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Anacostia (Washington Metro)
Encyclopedia
Anacostia is a Washington Metro
station in Washington, D.C.
on the Green Line
. The station is located in the Anacostia
neighborhood of Southeast Washington, with entrances at Shannon Place and Howard Road near Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE
(a major street serving the southeastern portion of the city). The station serves as a hub for Metrobus
routes in Southeast, Washington, D.C. and Prince George's County, Maryland
.
s in the six-coffer arch station design. The station is an underground stop because the distance between the Anacostia River tunnels and the station is too short to have permitted an above-ground stop. The station has entrances on both sides of DC-295
/I-295
(Anacostia Freeway), which necessitated the construction of a slightly longer platform than would be necessary to accommodate trains. In addition, there are no pylons at platform-level at Anacostia.
Because of a 1978 consent decree between Metro and a coalition of handicapped persons'
advocacy groups, the Anacostia Metro station is one of three Metrorail stations to have two elevators.
to the intersection of Good Hope Road SE and Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE. The line was originally scheduled to open in 1976. The site of the Anacostia station, set for the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Good Hope Road SE, led to concerns that the station would destroy historic Old Anacostia, and after pressure from the federal government Metro moved the site of the station to Howard Road SE. By the end of 1977, Metro had pushed the opening of the Green Line to June 1983. Increasing construction costs and financing problems (primarily caused by the inability of local governments to contribute their share of Metro's funding) led Metro to consider whether to shift the Green Line to a more southerly route along Wheeler Road SE to terminate near Rosecroft Raceway
.
In January 1978, a Metro regional task force approved a Green Line route in Anacostia that followed Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue and then Wheeler Road down to the Beltway (with a new station added near St. Elizabeths Hospital
). But the Prince George's County government demanded in May 1978 that Metro choose the Suitland Parkway-to-Rosecroft route instead, a change Metro agreed to. Metro announced in November 1978 that it had secured funding to build the Green Line from Gallery Place to Waterfront and that construction was nearly complete on this portion of the line, but that funding did not exist to push the line from Waterfront to Anacostia. Nonetheless, Metro reiterated that it intended to complete the extension to Anacostia station by late 1983.
(to be removed once additional parking was built at the terminus of the Green Line at Rosecroft). But residents resisted this plan as well on the grounds that too much traffic would clog local streets. (These concerns were resolved in March 1980.) By July 1979, despite the release of billions of dollars in construction funds by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Metro had pushed the construction of the Anacostia station to mid-1985 and the completion of the Branch Avenue Line to late 1986. But construction deadlines continued to slip. Despite reaffirming its Branch Avenue Line construction deadlines in December 1979, in January 1980 Metro announced that completion of the Green Line terminus would be pushed back six more months to 1987. In January 1981, Metro admitted that the station would not open until 1990 because of funding constraints.
Controversies regarding the siting of the Green Line continued, however. In May 1980, a group of business owners sued Metro on the grounds that the decision to change the course of the Green Line was illegal because it had been undertaken without a public hearing (in violation of Metro's rules). In February 1981, Judge Norman Park Ramsey
of the U.S. District for Maryland
ruled against Metro, Metro's appeal failed, and on March 16, 1982, Judge Ramsey barred Metro from spending any money on the construction of the Rosecroft Raceway route for the southern half of the Green Line. District residents also protested the siting of the route. Advisory Neighborhood Commission
(ANC) 6C (an elected local governmental body advising the District government on neighborhood issues) asked Metro to move the Anacostia Metro station from its proposed location on Howard Road between Firth Sterling Avenue SE and Martin Luther King, Jr., Avenue SE to the intersection of Good Hope Road SE and Anacostia Drive SE. In May 1981, Metro changed its estimate for the opening of the Anacostia station to early 1988. Metro estimated on December 9, 1981, that the Anacostia station would open in late 1989.
Construction of the Anacostia station was also delayed by a land controversy involving the federal government. Metro planned to tunnel under the Anacostia River to connect the Anacostia station with the proposed Navy Yard Station, but the south end of the tunnel would have required the relocation of a 25 acres (101,171.5 m²) plant nursery maintained by the federal government to provide Congress with flowers and trees. Because the nursery was on federally owned land, moving it required an Act of Congress
. The District of Columbia agreed to provide $29 million in federally-provided highway funds to move the nursery (arguing that the land would be used to build a parking garage and lot for use by commuters using the Anacostia station), but the Federal Highway Administration
ruled the funds could not be used for this purpose. The delay threatened to push the station's opening to 1990, and some officials worried that by then funds to build the Green Line would have run out. Metro proposed moving the nursery to Camp Simms, a former U.S. Army campground in the Congress Heights neighborhood. But construction on the Green Line was suspended for nearly two years due to federal budget cuts (see below), and in March 1983 the Architect of the Capitol
agreed to move the nursery to a parcel of land in the Bellevue
neighborhood. The United States House of Representatives
and United States Senate
passed legislation approving the move in March and June 1984, respectively.
But even as the nursery resiting issue was resolved, funding problems delayed construction on the station. Despite the funding troubles, Metro planned to seek contractors in March 1982 for a $60 million contract to tunnel under the Anacostia River, a $60 million contract to build the Anacostia station, and a $100 million contract to build the Navy Yard Station.
In October 1982, Metro estimated that opening of the Green Line to Anacostia would happen in the "late 1980s," and in November the Metro staff report recommended construction of the Rosecroft Raceway route.
More cuts in federal construction funds for Metro further delayed construction of the Anacostia station. Metro announced in December 1982 that the station would not open until late 1989 at the earliest. Metro, for the first time in its history, formally announced that (absent full construction funding) it could not build the Green Line, the Red Line from Wheaton to Glenmont, or the Yellow Line from Franconia-Springfield to King Street – Old Town.
As Metro struggled to secure construction funding for the Green Line and Anacostia station, it also struggled to lift the district court's injunction on Green Line construction. Metro asked the court to allow construction of the Navy Yard, Anacostia and Congress Heights stations pending a decision on the Green Line route in Prince George's County, but the court refused. More than 23,000 Anacostia residents signed a public petition demanding that the line be built. Metro declined to appeal Judge Ramsey's latest ruling. Frustrated by funding constraints and the court injunction, Metro released a proposed "final" system map in December 1983 which showed the Green Line terminating at the Anacostia and Mount Vernon Square stations.
Metro also began new political efforts to secure funding to complete the transit system. Initially, Reagan administration officials balked at this plan, reiterating that they would not permit Metro to build more than 76.4 miles (120 km) of subway. But in June, House and Senate committees passed legislation requiring the Reagan administration to release all funds appropriated for Metro, putting pressure on the administration to rescind its 76.4 miles (123 km) limit.
and clearing work for the twin 2,500-foot (762 m) Anacostia River tunnels began in March 1985. The completion date for the two tunnels was estimated at late 1987.
-contracting standards. In May 1985, Metro officials still maintained that construction on the parking garage would begin in June.
In a second round of bidding, the winning contractor met the standard, but the cost of the parking garage had now risen by $900,000 to $11.9 million. But the second winning bid was also rejected after transit officials said they inadvertently misstated minority-contracting and minimum wage
standards in the contracting process.
Metro relaxed its minority-contracting requirement from 35 percent to 25 percent, and after a third round of bidding awarded a $12.6 million contract for the parking garage to the Kiewit Construction Co. The bid was more than $1.6 million higher than the rejected second-round bid. Construction on the three-level parking structure was well under way by April 1986.
Funding for construction of the station and the Green Line was threatened again in 1986, but lengthy negotiations and heavy pressure from Congress led to the release of $400 million on July 16, 1986. Construction proceeded quickly thereafter. On March 23, 1986, the second of the two 2,450-foot (747.25 m), concrete-lined tunnels under the Anacostia River was completed. In December 1988, Metro reaffirmed that the Waterfront, Navy Yard, and Anacostia stations would open in late 1991.
The first Metro budget which contained funds for operating the Green Line was proposed in December 1989, and it requested funds to test the soon-to-open Green Line from Gallery Place-Chinatown to the Anacostia station. The budget also projected that the Green Line from Gallery Place-Chinatown to the Anacostia station would open in 1991, and that new Metrobus service will be added in Prince George's County to bring commuters to the new station. The cost of testing and operating the Green Line left Metro struggling financially. These costs (along with costs associated with extending and operating the Blue Line
to Van Dorn Street
) forced Metro to cut 335 jobs as well as supplies, travel, overtime and temporary employee budgets. Although ridership was projected to rise 3.8 percent to 260 million trips in the coming year, the increased revenue was not expected to cover the costs of operating the new lines and stations.
Metro announced on September 6, 1991, that the Green Line from L'Enfant Plaza to Anacostia would open on December 28, 1991. Only 983 parking spaces would be available at the station upon its opening (673 of them in the parking garage). One hundred and fifty Anacostia residents rode a special preview train along the line on December 21.
The Green Line from L'Enfant Plaza to Anacostia opened on schedule at 8:00 AM on December 28. The $286 million extension added 2.88 miles (4.63 km) to the rail system. Although Metro had estimated in September 1991 that 60,000 riders would board daily at the three stations, this number had fallen to just 30,700 riders a day by early December 1991 and to just 28,000 on December 28. Metro estimated 20,000 riders a day would board at Anacostia station alone by late June 1992. Fearing a boycott of the station due to ongoing disputes over bus service in Anacostia (see below), Metro sent large numbers of extra station managers and supervisors into the Anacostia station on the first workday it was open to help commuters decide whether to take rail or bus, and which bus routes to take. Metro said 1,854 people boarded at Anacostia, 459 boarded at Waterfront, and 127 boarded at Navy Yard on the first workday.
