Photo by María Helena Carey
I considered starting this post with a huge platitude: That DC is changing.
Yes, of course. The gap-toothed smiles of the city have gone and gotten themselves some very deep and expensive root canals and new porcelain teeth. The few salvageable teeth have been worked extensively and are barely recognizable in some places, and no area of town has gotten more teeth put in –and with more in the way– than the area we’re told to call NoMa, because it’s trendy.
The neighborhood — once called Swampoodle and then “whatever was left behind after Union Station was built,” — has sat largely silent and empty until about four or five years ago. Now it seems like every couple of months there is either a new building pushing up from the ground, or some very cool event in the lots that haven’t been claimed by developers yet. It’s not an unwelcome change: More people living in the city means more people loving the city and paying tax dollars. It also means more people actively outraged that we don’t have full representation in Congress. But with new people comes change, and change isn’t always good. Change doesn’t always make for nice neighbors. Sometimes, change brings along with it neighbors who, frankly, don’t give a damn about you or your principles, and if they will provide low prices and non-union jobs, so be it.
Put up or shut up, I believe is what some people would say about that. Competition? Bring it on: Why not bring in a glut of national chains and see if you can drown out the local businesses? That seems fair too. (Btw, the Starbucks on H at the Anthology is open!)
So it is rare –almost unsettling, if I’m being honest– to see a national retailer come into an area that is sensitive from so much change and so much brazen pushiness, and treat it and the city at large with such reverence. I am referring, of course, to REI– which will open a flagship store in the former Uline Arena/Washington Coliseum on October 21 of this year. (Make sure you read our post about our recent visit to the construction site!)
In case you’re not familiar with this building, the Uline Arena was, for many years, a key venue and gathering place. Originally built by Miguel Uline in the early 1940s thanks to his large ice business, the site was a hockey arena –home of the Washington Lions– as well as a venue for ice skating, and very much segregated–much like Glen Echo park and many other popular attractions. Later, it was bought by Harry G. Lynn, a jewelry wholesaler, in 1959. He was the one who renamed it the Washington Coliseum, which was the name of the venue when it hosted the Beatles when they came to the US in 1964– the favorite fact that gets trotted out every time anyone talks about the building.
The coliseum was also a sports arena as well as a music venue, and at some point it even provided lodging for soldiers. In its latter days, it rumbled with the sounds of Go-Go, before being closed in 1986. Between then and when it was acquired by Douglas Development for $6 million in 2004, it also served as a trash transfer station (!), a parking lot, and shortly thereafter, and also becoming part of the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.
Photo by María Helena Carey
Douglas Development spent about 10 years waiting to turn the Uline Arena into… anything. And then there was excited buzzing and REI blew into town. Ever since they made the announcement that they would be opening their fifth flagship store at the site, in a community-wide meeting that was wishlist as much as open forum, they have been seriously committed to making sure the community is happy with them. During our tour, we were told about how much they want to be involved in the neighborhood, even going so far as to make sure the staff knows basic American Sign Language so as to make Gallaudet University students feel welcome and included: the students are a key demographic thanks to the school’s proximity to the former arena.
In our changing neighborhood, it’s always appreciated when new businesses give back –even as they give us quite a bit and save us a trip to the suburbs. We welcome REI with open arms, and wish for more businesses to not just bring their wares and their deals to our neighborhood, but also to try and become an integrated partner in making the city a better place while still honoring its history.