up funding for the removal of its north gates and kiosks as well as improvements to its southern entrance.

Big changes are coming to Pacific Science Center, which neighbors Seattle Center.

 (Greg Gilbert / The Seattle Times.

This, leaders said, should make its beloved, currently gated courtyard more accessible, ideally by the FIFA World Cup in summer 2026. It will also help with previously announced renovations of PacSci’s aging courtyard and leaking pools.

... More broadly, the partnership charts a more sustainable path forward at a time when the future of both Pacific Science Center and Seattle Center — as well as Seattle’s downtown as a whole — are in flux, and as civic leaders aim to “revitalize” downtown ahead of the World Cup.

“This is our opportunity to help the Science Center ensure the future of its incredible campus,” said Seattle Center Director Marshall Foster, and “to breathe new life into … programming, activation, things that will give people reasons to visit Seattle Center and the Science Center.”

... But, like a cream pie, the building wasn’t really designed to survive forever — it was made to house the largest science exhibit ever assembled by the federal government at the time then move on. While the facilities ended up enduring under the umbrella of a private nonprofit, they’re in dire need of renovations, Daugherty said. Much of the courtyard isn’t ADA-accessible. The terrazzo is deteriorating. The pools are leaking.

Ain't got that soul (when younger demographics leave the city): and musings about the nightlife economy

The San Francisco Chronicle ("Why 20-somethings are abandoning San Francisco — even when they can afford it") makes the point that as the demographic of younger people shrinks in the center city, mostly due to lack of jobs or high rents, there are fewer customers for night life--bars, restaurants, etc.

“Young people supply culture and creativity, which are the beating hearts of a city,” said Assembly Member Matt Haney, who represents eastern San Francisco. “When a lot of young people leave a city, that place loses some of its soul.”

Overall, from 2013 to 2023, the share of 20-somethings in San Francisco County dropped from about 18% of the population to about 14% — the largest such decline of any major U.S. county and nearly quadruple the national drop. The data prompts a big question relating to the city’s economic future: Is this the mere ebbs and flows of San Francisco’s demographics at play, or the start of something much grimmer? ...

“You can feel the drain of young people from the city just by how empty the bars are,” said Aaron Paul, co-owner of San Francisco bars Macondray and Zhuzh. “It’s definitely a tough time to be working in nightlife.”

Positioning in neighborhoods versus entertainment districts.  I saw this in a different way in DC in terms of neighborhood demographics.  As people age they go out less to bars, spend less in restaurants, and maybe on concerts, etc.  So there is a distinct difference in clientele and positioning for restaurants in entertainment districts versus neighborhood districts, which is captured in the various "Richard's Rules for Restaurant (Food) Based Revitalization, Salt Lake City and DC's Chinatown" posts over the past 20 years.

Aging out.  And I've written about how people age out of living in "entertainment districts" as they get older, their household configuration changes, etc. I've written about this, "Daypart and age-group planning in mixed use (commercial) districts" 2009), partly in response to a Washington Post article (but there were others), "Residents of Washington's U Street Corridor Tired of Area's Growing Noise.."

Inflation and upscaling.  This has only been exacerbated by the post-covid rise in food inflation, which makes food and drink more expensive, and upward pricing more generally--e.g., $30 cocktails ("D.C.’s Minetta Tavern is an alluring chip off the old block in N.Y.," Washington Post), which makes going out even more expensive.

Sometimes restaurant pricing seems out of control.  I was looking at the tasting menus of the restaurant Gravitas in DC, which got online opprobrium because of the chef-owner's support of Elon Musk's wacking government--when government is the main business in DC--and I was somewhat shocked at the pricing.  

It's a once/year super special occasion if anything.  But the food looks amazing.  

Get the $60 upcharge for wagyu prime rib, which seems cheap compared to the caviar course that can be as much as $1800.

Similarly, the Houston Chronicle reports on two restaurant closings in the Houston Heights neighborhood.  Patton's Steakhouse, has entrees starting at $45 to $155.  The companion restaurant, Savoir, had entrees from $19 to $65.  

Patton's is not the kind of restaurant that should be placed in a neighborhood (Savoir is on the cusp) even though it's definitely a high income neighborhood, unless somehow it can develop a regional clientele that transcends its neighborhood location.  My sense is that the average neighbor might go there once/year, which isn't enough of a revenue stream.

Musings/further implications for night life in the city

1.  Reduced number of the college aged going forward.  Extending from this, another demographic trend that will negatively impact cities is the decline of the college age population.  Fewer students in college ultimately means fewer graduates moving to cities.

2.  Fewer patrons means that some places are over-supplied with entertainment districts, and likely some will suffer.  Is that a problem for H Street NE in DC ("H Street NE went from riot-torn neighborhood to success story. Now it’s lost its magic," GGW, although I wrote about this in 2023, "H Street NE nightlife district, failing?" and "A follow up on the H Street article: Learning from Philadelphia | More sophisticated daypart, retail, cultural, and experience planning").

3.  Some entertainment districts will broaden their reach by adding upscale establishments, e.g., the Minetta's Tavern mentioned above is but one of a large number of expensive choices in the Union Market district.

4.  Programming and management of the district will help some become stronger than others, remaining successful.  Union Market has a significant chunk of property owned by a sophisticated property owner and manager, while H Street NE is laissez faire with a commercial district revitalization organization and Eastern Market is encumbered by city ownership and other issues ("Eastern Market DC's 150th anniversary last weekend | And my unrealized master plan for the market").

5.  High quality transit access probably makes a difference, e.g., Union Market has a Metrorail station within walking distance, not so much for H Street NE or Ivy City.

6.  Arena/stadium entertainment districts may have similar issues.  As ticket prices increase, the patron base shrinks, and older patrons are less likely to consume a lot of alcohol or stay out later.

7.  WFH affects after work happy hour culture and sales.  Fewer workers, fewer younger workers, means happy hour is a less successful sales event.

8. Private clubs will diminish the amount of spend available to "in the wild" restaurants ("Inside Ned’s, the private club for a new generation of D.C. cool kids," Washington Post).

9.  And I forgot that Gen Z is less inclined to drink alcohol ("Why Gen Z is drinking less," TIME Magazine).

More on restaurant based revitalization: The town that food saved versus immigrants/ethnic cuisines?

To follow up on the previous post:

Food Town USA is published by Island Press.  It isn't a definitive framework for creating a locally-centric regional food system, but the book, which features discussions of seven different communities across the country, highlights lots of innovative programs and good ideas.

There is a similar book published earlier, The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food.

Both are very interesting and inspiring.  Along with other books about redeveloping community food systems.

But reading the Boston Globe article, "‘Why would I go to Boston if I could get this here?’ Quincy’s diverse population is making for a thriving (and affordable) food scene.," I realized that at least if I am remembering correctly, these books didn't mention communities and community food systems revitalized by immigrants, and their cuisines--first restaurants opened for the diaspora, and were later sampled by non-ethnics who came coming back for more.

In the early 2000s, I do remember a Main Street program in Boston promoting its bakeries, which represented many food cultures, and obviously commercial district programs promote restaurant-based revitalization.  

The PBS show No Passport Required, featuring Chef Marcus Samuelsson as host, does go to communities specifically focusing on one ethnic group and their cuisines--both in restaurants, cafes and other ways of delivering food, and in the home.

The tv show "Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives" often features ethnic restaurants, but not in a focused way.