Ridership continued to expand rapidly on the Green Line. In the first workweek of the year, more than 8,000 riders a day boarded at the three stations (more than 5,000 of them at Anacostia), exceeding Metro's estimates. Although nearly 10,000 riders were boarding each day at the three stations by the third week of January, Metro nonetheless handed out free rail passes (the first free rail pass giveaway in the transit agency's history) to customers at the three stations to encourage ridership. By March 1992, the number of weekday riders had risen to nearly 11,000 per day at Anacostia station alone.
Initially, parking at the Anacostia station was low. Only an average of 275 people parked each day at the station's parking garage and parking lot by March 1992. To encourage parking, in April 1992 Metro offered half-price parking coupons to encourage commuters to use the Anacostia parking spaces. Metro also held public hearings in Maryland to learn why commuters did not use the lot; crime was the highest concern. The campaign worked, and by November 1992 the lot was nearly full every weekday. In July 1993, District of Columbia officials canceled plans to build a $5.4 million ground-level parking lot at the Anacostia Metro station. The unused funds sat idle until 2004, when the District of Columbia finally used them to improve traffic signals, lighting, and pedestrian access along South Capitol Street between E Street SE and the Anacostia Metro station, and for the design of a new Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge
.
In 1995, Metro broke ground on the Suitland, Naylor Road, Southern Avenue, and Congress Heights stations, a $900 million project which would complete the final 6.5 miles (10.5 km) of the originally-planned 103-mile (165.7 km) Metrorail system in late 1999. The Green Line's final five stations opened on January 13, 2001.
Two major controversies, one over buses and one over the number of rail cars servicing the Green Line, occurred when the station opened.
announced on September 11, 1991, that she would seek an alternative to the changes proposed by Metro. But suburban commuters were angry that Metro would keep the bus routes open in Anacostia (at an estimated cost of $4 million) when their bus service had been cut at the time Metrorail stations opened in their areas. But D.C. residents countered that poor African American
District citizens could ill-afford the same transit changes and fare increases that wealthy, white suburbanites were asked to absorb. Calls for a boycott increased in mid-September. On September 16, 1991, declaring that the city paid "40 percent of theMetro subsidy, but we're the last to get service," Mayor Dixon threatened to withhold the District's payment to Metro unless the bus changes were rescinded. Metro officials were angered by Dixon's statement, saying District officials had been involved in the bus route planning process for months. Mayor Dixon proposed on September 20 that Metro continue to use the Anacostia station as a hub, but also continue bus service into downtown D.C. The plan (estimated to cost less than $500,000 a year) would require residents to transfer at Anacostia station but would not raise the total fare to more than $1. A month later, Metro's board of directors unanimously agreed to accept Dixon's plan, and cancelled all planned route changes in the District of Columbia and Prince George's County. The cost of operating the bus routes totaled $2.5 million. Prince George's County, meanwhile, also announced that its county-run buses ("The Bus") would not run to Anacostia station as previously promised either, drawing outrage from D.C.'s representatives on Metro's board. The District of Columbia had spent more than $20 million adding bus bays at the station to accommodate The Bus arrivals. The compromise led residents to call off their boycott of Metrobus.
Two months after the Anacostia station opened, Metro said that a study of bus and rail ridership showed that the unaltered bus routes were costing the transit agency $200,000 a month in lost rail fares. To make up the lost revenue, Metro said it would run only two-car trains on the Green Line during slow periods weekdays and evenings and on Sundays beginning in June 1992. In November 1992, Metro reported that ridership at the Anacostia station was (on average) 7,500 riders a day, 700 below estimates. Metro admitted that although riders had made the switch from bus to rail, the lower ridership numbers due to the recession
and not because of continuing bus service in the area. Metro said ridership on buses in the neighborhood was down significantly, and the transit agency reduced the number of buses on some routes to avoid having empty buses.
Metro also encountered controversy over its plan to upgrade the conditions of the buses in the Anacostia area. A Metro survey in April 1991 found that the 75,000 bus riders in Anacostia were forced to use the dirtiest and most poorly-maintained buses operated by the transit agency. Metro also admitted that although it had sent new buses to Southeast in 1983, the buses suffered from a high rate of breakdowns. Metro blamed the problem on its outdated and undersized bus garage at South Capitol and M Streets SE, and proposed building a new, much larger bus garage near the Anacostia Metro station for $30 million to $35 million. Metro originally planned for the bus garage to be built near the new Anacostia station, where many of the routes the buses ran terminated. But D.C. officials balked at that site (arguing the land should be used for development and would cost Metro an extra $3 million a year for 50 years to operate), and asked Metro to build a new bus garage at the site of the existing garage on M Street SE. Metro refused to budget money for that project, arguing that the Metro did not have the $40 million needed to buy additional land at the M Street site. In retaliation, D.C.'s representatives on Metro's board of directors vetoed funding for 16 of Metro's projects. The District of Columbia rezoned the land near the Anacostia station for commercial use in mid-1993, hoping to spur development in the area and prevent Metro from using the site for the bus garage. Washington Gas
offered to lease 14 acres (56,656 m²) in southeast Washington to Metro for the bus garage, but concerns over the $26 million cleanup costs for coal tar
pollution at the site led to the rejection of this proposal.
Parking at the station was originally difficult to find, but availability has improved over time. By July 1997, the parking garage at the Anacostia station was usually full by 9 A.M. on a weekday. But after the Green Line's final five stations opened in January 2001, the parking garage at the Anacostia station became underused. Ten years into its operation, the parking garage required refurbishing, but Metro put the project off for a year to pay for other projects. The parking garage was one of 13 in the Metro system which had no waiting list for long-term parking as of February 2004. Its parking garage still did not fill up on workdays as of March 2005.
The station plays a key role in Metro operations. In October 1997, Metro announced that it would use sidings located near the Anacostia station for storing extra trains whenever major public events downtown (such as Capitals
or Wizards
games at the Verizon Center
) required extra train service.
The Anacostia station has been used several times for experiments in improving Metrorail's operations. In July 1997, Anacostia was one of five Metrorail stations used to test a premium monthly parking fee which would guarantee the purchaser a spot at the station's parking garage. The $50-a-month pass was the most popular at Anacostia, and the pricing scheme was expanded throughout the Metro system in March 1998. Although Metro reserved on 15 percent of all spaces for such parking at most stations, at Anacostia this was raised to 25 percent. In March 1999, Metro tested a new emergency call box system at Anacostia and two other Metrorail stations. When Metro established a carsharing
program with Flexcar
in 2001, the Anacostia station was one of 12 Metrorail stations at which the system was tested. Metro also tested its "Next Bus" real-time information system (designed to let riders know how long they have to wait for the bus) at Anacostia and four other Metrorail stations. Technical problems and funding issues delayed implementation of the project on a wider scale. Metro relaunched the system in June 2009, and once more Metrobus "Next Bus" signs were activated at Anacostia and two other pilot Metrorail stations. When Metro announced a pilot program in the spring of 2006 to encourage food and other vendors to sell goods in Metrorail stations, Anacostia was one of 12 stations chosen for the test. The program stalled due to cleanliness, safety, and other concerns, but was reinvigorated in 2009, and Anacostia was one of three Metrorail stations chosen again to experiment with the initiative. When Metro adopted the SmarTrip
fare care program the same year, Anacostia was one of three stations chosen to experiment with SmarTrip fare gate express lanes. The express lane program was canceled when too few riders used the express lanes. Anacostia was also one of six parking garages and lots where Metro experimented with accepting credit card payments rather than SmarTrip cards in 2007. Anacostia was also one of eight Metro stations which first sold SmarTrip cards in 2008.
The opening of the final five Green Line stations (Branch Avenue, Suitland, Naylor Road, Southern Avenue, and Congress Heights) in December 2000 significantly worsened overcrowding and service problems on the Green Line. The five new stations added almost 20,000 new riders a day, overwhelming station platforms, jamming trains to capacity, and forcing many riders at Anacostia and other stations up the line to wait as train after train crammed with passengers passed them by. Metro had estimated that 18,000 riders a day would board from these stations by June 2001. That estimate was exceeded by 2,000 riders a day on the second day the stations were open. By January 24, the number had risen to more than 30,600 per day—three times as many as originally estimated. Angry commuters using the Anacostia, Navy Yard, and Waterfront stations peppered the transit agency with complaints. Metro claimed a number of factors contributed to the ridership crunch: The system was experiencing record ridership; two-year-old ridership projections were used; the five stations were opened two months ahead of schedule; the five new stations were opened two months before new rail cars were ready for service; and Metro offered free parking at the Green Line stations, which drew 12,000 rather than 4,000 riders to the line.
patrolled the station's parking garage. Fear of crime was one of the reasons why Prince George's County residents fought bus route changes in 1991 which would have forced riders to disembark at Anacostia station.
Concerns about crime at the station initially appeared justified. The first reported crime at Anacostia station occurred on February 5, 1992, just six weeks after the station opened. A man was accosted by three teenagers at about 9:25 P.M. at the station, kidnapped at gunpoint, and forced to strip naked. The youths took clothing, a watch, and $7 from him, and were caught by police while trying to flee the scene of the crime. In its first year of operation, Anacostia tied with the Capitol Heights station for the most auto thefts (17), and accounted for 11.3 percent of all auto thefts at Metrorail stations. By 2005, large crowds of middle
and high school
students began congregating at the station, brawling and robbing Metro riders and creating a public safety issue. In November 2005, Metro and the District of Columbia Public Schools
entered into an agreement to bus students from Anacostia High School
directly to the station rather than have them walk or take Metrobus to the station. Metro Transit Police officers, some accompanied by dogs
, began patrolling Anacostia station along with six other Metro stations, to increase awareness of police presences in the stations and deter crime. The police presence did not appear to help: Between 2002 and 2006, arrests of juveniles on Metro increased to 295 from 156, and warnings increased 40 percent. Nearly half the arrests occurred at just five stations: Anacostia, Fort Totten, Gallery Place-Chinatown, L'Enfant Plaza, and Minnesota Avenue. Metro even created a special unit to focus on juvenile crime on Metro, and established liaisons at all D.C. public schools to feed intelligence and information about pending problems to Metro's police division.
