BIG News!

We have some really great news to share!

We learned just a few days ago that the GSA (Government Services Administration, owner of the warehouse) has sent a proposal to the District of Columbia government to trade 49 L Street SE for streetscape improvements at St. Elizabeth's.

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton elaborated yesterday in a press release:

Photo courtesy Congresswoman Norton's Facebook Page

The proposal from GSA involves an exchange of GSA’s building and land at 49 L Street SE for construction services to be performed by the District of Columbia adjacent to St. Elizabeths campus on Martin Luther King Avenue SE.  The District plans to make various enhancements to the streetscape of Martin Luther King Avenue, including restriping of roads, constructing sidewalks and crosswalks, and expanding the roadway.  In return, the District would own 49 L Street SE in fee simple with full rights and ownership over the property.

“This exchange takes GSA further with work necessary to complete the DHS headquarters,” Norton said.  “In the process of moving a DHS priority, GSA has found a way to dispose of the long-underutilized 49 L Street SE by exchanging it for construction services from the District.”

This is an incredible development for the Capitol Riverfront / Navy Yard community and the city. This deal not only sets the possibility of bringing a community oriented amenity to Half Street SE, but brings a real solid chance of our community supported concept being adopted! 

Now's our time to show the District the incredible value of this deal to bring something such as HSM to the city.  We'll keep you updated as more details arise and let you know how you can best show your support to District officials to encourage this deal to move forward.

Thank you for your continued support!

Additional coverage can be found in the Washington Business Journal as well as on JDLand.

HSM Video!!!

It's been quite awhile since we've posted any updates, and yes, it's mainly because we've let our personal lives take priority for a little while.  But not to fret, thanks to the hard work and incredible editing skills of our volunteer video editor, Drew Doucette, we finally have our long-awaited video - and it looks great!

Many thanks to all those who we interviewed and participated - we think you look awesome on screen!

Additionally...

As for updates, we've sadly lost a few of our hardest-working supporters and our direct advocacy group doesn't have enough human-power these days to continue advocating, seeking sponsors, and developing the concept further at the intensity we once were.

We'd be thrilled to continue the momentum if anyone out there is willing to step forward and help push this towards reality!  If you or anyone you know wants to see this happen and is interested in volunteering advocacy time for the cause, please email me at halfstreetmarket@gmail.com, and we'll see how you can best help.

Thanks,

Nathan Alberg
Half Street Market Initiative

Happy Hour on 12/12/13!

We hope this post finds you well this holiday season!  While we've been quiet lately on the media front, we’ve been busy establishing our non-profit status, working on advocacy elements like the video, and most importantly, meeting with important stakeholders like GSA, Ward 6 officials, fellow local advocacy campaigns, and local business leaders.


Just today we learned that Ward 6 Council-member Tommy Wells sent a letter to Mayor Gray, asking him to engage in a District-led proposal for GSA based on our concept.

We’d also like to recognize that it’s been a whole year since we’ve started this initiative as a simple idea, to a full-fledged advocacy effort!  

To celebrate, we’re throwing a Happy Hour at Justin’s Café this Thursday, December 12^th from 6-11pm.  

Justin will be generously donating a portion of draft beer proceeds to our effort, and will also be offering 50 cent wings starting at 8:30.  If you can make it, please come out and support us so that we can afford to file our non-profit application and raise some money for advocacy expenditures.

Tell your friends; it will be a fun time for a good cause!

Updates & Progress

Half Street Market Supporters,

Our Thoughts are with our Navy Neighbors...

First and foremost, the Half Street Market Team wants to extend our thoughts and prayers to all those effected by last Monday’s tragedy at Navy Yard. We are a tight-knit community, and because of this, we are fortunate to be able to lean on our friends and neighbors as we move forward.

 

 

Request Sent to GSA

Secondly, we wanted to let you know that our Councilmember Tommy Wells has written a letter to GSA Administrator Dan Tangherlini, urging that the GSA engage with him and the community as they move forward in their decision making process on the reuse of the 49 L Street SE warehouse. He states that he encourages“GSA to work with local community members who have developed and championed the Half Street Market initiative.”

We are very thankful for Tommy and his office's support of both our concept, and for his broader support of a property use that benefits both our local community and The District of Columbia.  We have crafted our own letter to GSA requesting community coordination, and we will update you when we receive a response!

 

 

Video & T-Shirt Progress

Also, we thought we'd update you on our video & t-shirt progress (yes, we're still working on those!).  We've been hard at work interviewing local residents and public officials to put together a great piece for advocacy efforts.  We also have a t-shirt design and are in the process of finding the best way to order and distribute them (t-shirts are a surprisingly high up-front cost!).  We'll let you know the minute we have both ready - we're very eager to get them out in public!

Farm to Street Party Photos

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Farm to Street Party a few weeks ago!  We had a fun time and met a lot of great people throughout the afternoon.  Here are a few photos we got of the action:

We're continuing our work on advocacy and fundraising opportunities including our fundraising video and t-shirts.  We'll update you when we are ready to have them ordered and made!

Farm-to-Street Party TODAY!!!

Half Street Market Supporters - we have an event we are excited to be attending!  We are fortunate to be having a booth Think Local First DC's Farm-to-Street Party TODAY Saturday, July 27th at Union Market in NE DC.  From Think First Local DC's site:

Come and enjoy great food from our community, for our community, and by our community as Eat Local Week 2013 culminates in this fantastic food festival featuring over 125 vendors who are making local food happen; the ultimate block party celebrating the crops, commerce, and community members that feed our city. Vendors include District restaurants dishing up locally-sourced specials, food and beverage producers featuring their Made-in-DC goods, chef-demos, speakers, and more. Come hungry, come thirsty, and be sure to empty out your pantry in anticipation! $5 entry fee.

This will be a great opportunity for us to network with growers, vendors, restaurateurs, organizations, and local citizens.  Come out and see us, as well as all the other participants if you have time today!  We look forward to seeing you, you can get tickets and more information at the party's official website.

Festivities are from 1:00 to 6:00 pm.

Status Update and T-shirt Design

It's been some time since the congressional hearing, so we thought we'd fill you in on what we've been doing. The Half Street Market concept has made incredible strides, thanks largely to our volunteers as well as the incredible amount of public support it has received. As the idea becomes more and more real and we begin to search out grants and support, feasibility studies and operational plans will have to be developed to prove its potential.

In anticipation of performing these studies, we are in the process of developing a Kickstarter Video to raise money for these initial studies.  Kickstarter is an online forum where anyone can pledge support for a creative idea or product in the form of an online donation to that cause.  If the pledge goal we set is achieved, we get to collect the money raised.

As a potential reward to pledges, we are also designing a T-shirt!  But we don't want to hog all the fun of creating a cool design... if you have a great idea for a Half Street Market t-shirt, please send it in!  Feel free to use our logo or our graphics found on this site to use in your design.  Once we have several entries, we'll post the designs for everyone to vote on.

Entries can be sent to our mail account, halfstreetmarket@gmail.com.