Of course, separately I've written about how immigrants to declining cities (at the time) have sparked revitalization, including cuisine elements.

Culinary tourism as a phenomenon.  Tourism is a key economic development element for most major cities in the era of post-industrialization.  Before the pandemic, cities like Chicago and New York hosted many tens of millions of visitors annually.

And cities like DC, New York City, and even Providence, Rhode Island promoted food tourism quite heavily as part of tourism marketing campaigns ("The Future of Food Tourism Goes Beyond the Restaurant Experience," Skift).

Food is a key element of the visitor experience, especially because "we eat every day" and dishes can be quite memorable("Food, tourism, and culture: the keys to success of a global trend, TrekkSoft)

Culinary tourism benefits a city more than individual commercial districts.  We should differentiate between  "culinary tourism" for a city or region and "restaurant-based revitalization" at the scale of the commercial district.

It works for the city as a whole more than individual districts, except for large ethnic enclaves like a Koreatown, Little Italy, Chinatown, Mexicantown, etc.  Because people tend to be in and out focused, not interested in lingering, not interested in retail shopping as part of their restaurant visit, unless they are residents.

Ethnic-focused restaurant development versus culinary tourism.  Ironically, because of the Mormon Church practice of missions to other countries and parts of the United States, there is a wide diversity of food and immigrants here in Salt Lake.  It's just the food generally sucks.

(Someone took us to their "favorite" restaurant, Ethiopian.  It paled if it were to be compared against so many Ethiopian restaurants in DC.  Same with Indian food, "Mexican food," etc.)

I joke that Parkway Deli in Silver Spring, certainly a top 10 deli in Maryland--I love it--would be the number one deli in Utah.

What the Globe article ultimately is about is ground up ethnic-based restaurant development focused on serving the area community, less so a tourist.  But to work, you also need a decent critical mass of population too.  Quincy, a small city outside Boston, has 100,000 residents, which is large enough to make a difference.  Like the communities and cuisines represented in No Passport Required.

Richard's Rules for Restaurant (Food) Based Revitalization, Salt Lake City and DC's Chinatown

Suzanne and I had a spirited conversation about this in November, sparked by the failure of another SLC restaurant, which opened about 18 months ago.  I wish we were recording it, because we were saying lots of great stuff. 

The fact is Salt Lake City is a small place, population less than 215,000, and even with tourism and business meetings, especially given post-covid Work from Home, the Downtown is dead comparatively speaking,  

Funnily, people talk about the city's current growth and believe it can support a lot more retail while the fact is, each new resident supports less than 7.5 s.f. of retail (it's less than that because of the impact of e-commerce).  So 1,000 new residents support only 7,500 s.f. of retail.

That's not very much.

And complaints about being under-amenitized on the West Side center around a conspiracy against POC but because of lack of population and commercial centers, and historical developments--the west side population was close to downtown anyway, which was the regional business and retail center before sprawl.

Even before covid, the blocks are huge and the downtown business population was small so it didn't matter either.  

Regardless, there and throughout the city in other retail categories, like groceries, the city is way overstored.  E.g., we have more than 20 supermarkets within 5 miles or so of where we live, six within 2 miles alone!  Way more than in DC.

At the same time, post-covid inflation effects on food prices have led to a rapid escalation of restaurant meal prices, further reducing demand.

But restaurants keep opening, and supermarkets rarely shutter.  Plus there are tons of ethnic markets.

This takes us back to my writings on restaurant based revitalization:

-- "Richard's Rules for Restaurant Based Revitalization in the face of a pandemic," 2020
-- "Richard's Rules for Restaurant-Driven Revitalization (updated)," 2005, is the basic piece, with five rules (below) and a list of elements denoting quality restaurants
-- "Revisiting Richard's Rules for Restaurant-Based Revitalization," 2010
-- "Updating Richard's Rules for Restaurant-Driven Revitalization," 2013
-- "DC restaurants, location and equilibrium," 2014
-- "Ice cream shops as commercial district activation devices," 2018

and food-related commercial district revitalization: 

-- "An update to Richard's Rules for Restaurant-Based Revitalization on the failure of wine bar restaurants in DC and Baltimore," 2018
-- "Destination restaurants as a call for revisiting "Richard's Rules for Restaurant-Based Revitalization"," 2017

The basics:

-- you need a lot of customers to support a restaurant, and SLC is already overstored.  Those customers need to patronize the restaurant multiple times per week

-- high restaurant meal prices don't help.

-- Utah has a pretty bland palate (thank you Mormons), so savory concepts don't have the same opportunity to succeed that people think.

-- Being a hot chef isn't enough.  Being part of a restaurant group isn't enough ("Joe Englert, DC nightlife impresario, dies | Lessons about nightlife-based revitalization,"2020).  Standing on past laurels isn't enough.

-- Passion isn't enough.  Wanting "to give back to the community" isn't enough. You have to do retail trade analysis ("Revisiting older writings on the success of independent retail and neighborhood commercial districts,") and figure out if the market is there for your concept.

-- Seemingly seeing "holes" in the market ("How to spot a gap in the market," British Business Bank) leads people to open concepts new to the area.  Sometimes, the holes are there for a reason ("By the Bucket: Hot Spaghetti to Go closes in Sugar House," Salt Lake Tribune).

-- Private equity buys chainlets with the aim to grow them, and frequently dumb down the food in the process

-- Private equity holds chains that probably would die if they didn't get financial life support from PE

-  Food halls are about monetizing space by desperate properties who aren't so attuned to the needs of small vendors, especially wrt rents

-- Work from Home/Return to Office.  Most central business districts have half the daily employee visits that they did before covid.

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So this has entry has been about Salt Lake.  But it pertains to just about everywhere.  DC's Chinatown has few Asian residents anymore--less than 500, so there are few Asian focused businesses.  That includes supermarkets/markets.

When I moved to DC in 1987, there was a small Chinese supermarket in Chinatown.  It was an okay size and in a pretty good location roughly at the intersection of 7th and H Streets NW and across from the Gallery Place Metrorail Station.

It had a decent run, but it closed in 2005 ("Wah Luck House maintains culture in dying D.C. Chinatown," Washington Post, 2011).  There is Da Tsin Trading Company, but it mostly focuses on canned goods, which make up less than 10% of the store inventory.  I sure never got into the habit of shopping there.

If I remember correctly, the three story white building to the right is 

where Da Hua Market was located, around 624 H Street NW.

So I think Kevin Tsien's move to open an Asian market in Chinatown ("Moon Rabbit chef Kevin Tien plans Asian market in Chinatown," Axios) is likely doomed to failure, especially with the significant decrease in downtown office workers post-covid, not that most ventured out much beyond the trip from transit to office anyway.  From the article:

Lofty plans for the still-to-be-named project include: 

• A grocery stocked with Asian snacks, noodles, produce and pantry staples. 
• Chef-y prepared foods, sauces and ready-to-cook items. 
• A front-facing food stall that doubles as a mentorship space, inspired by the James Beard Foundation's NYC food hall. 
• A "semi-hidden" rear tasting room with a handful of seats, like at Brooklyn Fare. 
• An Asian bakery and cafe run by fellow James Beard finalist Susan Bae, Moon Rabbit's pastry chef.

