At the end of 2015, DC’s Office of Revenue Analysis published a really interesting post on its District Measured blog about housing prices in various DC neighborhoods since 2001. For Riggs Park, the news is a mixed bag. (The Office uses tax subdivisions for its analysis, so some of the transactions may be outside of what we in the neighborhood consider Riggs Park). Median sales price is up 96% since 2001.

Source: Districtmeasured.com

But prices have not quite reached the high achieved in 2006, which was $398,250. The median sales price in 2015 was 11% lower than 2006.

Source: Districtmeasured.com

Since 2009, the median sales price has increased 25 percent.

Source: Districtmeasured.com

Here is the median sales price for each year since 2009, according to District Measured:

• 2009: $283,050
• 2010: $258, 276
• 2011: $241,680
• 2012: $254,800
• 2013: $300,900
• 2014: $328, 750
• 2015: $355,000

2015 also recorded the highest number of sales since 2009.

Source: Districtmeasured.com

Of course these numbers obscure the difference in price between a fully renovated or newly constructed home and a non-renovated one. I waited to publish a piece about the analysis because I had my eye on one particular property, a high end renovation of one of the older, midcentury brick semi-detached homes that was originally listed at $650,000. The price was eventually reduced to $599,000. A few days ago, the house sold for $585,000. By my review, that price is the highest to date for one of the older homes, albeit one that has been fully renovated and one that sits on a larger lot than many of the neighborhood homes.

Newly constructed homes close to the metro are selling for well over $600,000. For a while, recently renovated homes were being listed in the range of $450,000 to $499,000 and selling right around that price point. Now we are seeing renovated homes selling for over $500,000. Non-renovated homes that need a good bit of work are selling for around $280,000 to $300,000. For the non-investor, there is still a bit of a risk of losing out to all-cash buyers for the true fixer-uppers, but homes that have been maintained in good shape but that have not been fully renovated are selling in the range of $315,000 to $375,000. These are just figures I have eyeballed from following real estate listings over the year, not the result of doing a detailed analysis of the numbers since I am not a real estate agent.

Interest rates will surely creep up this year. We will see what effect the increase has on the upward trajectory of neighborhood housing prices.

ANC 5A sent out a revised meeting notice. The meeting on January 13 will be a committee of the whole planning meeting, not the regular ANC 5A meeting as they previously indicated. Please disregard the previous meeting notice.

Happy New Year everyone! It is 2016 and that means local elections come November. We will soon be bombarded by ads and election signs for council races. But equally important are elections for our local advisory neighborhood commissioners (ANCs). Our neighborhood is split between Wards 4 and 5. I live in Ward 5, so I stay more attuned to what is happening in ANC 5A. My commissioner on ANC 5A is Frank Wilds, who represents single member district (SMD) 5A01. It is not a secret that Commissioner Wilds does not actually want to be commissioner. He says he ran because no one else would. So this is a call for residents in ANC 5A01 in particular, but also residents in other SMDs, to start thinking about representing our great community on ANC 5A. 

Having a really good, well-functioning ANC can do wonders for a neighborhood, especially one like ours that is seeing so much development. Generally, I think most of the ANC 5A commissioners are good people. They are nice and usually professional. Invited guests often remark that ANC 5A meetings are well-run and they seem surprised by how civil residents are to guests. We usually do not have any raised voices, at least not by residents.

My main issue with ANC 5A–a longstanding one–is the seeming lack of concern about transparency. Simple things like updating the ANC 5A website with meeting notices and official ANC documents like minutes, resolutions, and letters on behalf of the commission, are not being done. It would be great for the commissioners to recognize that the SMD boundaries are artificial lines that straddle neighborhoods and that the actions of one commissioner who represents one SMD can affect residents of other SMDs because those residents actually live in the same neighborhood. That is really all I expect of my commissioners. I recognize that these elected officials are not compensated and people have limited time, so I do not expect all that much of them. I go back and forth on whether I think commissioners should be paid. Sometimes I think that if they were paid, then they would do things like update the website, provide meaningful notice of ANC meetings or projects in the neighborhood that warrant community input, rather than having us operate in an information vacuum, or be a little more proactive about representing residents. But we also have elected and nonelected officials who are compensated to represent our interests and respond to our concerns, who are sometimes responsive and sometimes not. All that to say, there is an opportunity on ANC 5A for someone or someones to make a difference, especially when it comes to making ANC 5A a bit more transparent and improving coordination between commissioners across SMD boundary lines.

