 Fast food restaurants, commercial printers, automobile repair shops, and used auto parts stores were common in the neighborhood.Much of the 1300 block of New York Avenue NE was used as a parking lot for city school buses, and the former playground of the Crummell School was used as a District of Columbia Department of Public Works vehicle storage yard.The number of people living in the area during the 1990s had declined by one-third, leaving numerous abandoned and vacant properties.