News & Politics

National Landing Is Two Years Old, and People Are Kind of Getting Used to It

Happy birthday to the DC area's weirdest neighborhood.

A rendering of the future National Landing, courtesy of JBG Smith.

Amazon, Arlington, and Alexandria delivered a sharp shock to the world on November 13, 2018, when they announced that not only would Amazon’s much-desired “HQ2” land in Northern Virginia, but that Crystal City and parts of Alexandria would make up a largely theoretical new neighborhood called National Landing. The name was mocked. It further confounded local singles. But by the time it ate its adjacent neighborhoods, people were just like, Oh, that’s National Landing for you; what are you gonna do?

Amazon announced Monday that it is celebrating the anniversary by donating $9 million to Washington-area nonprofits like legal service providers, neighborhood clinics, racial justice orgs, and job and literacy training programs.

That seems like a normal, if splashy, move for a longtime corporate citizen, because this is 2020, and two years might as well be a century. So let us not forget the strides made by Natty L as it slowly worked its way through the stages of grief that confront any new neighborhood name:

1. DENIAL

2. ANGER

3. BARGAINING

4. DEPRESSION

5. ACCEPTANCE

Senior editor

Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.