This street is going to look nothing like this in 2 years. It’s now being destroyed for the third time in 48 years (the first was following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.). This version will hopefully be sustainable, inclusive, healthy 👍 👍.
H Street NE was first introduced to me by Lygeia Ricciardi (@Lygeia) who took me there on a walking meeting in 2011, and I had no idea what I was about to learn. Of course I have photos from that walk:
I don’t do any commissioned work or accept payment for photography (and I didn’t this time either), however, I agreed to do a profile of the H Street NE neighborhood for local metropolitan blog/resource UrbanTurf (@UrbanTurf). Some of these may end up there, and they are also all Creative Commons licensed for everyone (of course).
Washington, DC is a city of monuments to people who do extraordinary things, such as Loree Murray, who’s represented as the neighborhood rises anew:
Mrs. (Loree) Murray, who died March 27 (2009) at 88 of pancreatic cancer, founded the Near Northeast Citizens Against Crime and Drugs to lead street patrols that helped police document evidence of drug dealing. She was joined by a handful of other men and women, including a 105-year-old who had once worked for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
“She was one of the first people who decided to take back her community, and to do that, she had to break up some of the most notorious drug rings operating at Second and K streets Northeast,” said developer Ronald J. Cohen, who worked with Mrs. Murray to win community support for a building project on land that had once been a haven for vice.
He said Mrs. Murray no longer wanted her neighborhood to be seen as “the other side of the tracks.”
Cohen said he plans to name a building in her honor. The “Loree Grand” will be part of the Union Place residential-retail complex, scheduled to open next spring at 200 K St. NE.
The rest of the photos show how things are changing, and this beautiful short film tells the story (see: Photo Friday: Healing H Street, NE with Complete Streets, Washington, DC USA – Ted Eytan, MD).
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Payment for photos was made from Urban Turf to HIPS (@HIPSDC), who operate on H Street, with awesome doctor colleague Sangeeta R. Iyer, MD, member of its Board.
<3 DC.