Farewell to the Warehouse

Sadly, the Warehouse is closing its doors this weekend, a victim of a killer property tax increase. The farewell party is this weekend; see this post in DCist for details.

I think this is a bigger loss to the neighborhood than the also-imminent closing of AV Ristorante--of the stygian gloom and mediocre 1950s-style Eyetalian food. The Warehouse had a sweet funky feel and was one of the few places in DC that didn't feel somehow, well, "processed". (The old, and long-gone, DC Space was another.)

What chaps me about it is that the DC government agency--Office of Tax and Revenue--that is destroying a genuine neighborhood cultural treasure is the same agency that can't manage to properly classify--let alone collect taxes on--the thousands of vacant, derelict properties that litter this city. So it will now create another empty store front across from the underused Convention Center that will languish for who knows how long until it's replaced with another soulless office building with a "historic" façade. Maybe if we're real lucky, we'll get a Potbelly's or Hooters to lure the convention crowd.

Shame on the District government and shame on the Council for their failure to find a way to protect legitimate small businesses from punitive taxation, while giving the slumlords a free pass!