Crime continued to be a problem at the Anacostia station late into the first decade of the 21st century. Assaults and shootings were more frequent at the station than at any other station in the transit system. There were 32 robberies at the station in 2007, and Metro Transit Police established a system-wide crime prevention and awareness program to help reduce crime. Although Anacostia was one of the ten Metro stations with the highest crime rate in 2007 (and the only such station on the list inside the District of Columbia), it had no auto thefts or break-ins. To help deter crime, Metro installed outdoor security cameras at the 10 high-crime Metrorail stations in July 2008. Metro Transit Police stepped up their visibility and presence even further in September 2008 at all stations with high student ridership, including Anacostia.
But crime on Metro as a whole was rising in the late 2000s. Historically, Metro has had a significantly lower crime rate than any comparable transit system in the United States. But crime on the transit system began spiking in 2008 and 2009. Robbery rose by 30 percent to 581 incidents in 2008, and in the first four months of 2009 rose another 28.3 percent to 240 robberies. But Anacostia was no longer the station with the most robberies; Gallery Place-Chinatown had 30 percent more robberies than Anacostia (the next-highest station was L'Enfant Plaza, with 20 percent fewer than Anacostia). Nonetheless, juvenile crime (assault and robbery) continued to be a serious issue for Metro, with more than 260 juvenile arrests in the first nine months of 2009 and Metro Transit Police continuing to engage in large numbers of high-visibility patrols. Anacostia, Fort Totten, Gallery Place-Chinatown, L'Enfant Plaza, and Minnesota Avenue continued to be trouble spots, and Metro added Metro Center to the list as well.
Notable crimes committed at the Anacostia station include:
in the D.C. metropolitan region.
However, the Green Line has brought relatively minimal economic development to the area around the Anacostia station as of December 2009. The Anacostia area of the District of Columbia is one of the most economically depressed regions of the city, and has been since the 1960s. As early as 1981, consultants and studies were predicting that the Anacostia station would spark a similar economic revival in Anacostia. But little real estate
speculation
in the area had occurred as of mid-1982. To help spur development, the D.C. City Council adopted a comprehensive land-use policy in 1985 (the city's first), and identified the area around the planned Anacostia station at Howard Road SE as a proposed regional shopping center and designated it a "development opportunity area". In 1988, the D.C. City Council designated the entire Anacostia area an Economic Development Zone, giving tax and other incentives to developers who constructed buildings or established businesses in the area. A wave of federal and city housing subsidies
poured into the area in 1989 as the opening of the station neared, leading to the renovation of about 3,500 housing units (homes and apartments) and a rise in the price of land (to $55 per square foot from $2 per square foot, an increase of 2,650 percent) around the station. Many residents and businesses in the area resisted development which was out of character with the Anacostia Historic District
, and feared the loss of the area's identity. However, at least one study by a professor of urban and regional planning at George Washington University
found that the historic district designation had done little to spur economic growth in the neighborhood. These fears were supported by Dorn McGrath, Jr., director of the George Washington University Institute for Urban Development Research, who sais that new Metro stations attracted high-income residents who gentrified
their areas, drove rents up, and caused neighborhoods to lose their identity.
As the Anacostia station opened, little development had occurred, however. The closest businesses (hair salons, carry-out fast food stores, auto repair and tire shops) were three blocks away, and no plans for retail development had been submitted despite the city's action six years earlier. Nonetheless, McGrath and the nonprofit Anacostia Economic Development Corp. both believed new restaurants, new service businesses, and housing redevelopment were coming quickly. These hopes initially seemed justified. As property assessments
in D.C. fell an average of 0.3 percent, assessments near the Anacostia station rose 4.1 percent in 1992 and 9.7 percent in 1993. In mid-1993, the District of Columbia rezoned
11 acres (44,515.5 m²) of vacant land (bounded by South Capitol Street, Anacostia Drive SE, and Howard Road SE) known as Poplar Point for mixed-use retail, office and residential use rather than industrial use in order to spur economic development. Dr. McGrath and others warned that the city was moving too fast and allowing economic development to get out of control.
But by 1997, almost no economic development around the Anacostia station had occurred despite the Economic Development Zone incentives or existence of the new Metro station. In 1999, D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams
again made development of Poplar Point a major focus of the District government. The Oliver Carr Co., a major D.C. area real estate developer, offered to build the D.C. Department of Employment Services a new headquarters next to the Anacostia Metro station if the government would sell the company its building at 6th Street NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, but the offer was not accepted. In 2001, the National Capital Planning Commission
produced a master plan for the city's memorials and monuments which suggested that Anacostia (including the Anacostia Metro station) become a hub for new memorials.
Another five years passed, and still Metro and the District of Columbia were trying to find builders who would develop land around the Anacostia station. Although the District of Columbia was building two office buildings at Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue and Good Hope Road (the Anacostia Professional Building at 2041 Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE and the Anacostia Gateway building at 1800 Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE), Metro was still unable to find developers willing to respond to its call for economic improvement next to the Anacostia station.
In 2005, D.C. Mayor Williams proposed Metro move its headquarters to a site near the Anacostia station, setting off a years-long controversy. Williams promised to relocate 200,000 square feet (18,600 square metres) of city offices and the headquarters of the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation
to the building to ensure high occupancy rates. Williams said Metro could then sell its downtown eight-story office building and land at 5th and F Streets NW for $75 million, which would help the transit agency fund projects as well as the move. City officials and Anacostia residents said that the move would spur economic growth in the area, although private-sector developers said that was not clear. Although the D.C. City Council passed legislation requiring Metro to locate in Anacostia (if it moved), Metro officials were skeptical that the move would be cost-effective. After a year without any movement on the proposal, the Anacostia Waterfront Corp. proposed a more detailed, even larger development that included 750,000 square feet (69,750 square metres) of office space, apartment
s and condos
, and retail space. The AWC also proposed building another 180,000 square feet (16,740 square metres) of office and residential space by constructing a building above the Anacostia station's bus bays. D.C. representatives on Metro's board of directors pushed the agency to accept the proposal in April 2007. But by November 2007, no decision had been made. In September 2008, D.C. Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Neil Albert joined Metro's board of directors in a move many observers interpreted as an attempt to persuade Metro to move to the Anacostia station. D.C. City Council members criticized Virginia's representatives on the Metro board for not doing more to support the move, and threatened to withhold approval for the Silver Line
to Route 772 and Washington Dulles International Airport
. The District backed down from the threat after an independent consultant's report for Metro found that the move would cost the transit agency $70 million. Nonetheless, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty
(who took office in 2007) said moving Metro's headquarters to the Anacostia station remained the "highest priority of our administration".
Metro's efforts to develop the land at the Anacostia station have been strongly criticized. When Metro began operations in 1976, the transit agency created the Joint Development Program cooperatively promote retail, office, and residential development on land owned by Metro, by state or local governments, or private owners in order to boost bus and rail ridership on the system, generate operating income for Metro, and help state and local governments see a return on their investment in Metro (through revenues or increases in tax assessments). By 2007, Metro had signed 56 joint development projects generating $129 million (over 30 years) in income. At least one study showed that Metro-sponsored developments significantly outperformed developments built solely by the private sector. Nonetheless, Metro was only generating a rather small $4.3 million a year from its joint development projects, and anecdotal evidence indicated that Metro had a very mixed history in actually bringing development online. In 2006, Metro's Interim General Manager, Dan Tangherlini
, established a task force composed of experts in land use and economic development to study Metro's efforts to develop land around its Metrorail stations. Delivered in September 2007, the report found that Metro managers focused on running the system day-to-day and opening new stations and lines rather than pushing income-generating development at existing stations; Metro staff were either apathetic to and "sometimes obstructionist" regarding development planning (particularly regarding stations in Anacostia and Prince George's County); Metro had alienated developers and residents, subjected plans to "interminable reviews", ignored community concerns, and rarely coordinated with local or state government. Although a quarter of Metro's stations had property available for development (most of them in Anacostia and Prince George's County), Metro had done little to develop them. "Metro has been totally ineffective and counterproductive to any decent development at Metro stations," the task force chairman said. The report concluded that Metro had actually hindered development near Metrorail stations. Dozens of proposals had been stymied, and development proposals had dropped to an extremely low 2.1 per station per year. Although the report said the problem was urgent, Metro's board of directors repeatedly postponed discussion of the report for at least seven months.
The last publicly reported development proposal at the Anacostia station came in September 2008. Urban-City Ventures LLC announced it had purchased 200,000 square feet (18,600 square metres) of land along both sides of Howard Road SE just west Anacostia Metro station and planned to build a big-box store
there (although the retailer was not announced). Meanwhile, Clark Realty Capital LLC and the District of Columbia were petitioning the federal government to transfer 110 acres (44.55 hectares) of federally-owned land at Poplar Point to build office buildings.
trolley
system, under construction as of December 2009.
tile frieze
completed in 2004 by Martha Jackson-Jarvis.
The mosaic, (h. 4 ft (1.2 m). x w. 400 ft.) is placed along the roof-line of the Metro station and depicts the aquatic life of the river showing fish, plants, birds and other wildlife of the Anacostia River
.
