Public Safety
Uniontown drug charges stymie Anacostia's hope for renewal
Residents of Anacostia, hopeful that a sit-down restaurant represented a turning point in their neighborhood's longstanding struggles, were shaken by news that the proprietor of that restaurant was charged in a federal drug trafficking case in Maryland and Texas.
Photo by author.
The Washington Post reported that Natasha Dasher, owner of Uniontown Bar and Grill, was charged after federal agents found 65 kilograms of cocaine they'd been tracking from Texas to her Fort Washington, Md. office.
For Historic Anacostia's working class community and emerging group of young professionals, Uniontown's opening earlier this year and subsequent success was solid evidence the neighborhood could support commerce, and it thrived in part because of its exclusivity as the only traditional sit-down restaurant in the neighborhood.
Senior officials from the Department of Homeland Security rubbed elbows with community activists, both groups cheerful to toast a symbol of progress in the neighborhood. Cognizant of Anacostia's unrealized retail potential, many hoped Uniontown's success would attract new investment.
"Uniontown," says Charles Wilson, President of the Historic Anacostia Block Association, "is a glimmer of hope. Even though this had nothing to with Anacostia, people are going to wonder."
Multiple sources in the neighborhood said they feel baffled, confused, and betrayed. Apparently, Dasher had been seen as recently as Friday at the restaurant. Two separate Facebook pages have been active within the past week, and their Twitter was last updated Friday.
"I don't know anything about that," said the Saturday night bartender when asked about the staff reaction to the news of Dasher's drug trafficking arrest. Speaking over a packed house, he said a reporter from the Washington Post had been in the restaurant waiting for Dasher earlier that afternoon, but left after she hadn't shown. The bartender said he did not know the reason for the reporter's presence.
Over the past year there was no indication of any insidious activity at Uniontown, at the corner of Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue and W Streets SE. Officers from the Seventh District are a regular presence. During a visit earlier this year a patron took his beer outside, drinking illegally on the street. He was kindly asked to leave.
Photo by the author.
When the facts emerge and circumstances are more fully explained, the worst could be confirmed. If an indictment arises, we can only hope it doesn't hold back Uniontown or the surrounding Historic Anacostia community.
 | John Muller is a local journalist and historian. His first book, Frederick Douglass in Washington, DC: The Lion of Anacostia, was published by The History Press last year. John is now at work on Mark Twain in Washington, DC.    |
Comments
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The coffee shop is awful. This restaurant was OK but too loud and crowded. If nothing else it shows a restaurant can work in Anacostia.
On the flip side Mama Cole's funeral is tomorrow.
by Tony Montana lives on on Nov 14, 2011 10:53 am • link • report
by SEDCResident on Nov 14, 2011 11:01 am • link • report
I doubt they were actually pushing product at the restaurant, it was probably used for money laundering.
by Phil on Nov 14, 2011 11:09 am • link • report
by Anon on Nov 14, 2011 11:13 am • link • report
Anacostia will change soon, one way or the other.
by AWalkerInTheCity on Nov 14, 2011 11:16 am • link • report
by Rain17 on Nov 14, 2011 11:19 am • link • report
by Mike O on Nov 14, 2011 11:24 am • link • report
But this article is kinda like HOGWASH.
Why does every daggone negative happening within the black community becomes the "face" of the black community. I mean come on now. These charges (or even an indictment) doesn't "stymie" Ana's hope for renewal. Did we really base on future existence on a bar/grill? Really?
We have talked for a while now about the new middle class blacks (some not) who have or are considering moving to Ana. Why don't we base our "hope for renewal" on the new residents who will do what a middle class "renewal" has done all over the country - create a larger tax base, demand good/services et. al.
I really get licorice mouth everytime people start calling into question what represents black folk or our progress, especially if they're wrong. I often here people (yes black folk) talk about how "embarassing" it is that Bradley shot Y'an over a pair of shoes and my response is usually the same. That is, "embarassing to whom?" It's hard for me to get embarassed by people I don't even know and beyond race, have no connnection to. With that in mind, I don't think we should even give this discussion much lip service. Stop w/this "woe is us" crap. Woe is NOT us. Woe is for those who entertain this.
