Evening star., 1954-04-24
k in Area Planning
By George Beveridge

If there's a common reaction
to artists conceptions of rebuilt
District Slum areas, it must be:
"A nice picture-but I'll believe
it when the wfeckers move in
Over the years, Washingtonians
have seen an awful lot of draw
ings. So far, there's been nary
a wrecker.
This makes a noon ceremony
Monday. arranged By the Dis
trict Redevelop ment Land
Agency, something of real oc-
casion. 1t it's wreckers they
want, the skepticism of even the
most doubtful might be shaken
a little.
At the ceremony. a wrecking
crew unceremoniouslv will topple
the first slum house IN Project
Area B, the city's first big slum
clearance and redevelopment
job.
The scene, appropriately, will
be Dixon's Court, the notorious
slum- ridden alley network in
cased within the block bounded
by Third, Fourth, H and streets
S.W. Federal, District, congress
sional and citizen leaders will be
on hand to give the wrsckers a
Send-off.
Washington has moved so
slowly in redevelopment, the city
isn't really awake yet to it's pos
sibilities. Other cities already
have learned what it can mean
to builders, businessmen and
most important-an ever weak
ening municipal tax base. Pitts
burgh'S net gain SO far in real
estate values under it's ambitious
Golden Triangle" project, for
example. is estimated at $35 mil
lion.
| The fact that the first slums
are about to topple in the shad-
ow Of the Capitol doesn't mean,
Of course. there's smooth sailing
ahead. Several property owners
have questioned the programs S
legality and the courts, in the
long run. hold the final answer.
But even so. the fall of that
first slum house in Dixon's Court
Monday will be the most dra-
matte evidence of progress
Washington has seen in a long,
long time.
One of the biggest boons to
real estate interests in years, the
Federal lease-purchase bill,
cleared the Senate Tuesday. All
that's needed now is for differ
ences in House and Senate ver-
sions to be ironed out in confer
ence.
Attacked on the Senate floor
as a real estate mans bill' and
pork-barrel legislation, the meas
ure finances private Office build
| ing by using Federal rent money
to pay the purchase price over a
Is to 25-year period. One of it's
most significant features is re-
moval of one-year restrictions on
rental leases the government now
holds.
While the lease-purchase bill
struggled through Congress, an
other measure - holding vital
promise for the opening of new
areas to development - sailed
through almost without COM
ment.
This was proviso giving Fed
eral park officials unprecedented
powers to enter contracts COM
miting the government to pay for
} something like $62 million in
parkways and park roads over
the next three years. A good bit
of the money should find it's way
into the Washington area.
Specifically, unfinished projects
likely to be affected here are the
George Washington Memorial
parkway-which would put fine,
attractive roadway along both
sides of the Potomac from WASH
ington to Great Falls-comple-
ton of the Suitland parkway
from Silver Hill to the Marlboro
pike. and substantial parkway
extension in Rock Greek Park.
y n
The most crucial immediate
threat to redevelopment - in
Washington and throughout the
country-Was aired amid LOUD
protests in crowded Senate
hearing room last Wednesday.
And beneath the furor was an
ironic example of congressional
inconsistency which got virtually
no attention.
The threat is a rider written
by the House into a. housing
money bill. 1t imposes restric-
tions on Federal grants that help
cities pay for clearing slums, and
its ramifications have lawyers
spinning and more than little
confused.