The work was commissioned by way of a contest by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
Washington Metro
The Washington Metro, commonly called Metro, and unofficially Metrorail, is the rapid transit system in Washington, D.C., United States, and its surrounding suburbs. It is administered by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority , which also operates Metrobus service under the Metro name...
station in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
on the Green Line
Green Line (Washington Metro)
The Green Line is one of five heavy rail subway lines that constitute the Washington Metro rapid transit system in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The Green Line consists of 21 stations, with termini at Branch Avenue and at Greenbelt. The Green Line runs through Prince George's County,...
. The station is located in the Anacostia
Anacostia
Anacostia is a historic neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Its historic downtown is located at the intersection of Good Hope Road and Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue It is the most famous neighborhood in the Southeast quadrant of Washington, located east of the Anacostia River, after which the...
neighborhood of Southeast Washington, with entrances at Shannon Place and Howard Road near Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE
Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue
Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue is a major street in the District of Columbia traversing through both the Southwest and Southeast quadrants.-Route:...
(a major street serving the southeastern portion of the city). The station serves as a hub for Metrobus
Metrobus
Metrobus may refer to:* MCW Metrobus, a bus model manufactured by MCW in the 1970s and 1980s* Metrobus a bus operator in south-east England* M-é-t-r-o-b-u-s, the bus and metro operator Tramway de Rouen in Rouen, France...
routes in Southeast, Washington, D.C. and Prince George's County, Maryland
Prince George's County, Maryland
Prince George's County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland, immediately north, east, and south of Washington, DC. As of 2010, it has a population of 863,420 and is the wealthiest African-American majority county in the nation....
.
Station design and layout
The architecture at Anacostia is unusual. Due to cost considerations and the station's shallow depth, the usual arched ceiling was abandoned in favor of flat concrete walls and a ceiling of small barrel vaults (oriented perpendicular to the tracks) similar to the upper cofferCoffer
A coffer in architecture, is a sunken panel in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault...
s in the six-coffer arch station design. The station is an underground stop because the distance between the Anacostia River tunnels and the station is too short to have permitted an above-ground stop. The station has entrances on both sides of DC-295
District of Columbia Route 295
District of Columbia Route 295 , also known as the Anacostia Freeway south of East Capitol Street or Kenilworth Avenue north of East Capitol Street, is a freeway in the District of Columbia, and currently the only numbered route in the District that is not an Interstate Highway or U.S. Highway...
/I-295
Interstate 295 (District of Columbia)
Interstate 295 in the U.S. state of Maryland and in Washington, D.C. is a spur route connecting I-95/I-495 and Maryland Route 210 on the Potomac River to Interstate 695 in downtown Washington.-Route description:Although I-295 technically begins at the Capital Beltway , a pair of mainline...
(Anacostia Freeway), which necessitated the construction of a slightly longer platform than would be necessary to accommodate trains. In addition, there are no pylons at platform-level at Anacostia.
Because of a 1978 consent decree between Metro and a coalition of handicapped persons'
Disability
A disability may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental or some combination of these.Many people would rather be referred to as a person with a disability instead of handicapped...
advocacy groups, the Anacostia Metro station is one of three Metrorail stations to have two elevators.
Controversy over building the Green Line
Metro drew up its Master Plan for its planned 103 miles (165.8 km) system in 1968. At that time, a Green Line was planned to pass through some of the area's poorest and most transit-dependent neighborhoods and provide them with subway service. The southern part of the Green Line was originally to pass over the 11th Street Bridges11th Street Bridges
The 11th Street Bridges are a pair of one-way bridges across the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C., U.S.A. The southbound structure is officially named the Officer Kevin J. Welsh Memorial Bridge, while the northbound structure is officially named the 11th Street Bridge. The bridges convey...
to the intersection of Good Hope Road SE and Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE. The line was originally scheduled to open in 1976. The site of the Anacostia station, set for the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and Good Hope Road SE, led to concerns that the station would destroy historic Old Anacostia, and after pressure from the federal government Metro moved the site of the station to Howard Road SE. By the end of 1977, Metro had pushed the opening of the Green Line to June 1983. Increasing construction costs and financing problems (primarily caused by the inability of local governments to contribute their share of Metro's funding) led Metro to consider whether to shift the Green Line to a more southerly route along Wheeler Road SE to terminate near Rosecroft Raceway
Rosecroft Raceway
Rosecroft Raceway is a harness horse racing track located in Oxon Hill, Maryland, in the United States.-History:William E. Miller, a noted harness racer and horse breeder in the mid-20th century founded Rosecroft Raceway in 1947. It was the only known raceway to be owned by horse owners, horse...
.
In January 1978, a Metro regional task force approved a Green Line route in Anacostia that followed Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue and then Wheeler Road down to the Beltway (with a new station added near St. Elizabeths Hospital
St. Elizabeths Hospital
St. Elizabeths Hospital is a psychiatric hospital operated by the District of Columbia Department of Mental Health. It was the first large-scale, federally-run psychiatric hospital in the United States. Housing several thousand patients at its peak, St. Elizabeths had a fully functioning...
). But the Prince George's County government demanded in May 1978 that Metro choose the Suitland Parkway-to-Rosecroft route instead, a change Metro agreed to. Metro announced in November 1978 that it had secured funding to build the Green Line from Gallery Place to Waterfront and that construction was nearly complete on this portion of the line, but that funding did not exist to push the line from Waterfront to Anacostia. Nonetheless, Metro reiterated that it intended to complete the extension to Anacostia station by late 1983.
Legal and funding battles
In December 1978, Metro announced that cost considerations had forced it to abandon the high-vault ceiling design for all unbuilt stations (except Navy Yard), and that a less-costly design would be used at the Anacostia station. In late 1978 and 1979, a controversy erupted over parking at the planned station. In 1978, Metro proposed building a 2,000-space parking lot on the west side of the Anacostia Freeway. Angry residents, protesting the amount of traffic which would come into their residential neighborhood, forced Metro to reduce the size of the parking lot to 1,300 spaces. In January 1979, Metro proposed building a 500-space parking garage at the proposed Anacostia station, and adding another 800 temporary spaces by paving over a part of Anacostia ParkAnacostia Park
Anacostia Park is operated by the United States National Park Service. It is one of Washington, D.C.'s largest and most important recreation areas, with over 1200 acres at multiple sites. Included in Anacostia Park is Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens and Kenilworth Marsh...
(to be removed once additional parking was built at the terminus of the Green Line at Rosecroft). But residents resisted this plan as well on the grounds that too much traffic would clog local streets. (These concerns were resolved in March 1980.) By July 1979, despite the release of billions of dollars in construction funds by the U.S. Department of Transportation, Metro had pushed the construction of the Anacostia station to mid-1985 and the completion of the Branch Avenue Line to late 1986. But construction deadlines continued to slip. Despite reaffirming its Branch Avenue Line construction deadlines in December 1979, in January 1980 Metro announced that completion of the Green Line terminus would be pushed back six more months to 1987. In January 1981, Metro admitted that the station would not open until 1990 because of funding constraints.
Controversies regarding the siting of the Green Line continued, however. In May 1980, a group of business owners sued Metro on the grounds that the decision to change the course of the Green Line was illegal because it had been undertaken without a public hearing (in violation of Metro's rules). In February 1981, Judge Norman Park Ramsey
Norman Park Ramsey
Norman Park Ramsey was a United States federal judge.Born in Fairchance, Pennsylvania, Ramsey was a U.S. Marine Corps First Lieutenant from 1943 to 1946. He received an LL.B. from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1947. He was a law clerk, Hon. W.C. Chesnut, U.S. District Court, District...
of the U.S. District for Maryland
United States District Court for the District of Maryland
The United States District Court for the District of Maryland is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Maryland....
ruled against Metro, Metro's appeal failed, and on March 16, 1982, Judge Ramsey barred Metro from spending any money on the construction of the Rosecroft Raceway route for the southern half of the Green Line. District residents also protested the siting of the route. Advisory Neighborhood Commission
Advisory Neighborhood Commission
thumb|right|upright|The District of Columbia is divided into 8 wards, each of which is further divided into local ANCs.Advisory Neighborhood Commissions are bodies of local government in Washington, D.C...
(ANC) 6C (an elected local governmental body advising the District government on neighborhood issues) asked Metro to move the Anacostia Metro station from its proposed location on Howard Road between Firth Sterling Avenue SE and Martin Luther King, Jr., Avenue SE to the intersection of Good Hope Road SE and Anacostia Drive SE. In May 1981, Metro changed its estimate for the opening of the Anacostia station to early 1988. Metro estimated on December 9, 1981, that the Anacostia station would open in late 1989.
Construction of the Anacostia station was also delayed by a land controversy involving the federal government. Metro planned to tunnel under the Anacostia River to connect the Anacostia station with the proposed Navy Yard Station, but the south end of the tunnel would have required the relocation of a 25 acres (101,171.5 m²) plant nursery maintained by the federal government to provide Congress with flowers and trees. Because the nursery was on federally owned land, moving it required an Act of Congress
Act of Congress
An Act of Congress is a statute enacted by government with a legislature named "Congress," such as the United States Congress or the Congress of the Philippines....
. The District of Columbia agreed to provide $29 million in federally-provided highway funds to move the nursery (arguing that the land would be used to build a parking garage and lot for use by commuters using the Anacostia station), but the Federal Highway Administration
Federal Highway Administration
The Federal Highway Administration is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two "programs," the Federal-aid Highway Program and the Federal Lands Highway Program...
ruled the funds could not be used for this purpose. The delay threatened to push the station's opening to 1990, and some officials worried that by then funds to build the Green Line would have run out. Metro proposed moving the nursery to Camp Simms, a former U.S. Army campground in the Congress Heights neighborhood. But construction on the Green Line was suspended for nearly two years due to federal budget cuts (see below), and in March 1983 the Architect of the Capitol
Architect of the Capitol
The Architect of the Capitol is the federal agency responsible for the maintenance, operation, development, and preservation of the United States Capitol Complex, and also the head of that agency. The Architect of the Capitol is in the legislative branch and is responsible to the United States...
agreed to move the nursery to a parcel of land in the Bellevue
Bellevue, Washington, D.C.