A bar/grill should NOT determine how successful Ana is (or any other place in america for that matter). Sure it's a welcomed addition but I hope that people aren't tying our evolution to it. What would happen if Uniontown burned down the ground by a strike of lightning? I hope we don't get out in the streets, falling over, crying and wondering where do we go from here. This ain't no Vanessa Williams
Regardless of the charges, hopefully this restaurant can remain open for us. I'll make a special trip this week just to do my part.
by HogWash on Nov 14, 2011 11:30 am • link • report
By the way, when/where is Mama Coles funeral?
by Terri on Nov 14, 2011 11:40 am • link • report
by HogWash on Nov 14, 2011 11:55 am • link • report
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
10am-12noon Wake
12noon Services
Matthews Memorial
by Tony Montana lives on on Nov 14, 2011 11:59 am • link • report
Regardless, she has shown that a legitimate owner with legitimate financing can open a successful venture here, especially if they can keep the right price point. Many neighborhood revitalizations begin with successful sit down restaurants, and the remarkably cheap rents compared to the rest of the city will encourage someone to open a good shop there.
It's inevitable - every owner of an abandoned building in the city is holding out for "top dollar", which delays success in the marketplace. However, everyone's definition of "top dollar" is different, so slowly, the ones at the lower end of the scale (or the ones who have outside reasons why they just can't wait anymore) will sell or lease. Once the economic dynamics shift enough, We'll see other sit-down restaurants there.
by shaw_guy on Nov 14, 2011 12:48 pm • link • report
Of course it should, because the ability to support a bar/restaurant is the bare minimum to be expected of a city neighborhood. If you can't support basic commercial activity, there's something wrong.
But what I find funny about this is that this arrest basically confirms a lot of local DC prejudices about business owners-- that they are all up to something "no good" or somehow "taking money from the community" for nefarious purposes. A business owner planning to open up in DC is immediately looked upon with suspicion of being doing something sketchy, and this experience is just going to feed into that perception the next time someone wants to open up a restaurant/bar in Anacostia.
by JustMe on Nov 14, 2011 1:16 pm • link • report
"Regardless, she has shown that a legitimate owner with legitimate financing can open a successful venture here"
Do we know that? Unless we get a glimpse at her books I would be more inclined to believe otherwise.
She, an unknown businessman with no obvious sources of (legal) financing built out a swanky-ish looking bar/restaurant to what appears, act as a vehicle to launder the millions of dollars she was pulling in from her "other" job. All this proves is that millions in drug money make a solid foundation to fund other businesses, something organized crime has been doing for 60 years. It doesn't prove anything about the viability of anything in Anacostia.
And Hogwash, you embarrass me as a District Resident. You making a public point of saying you are going to Uniontown this week to "do your part" and support a woman who was just taken down because she was trafficing millions of dollars of dope in your neighborhood is simply put, ridiculous. Really, why would you do such a thing. You aren't supporting a restaurant. You are putting money directly in the pocket of some one who just got caught with the intention of distributing 140 pounds of coke in YOUR neighborhood and you don't care?
by freely on Nov 14, 2011 1:33 pm • link • report
But that really isn't the issue here right? The community has already proven that we "can" support basic commercial activity. So that takes me back to my point that the residents (not a bar) of the community should be the driving forces behind our "unstymied" changed and by the looks of it, we (the community) have been.
@Freely, I am much less inclined to write the indictment in the way you have here. I don't know what happened other than what's reported in the news. I will not attempt to discredit this woman as a fly-by night business owner as you have here - mainly because I really don't know much about her at all. I only know of her establishment.
And at this point, since it's a one-ofa kind establishment in our community, I will continue to support it under this owner or someone else. I don't patronize Mesa 14 to buy drugs. So to ME, it wouldn't matter if the owner was funneling drugs. I didn't go there to buy them..only to eat, drink, then eat and drink some more. Sorry that bothers you.
By the way, I encourage you to take my approach when dealing with people I don't know. Personally, if you decide to stand butt naked on the steps of Basicalla of the National Shrine of Immaculate Conception on Easter Sunday morning, your antics would bother me not. Why? Because I don't know a daggone thing about you nor have even the slightest hint of a relationship with you. So why would I?
I really suggest you do the same.
by HogWash on Nov 14, 2011 2:30 pm • link • report
"So to ME, it wouldn't matter if the owner was funneling drugs."
Please tell me you are joking? I am astounded that someone could have such low standards, such a low regard for their neighborhood and their city.
Is it the level of crime you don't care about? Ok, so trafficing hundreds of pounds of coke on the streets of YOUR neighborhood doesn't bother you, but would is be ok if the owner was instead pimping out pre-teen girls (in the paper today, or is that over the line?