Sounds like a cool, multifaceted concept to me, but it's not just about me.  You need thousands of customers per week to make the place work. OTOH, Tsien does know what he's doing.  But as many concepts as he runs today, he's closed an equal amount.  DC doesn't have a real Chinatown any more, but a dying one.  

Note that while people blame the Capital One Arena, built in 1997, for the decline of Chinatown, it started long ago, especially with the construction of a DC Convention Center in the early 1980s, and at the time, cheaper housing and more safety in the 'burbs, where the Vietnamese settled after the fall of Vietnam, first in Arlington, then further out.

Not to mention, it's typical of residential neighborhoods located next to growing central business districts to be absorbed and reproduced as part of a city's development.

Jenn Tran (center) leads a discussion on efforts to protect longstanding, Vietnamese-owned businesses at Eden Center (below) in Falls Church, Va. Her group, Viet Place Collective, used strategies developed by UMD researchers to impact the city's development plan. Photo by Eman Mohammed, Maryland Today

The DC area's Asiantown is in Fairfax County and Falls Church, with strip shopping centers dedicated to Asian businesses.  There are over 230,000 Asian residents in Fairfax out of a population of 1.2 million.  See:

-- "A New Chapter for the Eden Center?," Arlington Magazine
-- "At the Eden Center, historic businesses stand tall and new ones plant roots, ARLNow
-- "New Tools for Keeping Immigrant-Owned Shops in Place," (University of) Maryland Today

Alcohol regulations against licensing due to proximity to schools, churches, and parks are dumb

 1.  Alcohol is mostly served in the evening.  Schools close around 3pm and aren't open on weekends, when most alcohol is sold.

2.  Besides the First Amendment separating church and state, churches are mostly only active Saturday or Sunday morning.  The establishments that serve alcohol tend not to be open when churches are.

3.  With parks, plenty of parks serve alcohol at restaurants within the parks.  Cities like Philadelphia and Milwaukee use beer gardens as an amenity in parks in the summer ("Traveling Beer Gardens, Milwaukee").  Having establishments on the perimeter of parks selling alcohol in a managed way shouldn't be seen as a bad thing.

4.  Mixed use commercial districts may include park spaces, schools, and churches.  So you can't have restaurants or taverns there?  Surprisingly, DC doesn't have the church exclusion, so this isn't an issue on that dimension, but does have the school and park exclusion.

This comes up because the Forty Three Bakery in the Poplar Park neighborhood wants a liquor license so it can get more customers and make more money ("Why a pyramid is keeping this SLC bakery from obtaining a liquor license," Salt Lake Tribune), but it's too close to a church.

The owner of a west-side Salt Lake City bakery said he is struggling to stay in business, and he believes getting a liquor license would help with that. But the problem, according to the state’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Services (DABS) and Utah law, is that his business is too close to a church.

Pastry chef Andrew Corrao, who opened Forty Three Bakery in Poplar Grove last fall, said his business is financially “not in a great spot.”

It’s been a slow winter for the bakery, which is located in a renovated warehouse that required an extensive buildout to open. Corrao is still trying to pay off construction debts, and just had to finance the installation of a $25,000 drop-down ceiling over his kitchen. He also got new insurance in anticipation of starting to sell alcohol, which raised his yearly rate from $1,200 to $12,000.

Given how much the state is controlled by the Mormon Church, it's likely this law will change anytime soon.

Funny because people on the West Side complain that they are underserved by retail and amenities.  This is where antiquated laws get in the way.

And restaurants are important elements for reviving commercial districts (""Richard's Rules for Restaurant-Based Revitalization," 2005, subsequently revised).

Eastern Market DC's 150th anniversary last weekend | And my unrealized master plan for the market

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Update: Sunday 11/19/2023

As charlie said in the comments, I have unlimited ink.  I wrote this from memory, not notes and previous writings, so I didn't have "everything" when I first published it.  I've added a bunch of items in the programming section, as I've remembered.  

The idea is to also leverage the Market's status as a public and civic and community and nonprofit asset, and do things that a for profit food hall or market isn't likely to do, because it builds the community as a whole, beyond contributing to marginal revenue of the property asset.

Ultimately that EM is of and part of the community as a civic asset is its competitive advantage/unique selling proposition compared to for profit markets and food halls ("Modern-day food halls: The heart (and stomach) of the new economy," "So you want to build a food hall," JLL).  Although I was happy to draw on the best of CRE research to help EM.

========
 

Eastern Market, from the 600 block of C Street SE.  Flickr photo by MrTinMD.

I got involved in Eastern Market because my mentor in historic preservation was one of the people who helped prevent the market from being converted into a food court in the late 1980s.  

In 2005, I served on the advisory committee for the International Public Markets Conference which covered both DC and Baltimore that year, led a tour, etc.  In 2007, I was appointed to serve on the Community Advisory Committee, representing the Eastern Market Preservation and Development Corporation.  I stepped down when we moved to Salt Lake in late 2019, although I thought at the time somehow I'd be maintaining residences in both places.

EMPDC was created by the Barry Administration to be a CDC and to take over management of the market, but vendors and other stakeholders fought the idea, and the market remained managed by the city--for a time by a putative nonprofit--with different spaces, like North Hall (arts) and Sunday under the shed run by different entities.  Plus the flea market on the then Hine School parking lot, also separate.

Flickr photo by Dan Malouff.

Stuff I suggested over the years.  I was "the youngest person" on the board for a long time, and the outlier.  I suggested many things over the years including:

-- creating a transportation management district for the Capitol Hill area, serving Eastern Market.  I first proposed to the city creating TMDs in 2005/2006.  They still haven't.  I first thought this for H Street, but it's relevant to Capitol Hill and other districts throughout the city.  I mentioned it over time.  

A big thing was parking and mobility coordination, for example the way Hyattsville does it for their Arts District.

-- offer a joint delivery service from the market at least within the neighborhood as a basic transportation demand management measure. The vendors kept whining about how residents couldn't drive and park, how supermarkets have free parking, etc.  My point was that if they didn't have to carry purchases back, they didn't need to drive to the market, and you could move multiple people at a time in an electric shuttle.

For a time a shuttle service was created by some of the area businesses to try to capture patrons to the Washington Nationals stadium, although the concept failed because there just was too much distance, and over time eater-tainment businesses developed around the stadium.

-- Create the Capitol Hill Destination Development, Management, and Marketing Plan.  This combined tourism and arts elements and was aimed at not only planning and coordinated marketing, but also getting all the various cultural assets to work together including Eastern Market, the Southeast Library, Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, galleries, the Eastern Market Metro Plaza, Seward Park, Hill Center, other arts groups, St. Peter's Church (they have an amazing Tiffany stained glass window), potentially Congressional Cemetery, the Library of Congress, that church on 8th Street SE that also shows movies (I think it was a theater before, where I saw New Jack City in 1988), Folger Library and Theater, etc.  This should include a cultural plan element.

The idea was to be able to organize a day's worth of tourism activities in the area, including some shopping.  And to get funding from Destination DC to do it.  In other cities, not Washington, the city tourism agency generally funds a variety of sub-city initiatives.

As part of this, extend the special pavement of the 200 block of 7th Street to around Eastern Market Plaza (both sides) to knit this area together (this is rementioned below as appropriate).  People thought that would denigrate the Market building by making it less special.

