One more thing about Anacostia and office buildings

Re-reading the Post article it quotes Mayor Williams as saying he was inspired to suggest this development at the Anacostia Metro Station by the actions of Mayor Barry's building of the Reeves Center.

The Reeves Center is pretty typical of the urban brutalist DC urban renewal projects from the mid-1970s onwards.

IT IS A MYTH that the Reeves Center sparked the revitalization of U Street. It is an urban brutalist monster that sucks the life off of the street. Many of the retail businesses in the Reeves Center have failed. The other three corners of the intersection have fast food places or a vacancy. AND, it took more than 10 years after the Reeves Center before "revitalization" started happening--much of it being sparked by the opening of the Green line subway stations.

Why is learning from Jane Jacobs and other practitioners of urban vitality so difficult?

Mixed use ideas from Sizzling Express...

Outside patio, unoccupied because the temperature is



Even at 4 pm there are patrons.

Attracted by variety, and the speed of self-service.