The new EastShawDC blog has a post on the East Shaw historic district proposal. The proposed historic district boundaries would border the Bates/Truxton/Dunbar-Shaw area along New Jersey Avenue NW. I have copied in only the first few paragraphs of the blog post; click on the eastshawdc link to read the entire post.
Should East Shaw Be a Historic District?
[http://eastshawdc.blogspot.com/2012/04/should-east-shaw-be-historic-district.html]
One of the stated goals of the District`s Comprehensive Plan is to establish a historic district in the eastern portion of Shaw, which the Comprehensive Plan calls the Shaw East Survey Area. The likely boundaries of the historic district are shown in the image to the left. (Click on the image for a larger view.)
At this time, though, the District`s historic preservation office is not actively pursuing this goal, and a community-driven effort would be needed to make East Shaw a historic district. In the early 2000s, just such an effort was begun; however, the Advisory Neighborhood Commission, after originally supporting the proposed historic district, voted to oppose the potential designation.
What are your thoughts on the historic district proposal? Would becoming a historic district benefit East Shaw?
Bates Area Civic Association 
Sounds like a good idea to me. Part of the new historical district, New Jersey Avenue, would fall within the Bates community and our SMD. This would mean new money and new energy into our neighborhood and would benefit us all.
I’d be interested in understanding more about what a historic district designation does for an area. Based on my current knowledge, I’d be opposed to it because it would make it more expensive both to live in the area as well as for new businesses to come into the area. There are a lot of layers of extra red tape and expenses if you want to remodel your home or a business because now they have to fit into all of the historic district guidelines and regulations.