Bellevue is a residential neighborhood located in Southwest Washington, D.C, east of Bolling Air Force Base. It is bounded by Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SW to the west and northwest, Joliet Street SW to the south, and First Street and South Capitol Street on the east. There are many garden...
neighborhood. The United States House of Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
and United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
passed legislation approving the move in March and June 1984, respectively.
But even as the nursery resiting issue was resolved, funding problems delayed construction on the station. Despite the funding troubles, Metro planned to seek contractors in March 1982 for a $60 million contract to tunnel under the Anacostia River, a $60 million contract to build the Anacostia station, and a $100 million contract to build the Navy Yard Station.
In October 1982, Metro estimated that opening of the Green Line to Anacostia would happen in the "late 1980s," and in November the Metro staff report recommended construction of the Rosecroft Raceway route.
More cuts in federal construction funds for Metro further delayed construction of the Anacostia station. Metro announced in December 1982 that the station would not open until late 1989 at the earliest. Metro, for the first time in its history, formally announced that (absent full construction funding) it could not build the Green Line, the Red Line from Wheaton to Glenmont, or the Yellow Line from Franconia-Springfield to King Street – Old Town.
As Metro struggled to secure construction funding for the Green Line and Anacostia station, it also struggled to lift the district court's injunction on Green Line construction. Metro asked the court to allow construction of the Navy Yard, Anacostia and Congress Heights stations pending a decision on the Green Line route in Prince George's County, but the court refused. More than 23,000 Anacostia residents signed a public petition demanding that the line be built. Metro declined to appeal Judge Ramsey's latest ruling. Frustrated by funding constraints and the court injunction, Metro released a proposed "final" system map in December 1983 which showed the Green Line terminating at the Anacostia and Mount Vernon Square stations.
Resolution of controversies
Metro opened negotiations with Prince George's County officials in 1984 to win their approval to build the Green Line from the L'Enfant Plaza Station to Anacostia. After four days of negotiations, Metro, D.C. and Prince George's County officials reached an agreement to begin construction of the Green Line from L'Enfant Plaza to Anacostia, pending resolution of the line's final route by December 6, 1984. The agreement called for construction of the Green Line to Waterfront Station in the summer, siting of the tunnel under the Anacostia River by June 28, and the holding of public hearings on the remaining route between July 18 and August 3. The U.S. federal district court approved the agreement on March 7. Following the ruling, Metro announced that it would build the Anacostia station on Howard Road between Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE and the Anacostia Freeway as well as a new Metro station at the Washington Navy Yard and open the Green Line by 1990. Metro asked and won approval from the court to build the Navy Yard and Anacostia stations and the tunnel in mid-June 1984.Metro also began new political efforts to secure funding to complete the transit system. Initially, Reagan administration officials balked at this plan, reiterating that they would not permit Metro to build more than 76.4 miles (120 km) of subway. But in June, House and Senate committees passed legislation requiring the Reagan administration to release all funds appropriated for Metro, putting pressure on the administration to rescind its 76.4 miles (123 km) limit.
Constructing the Green Line and Anacostia station
Metro issued a call for bids to tunnel under the Anacostia River in July 1984, and awarded the $25.6 million contract to the firm of Harrison Western/Franki-Denys (a joint venture) in December 1984. The debate over the route for the remainder of the Green Line was finally resolved in December 1984 when the original route was re-selected. The U.S. district court approved Metro's decision. Funding for Green Line construction fell into place in 1985. Construction on the line started in 1985. SurveySurveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
and clearing work for the twin 2,500-foot (762 m) Anacostia River tunnels began in March 1985. The completion date for the two tunnels was estimated at late 1987.
Parking garage problems
A major controversy over parking at the Anacostia station occurred as well. In 1981, Metro had proposed building 1,000 parking spaces in a three-level parking garage and 300 spaces at a ground-level parking lot at the station and using interstate highway funds to pay for them. Metro officials argued the facility was highway-related, since it provided parking, but the Federal Highway Administration refused to allow the District of Columbia use its funds to pay for the parking garage. Local citizens also opposed the parking garage in favor of ground-level-only parking at the station, and demanded that Metro provide more connecting bus routes at the proposed station. These disagreements were put off as Metro officials and others focused on getting the Green Line built, but by 1985 the parking garage remained part of the station's overall transportation and construction plan. Metro solicited bids for an $11 million contract to build the parking garage in early 1985, but rejected all bids when the lowest bidder failed to meet minorityMinority group
A minority is a sociological group within a demographic. The demographic could be based on many factors from ethnicity, gender, wealth, power, etc. The term extends to numerous situations, and civilizations within history, despite the misnomer of minorities associated with a numerical statistic...
-contracting standards. In May 1985, Metro officials still maintained that construction on the parking garage would begin in June.
In a second round of bidding, the winning contractor met the standard, but the cost of the parking garage had now risen by $900,000 to $11.9 million. But the second winning bid was also rejected after transit officials said they inadvertently misstated minority-contracting and minimum wage
Minimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest hourly, daily or monthly remuneration that employers may legally pay to workers. Equivalently, it is the lowest wage at which workers may sell their labour. Although minimum wage laws are in effect in a great many jurisdictions, there are differences of opinion about...
standards in the contracting process.
Metro relaxed its minority-contracting requirement from 35 percent to 25 percent, and after a third round of bidding awarded a $12.6 million contract for the parking garage to the Kiewit Construction Co. The bid was more than $1.6 million higher than the rejected second-round bid. Construction on the three-level parking structure was well under way by April 1986.
Station construction
Metro's board awarded a $41.5 million contract for the construction of the Anacostia station to Kiewit Construction Co. in June 1985, and said the station would open in 1990. Ground was broken at the site on September 21, 1985. A significant number of prehistoric artifacts were found during the station's excavation. Rubble from the station's construction was dumped on the south side of Good Hope Road SE between 24th Street SE and Altamont Place SE (where the Woodmont Crossing housing project was built in 2002). Exit 3B (Howard Road) on southbound I-295 was closed to construct Anacostia station, blocking traffic from reaching South Capitol Street. Although above-ground construction ended in late 1989, the exit remained closed until December 1991 so that its reopening would coincide with the Anacostia station opening. In July 1991, Metro paid an additional $1 million to install stronger escalator treads at the nine planned Green Line stations (including Anacostia) as well as the Wheaton and Van Dorn Street stations after discovering that the escalator treads it had ordered were insufficiently strong.Funding for construction of the station and the Green Line was threatened again in 1986, but lengthy negotiations and heavy pressure from Congress led to the release of $400 million on July 16, 1986. Construction proceeded quickly thereafter. On March 23, 1986, the second of the two 2,450-foot (747.25 m), concrete-lined tunnels under the Anacostia River was completed. In December 1988, Metro reaffirmed that the Waterfront, Navy Yard, and Anacostia stations would open in late 1991.
The first Metro budget which contained funds for operating the Green Line was proposed in December 1989, and it requested funds to test the soon-to-open Green Line from Gallery Place-Chinatown to the Anacostia station. The budget also projected that the Green Line from Gallery Place-Chinatown to the Anacostia station would open in 1991, and that new Metrobus service will be added in Prince George's County to bring commuters to the new station. The cost of testing and operating the Green Line left Metro struggling financially. These costs (along with costs associated with extending and operating the Blue Line
Blue Line (Washington Metro)
The Blue Line of the Washington Metro in the United States consists of 27 rapid transit stations from Franconia–Springfield to Largo Town Center. It has stations in Fairfax County, Alexandria and Arlington, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Prince George's County, Maryland...
to Van Dorn Street
Van Dorn Street (WMATA station)
Van Dorn Street is an island platformed Washington Metro station in both Fairfax County and Alexandria, Virginia, United States. The station was opened on June 15, 1991, and is operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority . Providing service for the Blue Line, the station is...
) forced Metro to cut 335 jobs as well as supplies, travel, overtime and temporary employee budgets. Although ridership was projected to rise 3.8 percent to 260 million trips in the coming year, the increased revenue was not expected to cover the costs of operating the new lines and stations.
Station opening
The Mount Vernon-UDC, Shaw, and U Street-Cardozo stations opened in May 1991.Metro announced on September 6, 1991, that the Green Line from L'Enfant Plaza to Anacostia would open on December 28, 1991. Only 983 parking spaces would be available at the station upon its opening (673 of them in the parking garage). One hundred and fifty Anacostia residents rode a special preview train along the line on December 21.
The Green Line from L'Enfant Plaza to Anacostia opened on schedule at 8:00 AM on December 28. The $286 million extension added 2.88 miles (4.63 km) to the rail system. Although Metro had estimated in September 1991 that 60,000 riders would board daily at the three stations, this number had fallen to just 30,700 riders a day by early December 1991 and to just 28,000 on December 28. Metro estimated 20,000 riders a day would board at Anacostia station alone by late June 1992. Fearing a boycott of the station due to ongoing disputes over bus service in Anacostia (see below), Metro sent large numbers of extra station managers and supervisors into the Anacostia station on the first workday it was open to help commuters decide whether to take rail or bus, and which bus routes to take. Metro said 1,854 people boarded at Anacostia, 459 boarded at Waterfront, and 127 boarded at Navy Yard on the first workday.
