Good Hope: Anacostia from chris keener on Vimeo.
And Now, Anacostia blogger David Garber passes along this Anacostia trailer, produced by Chris Keener with support from the D.C. Commission on the Arts & Humanities and the Mayor's Summer Youth Employment Program. Longtime Anacostia residents as well as recent transplants -- including Garber -- give their piece on what makes Anacostia great.
In part the trailer serves to show off some of Anacostia's more colorful homes and settings. But the video seeks to promote Anacostia as a neighborhood with new development.
"I chose Anacostia for one reason: It's underserved," explains Natasha Dasher, who is opening Uniontown Bar & Grille in Southeast.
Dasher -- whose bar is opening near the Anacostia business hub at Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue and W Street Southeast, near the Big Chair -- dips into Anacostia's historical significance. It was called Uniontown when it was incorporated in 1854, and it was a segregated community back then, a suburban Washington neighborhood primarily for people who worked at Navy Yard.
Today, that part of Anacostia is slated for 1.5 million square feet of new construction. Longtime residents praise the development but also hold up Anacostia's character as unique in Washington. "It doesn't need to be the next U Street," says Ward 8 advocate Nikki Peele. "It just needs to be the next Anacostia."