-- Why the f* does the area have all these different organizations than one larger, better funded and supported bigger group?  There is the merchants association, a Main Street program for 8th Street, A SEPARATE MAIN STREET PROGRAM FOR PART OF PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE AND 7TH STREET!!!!!!!!, another not served commercial district on the 200 and 300 blocks of Pennsylvania, one by Potomac Metro, the Eastern Market, etc.  at least have a combined single Main Street program and include the 200 and 300 blocks too.

-- Make Eastern Market Metro Plaza great.  I participated in a workshop on the plaza led by Project for Public Spaces and Scenic America in 2004 (write up).  It laid the groundwork for connecting civic assets.  

Later, as part of BicycleSpace, a bicycle facilities system integration firm, I put together a proposal for activation including a water sculpture, lighting of the Metro Station escalator canopy, and multiple forms of secure, special bike parking.  Barracks Row Main Street got earmarks and did stuff, but I haven't seen it.  The gd contractor on the master plan kept refusing my request to ask for their plans.  I do know currently there are big disorder and management issues.

-- One of my later ideas in terms of the Destination Development Plan was to build a visitor center in the Metro Station, not unlike the visitor center in Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland.  It could also function as a transit service center.

-- Put historic (brown) highway signage for Capitol Hill and Eastern Market on the Southeast/Southwest Freeway.

Master Plan contract, 2019.  The anniversary ("Everyone has a memory | Eastern Market celebrates 150 years," WUSA-TV) reminds me that I got dissed in the process of landing a master plan contract for the future of the market.  

But me and the other guy an architect who were the leads didn't have prime contractor status, so we had to work with another group, and it turns out the one he chose--that had great local credibility--were more interested in paying their own staff, definitely not me, and demoting me from being one of the team leaders to a putz (I didn't handle that well, which led to me being canned).

To win, I gave the presentation of my life (after one of the other team members gave one of the worst), landed JLL as a member of the team, and wrote the initial market analysis.  We beat out a lot of other quite reputable firms.

Because of my work in commercial district revitalization and having been on the board for 13 years I had a very good handle on the market conditions in the retail trade area, and all of the competition EM faces from nearby entertainment districts like Union Market, Navy Yard, The Wharf, H Street NE, Downtown, etc.  

Another potential competitor in the future is a revived RFK district with a new football stadium.

Eastern Market is in one of the toughest food sales retail trade areas in the country.  In a 3 mile radius there are almost 15 other supermarkets, from upscale to discount, plus multiple entertainment districts to compete with.  And Union Market is a vicious competitor.  E.g., they just opened a Sunday outdoor farmers market ("Union Market Is Getting A Farmers Market Beginning Sept. 17," DCist).

What I would have proposed if I didn't get canned  

I have no idea what they ended up with.  I imagine it was mostly wasted.

Recommendation for how Eastern Market should be managed: an independent nonprofit.  An article, "West Side Market to transition to nonprofit management," in the Cleveland Plan Dealer reports that the West Side Market there is moving to nonprofit management, while the city will still own the building.

This was proposed a number of years ago for EM, first in the Barry Administration and then around 2012-2013, but the vendors fought it, with the support of now Mayor Muriel Bowser.  

The thing is, cities just don't have the chops to run retail businesses, although granted some public markets in a couple places are run by cities and they aren't absolutely bad (Lancaster Market is run by its city, but with a semi-independent market manager who doesn't treat it as a government job).  But the ability to be creative and to take risks is generally absent when the city runs the space.

I suggested that the Capitol Hill BID, granted not particularly visionary either, could be the entity, because the Milwaukee City BID was so successful in taking over its downtown market, after an underfunded nonprofit couldn't pull it off ("Milwaukee Public Market gets back to business," Milwaukee Business Journal).

But a nonprofit could do it, modeled after the Main Street program, but it would need to shake up what it draws from current board membership, because the EM Citizens Advisory Committee is  "stodgy."  

Basically, it's back to the concept of the Eastern Market Preservation and Development Corporation.  It's rare for me to say, but Marion Barry was right!  Note that the 1987 Plan for the Market still reads well.

Using the Main Street Approach to increase civic engagement and citizen involvement.  But at the same time, I wouldn't make the management all top-down.  I would use the Main Street Model.  It links business and property owners with citizens and other stakeholders, organizing work into committees, where they develop action plans for the year.    

It's mostly used for commercial districts, and there's one for 7th Street already (crazy, but that's another story).  But it works for civic assets too, like public markets, museums, and other public serving and facing assets.

The committees would concern design and maintenance, business development and recruitment, organizational development including fundraising and organizational communications, and what the model calls "promotion," which includes generally marketing of the building/district, special events and programming, and cross promotion between businesses.

Oversight would have to be shared between the BID and citizens involved in the Eastern Market oversight and action committee.  In a way, this carries on the spirit of the Eastern Market Citizen Advisory Committee but in a more professional and organized manner.

Why independent management?  Creativity and eater-tainment in markets and market districts: from Florida Market to Union Market.  The point about creativity in food halls, public markets, and market districts is made "indirectly," in a recent feature in the Washington Post, "A D.C. foodie’s guide: All the places to eat and drink at Union Market," about the Union Market district north of EM by a couple miles.  (There is also the semi-public seafood market at The Wharf in the SW Waterfront.)

Wayfinding and interpretation signage that Christopher Taylor Edwards and I developed as a concept to illustrate gaps in the DC wayfinding signage system, using the Florida Market as an example.  We did this in 2008 or 2009.

I was involved in helping "to save" that area c. 2006 and beyond, although what it's become is perhaps far beyond what I suggested, "Retail planning and Florida Market," 2009.  But I had the basic ideas down.

Not only did the Edens real estate firm revive the old DC Farmers Market building, they supported the development of a Latino market too, La Cosecha, and the integration of other food and drink related businesses in the broader district, the way it was long ago.  A lot of this was led by one of their early hires, who came from Jose Andres' restaurant group.

Cannon's Steak House was a premier restaurant in the old Florida Market District, just like St. Anselm's is today.  Postcard image.

Reading the article, I was struck about the level of business turnover--change is good, but there's a lot of lost capital in high turnover--in the main building.  

There are maybe two vendors that date to before the changes, a handful from the original launch, and mostly new vendors.

The contrast with Eastern Market is telling.  There is no real turnover of businesses, or ways to add new businesses, except outside on the weekly outdoor market line on the weekends.  

Eastern Market is the epitome of static, Union Market the epitome of dynamic.  The reality is that you need to keep changing things up to get people to return again and again, while at the same time maintaining a strong group of core destination businesses.

Contrast Eastern Market to most food halls.  EM also closes at 7 pm! 

Although granted food halls are mostly about prepared foods, not buying foods to cook later.  But definitely eater-tainment.

Eastern Market loses out on the dinner and night demographic.

The building design changes I was going to propose (I'm glad I didn't give them to them)

1.  Reconfigure the current market hall (South Hall) to add businesses, maybe some permanent, some short term.  The point was to introduce change and dynamism.

2.  Would it be possible to drop the on the floor walk-in refrigerators into the basement to add selling space?, although yes it would be less convenient for those vendors.  But you don't want refrigerators taking up potential selling space.  You want to maximize active, usable, revenue generating space.

3.  Add a mezzanine for seating in the South Hall, using the Indianapolis City Market and Baltimore's old Lexington Market as examples.  (I haven't seen the new Lexington yet.)

Bradbury Building

Note this might be impossible because there is interior historic designation on the building. Also buildings like the Bradbury Building in LA and the National Building Museum with amazing ornamental metwalwork as examples. It would also afford the ability for patrons to actually be able to look at the historic trusses and other architectural and engineering elements related to the roof.

