st. martin's apartments groundbreaking ceremony

today was the groundbreaking ceremony for the st. martin's apartments complex in eckington. there was a lot of concern expressed on neighborhood listservs and blogs over the last couple years regarding this project, which will bring 178 apartments to the corner of summit and T streets NE, across the street from mckinley tech high school.

one of the big neighborhood concerns stems from the fact that 50 units in the building will be dedicated to the mayor's housing first program, which will take people off the street and out of homeless shelters, giving them the stability of their own apartment. some neighborhood residents believed that this was "warehousing" by putting this many former homeless in one location. i don't wish to get into the politics of this story one way or the other, but i'd like to just show a few pictures from today with some brief comments.

here's the old convent on the site, which will apparently be moved down the hill somewhat, closer to the corner of summit and T streets (away from the camera at this angle).

shovels and a fake pile of dirt were set up in the parking lot beforehand to the used for the ceremonial groundbreaking. there were seven speakers in the tent this morning, including opening and closing remarks from the emcee, ed orzechowski, the CEO of catholic charities of DC. following his welcome to the crowd, we heard from leila edmonds, the director of the DC department of housing and community development, allison ladd, the associate executive director of the DC housing finance agency, and michael kelly, the executive director of the DC housing authority.

in this photo, councilman harry thomas, jr., of ward 5 speaks, with community members around him (including robert brannum, alice thompson, and current and former ANC commissioners. councilman thomas, sporting a democrats.org ballcap, talked about the long road that it took to get this project off the ground.

in a cheesy comment, he noted that he had driven from the wilson building in a v8-powered SUV, while mayor fenty had driven over in his smart car. councilman thomas told mayor fenty that he should abandon the smart car and get back in something with "more horsepower" so he could make it to these events more quickly. all things said, i'd much rather that those driving would all follow the mayor's example instead of barreling around in gas guzzlers like the councilman.

here's that smart car of the mayor's, parked outside of the tent, and not taking blocking sidewalks and street corners, like a lot of the other cars at this event. just sayin'...

speaking of the mayor, he had a lot to say about the need for low-income housing in the city.

the archbishop of the catholic church, donald wuerl, spoke as well and offered a prayer.

after the speeches, the assembled dignitaries left the tent to turn the ceremonial first shovelful of dirt. construction (mostly clearing and grading of the site) is already underway, as rumbling dump trucks made clear to everyone at the site.