Over the next several months, I will repeat the entreaty to residents to throw their hat in the ring to represent the neighborhood on ANC 5A. It does not matter how long anyone has lived in the neighborhood. We need a voice. I hope some of you will consider serving.

Next Stop…Riggs Park is three years old! I published the very first post on December 5, 2012, introducing this new blog to the community. Thank you very much to each person who reads, follows, leaves a comment, sends an email, or drops a tip. It has been fun getting to know residents through the blog. To the regulars, you all are awesome. I hope I have been able to inform and provide a platform for residents to share news and thoughts on neighborhood happenings in this little pocket of DC.

You might have noticed posting has become less regular and less frequent. That is mainly because of my day job. Working longer hours leaves less time to attend meetings, peruse information sources, and create blog content. A couple of people have been great about sending me notes from ANC meetings in particular when I cannot make it. They like to remain anonymous, but I have to give a big thanks to them. I told myself when I started that if I could not post on a regular basis, then I would stop. All that preface to say, I am not sure what I will do with the blog. There is still a lot happening in the neighborhood; lots of changes are still in store, so I think there is still a need for a place where people can go for information. To that end, I will put in a plug for the Lamond-Riggs community listserv (which I moderate with two other people), Lamond Riggs Citizens Association’s website, and LRCA’s facebook and twitter pages, which I also maintain with a few other people. I encourage residents to join, follow, and post to all of these sources. And if there is anyone who wants to write guest posts for the blog, email me at nextstopriggs@gmail.com. For now, I will continue to post when I can.

Thanks for reading.

• December 10

Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie Holiday Party, 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm

Gallaudet University, Sorensen Center (800 Florida Avenue NE)

Bring an unwrapped toy for child 5 to 12 years old

• December 11

LaSalle Backus Food Pantry, 4:00 pm

La Salle Backus Education Campus (501 Riggs Road NE)

Free groceries. Just bring a bag

• December 12

DC Bilingual Public Charter School Fair, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm

DC Bilingual school library (33 Riggs Road NE)

New neighbor, DC Bilingual, is hosting a Scholastic Book Fair this Saturday, December 12 from 10:00 – 2:00 in the school library.  This event is open to the neighborhood and a great chance to supplement your child’s home library with great children’s books in both English and Spanish!  A portion of the proceeds will benefit the school.

In case you missed it, here is a link to the Washington Post’s coverage of Mayor Bowser’s move from Riggs Park to Shepherd Park after 15 years in the neighborhood that ushered her into public office. A Post reporter attended LRCA’s holiday meeting on December 7 and spoke to a few neighborhood residents. The article, strangely titled “DC Mayor leaves her working-class digs for a more upscale neighborhood,” was clearly going for a certain slant, suggesting that the move symbolizes the value placed on representing residents of more modest means. (We will assume for the moment that the mayor strongly advocated on behalf of middle-income residents when on the council). If the reporter was hoping to get negative feedback on the move from the mayor’s neighbors, it looks like she did not get it Monday night. Certainly there are those who have critical thoughts about the mayor (check out a few comments on LRCA’s facebook page) (Disclosure: I maintain the page with a few other residents).

I do not think the move really matters much. I think the mayor’s values matter more. Certainly where the mayor lives can have an impact on what is valued, but in this case I do not think the slant the Post aimed for is really accurate. For example, the mayor drives everywhere. Even as a councilmember, she largely drove everywhere. So she is not going to be super concerned or maybe as thoughtful as I would like about pedestrian, biking, or public transit issues unless residents beat the drum on those issues because her perspective is largely that of a driver. That is something that matters to me more than the fact that it was obvious to everyone even when she was campaigning to be mayor that she would be moving if elected. The same can be said for the mayor’s delay in responding to the FreshPAC fiasco in any meaningful or thoughtful way. That matters and I do not think that is driven by where she lives. We know that moneyed interests have an outsize influence in the political arena for most of our elected officials (witness the astounding payoffs happening to get DC elected and non-elected officials, nonprofits, and residents to support the Pepco-Exelon merger). Again that matters and has little to do with where the mayor or any of our elected officials live.

