Inside the DC Bubble

The Story:
--- The tussle is over, reports the WashBiz. The portfolios of the National Capital Revitalization Corp. and the Anacostia Waterfront Corp. will be folded into the Office of the Deputy Mayor of Planning and Economic Development. Details on the fight and the WaPo's Steve Pearlstein advising for a strong independent authority to oversee development.
--- WaPo chimes in too.

Dish:
--- DMPED will rule the day. Let's hope we are not sorry we put the mayor in charge of everything (schools, economic development), when King Fenty I retires. Or when we discover we don't like him as much as we thought we did. To be fair, the jury is still out on Fenty, but DC sure is giving him lots of power for someone so untested.

The Story:
--- The fight continues over should control the National Capital Revitalization Corp. and the Anacostia Waterfront Corp.? Mayor Fenty or a quasi-independent agency, which is "common in cities and states to promote real estate deals, streamline bureaucracy, and issue bonds," noted the WaPo.
--- The NCRC "has closed on 20 real estate transactions since 2000," including Tivoli Square in Columbia Heights, and chose PN Hoffman "as the master developer for the Southwest waterfront," said the WaPo.

DC Bubble Says:
--- Many complain about the pace of development under these agencies. Only molasses was slower that the Redevelopment Land Authority, which the NCRC replaced. In our view, these agencies are not broken, why fix them? Remember: reorganizing takes time too and distracts from the goal of redeveloping land. Push them. Prod them, but why change them?

Now that its become a "how" not an "if" question about whether the National Capital Revitalization Corp. and the Anacostia Waterfront Corp. should be folded into a single new agency, DC Bubble points to a recent collumn by Steve Pearlstein in the WaPo for an answer.

The jist of what he recommends and we believe he is correct is that:

• A legally independent authority is the politically the best solution,
• The director of the authority should serve at the mayor's pleasure,
• The authority should be self-funded through rents etc.

What's at stake here is the Anacostia waterfront redevelopment, the future of the old D.C. General Hospital site, St. Elizabeths Hospital and the McMillan Reservoir etc.

Things may have progress more slowly that some would have liked with these two entities, but this is DC the city with northern charm and southern efficiency. Things always seem to move as slow as molasses here, not that we object to things being pushed along.