Anacostia Beta Community
anacostia.collectivex.com

Updated October 19

Thank you for coming to the first official beta community meeting on Wednesday night.

Below are the attendees, followed by what places inspire them:

Fred, Anacostia resident and organizer of Intersections – The walkability to goods and services in Savannah

Ahtur, partner in Everlasting Life restaurants – The old section of Tucson near the university, with restaurants, funky boutiques, arts & culture community, walkability and closed off streets to cars.

Hakim, ‘the developer’ – The people, history and human scale of Paris; the distinct neighborhoods of Boston, and the yin/yang of the wilderness to the city

Charles and Edwina, Hakim’s parents – Full write-up coming, including Edwina’s poetic description of the legendary arts/music/culture/social scene in New York City in the 1950s and 60s.

Faheem, Hakim’s son – No comment

Hannah, visiting from Montana – The close-knit connectedness, interaction and walkability of NYC

Shivahn, chef and health specialist – The co-creating, vision, arts and holistic community, and how the people
aren’t afraid to interact and share in Takoma Park

Don, guest of Shivahn, IT - The mixed-income ideals of Columbia MD

Pam, key building owner – The inspiring beauty, people watching, ethnic restaurants, waterfront, Misha’s coffeehouse, though lacking diversity of Olde Towne, Alexandria

Briony, staff at ARCH, Honfleur Gallery – The unique character, identity, arts venues, walkability, and non-gentrification of Mount Washington, Baltimore

Jabali – The hot bed of progressive ideas, politics in Berkelely, CA; the community marketplaces of Tanzania

Nefret – The beautiful, walkable urban fabric of Charleston; the diversity of Eastern Market

Sariane – The visually beautiful old Colonial stores, galleries, restaurants, markets, of Antigua, Guatemala, where everyone came from around the world to visit and chill; outdoor brunch in Federal Hill, Baltimore

Rasul – The small town nature, yet with lots going on in big cities like DC and Paris.

John – Knowing everyone in the diverse, fresh neighborhood of the Bronx, with Eastern Europeans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans…

Neil – The history, authenticity and wildly pedestrian-scale streets of the French Quarter, New Orleans.

Hakim then presented the building opportunity at 1500 Good Hope Road, the price points for the apartments on the second floor (around $280/s.f., which is half that in NW DC), and the commitment to healthy, creative businesses on the ground floor, provided a market can be proven.

We then centered on a discussion over what that anchor ground floor business could be, and given the talent in the group, it quickly focused on a community-oriented coffeehouse/cafe with an emphasis on healthy eating and entertainment.