Anyone familiar with the debacle and corporate welfare giveaway that is the new baseball stadium would remember the story of the enterprising entrepreneurs who would be forced to relocate when the new stadium ate up their business locations: the strip clubs and sex shops etc.
Much hand-wringing occurred over the plight of these businesses that had managed to survive in the barren rock and debris around buzzard point, and by much I generally mean that a little lip service was given to how sad it was that these businesses were pretty much zoned out of any other place in the city (a far cry indeed from the early 1990's, when 14th Street still contained the remnants of a sleazy "adult entertainment" center) and would tut tut have to shutter their doors forever.
Then Ward One Councilmember Jim Graham came to the rescue with a bill that would allow these businesses to relocate to "commercial manufacturing zones," which he claims are located throughout the city, but for some reason Ward 5 has become the preferred proposed relocation site for these businesses.
This discrepancy between Graham's claim that these businesses could relocate throughout the city and the media attention on Ward 5 got me interested in what other locations these fine establishments might seek to inhabit. One thing I found was that not far from my house and directly across from the future Harris Teeter in Adams Morgan was one such zone, which surprised me, since the entire C-M-2 zone there is occupied by two story townhouses. I'm wondering what sort of commercial potential I might have purchasing one of those overpriced two up-two downs and turning it into a sex emporium. I might have some luck with the overflow from the Harris Teeter, but then again those places are so small I'm not sure I could do the volume I needed...
The best quote from the Post coverage comes from Kwame Brown, who like an athlete, has taken to referring to himself in the third person: "Kwame Brown does not want nudie bars next to residential homes."
I don't know. Does anyone know why Ward 5 seems to be the focus in this tale of displacement?
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