Ridership continued to expand rapidly on the Green Line. In the first workweek of the year, more than 8,000 riders a day boarded at the three stations (more than 5,000 of them at Anacostia), exceeding Metro's estimates. Although nearly 10,000 riders were boarding each day at the three stations by the third week of January, Metro nonetheless handed out free rail passes (the first free rail pass giveaway in the transit agency's history) to customers at the three stations to encourage ridership. By March 1992, the number of weekday riders had risen to nearly 11,000 per day at Anacostia station alone.
Initially, parking at the Anacostia station was low. Only an average of 275 people parked each day at the station's parking garage and parking lot by March 1992. To encourage parking, in April 1992 Metro offered half-price parking coupons to encourage commuters to use the Anacostia parking spaces. Metro also held public hearings in Maryland to learn why commuters did not use the lot; crime was the highest concern. The campaign worked, and by November 1992 the lot was nearly full every weekday. In July 1993, District of Columbia officials canceled plans to build a $5.4 million ground-level parking lot at the Anacostia Metro station. The unused funds sat idle until 2004, when the District of Columbia finally used them to improve traffic signals, lighting, and pedestrian access along South Capitol Street between E Street SE and the Anacostia Metro station, and for the design of a new Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge
Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge
The Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge, otherwise known as the South Capitol Street Bridge, carries South Capitol Street over the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. It was constructed in 1950 and named after abolitionist Frederick Douglass...
.
In 1995, Metro broke ground on the Suitland, Naylor Road, Southern Avenue, and Congress Heights stations, a $900 million project which would complete the final 6.5 miles (10.5 km) of the originally-planned 103-mile (165.7 km) Metrorail system in late 1999. The Green Line's final five stations opened on January 13, 2001.
Two major controversies, one over buses and one over the number of rail cars servicing the Green Line, occurred when the station opened.
Bus controversy
Like all Metro stations, the Anacostia station was intended to be a major hub for Metrobus service in its area. But with the Anacostia neighborhood being the poorest and most transit-dependent area in the District of Columbia, changes to bus routes in the area proved highly controversial. As the opening of the Green Line to Anacostia neared, Metro proposed halving the number of bus routes traveling between Anacostia and the National Archives Building downtown—forcing riders to take the more expensive Metrorail and requiring many riders to walk several blocks to their destination (rather than the "virtually door-to-door service" they currently enjoyed). A total of 25 routes were changed, affecting more than 80,000 riders. Many of the new routes were designed to terminate at the Anacostia station rather than continue into downtown Washington, as they once had. Metro officials admitted that fares for most Anacostia residents would rise an average of 50 percent, and that Anacostia residents would be forced to pay more and travel farther to access the services (such as doctors) and shopping most District residents had ready access to. To help mediate the impact of the total fare increase on Anacostia residents, Metro reduced basic bus fares for many routes in the area from $1 to 35 cents. District residents protested the cuts with a picket line in front of Metro's downtown headquarters in late August 1991. Prince George's County residents, too, were angered by the bus route changes, arguing that Metro had promised more (not less) bus service and complaining that they would be forced to use a rail station located in the District of Columbia's most violent and crime-prone neighborhoods. More than 1,000 people packed "raucous" public hearings for three nights in the District and Prince George's County in early September, denouncing Metro and claiming they were "becoming a victim of transportational apartheid." Worried about the impact of the cuts as well as a possible bus boycott, D.C. Mayor Sharon Pratt DixonSharon Pratt Kelly
Sharon Pratt Kelly , formerly Sharon Pratt Dixon and now known as Sharon Pratt, was the third mayor of the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1995. Pratt was the first African-American woman to serve as mayor of a major American city...
announced on September 11, 1991, that she would seek an alternative to the changes proposed by Metro. But suburban commuters were angry that Metro would keep the bus routes open in Anacostia (at an estimated cost of $4 million) when their bus service had been cut at the time Metrorail stations opened in their areas. But D.C. residents countered that poor African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
District citizens could ill-afford the same transit changes and fare increases that wealthy, white suburbanites were asked to absorb. Calls for a boycott increased in mid-September. On September 16, 1991, declaring that the city paid "40 percent of the
Two months after the Anacostia station opened, Metro said that a study of bus and rail ridership showed that the unaltered bus routes were costing the transit agency $200,000 a month in lost rail fares. To make up the lost revenue, Metro said it would run only two-car trains on the Green Line during slow periods weekdays and evenings and on Sundays beginning in June 1992. In November 1992, Metro reported that ridership at the Anacostia station was (on average) 7,500 riders a day, 700 below estimates. Metro admitted that although riders had made the switch from bus to rail, the lower ridership numbers due to the recession
Early 2000s recession
The early 2000s recession was a decline in economic activity which occurred mainly in developed countries. The recession affected the European Union mostly during 2000 and 2001 and the United States mostly in 2002 and 2003. The UK, Canada and Australia avoided the recession for the most part, while...
and not because of continuing bus service in the area. Metro said ridership on buses in the neighborhood was down significantly, and the transit agency reduced the number of buses on some routes to avoid having empty buses.
Metro also encountered controversy over its plan to upgrade the conditions of the buses in the Anacostia area. A Metro survey in April 1991 found that the 75,000 bus riders in Anacostia were forced to use the dirtiest and most poorly-maintained buses operated by the transit agency. Metro also admitted that although it had sent new buses to Southeast in 1983, the buses suffered from a high rate of breakdowns. Metro blamed the problem on its outdated and undersized bus garage at South Capitol and M Streets SE, and proposed building a new, much larger bus garage near the Anacostia Metro station for $30 million to $35 million. Metro originally planned for the bus garage to be built near the new Anacostia station, where many of the routes the buses ran terminated. But D.C. officials balked at that site (arguing the land should be used for development and would cost Metro an extra $3 million a year for 50 years to operate), and asked Metro to build a new bus garage at the site of the existing garage on M Street SE. Metro refused to budget money for that project, arguing that the Metro did not have the $40 million needed to buy additional land at the M Street site. In retaliation, D.C.'s representatives on Metro's board of directors vetoed funding for 16 of Metro's projects. The District of Columbia rezoned the land near the Anacostia station for commercial use in mid-1993, hoping to spur development in the area and prevent Metro from using the site for the bus garage. Washington Gas
Washington Gas
WGL Holdings, Inc. , is a public utility holding company located in the United States that serves customers in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia...
offered to lease 14 acres (56,656 m²) in southeast Washington to Metro for the bus garage, but concerns over the $26 million cleanup costs for coal tar
Coal tar
Coal tar is a brown or black liquid of extremely high viscosity, which smells of naphthalene and aromatic hydrocarbons. Coal tar is among the by-products when coal iscarbonized to make coke or gasified to make coal gas...
pollution at the site led to the rejection of this proposal.
Station operation
The Anacostia station has had relatively few maintenance issues during its lifetime. In 1997, the station's escalators suffered repeated breakdown, as did escalators throughout the Metrorail system, due to poor maintenance.Parking at the station was originally difficult to find, but availability has improved over time. By July 1997, the parking garage at the Anacostia station was usually full by 9 A.M. on a weekday. But after the Green Line's final five stations opened in January 2001, the parking garage at the Anacostia station became underused. Ten years into its operation, the parking garage required refurbishing, but Metro put the project off for a year to pay for other projects. The parking garage was one of 13 in the Metro system which had no waiting list for long-term parking as of February 2004. Its parking garage still did not fill up on workdays as of March 2005.
The station plays a key role in Metro operations. In October 1997, Metro announced that it would use sidings located near the Anacostia station for storing extra trains whenever major public events downtown (such as Capitals
Washington Capitals
The Washington Capitals are a professional ice hockey team based in Washington, D.C. They are members of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Since their founding in 1974, "The Caps" have won one conference championship to reach the 1998 Stanley Cup...
or Wizards
Washington Wizards
The Washington Wizards are a professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C., previously known as Washington Bullets. They play in the National Basketball Association .-Early years:...
games at the Verizon Center
Verizon Center
Verizon Center is a sports and entertainment arena in Washington, D.C., USA, named after telecommunications sponsor Verizon Communications, and has been nicknamed the "Phone Booth" because of its association with telecommunications companies...
) required extra train service.
The Anacostia station has been used several times for experiments in improving Metrorail's operations. In July 1997, Anacostia was one of five Metrorail stations used to test a premium monthly parking fee which would guarantee the purchaser a spot at the station's parking garage. The $50-a-month pass was the most popular at Anacostia, and the pricing scheme was expanded throughout the Metro system in March 1998. Although Metro reserved on 15 percent of all spaces for such parking at most stations, at Anacostia this was raised to 25 percent. In March 1999, Metro tested a new emergency call box system at Anacostia and two other Metrorail stations. When Metro established a carsharing
Carsharing
Car sharing or Carsharing is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. They are attractive to customers who make only occasional use of a vehicle, as well as others who would like occasional access to a vehicle of a different type than they use...
program with Flexcar
Flexcar
-External links:***...
in 2001, the Anacostia station was one of 12 Metrorail stations at which the system was tested. Metro also tested its "Next Bus" real-time information system (designed to let riders know how long they have to wait for the bus) at Anacostia and four other Metrorail stations. Technical problems and funding issues delayed implementation of the project on a wider scale. Metro relaunched the system in June 2009, and once more Metrobus "Next Bus" signs were activated at Anacostia and two other pilot Metrorail stations. When Metro announced a pilot program in the spring of 2006 to encourage food and other vendors to sell goods in Metrorail stations, Anacostia was one of 12 stations chosen for the test. The program stalled due to cleanliness, safety, and other concerns, but was reinvigorated in 2009, and Anacostia was one of three Metrorail stations chosen again to experiment with the initiative. When Metro adopted the SmarTrip
SmarTrip
SmarTrip is a plastic contact-less stored-value smart card used for payment within the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority system in Washington, D.C...
fare care program the same year, Anacostia was one of three stations chosen to experiment with SmarTrip fare gate express lanes. The express lane program was canceled when too few riders used the express lanes. Anacostia was also one of six parking garages and lots where Metro experimented with accepting credit card payments rather than SmarTrip cards in 2007. Anacostia was also one of eight Metro stations which first sold SmarTrip cards in 2008.