This article missed the mark by trying to draw a really dubious link. As I mentioned in my previous post, I think there is room to talk about the mayor’s legacy to the neighborhood, in some cases critically and publicly. The move provides nice timing to talk about those issues, but I think that is about it.

Well the news is out, based on today’s tweet from WUSA-9’s Bruce Johnson. Mayor Muriel Bowser is moving from Riggs Park to upper NW.

Mayor Bowser held a holiday social for Lamond-Riggs residents on November 30 at Fort Totten Square apartments. There, she let the people who started her political career know that she is moving from the neighborhood because she needs more space. It was only a matter of time before the mayor moved; many anticipated that she would move shortly after taking office, so a year in is about right.

Monday’s gathering, ostensibly set up to celebrate “Bringing Retail to Fort Totten” seemed like a bit of a farewell to the neighborhood. (Nevermind that no one in the room actually calls the neighborhood Fort Totten). Now that the ribbon has been cut on the new Walmart, the mayor can say goodbye. As she noted both during Walmart’s grand opening and on Monday, since living in Riggs Park, she has served as an advisory neighborhood commissioner, as Ward 4 councilmember, and now mayor.  Being in the room, it was clear to me that many neighborhood residents seriously support and love the mayor. She will probably always have a soft spot in the heart of many neighborhood residents. As she moves from NE to NW, we can talk about her legacy to the neighborhood. But for right now, we wish Mayor Bowser the best.

I have not seen an official notice of the meeting anywhere, but I have been told there will be an ANC 5A meeting tonight at UDC-CC, Backus campus (5171 South Dakota Avenue NE) at 6:45 pm. I have been told that DDOT representatives will attend, but since no one seems to have an official notice or agenda, I cannot say who else is on the agenda for tonight. If you have any questions for DDOT, come on out.

In neighborhood brewery news, over the weekend, 3 Stars Brewing Company, located at 6400 Chillum Place NW, held a grand opening for its new tasting room dubbed the Urban Farmhouse. The Washington Post has a nice write-up of the festivities. If you never had a reason to walk through the industrial area on Chillum Place before, this new tasting room may give you a reason to go.

This weekend on November 14, Hellbender Brewing Company, located at 5788 2nd Street NE, is celebrating its one-year anniversary. There will be music, games, food trucks, and of course lots of beer. VIP and general admission tickets available at this link.

Finally, the Washington Business Journal reports that 2016 could see another brewery join the neighborhood, this one paying homage to one of the first breweries in DC, the National Capital Brewing Company. According to WBJ, the search “has focused more near Fort Totten in Ward 5 and in Anacostia in Ward 8 . . . . The space needs to be between 7,000 and 13,000 square feet and have 20-foot high ceilings.”

Hmm, sounds like the making of a neighborhood brewery tour.

From Councilmember Todd’s office:

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Join Councilmember Todd for his State of the Ward 4 Senior Address, Thursday, November 5, 2015, 10 am to 2 pm at Riggs Lasalle Recreation Center, 501 Riggs Road NE 

Councilmember Todd will discuss his priorities for seniors in Ward 4 and across the District. Seniors will receive health screenings and hear from District agencies as well as private partners.  DC Office on Aging, Office and Tax and Revenue, Public Service Commission, People’s Counsel, DC Department of Parks and Recreation, AARP, Walmart along with along a variety of vendors. Breakfast and lunch will be served and the day will end with a fun afternoon of entertainment. Please RSVP with Solomon Waller at (202) 724-8052 or swaller@dccouncil.us.

Photo courtesy of Ms. Barbara Lee

The Lamond-Riggs Citizens Association is having its monthly public meeting tonight at 7:00.

Pay dues, purchase a t-shirt, hear from At-Large Councilmember David Grosso and DC’s Office on Aging.

The meeting is at LaSalle Backus Education Campus (501 Riggs Road NE, enter on Madison Street).

From the listserv. Please encourage your neighbors to take the survey.

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The Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) created an online survey to solicit input for affordable housing and community needs in DC. The results will help shape the FY 2016 – FY 2020 Consolidated Plan (“Plan”). The document is updated every five years and submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). All projects and initiatives funded over the next five years will tie back to the policies and priorities outlined in this plan. This survey, along with public hearings and informal events, will drive DHCD’s Needs Assessment Analysis for this 5-year update. Share your thoughts with us and take the survey! For more information, visit DC Draft FY2016-FY2020 Consolidated Plan | dhcd