I would have recommended making the argument that it was worth the change for providing visual access to the under roof elements.  Otherwise, I was prepared to recommend buying out the easement.

4.  Convert North Hall to food related businesses, including a demonstration/teaching kitchen (Reading Terminal Market, River Market in Little Rock, and the Boqueria in Barcelona have them), And ideally, a mezzanine too.  The kitchen could be used to support pop up restaurant services at night.

River Market, Little Rock.

Note that while North Hall was originally added to the building to add space for vendors, this was during the Depression (if I remember correctly), and there wasn't enough consistent demand for more vendors, so the space was converted to a fire station, and now serves as an arts and event facility and user defined space (e.g., nannies in inclement weather), intermittently programmed.

Note you could also just do it with second floor retail space.  Harris Teeter and Whole Foods do mezzanines but don't so much for selling space.  A Foodtown supermarket in Brooklyn does ("Foodtown Transforms Old Theater Into New Store," Progressive Grocer).

5.  Dig out the basement and put in a new floor for food related businesses, what about a brewpub, a chocolate production facility, cheesemaking, etc., along with more vendors for food, using the revamped Essex Market in New York City as an example.  The market in Budapest also has a pretty good basement with a lot of fermentation going on.  Pike Place Market has a basement but it's pretty plebian.

Somehow do the entrance as part of the plaza north of North Hall?  (Note that I don't know if this is structurally possible.  That's why you consult with structural engineers.  I have been underneath the building and it seemed possible.)

Entrance to the underground section of Essex Market

6.  Also somehow figure out how to put trash services in the basement (with an elevator to move them to ground level, likely on the North Carolina Avenue side of the building), to remove the dumpsters from the "back alley."  This will allow the conversion of the back alley to an arcade.

7.  The Rumsey Aquarium across from the market is reaching the end of its useful life and it can be rebuilt, using historically appropriate architecture.  I would do a nice red brick architecture building.  DC and the rest of the US has plenty of good examples, simple warehouse architecture is just fine.

Miller's Court, Baltimore.

Extend the building underground and up (maybe have to buy a couple houses) to put in an underground auditorium/space (perhaps on the C Street side) to replace but continue the arts functions of North Hall, and put in an underground pool.

Build a 3-4 story mixed use facility that could support food initiatives (more in the programming section below), more food businesses on the outside of the interior facing arcade, and another teaching kitchen at the minimum.  

8.  The top floor could be a meeting facility, comparable to the great room added to the Old Main Street Station in Richmond, Virginia ("A Tale of Two Terminals: How two railroad depots have become premiere event spaces," Richmond Style Weekly).  (It could create the potential for noise conflicts, as it abuts housing on C Street and North Carolina Avenue.)

Event space, Old Main Street Station, Richmond.

Meeting facility revenues as a source of subsidy for the rest of the market.  Note the meeting facility income issue is a big one.  From a "unique selling proposition" standpoint, the weakness of the food offer in Eastern Market currently means it needs to be strengthened.  The best opportunity to do with minimal expense is to make North Hall over into a food serving facility.

But the South Hall vendors I don't think want more competition and the city and CAC members think it's more important to make revenue from facility rental to otherwise support subsidizing operations of the rest of the market.

I say you have to put your mission first.  EM is being crushed by Union Market in terms of dynamism.  But it has historic architecture and other things going for it.  So EM needs to respond by converting North Hall to food.  This is a compromise.  But at the same time, it means reordering how the Rumsey Aquatic Center is currently organized and it could diminish the current service.  Which is why I suggest below a pool could be relocated to the 600 block of C Street SE as part of a complementary building.

9.  Get rid of the alley between Eastern Market and Rumsey, and make it an arcade, using the example of the arcade building type and the covered atrium at the Smithsonian Reynolds Center.  This would connect Eastern Market and the new Rumsey building, with seating and kiosks, with food shops on the ground floor of the Rumsey building, and maybe some kiosks along side the Market building.  

Leadenhall Market, London

Parking, parking, parking: Create a transportation management district.  There is a surface lot and an underground lot on the 600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue, as well as a parking facility that is supposed to provide parking to Eastern Market in the 700 Pennsylvania Avenue SE building.  These spaces are minimally used on weekends and in the evenings.  There are also above and underground parking spaces on the 300 block.

1.  Create a transportation management district.  It should support sustainable modes (biking, walking, transit improvements, bike sharing, and scooter sharing and management) as well as motor vehicle parking.  DC created pilot "performance parking districts" 10+ years ago, and one includes parts of Capitol Hill.  But they weren't particularly well structured or systematic in processes for recommending and implementing improvements.

2.  Develop a shared parking scenario with valet stations and electric shuttle service that could also support the Barracks Row commercial district and other parts of the area, with valet stations throughout the district (I saw this in the North Park district of San Diego many years ago) and electric vehicle shuttles to move people around the TMD, from house to destination and back, for people driving to leave their car in one place, or because of the distances they don't want to walk, etc.

Since June, the SW Waterfront BID has offered exactly this service, using the firm Circuit ("Ride Southwest’s New EV Transit Vehicles:   Southwest MID Lauches Rideshare Transit System with Free Rides, Events," Hill Rag), which operates in 30 markets across the country.  No reason not to extend a similar service to Capitol Hill.  DC calls it a MID, a Mobility Innovation District.  FWIW, I've been writing about it as an element of the transit network since 2016 ("Intra-neighborhood (tertiary) transit revisited because of new San Diego service").

Circuit shuttle operating in SW DC.  I prefer a branded vehicle.  

Potentially there are sponsorship opportunities to help pay for it, 

but DC doesn't have that many organizations with the money and interest to do so..

3.  DC really screwed up by putting bike lanes on Pennsylvania Avenue here.  I would have made parking on the median sides of the boulevard on Pennsylvania Avenue, at least on weekends, to support Eastern Market.  Not sure how far you could take this along the Avenue, and if the US Capitol Police would have an objection.

But it would "solve" the perception that there isn't enough parking, or parking close by.  And it would destroy once and for all the complaints of all the vendors that parking is their number one business problem. 

Sunday church double parking on the median, 3900 block of New Hampshire Avenue NW

600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue SE

4.  Consider creating angle parking on North Carolina Avenue SE and South Carolina Avenue SE to support Eastern Market and the area, and to road diet those streets.

5.  As part of the shuttle program, patrons in some defined geographic area of Capitol Hill could get rides from and to home, carrying their purchases from Eastern Market and other places.  As a result there should be limited shuttle service Monday through Friday during the day and evenings, separate from the weekend service.

6.  A TMD should be extended to the 200 block of Pennsylvania Avenue SE.  There is an underground parking lot on the 200 block which is not open on weekends, and surface parking too.  Again, create a shared parking scenario.  There are a lot of complaints about "not enough parking."  But in this place (and others in the city), it's more about there being parking but it being inaccessible.

7.  Begin creating a network of secure bike parking facilities around Capitol Hill, including on 7th Street to serve Eastern Market (see "Another mention of the idea of creating a network of metropolitan scale secure bicycle parking facilities," 2019, for the concept).  Maybe bike valet services?  Obviously, I believe this should function at the metropolitan scale.  Relatedly, make the area into a "Bike Friendly Business District."

