Abe Pollin

Sad to hear about the death of Abe Pollin, the long-time owner of our hometown Washington Wizards.  Pollin led a long and productive life, and should be celebrated for what he did for DC and especially downtown Washington. 


The old Washington Bullets won him one NBA championship, the 1978 team led by Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes, but Pollin will long be remember for his citizenship rather than his team ownership.  Or for hiring then firing the greatest basketball player of all time from the front office, a gutsy move at the time that paid off in the win and loss column.


When I moved to DC in 1993, much of the area where the Verizon Center stands was empty, literally a vacant lot (a parking lot) that had not been rebuilt in the wake of the 1968 riots.  Prime real estate in the capitol of the free world - within walking distance of the White House - stood empty and abandoned for 25 years. That part of town was an ugly, empty monument to suburbia, a cynical reminder that folks in our area had abandoned the non-federal part of DC.


As many of you know, using mostly his own money Pollin built the 'phone booth' there, and overnight the neighborhood between Pennsylvania Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue became the center of a new downtown - complete with a chic urban nickname, Penn Quarter.  


That part of town has too many chain stores for my liking, but it is also full of cool and very good restaurants - Zaytinya, Jaleo, Rasika, Austin Grille, etc. - and has become a destination.  Bottom line, it brought and kept people in DC and was the catalyst for some pretty dramatic urban renewal.


All of that was made possible by Abe Pollin.  And though they never won Pollin another championship, at least the Wizards were worth watching the last few years.  It was great to see the Wizards win tonight in a small salute to Pollin (and what a coincidence that the opposing team, the 76ers, were coached by DC-native Eddie Jordan, the coach who helped make the Wizards a consistent play-off team the last 5 years).  


Here's to Abe Pollin and his contributions to our fair city.  Everlasting be his memory.