On up-and-coming H Street Northeast, a faded carryout sandwich shop sits next door to a newly opened restaurant and refinished facade. At the Argonaut restaurant, considered one of the trendy trailblazers here in 2007, a cocktail costs roughly the same as a sundress at a nearby discount clothing shop. Boarded-up buildings still dot every block.

“We’re in a race to bring all good things down here,” said Anwar Saleem, head of H Street Main Street, the corridor’s marketing arm.