8.  Create a transit app for Capitol Hill (and other districts in the city). It could be on screens, as an app, as part of an integrated kiosk-information network. See item #10 in "Creating a Silver Spring "Sustainable Mobility District" | Part 3: Program items 10-18" (2017), for the concept.

Outdoor transit information display at Gallery Place

DC did a pilot of this, but never really expanded it.  Arlington and Montgomery Counties have done and still do this.  And I think MTA? at the Takoma Langley Crossroads Transit Center which is all bus now, but will add light rail.  Maybe they use the MoCo application there.

My thing is to make it an ad network also, which can support local nonprofits and local news media too.

9.  Treat intersections as a network and create a network of pedestrian scramble intersections along Pennsylvania Avenue.

10.  (This is also a programming recommendation.)  Extend the special pavement of the 200 block of 7th Street to around Eastern Market Plaza (both sides) to knit this area together: Eastern Market; Eastern Market Metrorail Station; Southeast Library; Metro Plazas east and west.

11.  Package valet and delivery services should be developed as an element of transportation demand management.  

12.  Freight delivery management planning.  For the businesses on the major streets and Eastern Market.  I'm a fan of time shifted delivery to reduce impact on narrow and congested streets.

A future expansion phase for "the building complex" to the opposite side of the 600 block of C Street.  Could build a building on top of the parking lot behind 600 Pennsylvania Avenue SE.  It could include more parking (parking, parking) underground, a culinary training facility, and other programs.

601 C Street SE (rear of 600 Pennsylvania Avenue SE)

Programming: From Eastern Market to the Eastern Market District | Position as a key anchor in the regional food system | From static to dynamic. So many issues.  All the places and many of the businesses that Eastern Market competes with are so much more active and professional when it comes to customer marketing.  

One of the problems is that there has been bifurcated management of different elements of "Eastern Market."  But now many of these elements have been consolidated into EM.  Regardless, the city management structure means that EM lacks the capacity and vision to do it and manage it.  It's like, how good do you think DC government as an entity is at marketing now?

But Eastern Market can become once again an anchor in the community food system, recognizing that DC is not an agricultural city per se, but its strength as a market for consumption and proximity to regional food production gives it an opportunity to be more prominent.  One element is what USDA calls community food hubs.  Another is how food is leveraged as a means of local revitalization.  DC is a big (enough) city, so how it does this is different from rural communities, but given how much money is spent on fresh and prepared meals, it's a huge element of the local economy, and can be leveraged to drive more local spending.

-- Book, Civic Agriculture

-- Regional Agriculture Initiative, Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments

-- Book, The Town that Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food 

-- Book, Building Community Food Webs

-- Book, Food Town, USA: Seven Unlikely Cities That are Changing the Way We Eat

-- Book, Reclaiming our food : how the grassroots food movement is changing the way we eat (Case studies on interesting community food movements)

-- Book, The Stop: How the Fight for Good Food Transformed a Community and Inspired a Movement, About a Toronto food bank and how it repositioned into a more community building focused organization around food and nutrition. It's a bit different from Eastern Market, but the ideas are relevant ("Food activist Nick Saul on why we’re ripe for a revolution" and "Nick Saul: The man who built the foodie bank," Toronto Star).

Edible City is an "old" book but provocative about food policy and opportunities in Toronto.

WRT programming, urban design, and activation, the weekend markets are seen as the "front porch" or entry/gateway to the Eastern Market district.  This idea needs to be embraced for the streets and spaces and shops leading to and around the market.

Eastern Market building/overall

1.  Extend hours.  EM closes at 7 pm, and on Mondays.  Change this for the building and area by doing daypart planning.  That means they miss out on the dinner and later evening daypart.  The market could be open later, but of course, not all the businesses would need to be open that late, especially the ones that sell fresh foods.

-- "Planning programming by daypart, month, season: and Boston Winter Garden, DC's Holiday Market, etc.," 2016

2.  Allow the sales of alcohol.  Right now places can't sell it.  If you want to add more prepared food outlets, and restaurant type operations this has to change.  Across the street on Independence Avenue SE is Hayden's, an independent liquor store.  Could it be incorporated into the new Market district?  The cheese shop could sell wine.  Many markets have specialty liquor stores. 

3.  Develop a premier food and retail business development/entrepreneurship program to identify and train potential business operators, to help them develop robust concepts, and to link them with space, financing and vendor support.  Complement this with business development services for existing businesses, and recruitment of existing businesses.  I would open this to anybody, whether or not they aim to open businesses in the Eastern Market district, Capitol Hill, or DC.  (I suggested something like this to the DC Main Street program in 2003, but it was too ambitious for them to understand.)

The aim of course is to help businesses develop and be successful and to locate them in the Eastern Market district.

That includes improving the merchandising abilities of the existing vendors.  For example, Bower's Fancy Dairy could have a prepared food counter featuring great cheese-based dishes, from grilled cheese to macaroni and cheese, and at night fondue.  Canales Deli has a restaurant across the street, Tortilla Cafe, with great dishes, it's a shame there wasn't room for it in the Market, etc.

4.  Programming businesses for the new Eastern Market basement annex.  You can just add more small shops focused on consumption, or you can focus on joining together food production and consumption.  The idea is to build the experience element, creating food products before your eyes, not just getting a plate of food delivered to your table. 

This would be a defining element of a Renewed Eastern Market.  (I think that was one of the positioning/marketing lines I came up with.  Along with the idea of having a lot of this launch on the 150th anniversary.)  Although there is a distillery and a brewpub in the larger Union Market district.

For example a brew pub, which you need a few thousand square feet for equipment (Denizens in Silver Spring as an example).  A coffee shop with roastery, like Vigilante Coffee in Hyattsville.  Get the Dairy Barn ice cream shop of the University of Maryland School of Agriculture to open a branch. Or a creamery making great ice cream on site, or the nitrogen ice cream operation SubZero, which makes ice cream treats on demand ("Science, plus ice cream, equals performance art," Sarasota Herald-Tribune).

Do a food fermentation operation.  Chocolate production.  Cheese production in association with Bower's Dairy, etc.  King's Roost in Los Angeles grinds specialty grains and has classes.  On site baking operations.  Bagels?  Artisan doughnuts.  If it were a Hispanic serving area--it isn't--fresh tortillas.  A vegan bakery?  Etc.

5.  Depending on if you can go down another basement level, you could create a certified food production kitchen to also support these businesses and other small food business development as an element of food entrepreneurship and microenterprise development.  It could support catering too.  

There are other such facilities in the area.  So it wouldn't be as unique.  But it's an important element of the business development function of markets.

6.  Leverage the food production kitchen to support nonprofit community food and business development initiatives, in a manner that the for profit food halls and operations don't.  La Cocina is an operation in San Francisco that works with immigrants to develop food businesses, but there are many such best practice examples of food production operations across the country.  In Salt Lake you have RISE Culinary Institute and there used to be the Flourish Bakery ("Salt Lake City’s Flourish Bakery changes lives of recovering addicts, but it needs a new home," Salt Lake Tribune), which train people in food production.  Together We Bake is a similar operation in Alexandria, Virginia.  Why not Eastern Market?  (There are for profit food production set ups elsewhere in DC. But the don't support civic initiatives.)

The Washington Post just had an article on the Mount Pleasant based organization ReDelicious, which does interesting stuff.  They should be doing it at EM.  

