Harris Teeter on the Brink

So there's this old roller-rink on Kalorama Road in Adams Morgan that's been vacant for several years. After the roller skating died out, it was a concert venue, a sound stage, housed a restaurant, maybe a few other uses, but basically in the ten years I've lived in Adams Morgan, it's been deteriorating and abandoned looking (although technically not abandoned as parts of it were occasionally used...).

About 2 years ago, the supermarket chain Harris-Teeter started negotiations -- this past February they actually signed a lease -- with the corrupt Jemal group, who own the building and many other buildings in and around DC, and anyone familiar with neighborhood politics should realize what that meant: a great fight erupted in the community over whether the supermarket idea should go forward.

On the one hand, supporters have been pretending that the new grocery store wouldn't signifcantly increase traffic and parking issues in an already congested neighborhood; on the other hand, opponents have argued that issuing a liquor license to the grocery store would create a 39000 square foot "liquor barn" in the heart of Adams Morgan (I'm thinking the whole time "and that's supposed to make me oppose it?").

The condo marketeers have already been touting the new grocery store as if it's a done deal:

The idiotically named "Lot 33" project on Euclid Street lists Harris Teeter as the first benefit to living in Adams Morgan.

The also Jemal-owned 1700 Kalorama Lofts project touts the new store as well, through a link to a Washington Business Journal article.

And this piece of cloying drivel from "Washington's Best Addresses" realty:

Tucked away on a quiet residential street, this fabulous location is just around
the corner from all of 18th Street's yummy restaurants & trendy nightlife! Plus, a Harris Teeter grocery store is slated to move in less than two blocks away! What could be more divine?

I almost threw up reading that, but the entire description of the property is stomach churning. Whoever writes that company's descriptions is either hopped up on goofballs or marketing to an audience with chemical imbalances. "Yummy restaurants"? WTF? Yummy? Isn't there a child labor law against having middle school kids churning out copy?

Before this post veers into another diatribe against condo developers and the morons who buy from them, I'd better get back to the Harris Teeter. The zoning hearing is today, and I suspect that since the BZA is pretty well useless and in the back pocket of developers, the project will go forward (and I say that as a supporter of the project).

Here's why I like the Harris Teeter project:

• fresh seafood
• good selection of cheese
• beer and wine

Here's why I don't:

• more assholes with sweaters wrapped around their necks or waists traipsing through the neighborhood

As far as automobile traffic goes, I'm hoping they initiate some one-way street maneuvers. If DDOT would stick a nice "Do Not Enter" sign on the end of Kalorama Road so 16th Street traffic couldn't come down Kalorama, I'd see far fewer Maryland license plates, and that would make for a far safer street.