My Brangler spirit may be running a little low, right now.
Exactly a year ago, in October of 2009, several reliable sources told Penn Branch and surrounding residents that construction was to begin on our weary old tomb of a shopping strip, Penn Branch Center, which is basically a big piece of crap that's been falling apart for the last twenty or so years. We've got sleepy, hum-drum retail that forces Penn Branglers to go spend our money in other communities, making them more economically viable, while our own neighborhood fades deeper into civic irrelevance with City Hall, and I was really looking forward to the end of that.
But, the ending never arrived.
In the meantime, Minnesota-Benning (Bennesota) and even Fairfax Village (where I have a condo) are witnessing the beginnings of exciting changes in their respective business districts, while Penn Branch, still the host of lots of dependable, law-abiding middle class tax payers, stays drearily and abysmally the same. Not poor or crime-ridden enough for any politician to save from itself with miraculous infusions of new development, while also not economically dynamic enough to throw our weight around like Capitol Hill, No'Ma, Georgetown or Spring Valley. Basically, that means we'll never see what used to make Penn Branch such a GREAT place to live (movies, restaurants, ice cream shops, pet stores, etc.), when I was a boy, come back to us.
The nearby Hyland Theatre, now housing a daycare center, will likely remain a big, ugly holding cell for rugrats. Maybe, it'll get another dollar store. Whoop-frakin-ee.
The old High's Ice Cream at PBC will remain a credit union or whatever it is.
The old Hot Shoppes restaurant, where my mother once worked (the first Afro-American to do so), will remain a laundromat. Honestly, it breaks my heart, every time I drive past that place. It really makes me so angry, I'd almost rather see it vacant or torn down.
The CVS Drugstore, which used to be a Leader's Drug that had its own DINER inside, will stay just another generic, chain convenience-store/pharmacy. I would take my greasy, little drugstore diner, where my grandmother and I used to plan our ritual Saturday trips into town--with its juicy cheeseburgers, fries and strong hot coffee--over a Starbuck's Coffee any day of the week.
The Subway Sandwich Shop, once a handsome, wood-panelled restaurant-by-day and cocktail lounge-by-night, will remain a very well-run Subway, ..though still too much a fastfood franchise for National Harbor.
I am convinced, and I don't have any evidence to verify it, that we're just not getting the old Penn Branch back, and, after all of the buzz and speculation of last year, I am truly pissed about that. I am so angry about it, I honestly don't know what this blog is about anymnore.
I feel really screwed, and I'm not sure by whom.
It's sad, but, likely true, that there is no new, compettitive, development coming to Penn Branch--just more talk, more promises and more studies by rich, urban-planning consultant firms. We've just been jerked around, quite enough.
http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2009/03/30/story9.html
The above link is from March of 2009, chatting up the big development coming to Penn Branch. Yes...the development that never got here.
Mel Dyer
Exactly a year ago, in October of 2009, several reliable sources told Penn Branch and surrounding residents that construction was to begin on our weary old tomb of a shopping strip, Penn Branch Center, which is basically a big piece of crap that's been falling apart for the last twenty or so years. We've got sleepy, hum-drum retail that forces Penn Branglers to go spend our money in other communities, making them more economically viable, while our own neighborhood fades deeper into civic irrelevance with City Hall, and I was really looking forward to the end of that.
But, the ending never arrived.
In the meantime, Minnesota-Benning (Bennesota) and even Fairfax Village (where I have a condo) are witnessing the beginnings of exciting changes in their respective business districts, while Penn Branch, still the host of lots of dependable, law-abiding middle class tax payers, stays drearily and abysmally the same. Not poor or crime-ridden enough for any politician to save from itself with miraculous infusions of new development, while also not economically dynamic enough to throw our weight around like Capitol Hill, No'Ma, Georgetown or Spring Valley. Basically, that means we'll never see what used to make Penn Branch such a GREAT place to live (movies, restaurants, ice cream shops, pet stores, etc.), when I was a boy, come back to us.
The nearby Hyland Theatre, now housing a daycare center, will likely remain a big, ugly holding cell for rugrats. Maybe, it'll get another dollar store. Whoop-frakin-ee.
The old High's Ice Cream at PBC will remain a credit union or whatever it is.
The old Hot Shoppes restaurant, where my mother once worked (the first Afro-American to do so), will remain a laundromat. Honestly, it breaks my heart, every time I drive past that place. It really makes me so angry, I'd almost rather see it vacant or torn down.
The CVS Drugstore, which used to be a Leader's Drug that had its own DINER inside, will stay just another generic, chain convenience-store/pharmacy. I would take my greasy, little drugstore diner, where my grandmother and I used to plan our ritual Saturday trips into town--with its juicy cheeseburgers, fries and strong hot coffee--over a Starbuck's Coffee any day of the week.
The Subway Sandwich Shop, once a handsome, wood-panelled restaurant-by-day and cocktail lounge-by-night, will remain a very well-run Subway, ..though still too much a fastfood franchise for National Harbor.
I am convinced, and I don't have any evidence to verify it, that we're just not getting the old Penn Branch back, and, after all of the buzz and speculation of last year, I am truly pissed about that. I am so angry about it, I honestly don't know what this blog is about anymnore.
I feel really screwed, and I'm not sure by whom.
It's sad, but, likely true, that there is no new, compettitive, development coming to Penn Branch--just more talk, more promises and more studies by rich, urban-planning consultant firms. We've just been jerked around, quite enough.
http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2009/03/30/story9.html
The above link is from March of 2009, chatting up the big development coming to Penn Branch. Yes...the development that never got here.
Mel Dyer
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