7.  Create an array of programming organized across food and arts and dayparts. Some of the programming should be consumption oriented.  Some food mission.  Some both.  For example a night market one or more days per month in the summer.  

I had the idea to do a summer BBQ weekend -- sure they do this Downtown on Pennsylvania Avenue, but focus less on competition and more on doing, from meat to vegetables to pizza.  Get Steve Raichlen and others. 

 And for the arts too.  I forgot til just now that I wanted our project to consult/do some case studies with other groups.  In the arts, the foremost one was the Portland Saturday Market, which is arts only.  I think they definitely do a better job on marketing.

The arts vendors have all the same issues as the food side, in that when outside arts sales started, there were few competitors.  Now there are tons, plus holiday markets, etc.  

On the arts side, Alexandria is dealing with similar issues, over the Torpedo Factory ("This torpedo factory has thrived as an artists colony for 42 years. Now everything might change," 2016, "As Alexandria looks to revamp the Torpedo Factory, artists fear they will be kicked out," 2021, Washington Post).

Use the daypart model, account for seasons, city-wide events that you may or may not be able to leverage, and organize it by program area -- food, arts, etc.  This should be indoors and outdoors.

8.  WRT event planning, create and distribute an annual calendar of events.  Do marketing -- harder as local media goes out of business, etc.  Work with Hill Rag community newspaper, websites, develop an active social media program, etc.

If Takoma Park Maryland can do an annual events calendar, 

so can Eastern Market and Capitol Hill

9.  Demonstration kitchens and broader food programming.  A smaller one could be in North Hall, a larger one in the Rumsey Building.  This could be done with DC agencies too, like the Office on Aging, WIC and other food support programs, to provide healthy cooking training.  You could also offer teaching opportunities to DC school kids through these facilities, like they do in Little Rock and Barcelona.  Many grocery chains do this, of course aimed at well off patrons, like Fairway in New York City and Harmon's in Greater Salt Lake.

18 Reasons is a nonprofit program by the Bi Rite Market of San Francisco ("Nonprofit Community Cooking School 18 Reasons Celebrates 15 Years In The San Francisco Bay Area," Forbes, "18 Reasons for Better Cooking at Home," SF Bay Times).  It's: 

a nonprofit community cooking school which teaches more than 7,000 Bay Area residents every year how to shop, cook and enjoy good food. 18 Reasons hosts classes and dinners at the 18th Street classroom every night of the week, and runs four, free multi-week cooking and nutrition education programs throughout the Bay Area: Cooking Matters, Planned & Prepped, Nourishing Pregnancy, and Food as Medicine.

On Capitol Hill, just a few blocks from Eastern Market, one household plants basil and other goodies in their treebox.

Baking and canning classes.  How to grow mushrooms or microgreens, etc.  For example, I haven't had good luck making bagels (Salt Lake is a bagel desert).  I'd happily take a class.

Composting and food waste.

What 18 Reasons does is a model for how to build a community focused food programming initiative, centered within the Market but with city-wide serving programs.   The Stop in Toronto also is a model for community programming around food.

For example, in Salt Lake there is a pre-Thanksgiving Vegan Dinner.  Some of the libraries in Salt Lake County have cookbook clubs, where people meet each month, cook items from a particular cookbook, and share the results.

I've always thought it would be cool to do this with the weekly recipes from the Washington Post and the New York Times, and food magazines.

Projects like the (once extant) Tomato Independence Project in Boise ("Building a Better Tomato," Edible Idaho) planting fruit trees ("How Angelenos are battling food insecurity by using hyperlocal apps to share their bounty," Los Angeles Times) and other Edible Landscape initiatives would improve community quality of life and could be launched and supported by Eastern Market.  

The UK's Real Bread Campaign focuses on shifting people from manufactured mass production bread to artisan bread, even the creation of micro-bakeries and "community supported bakeries" ("Real Bread Campaign gears up for 10th annual Sourdough September," Bakery&Snacks).  Why not have such a movement in the Chesapeake region, and a community-supported bakery in Eastern Market's "new (proposed) basement annex."  

During the pandemic, some bakeries gave away (or sold) sourdough starter to new adherents ("A chef gave away 500 sourdough starters and built a community around bread, pancakes and doughnuts," Washington Post).

Another food bank in Toronto, Food Share, has a salad bar program operating in a number of city high schools.

And the book Feed the Resistance: Recipes + Ideas for Getting Involved, which links food and activism.

The Project Open mixed use building in Salt Lake City grows herbs in its front spaces, which are free to pick.

Children and family programming too.  ChopChop Family is a magazine for families about food, cooking and nutrition.  Along the lines of broader community programming, the Flint (Michigan) Cultural Center Academy's food programs are a great model (Flint Kids East Fresh Foods, Flint Kids Cook, "COOKING CLASSES IN MICHIGAN ARE CHANGING KIDS LIVES," ChopChop Family).

The Monocle had a story in June 2019 about a children focused community food center in Tokyo, but I can't find my hard copy.  It's called Kageoka no Ie (House in Kageoka).  

Author talks and demonstrations.

Note the demonstration kitchens should be outfitted with cable television quality camera and production equipment to be able to produce television shows.

10. Dietary counseling  Safeway and Giant Supermarkets as part of their pharmacy offer nutrition programming and counseling. Maybe in conjunction with DOH this could be done for lower income patrons for counseling, and everyone wrt programming.

11. Membership program.  Could provide discounts on fee-based programs, access to a cookbook, food, and gardening library.  Cost could be based on income, and there should be an equity and outreach program to ensure the demographics of participants reflect DC's demographics.  

Eastern Market Metrorail Station and Plaza

12.  Program and police Eastern Market Metro Plaza/Metrorail Station.  It's the gateway to Eastern Market and Capitol Hill so verve and disorder matters ("Eastern Market Comittee Asks Council for Public Safety Improvements," Hill Rag).   I know Barracks Row Main Street and the Capitol Hill BID are supposed to be doing this but obviously they're inadequate.

Include movable tables and chairs, secure bicycle parking and other elements. 

13.  Build a visitor center in the mezzanine section of the Eastern Market Metrorail Station.  It can also serve as a Metrorail transit office.  Liverpool has some nice examples.  I don't like the London ones so much.  As mentioned, the visitor center in Pioneer Courthouse Square.  Tokyo Metro has good ones.  NYC Subway introduced some recently. Etc.  Should be funded in large part by Destination DC.

Liverpool

A wonderful example of how to do this is a few miles away in Hyattsville with the Maryland Milestones/Anacostia Trails Heritage Area Heritage Center. (It puts DC to shame.)

14.  One way to program the South/West Plaza is to connect the library more to the Plaza.  We suggested this almost 20 years ago in that PPS workshop, building a crosswalk from the library to the Plaza.  Incorporating the example of Bryant Park Reading Room.  One problem with author talks though is the outside noise.  Buses are loud.  (Note that the North/East Plaza has a playground and is residential, not business district oriented.  It needs to be monitored and maintained but is probably fine as is.)

Bryant Park, Flickr photo by John.

Maybe bringing back the idea of how the now defunct Newseum used to post front pages from around the country on their facade.  A similar presentation could be done on the west and south sides of the Metrorail escalator overhang.  Maybe with the national papers, and the local and regional papers (DC, Baltimore, Richmond, etc.) including community papers.

Incorporate book and media related art, including projections?  Inside the station too.

