Down on the District: Dying Industry Converted to New High-Rise…Film at 11!

by Mike Plunkett

On April 11, journalists finally got their own memorial in D.C.

The Newseum opened its doors to the public, complete with interactive gadgets and $20 admission price. Actually, the first day was free and Newseum officials stated more than 10,000 tourists and diplomats out to lunch took advantage of the offer. Check out the official spread if you're interested.

The Newseum is touted as the world's foremost interactive museum. Visitors can pretend to be TV reporters, check out actual A1 pages of historical events and see a piece of the Berlin Wall. Speaking of which, it is quite ironic that a sign near a piece of the Wall states, "For the sake of preserving the integrity of the Berlin Wall, please do not touch." Well, maybe not quite ironic, but slightly humorous. Wasn't the Berlin Wall torn down because of integrity? Eh, I don't want to beat a dead TV montage that was hosted by Tom Brokaw.

Contextually speaking, the Newseum's opening comes amid great changes in the print journalism industry and talks about which real estate magnate will be next to get a new hobby and buy a media company because the yacht is still in the shop and hedge funds are so last fiscal quarter.

(A note of self-disclosure: I worked at three newspapers in two states and I'm proud, honored even, to have never worked in a Dean Singleton-owned newspaper, especially now since the Hearst-esque poseur said Obama bin Laden in front of Senator Obama. While I have left the print newsroom, I still consider myself a journalist, so I gladly carry my "Bitter, party of one. Bitter, party of one" badge, given exclusively to print journalists.)

There is and will be much discussion about the Newseum and its opulence and place in the pantheon of D.C. museums. Yet, what is most intriguing is what's adjoined to the Newseum. While the museum is open to the public, the Newseum Residences are open to willing tenants with deep pockets. That's right. You can live in a building with the First Amendment grafted into its wall! Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself.

In addition to the museum, the Freedom Forum allowed the construction of high-luxury apartments, plus The Source, a Wolfgang Puck restaurant on the ground floor. Open since last October, more than half of the 135 apartments have been snatched up. A 2007 Washington Post article lists the rental price at $1,720 for a 440-square-foot studio and up to $6,500 for a two-bed, two-bath joint.

Mind you, these apartments are directly on Pennsylvania Avenue, with the Canadian Embassy bunched up against the eastern side and the U.S. Capitol across the street. The residences officially reside in Penn Quarter, a neighborhood that has undergone a hefty gentrification. Several Metro stops are nearby, as are several art galleries and Olsson's, a cool indie bookstore. So you're right smack in the center of things and next to cool Canadians and the National Art Gallery. What else could you want?

Well, let's start with a grocery store.

As in, there is no grocery store in sight. Granted, there isn't much room for a Safeway or a Ralph's, both in space and poshness. Giant Food offers a home delivery service and I'm sure Penn Quarter residents skip over to Eastern Market and the Capitol Hill neighborhood on the other side of the U.S. Capitol to get fresh stuff. Penn Quarter hosts a farmers' market every Thursday and, while small, it's pretty cool.

Otherwise, it's Wolfgang and nearby Potbelly's (a pretty good sandwich chain) and some other fine dining places to find nourishment. The Residences promotes a gourmet coffee bar and I surmise with the amount demanded for rent, that's the least they can do.

Also, residents get to deal with the approximately half a million tourists that the Newseum is expected to welcome, as well as no parking structure for residents, or anyone for that matter. There are public parking sites nearby, but imagine downtown L.A. and multiply that image times quizzical gawkers searching for Stephen Colbert's portrait in the Portrait Gallery and you'll get a general sense of the insanity of having a car and living in this part of D.C.

In a sense, this is akin to wanting to live near the Business District on Figueroa Avenue in downtown L.A. One could live there and be just fine, but why would anyone really want to live there? Aside from government employees whose jobs require them to be back at the Congressman's office in 30 seconds or else the Bridge to Nowhere gets approved, there doesn't seem to be a fulfilling answer to questions of livability regarding the Newseum Residences. Plus, Penn Quarter is nice, but standard. Formal. Square.

While I headed back to the Metro Stop after a recent jaunt through the Quarter, a male teen asked me if I knew where the X2 bus was leaving. I didn't. While we were discussing this, his friend tried to take my iPod out of my hand. I turned around and there were about five of them, young kids who just got the company-wide memo that tourist season is now open.

They (and I, actually) were a bit surprised when I started walking back to them to tell them that if they want to gain favor in the world, this isn't the way to go. After they insisted they were kidding and they really didn't touch me, I walked away. Of course, it was only seconds later when another man started running after them because they stole his cell phone.

I ran after them and, making a beeline through the farmers' market, saw two of the teens with the guy and some of the local security guards ... in front of the J. Edgar Hoover Building (otherwise known as HQ of the FBI). I gotta say, they were only 13 or 14 and I'm sure they know the terrain, but running with a stolen cell phone by the FBI headquarters isn't really the smartest escape route. 

After 30 minutes of standing in front of Hoover's House with the FBI police, the D.C. Metro police, the security guards, the guy who got his phone stolen, and random tourists passing by, I'm now really struggling to find my reasoning for wanting to live in the Newseum Residences.

I'm honestly not sure what to think about Newseum or the Residences. Is it a good thing, adding to the viability of Penn Quarter and adding another positive dimension to the neighborhood? Or is it arrogant, snooty, and bordering on sending the wrong impressions about housing in D.C.?

Also, why the Newseum? Why not the Smithsonian or, better yet, the Spy Museum up the street? Oooh, I'd live in the Spy apartments, complete with a telescope and audio bugging equipment in the hot girl's apartment, conveniently nearby in the Newseum Residences. That's the First Amendment for action!

Seriously, what is the real message being sent? One now can live in a fancy place, seek Puck-fancy food, and have quick access to the place that now is the official space for celebrating journalism. As a journalist, and like the guys on The Wire, and most everyone still working in the newsroom, I'm left wondering if this is the only acceptable answer in our post-industrial society. If the newsroom, the pressroom, and the circulation plant aren't viable, then they could become livable, literally. As one looking into affordable housing, I cringe at the subtle declaration that one has to pay for the luxury to live near the power. More so, true access to the news isn't affordable—but it now comes with a concierge!

In a sense, it perpetuates the perception of journalists being like the middle child. Trying desperately to gain the favor of the parents (who in this case are President Bush and Press Secretary Dana Perino), and trying to stand up to the oldest, who's setting the standard (Jon Stewart), and getting more pissed at the youngest, who gets away with murder (Neo-Conservatives and Fox News), the middle child does the only thing possible to gain attention: bleed itself to death and then create its own tombstone.

Perhaps that's why the Newseum is so opulent, and why there is only one tiny section dedicated to the digital future. It might also be why the Newseum Residences are proudly luxurious (and also why they're offering the first month's rent for free). It fits the brand, as it were. Good journalism is a luxury. No kidding.

A coda: Speaking of Singleton, what might provide a future contrast to the Newseum Residences is the Press-Telegram Lofts, the housing development taking the place of the famed Press-Telegram building on Pine Avenue in downtown Long Beach. The developers promise to have allocated affordable housing and space for Long Beach State teachers and students. Hopefully, it won't follow the trend of Aqua and the other ridiculously massive residential towers on Ocean Blvd.

You could read about it in this P-T article and in Curbed LA.