Rail car shortage
Service at the Anacostia station and along the entire Green Line was hampered during the station's first decade by a severe shortage of rail cars. Metro first became aware of a rail car shortage in 1988, but did little to resolve the issue. Metro also encountered significant problems estimating the number of riders who would board the system at Anacostia and at other Green Line stations (as noted above). Even though significant numbers of bus riders in Anacostia had switch to rail by February 1992, Metro nonetheless began running two- rather than four-car trains on the Green Line on Sundays and during slow periods in order to close a revenue shortfall. Metro finally ordered new rail cars, but the first of the cars were not due to be delivered until February 2001.The opening of the final five Green Line stations (Branch Avenue, Suitland, Naylor Road, Southern Avenue, and Congress Heights) in December 2000 significantly worsened overcrowding and service problems on the Green Line. The five new stations added almost 20,000 new riders a day, overwhelming station platforms, jamming trains to capacity, and forcing many riders at Anacostia and other stations up the line to wait as train after train crammed with passengers passed them by. Metro had estimated that 18,000 riders a day would board from these stations by June 2001. That estimate was exceeded by 2,000 riders a day on the second day the stations were open. By January 24, the number had risen to more than 30,600 per day—three times as many as originally estimated. Angry commuters using the Anacostia, Navy Yard, and Waterfront stations peppered the transit agency with complaints. Metro claimed a number of factors contributed to the ridership crunch: The system was experiencing record ridership; two-year-old ridership projections were used; the five stations were opened two months ahead of schedule; the five new stations were opened two months before new rail cars were ready for service; and Metro offered free parking at the Green Line stations, which drew 12,000 rather than 4,000 riders to the line.
Crime at Anacostia station
Since the 1980s, Anacostia has been long been synonymous with crime and violence, and has one of the highest crime rates in the District of Columbia (albeit not in all crimes). Concern about crime on the Green Line stations in southeast D.C. (Anacostia, Congress Heights, and Southern Avenue) have existed for a long time, although statistics only partially support these concerns. The first reported incident of crime at the Anacostia station occurred during the station's construction. Three teenagers broke into the construction site on July 7, 1989; stole tools; and broke the glass on the cab of a crane before being arrested. Concern about crime at the station led Metro to station additional transit police officers at Anacostia station in the weeks after the station's opening, and D.C. policeMetropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia
The Metropolitan Police Department, also known as the DC Police, DCPD, MPD, and MPDC is the municipal police force in Washington, D.C...
patrolled the station's parking garage. Fear of crime was one of the reasons why Prince George's County residents fought bus route changes in 1991 which would have forced riders to disembark at Anacostia station.
Concerns about crime at the station initially appeared justified. The first reported crime at Anacostia station occurred on February 5, 1992, just six weeks after the station opened. A man was accosted by three teenagers at about 9:25 P.M. at the station, kidnapped at gunpoint, and forced to strip naked. The youths took clothing, a watch, and $7 from him, and were caught by police while trying to flee the scene of the crime. In its first year of operation, Anacostia tied with the Capitol Heights station for the most auto thefts (17), and accounted for 11.3 percent of all auto thefts at Metrorail stations. By 2005, large crowds of middle
Middle school
Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...
and high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
students began congregating at the station, brawling and robbing Metro riders and creating a public safety issue. In November 2005, Metro and the District of Columbia Public Schools
District of Columbia Public Schools
District of Columbia Public Schools is the traditional public school system of Washington, D.C. in the United States.- Composition and enrollment :...
entered into an agreement to bus students from Anacostia High School
Anacostia High School
Anacostia High School is a public high school located in the Southeast quadrant of the District of Columbia.-Formation:In August 2009, Friendship Public Charter School became a partner with DC Public Schools to manage the high school. As a result, the school became known as the Academies at...
directly to the station rather than have them walk or take Metrobus to the station. Metro Transit Police officers, some accompanied by dogs
Police dog
A police dog, often referred to as a "K-9 dog" in some areas , is a dog that is trained specifically to assist police and other law-enforcement personnel in their work...
, began patrolling Anacostia station along with six other Metro stations, to increase awareness of police presences in the stations and deter crime. The police presence did not appear to help: Between 2002 and 2006, arrests of juveniles on Metro increased to 295 from 156, and warnings increased 40 percent. Nearly half the arrests occurred at just five stations: Anacostia, Fort Totten, Gallery Place-Chinatown, L'Enfant Plaza, and Minnesota Avenue. Metro even created a special unit to focus on juvenile crime on Metro, and established liaisons at all D.C. public schools to feed intelligence and information about pending problems to Metro's police division.
Crime continued to be a problem at the Anacostia station late into the first decade of the 21st century. Assaults and shootings were more frequent at the station than at any other station in the transit system. There were 32 robberies at the station in 2007, and Metro Transit Police established a system-wide crime prevention and awareness program to help reduce crime. Although Anacostia was one of the ten Metro stations with the highest crime rate in 2007 (and the only such station on the list inside the District of Columbia), it had no auto thefts or break-ins. To help deter crime, Metro installed outdoor security cameras at the 10 high-crime Metrorail stations in July 2008. Metro Transit Police stepped up their visibility and presence even further in September 2008 at all stations with high student ridership, including Anacostia.
But crime on Metro as a whole was rising in the late 2000s. Historically, Metro has had a significantly lower crime rate than any comparable transit system in the United States. But crime on the transit system began spiking in 2008 and 2009. Robbery rose by 30 percent to 581 incidents in 2008, and in the first four months of 2009 rose another 28.3 percent to 240 robberies. But Anacostia was no longer the station with the most robberies; Gallery Place-Chinatown had 30 percent more robberies than Anacostia (the next-highest station was L'Enfant Plaza, with 20 percent fewer than Anacostia). Nonetheless, juvenile crime (assault and robbery) continued to be a serious issue for Metro, with more than 260 juvenile arrests in the first nine months of 2009 and Metro Transit Police continuing to engage in large numbers of high-visibility patrols. Anacostia, Fort Totten, Gallery Place-Chinatown, L'Enfant Plaza, and Minnesota Avenue continued to be trouble spots, and Metro added Metro Center to the list as well.
Notable crimes committed at the Anacostia station include:
- February 5, 1992: A man was accosted by three teenagers at about 9:25 P.M., kidnapped at gunpoint, and forced to strip naked on a nearby street. The youths took clothing, a watch, and $7 from him, and were caught by police while trying to flee the scene of the crime.
- March 30, 2004: Two men began arguing inside the Anacostia station. One of the men, 29-year-old Bradley Gant, boarded an idling Metrobus. The other man opened fire on the bus with a handgun, shooting Gant in the chest and killing him. The assailant fled and has not been captured as of December 2009.
- November 11, 2007: 25-year-old Timothy Spicer was carjackedCarjackingCarjacking is a form of hijacking, where the crime is of stealing a motor vehicle and so also armed assault when the vehicle is occupied. Historically, such as in the rash of semi-trailer truck hijackings during the 1960s, the general term hijacking was used for that type of vehicle abduction,...
at about 9:10 P.M. near the entrance to the Anacostia station parking garage. He was shot multiple times, pushed from his vehicle, and died a few hours later. As of December 2009, his assailant(s) had not been found. - June 18, 2008: A Metrobus driver received a gunshot wound to the head at 12:45 P.M. from a stray bullet during a shootout between two teenagers near the Anacostia station. Both juveniles were also wounded. D.C. police arrested both youths inside the station.
- February 15, 2009: A teenager was shot and wounded inside the Anacostia station at about 12:20 A.M. The teen was allegedly part of a group which boarded the Green Line at the Gallery Place-Chinatown Station. A dispute with another group of teens and young adults broke out. The victim left the train at the Anacostia station, and was shot on the platform. Two Metro Transit Police officers gave chase and captured the alleged assailant (an adult).
Economic development
Metrorail has often been viewed as an important factor in spurring economic developmentEconomic development
Economic development generally refers to the sustained, concerted actions of policymakers and communities that promote the standard of living and economic health of a specific area...
in the D.C. metropolitan region.
However, the Green Line has brought relatively minimal economic development to the area around the Anacostia station as of December 2009. The Anacostia area of the District of Columbia is one of the most economically depressed regions of the city, and has been since the 1960s. As early as 1981, consultants and studies were predicting that the Anacostia station would spark a similar economic revival in Anacostia. But little real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
speculation
Speculation
In finance, speculation is a financial action that does not promise safety of the initial investment along with the return on the principal sum...
in the area had occurred as of mid-1982. To help spur development, the D.C. City Council adopted a comprehensive land-use policy in 1985 (the city's first), and identified the area around the planned Anacostia station at Howard Road SE as a proposed regional shopping center and designated it a "development opportunity area". In 1988, the D.C. City Council designated the entire Anacostia area an Economic Development Zone, giving tax and other incentives to developers who constructed buildings or established businesses in the area. A wave of federal and city housing subsidies
Subsidy
A subsidy is an assistance paid to a business or economic sector. Most subsidies are made by the government to producers or distributors in an industry to prevent the decline of that industry or an increase in the prices of its products or simply to encourage it to hire more labor A subsidy (also...
poured into the area in 1989 as the opening of the station neared, leading to the renovation of about 3,500 housing units (homes and apartments) and a rise in the price of land (to $55 per square foot from $2 per square foot, an increase of 2,650 percent) around the station. Many residents and businesses in the area resisted development which was out of character with the Anacostia Historic District
Anacostia Historic District
The Anacostia Historic District is a historic district in the city of Washington, D.C., comprising approximately 20 squares and about 550 buildings built between 1854 and 1930. The Anacostia Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. "The architectural...
