We stopped by the NoMa BID's Annual Meeting last night at the People's Building, where Mayor Gray (who grew up in the shadows of the neighborhood) reported that $50M in the city's 2014 budget is allocated toward green spaces for NoMa. (Gray for Green--we didn't even have to take notes at this press conference.) BID president Robin-Eve Jasper(left) says NoMa is in dire need of parks. They were joined by J Street founder Bruce Baschuk (who just stepped down as BID chairman and received an award last night along with the mayor), The Wilkes Cos' Sandy Wilkes, and StonebridgeCarras' Doug Firstenberg, the new BID chairman.

We caught up with Akridge's David Tuchmann (with Red Plum Communications' Mary Margaret Plumridge and Kristin Thompson), who's project manager for the firm's Burnham Place development over the Union Station tracks. David says Akridge, Amtrak, and the Union Station Redevelopment Corporation are working at "warp speed' to have some portions of the project under construction within a few years. (The trains, unfortunately, will still travel at regular speed.)