Sep 17, 2004  |  By: JOE CREA  | COMMENTS     

WITH GORGEOUS Victorian homes in need of a little “Queer Eye” treatment, plans for retail neighbors like Whole Foods Market and a community organization dedicated to preserving the arts, gays and lesbians increasingly are showing up in Columbia Heights.

This racially diverse neighborhood in Northwest Washington, D.C., is bordered by Spring Road to the north, Euclid Avenue to the south, 16th Street to the west, and 11th Street to the east.

Historically, Columbia Heights primarily has been home to a mixture of black and Hispanic residents, including gay ones. Increasingly, however, it also is attracting more white gays and lesbians, among other city dwellers who have no plans to head to the suburbs, and it also now boasts a strong Vietnamese community.

Columbia Heights is also experiencing an urban renaissance: 10 projects are under development in this area that will create more than 700,000 square feet of real estate space, more than 600 units of housing (one-third of which will be reserved for low- and moderate-income residents), 2,000 new parking spaces, about 2,000 new jobs, and more than $19 million in new tax revenue, according to Peggy Armstrong, a spokesperson for the National Capital Revitalization Corporation.

NCRC is a quasi-public entity created by the federal government and the D.C. City Council to stimulate development and promote change in Washington, especially in underserved communities.

Retail stores such as Target and Whole Foods have signed letters of intent with NCRC to operate there, and a huge Giant Food grocery store, which will replace a smaller one in this area on 14th Street, is slated to open by the end of the year at Tivoli Square.

Tivoli Square, at 14th Street and Park Road, is an ambitious revitalization project involving the old Tivoli movie house. Underneath the dome of this historic theater, plans are unfolding to open the GALA Hispanic Theatre, a 250-seat structure with 1,000 square feet of performance space.

And in another nod to Columbia Heights’ commitment to the arts, the Dance Institute of Washington, a non-profit organization that focuses on building self-esteem and instilling excellence in children and youths in underserved communities through dance training and arts education, has plans to open a 16,000-square-foot dance facility across from Tivoli Square. They are slated to break ground on the Dance Institute this fall.

The first major grand opening in the neighborhood will be in late September when the Greater Washington Urban League moves into the newly restored Hines Funeral Home on 14th Street.

LOCALGAY RESIDENTS such as Joel Harder, a 31-year-old Red Cross employee, praised Columbia Heights’ energy, friendliness and diversity.

“It’s just an awesome neighborhood with lots and lots of gay boys,” he says. “People say ‘good morning.’ It’s very old-fashioned with a wonderful vibe and great energy.”

Till Bruett, 37, and his partner, Jim Nastus, 27, who have lived on Monroe Street in Columbia Heights for two years, playfully suggest that gay people are moving to the neighborhood because of the chance to renovate a Victorian home.

“There’s nothing gays like more than remodeling Victorian homes,” Bruett quips. “Dupont residents don’t have that option. This neighborhood has great architecture and a beautiful infrastructure.”

Bruett and Nastus, who have been together for three years, have a home with close to 2,000 square feet of living space. Using some of the money Bruett made from selling his condo, the couple renovated their English basement and now rent it.

Like many gay residents living in Columbia Heights, Bruett migrated from the city’s pricier gay neighborhood, Dupont Circle.

Bruett says that when they moved to Columbia Heights, the neighborhood “was kind of rough,” adding that drug dealers could be found loitering on the streets and occupying a few abandoned homes.

While neglected houses have been sold and, as Bruett says, “drug dealers are there only two nights a week versus seven,” the couple has experienced some problems with crime during the past two years. Their car was once vandalized and their home was burglarized.

The centerpiece of the revitalization effort unfolding in Columbia Heights is Tivoli Square, an ambitious project at 14th Street and Park Road, NW, that used to be a prominent movie theater. (Photo by Luis Gomez)

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