, and feared the loss of the area's identity. However, at least one study by a professor of urban and regional planning at George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
found that the historic district designation had done little to spur economic growth in the neighborhood. These fears were supported by Dorn McGrath, Jr., director of the George Washington University Institute for Urban Development Research, who sais that new Metro stations attracted high-income residents who gentrified
Gentrification
Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...
their areas, drove rents up, and caused neighborhoods to lose their identity.
As the Anacostia station opened, little development had occurred, however. The closest businesses (hair salons, carry-out fast food stores, auto repair and tire shops) were three blocks away, and no plans for retail development had been submitted despite the city's action six years earlier. Nonetheless, McGrath and the nonprofit Anacostia Economic Development Corp. both believed new restaurants, new service businesses, and housing redevelopment were coming quickly. These hopes initially seemed justified. As property assessments
Assessor (property)
An assessor is a specialist who calculates the value of property. The value calculated by the assessor is then used as the basis for determining the amounts to be paid or assessed for tax or insurance purposes....
in D.C. fell an average of 0.3 percent, assessments near the Anacostia station rose 4.1 percent in 1992 and 9.7 percent in 1993. In mid-1993, the District of Columbia rezoned
Zoning in the United States
Zoning in the United States comprise land use state laws falling under the police power rights that State governments and local governments have the authority to exercise over privately owned real property.-Origins and history:...
11 acres (44,515.5 m²) of vacant land (bounded by South Capitol Street, Anacostia Drive SE, and Howard Road SE) known as Poplar Point for mixed-use retail, office and residential use rather than industrial use in order to spur economic development. Dr. McGrath and others warned that the city was moving too fast and allowing economic development to get out of control.
But by 1997, almost no economic development around the Anacostia station had occurred despite the Economic Development Zone incentives or existence of the new Metro station. In 1999, D.C. Mayor Anthony A. Williams
Anthony A. Williams
Anthony Allen "Tony" Williams is an American politician who served as the fifth mayor of the District of Columbia for two terms, from 1999 to 2007. He had previously served as chief financial officer for the District, managing to balance the budget and achieve a surplus within two years of...
again made development of Poplar Point a major focus of the District government. The Oliver Carr Co., a major D.C. area real estate developer, offered to build the D.C. Department of Employment Services a new headquarters next to the Anacostia Metro station if the government would sell the company its building at 6th Street NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, but the offer was not accepted. In 2001, the National Capital Planning Commission
National Capital Planning Commission
The National Capital Planning Commission is a U.S. government agency that provides planning guidance for Washington, D.C. and the surrounding National Capital Region...
produced a master plan for the city's memorials and monuments which suggested that Anacostia (including the Anacostia Metro station) become a hub for new memorials.
Another five years passed, and still Metro and the District of Columbia were trying to find builders who would develop land around the Anacostia station. Although the District of Columbia was building two office buildings at Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue and Good Hope Road (the Anacostia Professional Building at 2041 Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE and the Anacostia Gateway building at 1800 Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE), Metro was still unable to find developers willing to respond to its call for economic improvement next to the Anacostia station.
In 2005, D.C. Mayor Williams proposed Metro move its headquarters to a site near the Anacostia station, setting off a years-long controversy. Williams promised to relocate 200,000 square feet (18,600 square metres) of city offices and the headquarters of the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation
Anacostia Waterfront Corporation
The Anacostia Waterfront Corporation was a government-owned corporation established by the government of Washington, D.C., to revitalize neighborhoods next to the Anacostia River and to coordinate the environmental rehabilitation and use of the river...
to the building to ensure high occupancy rates. Williams said Metro could then sell its downtown eight-story office building and land at 5th and F Streets NW for $75 million, which would help the transit agency fund projects as well as the move. City officials and Anacostia residents said that the move would spur economic growth in the area, although private-sector developers said that was not clear. Although the D.C. City Council passed legislation requiring Metro to locate in Anacostia (if it moved), Metro officials were skeptical that the move would be cost-effective. After a year without any movement on the proposal, the Anacostia Waterfront Corp. proposed a more detailed, even larger development that included 750,000 square feet (69,750 square metres) of office space, apartment
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
s and condos
Condominium
A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...
, and retail space. The AWC also proposed building another 180,000 square feet (16,740 square metres) of office and residential space by constructing a building above the Anacostia station's bus bays. D.C. representatives on Metro's board of directors pushed the agency to accept the proposal in April 2007. But by November 2007, no decision had been made. In September 2008, D.C. Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Neil Albert joined Metro's board of directors in a move many observers interpreted as an attempt to persuade Metro to move to the Anacostia station. D.C. City Council members criticized Virginia's representatives on the Metro board for not doing more to support the move, and threatened to withhold approval for the Silver Line
Silver Line (Washington Metro)
The Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project, formally dubbed the Silver Line, is an extension of the Washington Metro rapid transit system, currently under construction with the goal of providing rapid transit service to Dulles International Airport and Tysons Corner...
to Route 772 and Washington Dulles International Airport
Washington Dulles International Airport
Washington Dulles International Airport is a public airport in Dulles, Virginia, 26 miles west of downtown Washington, D.C. The airport serves the Baltimore-Washington-Northern Virginia metropolitan area centered on the District of Columbia. It is named after John Foster Dulles, Secretary of...
. The District backed down from the threat after an independent consultant's report for Metro found that the move would cost the transit agency $70 million. Nonetheless, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty
Adrian Fenty
Adrian Malik Fenty was the sixth, and at age 36, the youngest, mayor of the District of Columbia. He served one term—from 2007 to 2011—losing his bid for reelection at the primary level to Democrat Vincent C. Gray...
(who took office in 2007) said moving Metro's headquarters to the Anacostia station remained the "highest priority of our administration".
Metro's efforts to develop the land at the Anacostia station have been strongly criticized. When Metro began operations in 1976, the transit agency created the Joint Development Program cooperatively promote retail, office, and residential development on land owned by Metro, by state or local governments, or private owners in order to boost bus and rail ridership on the system, generate operating income for Metro, and help state and local governments see a return on their investment in Metro (through revenues or increases in tax assessments). By 2007, Metro had signed 56 joint development projects generating $129 million (over 30 years) in income. At least one study showed that Metro-sponsored developments significantly outperformed developments built solely by the private sector. Nonetheless, Metro was only generating a rather small $4.3 million a year from its joint development projects, and anecdotal evidence indicated that Metro had a very mixed history in actually bringing development online. In 2006, Metro's Interim General Manager, Dan Tangherlini
Dan Tangherlini
Daniel M. "Dan" Tangherlini is the current Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Management, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Performance Officer at the U.S. Department of Treasury. Prior to that, he served as City Administrator of Washington, D.C...
, established a task force composed of experts in land use and economic development to study Metro's efforts to develop land around its Metrorail stations. Delivered in September 2007, the report found that Metro managers focused on running the system day-to-day and opening new stations and lines rather than pushing income-generating development at existing stations; Metro staff were either apathetic to and "sometimes obstructionist" regarding development planning (particularly regarding stations in Anacostia and Prince George's County); Metro had alienated developers and residents, subjected plans to "interminable reviews", ignored community concerns, and rarely coordinated with local or state government. Although a quarter of Metro's stations had property available for development (most of them in Anacostia and Prince George's County), Metro had done little to develop them. "Metro has been totally ineffective and counterproductive to any decent development at Metro stations," the task force chairman said. The report concluded that Metro had actually hindered development near Metrorail stations. Dozens of proposals had been stymied, and development proposals had dropped to an extremely low 2.1 per station per year. Although the report said the problem was urgent, Metro's board of directors repeatedly postponed discussion of the report for at least seven months.
The last publicly reported development proposal at the Anacostia station came in September 2008. Urban-City Ventures LLC announced it had purchased 200,000 square feet (18,600 square metres) of land along both sides of Howard Road SE just west Anacostia Metro station and planned to build a big-box store
Big-box store
A big-box store is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store...
there (although the retailer was not announced). Meanwhile, Clark Realty Capital LLC and the District of Columbia were petitioning the federal government to transfer 110 acres (44.55 hectares) of federally-owned land at Poplar Point to build office buildings.
Streetcar service
The Anacostia Metro station will be a stop on the Anacostia Line of the DC StreetcarDC Streetcar
The DC Streetcar is a surface light rail and streetcar network under construction in Washington, D.C. The streetcars will be the first to run in the District of Columbia since the dismantling of the previous streetcar system in 1962...
trolley
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
system, under construction as of December 2009.
Artwork
Anacostia station also contains a work of public art which reflects on the history and culture of the community. River Spirits of the Anacostia is a glass mosaicMosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...
tile frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
completed in 2004 by Martha Jackson-Jarvis.
The mosaic, (h. 4 ft (1.2 m). x w. 400 ft.) is placed along the roof-line of the Metro station and depicts the aquatic life of the river showing fish, plants, birds and other wildlife of the Anacostia River
Anacostia River
The Anacostia River is a river in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States. It flows from Prince George's County in Maryland into Washington, D.C., where it joins with the Washington Channel to empty into the Potomac River at Buzzard Point. It is approximately long...
.
The work was commissioned by way of a contest by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
External links
- Anacostia station - Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (Metro)
- Anacostia station description on StationMasters.com
- Anacostia station at the Schumin Web Transit Center
- Howard Road entrance from Google Maps Street View