I mean really, this is kind of facinating. I've always wanted to meet someone like yourself that say, continues to vote for and support the Marion Barry's of the world but I've never met one. And Ward 8'ers wonder why they have the reputation that they do...
by freely on Nov 14, 2011 2:46 pm • link • report
by goldfish on Nov 14, 2011 3:31 pm • link • report
Lastly, I'll make this the last time I address this with you. This is now the THIRD time I had to tell you that I've never voted for nor supported Marion Barry. I would have hoped that your millionaire's success in DC would at least allow you to understand that and it hasn't.
And thank you so much for showing everyone what you're really about which is casting aspersions against any and all in Ward 8. There's no other way to explain how (after being told several times) you cast anyone who chooses not to Ward 8/Barry bash, as a supporter of all things wrong in Ward 8. Make no mistake, I get it. You have a disdain for those of us EOTR and will do whatever it takes to disparage us, whether true or not.
by HogWash on Nov 14, 2011 3:33 pm • link • report
Ward 8 doesn't need any help from me to disparage it. It does quite well all on its own. Has for ~40 some odd years and only appears to be getting worse, rather than better.
And to both goldfish/hogwash...
Fine, she hasn't been convicted and if she is exonerated I will be the first one to come here and sing kumbaya with everyone. I'll even buy everyone here a round at her bar.
But the evidence, both anecdotal and factual is pretty damning. I am assuming when she is convicted/found guilt you two will also come here to admit your wrongs and try to convince the rest of us how embarrased you are that you patronized the business owned by a serious drug trafficer AFTER she was caught. Deal?
by freely on Nov 14, 2011 4:38 pm • link • report
by AWalkerInTheCity on Nov 14, 2011 4:49 pm • link • report
by goldfish on Nov 14, 2011 4:52 pm • link • report
Sorry dear but that dog won't hunt. Everyone's pretty aware about this particular bait and switch strategy of yours. Say the nastiest things which lack any sort of factual basis and hope that someone will bite and vehemently reject your bigoted characterizations. I get it. But it doesn't work for me. If you want to sit in your Georgetown suite and think ward 8 is worse than it has been in 40yrs, then by all means - have at it.
Facts matter less.
@walker, I wouldn't say it's easier to do it in Anacostia. Rather, it becomes more of an issue BECAUSE it's anacostia. Like, would people mass boycott Busboys if it was determined that Shallal was trafficking drugs? I doubt it. In fact, I'm sure they won't.
by HogWash on Nov 14, 2011 5:25 pm • link • report
As someone who works in Ward 8, has frequented Union Town Bar and Grill, and lives near her offices in Fort Washington...
Facts:
Anacostia is a small section if Ward 8. A historic district and not entirely comparable to let's say Washington Highlands or Henson Ridge.
Union Town was the name for a restricted covenant community that went under in what is now AHD.
65 kilograms was found in Fr. Washington.
We the people who cannot afford to live in the District (or wait for years on housing lists) do NOT care if Union Town was crowded and loud.
We also don't care if there is only one bar/grill in AHD.
Where was the rage when the Dignity of Work mural was destroyed for Union Town Bar and Grill?
Or when Union Temple put up that gaudy electronic sign years ago?
How about this...stop arguing over nothing.
Front or not, I don't want 65 kilos on any street.
If you want to blast away at me for being anti-cocaine or for stating facts and asking questions, do whatever you need to do to make your day.
by Ward 8.5 on Nov 14, 2011 6:27 pm • link • report
Whomever said the books will tell the tale...right on.
IF the establishment was a vehicle for money laundering it would be nice to see what incentives were received so that we can say if the accused at least was a smart businesswoman.
I recall she received some from various sources who most likely are the most ticked off people at this point.
by Ward 8.5 on Nov 14, 2011 6:35 pm • link • report
by SE Jerome on Nov 14, 2011 7:04 pm • link • report
* FYI I quit smoking cigarrettes,drinking and saved my loot to buy my property in 1985 in SE.
by SELandlord on Nov 15, 2011 7:41 am • link • report
there are some people who avoid BB&P, but its not an organized "boycott" http://www.gatherthejews.com/2011/08/busboys-poets-troubling-on-israel/
by Shallalaintsonice on Nov 15, 2011 9:33 am • link • report
I've had to correct people since this story broke that drugs WERE NOT found at Uniontown and then this title does not make that any easier.
The truth is bad enough -- no need to make it more sensational.
by The Advoc8te on Nov 15, 2011 10:56 pm • link • report
by no name on Nov 17, 2011 8:03 pm • link • report
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