"I don't know if he's getting mine," Gomez said, just after he saw Jemal pass on the street under his second-story window. "I don't want to get displaced."
Nikolow, who, along with the liquor store, owns a closed auto radiator shop next to Gomez's business, said he is more than ready to cash in.
Albert R. "Butch" Hopkins Jr., left, president and chief executive of the Anacostia Economic Development Corp., and developer Douglas Jemal take in the changing sights along Good Hope Road in Anacostia.
(Dudley M. Brooks -- The Washington Post)
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Metro Business: Coverage of Washington area businesses and the local economy.
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"If he offered enough money, I'd consider it," Nikolow said.
D.C. preservationists, meanwhile, said they want to make sure three abandoned row houses in the same area are saved. Jemal said the buildings are in such bad shape he can't salvage them entirely, but could possibly preserve the facades. The buildings are owned by the District.
Once new development comes into the neighborhood, some small-business owners said they are worried about being pushed out as rents go up.
Ann Cobbler-Fields, 33, opened a clothing store for women in the 1300 block of Good Hope Road SE in November. She said she pays about $1,700 a month for her 2,000-square-foot shop -- well below the going rate for a retail spot in downtown Washington. Her bright yellow shop, called La Threads Couture, sells such items as a pair of tight-fitting jeans with splashes of pink and orange paint on them for $21.99; a jean mini-skirt with belts on it for $17.99; and a black purse with blue and green beads for $27.99
"I had a dream to do a clothing store in this neighborhood because there's not much here," said Fields, who grew up in the area and now lives in Prince George's County's Temple Hills. "It helps the people here because not everyone has a car to get to the malls in Maryland or Virginia." She spoke as two teenage girls came into the shop to ask her about a pair of cropped, bell-bottom jeans they had seen in her window.
Yavocka D. Young, executive director of Main Street Anacostia Inc., a program to improve streets and storefront facades, said she wants to see more businesses like La Threads come into the neighborhood.
"I want to see the quality of life drastically improve," Young said. "The neighborhood has been in dire straights for so many decades. We want a change for the better."
