Congress Heights on the Rise

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HOUSING COMPLEX | City Planning Summer Stuff at St. Elizabeths to “Give It a Geographical Location in Peoples’ Heads”

Go HERE for the full article by Lydia DePillis. Full disclosure: I work for ARCH (as if you didn't know).

Excerpt:

The actual planning part, though, has been subcontracted to  VerdeHOUSE, a year-and-a-half-old firm that connects people who want to throw events with people who own space. They're responsible for booking the field, at no charge to users, on weekends in July through the end of the summer. CEO  Morgan Greenhouse has already  blasted out the opportunity to her list of people who use space, and imagines there will be barbeques, soccer camps, concerts, and other "things that are inclusive and fun." The Ward 8 Farmers Market will open a second location there. The goal, she says, is to "give it a geographical location in peoples' heads."  
Greenhouse has done projects in many parts of the city, but nothing yet east of the river (though she says she's tried, and not yet been successful). That bugs some of the folks who've worked there for a long time, like  Arch Development Corporation, which put on a  similar thing in Anacostia over the past few months.  
"I have nothing against VerdeHOUSE," says Arch's CEO  Duane Gautier. "But I find it very interesting that there are three to four organizations east of the river that could've put on these productions, and they did not put it out for a public bid...southeast organizations are not viewed as being able to run projects in southeast."


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