When I left Washington, D.C., it was still just a heap of tarp-lined fences and steel framing. As of last week, it's a two-story Target, with a whole array of other stores to open in the weeks to follow. I've been watching some of the Columbia Heights neighborhood blogs and it's a mixed bag between residents that are crossing their fingers that the DC USA complex (clever name) will salvage the neighborhood, and there are others that think the stores that are moving in will draw in more lower-income people (which they've deduced because of a possible Ross being planted there-I'm highly offended by that insinuation).
I can't wait to get back there and see what the neighborhood looks like as a result. I just lived a few blocks from where the complex has been built, and I was just a few blocks shy of a rougher part of Columbia Heights. It'll be interesting to see how the dynamic between the two has changed (if it all).
I also can't wait to get back there and see the *new* American History Museum. That bad boy has been completely closed down for a year and a half because of reconstruction. I think that has to be my favorite museum of all time, with the exception of the International Banana Museum, the bread and butter of Hesperia's cultural heritage (which apparently sold for at least $750,000 from it's original home in Altadena).