15.  Architectural/public art lighting of the Metrorail station canopy.  Bill FitzGibbons of San Antonio has done some interesting work with lighting.  Like El Centro Plaza for the VIA transit system.

Outdoors

16.  (As discussed above) Extend the special pavement of the 200 block of 7th Street to around Eastern Market Plaza (both sides) to knit this area together: Eastern Market; Eastern Market Metrorail Station; Southeast Library; Metro Plazas north/east and south/west.

Looking south, 400 block of 7th Street SE.  

Southeast Library on the left, Eastern Market Metro Plaza on the right.

17.  200 (and 300) block of 7th Street: keep it closed on weekends but extend this: make it a two block pedestrian mall all the time.  The South Hall vendors bitch and moan that the street is closed on the weekends.  But that is a huge attractor.  It's a competitive advantage that they fail to realize and appreciate.  Add some sort of package service served from C Street SE and North Carolina Avenue.  Provide the shuttle.  Make it easy for people to get to the market, but not have to park right there.

200 block of 7th Street SE on weekends with Eastern Market in the background

But if all the measures with regard to parking in the Transportation Management District are implemented, you don't need to drive and park on 7th Street, except for business delivery (this can be accommodated in the morning, when the street can be opened to vehicles).  So make it a two block pedestrian district, really the only one in DC.  That would be a huge differentiator vis a vis Eastern Market's competition.

The thing is to be successful, it has to be super duper programmed.  I've written a lot about this.

-- "Planning for place/urban design/neighborhoods versus planning for transportation modes: new 17th Street NW bike lanes | Walkable community planning versus "pedestrian" planning," 2021
-- "From more space to socially distance to a systematic program for pedestrian districts (Park City (Utah) Main Street Car Free on Sundays)," 2020
-- "Why doesn't every big city in North America have its own Las Ramblas?," 2020
-- "Diversity Plaza, Queens, a pedestrian exclusive block," 2020 

-- "How to f*** up 17th Street NW in Dupont Circle," 2007 (about how those pedestrian malls that are successful work very hard to do so)

And C Street SE can still provide vehicular access in emergencies..

But alongside programming, there will need to be massive efforts ongoing to ensure all the storefront spaces are full and the stores and restaurants super successful.

Hat tip to Suzanne for reminding me.

Note that St. Lawrence Market in Toronto, and to some extent the area around Lancaster Market (Pennsylvania) are pedestrianized.

18.  String lights across the 200 and 300 blocks of 7th Street to create a visual gateway from the Eastern Market Metrorail station to Easatern Market.  Larimer Square is an example, so is St. Catherine Street in the summer in Montreal.  London business districts do this a lot, like Oxford Street, where the style of the overhang changes frequently.

Montreal

Oxford Street, London

Relatedly, make sure all the tree boxes have electrical connections to facilitate simplified electricity use for festivals, etc.

19.  Add quality and creative street furniture, picnic tables and movable tables and chairs around the Market building and on the now pedestrianized 200/300 blocks of 7th Street, on days of the week when there isn't outside vending.  Instead of crappy old picnic tables, use verve.

30th Street Station in Philadelphia (The Porch) and Union Station in Toronto ("Union Station in Toronto Launches Summer Activations as New Retailers are Added," Retail Insider) have done a lot on this dimension with programming and fun street furniture.

Adult swings at The Porch

20.  The weekend arts vendors should have access to a package delivery service.  Make it easy for patrons to buy stuff but not have to lug it around.

21.  300 block of 7th Street:  Use the Saturday daypart for small festivals.  On Saturday it's managed by Eastern Market, on Sundays by an independent vendor.  Special events draw new and repeat patrons. They add dynamism.

22.  700 block of C Street SE and spaces abutting the 700 Pennsylvania Avenue SE building.  This space is managed by the building owner, but there should be integrated management.  It's partially closed on weekends.  On Saturdays it should be integrated into festival programming on the 300 block of 7th Street.  It's already programmed by the Sunday master vendor.

23.  A weekly night market?  They are big in New York City and other places ("Here are all the NYC night markets to indulge in this summer," TimeOut New York).  It provides another opportunity to feature vendors who might not be in the district already.  At the same time, do planning development so existing businesses benefit just as much.  Again, dynamism.  

There is a Tuesday late afternoon/early evening market outside under the EM shed, at least there was.  I don't know how successful it is.

24.  "Dining in the street."  On some Friday nights in the spring and fall, like in Larimer Square in Denver.  Dynamism...

Dining al Fresco in Larimer Square, Denver

The new Rumsey building

25.  The Rumsey building non-sales spaces should be programmed around food.  For example, maybe FreshFarm Markets could have an office there (even though they are a competitor), the DC Food Policy Council could have an office.  Maybe the food programs of the DC Office of Health could have its food programs housed there like WIC and SNAP.  There could be exhibit space, an art collection around food related art, food related book library, etc.  Meeting rooms that are also usable by the public.

For example, Hill Center has certain public programs in their largest public room, but it's often too small for such events.  Use spaces in an expanded Eastern Market campus, such as for a volunteer fair ("Community engagement #1: Capitol Hill Volunteer Fair this Saturday," 2016).

26.  Rumsey Underground: Arts programming.  An arts plan needs to be developed, if the arts use is decided to be maintained.  For example, an auditorium can be built underground like the Salt Lake Central Library, and it could be used for performances.  The top floor meeting space too.  But it would have to be programmed.  Maybe there can be a resident theater company, etc.  This would retain the arts use currently provided by North Hall.  Could there be space for resident artists in the above ground building?  Etc.

27.  Rumsey Underground: Pool.  It could be built underground too.  But it might be difficult.  I'd put it in a building as part of the program for a building on the parking lot at 601 C Street SE.  But anyway instead of getting rid of this use, keep it, just place it somewhere different.  But incorporate public art tile elements into the pool (although this could interfere with competitive swimming requirements).

700 Pennsylvania Avenue/700 C Street SE Buildings

28.  Try to incorporate food related businesses.  There's a Trader Joe's already which draws a lot of patronage.  There was an ice creamery in the C Street building.  It closed due to business shenanigans.  I don't know if the company that took it over reopened the business.

29.  To support the arts vendors, develop an arts cooperative retail space that is a bricks and mortar business.  Low rent.  Operated by the vendors who show their work.  It would absorb unused space too, a benefit to the building owner and the streetscape.

Other: Create the Capitol Hill Destination Development, Management, and Marketing Plan, including a branding and identity study for Capitol Hill.  Our proposal didn't have enough money to do this.  I wanted a destination development person on our team, but the other lead was enamored with a kind of arcane study technique that he wanted to do, so I couldn't reprogram that money.  But I aimed to get a supplemental appropriation to move this necessary element forward.  

Around that time, the Capitol Hill BID started doing a branding study, which I saw as a congruent effort.  I haven't ever tried to get a copy, if they've even made it public, which I don't think they have.

Civic engagement.  Knowing how the citizenry is, neighborhood and community interest in Eastern Market, and how in the past various stakeholder groups have sabotaged necessary change, I planned for a seriously robust civic engagement process too.

Conclusion.  I don't have polite language to describe what happened to me over this, as well as the loss of the opportunity to do an amazing program.  And to get paid and have a job as an old guy.  I will always be angry about it.

Then again, DC lacks the vision to be able to do stuff like this anyway, based on my experience of all my previously ignored blog entry recommendations about policy and practice.