The race to enter (or stay in) the lowest level of elected office in the D.C. government officially has begun.
Almost a dozen locals who live in the Capitol Hill area yesterday picked up nominating petitions to serve as members of District’s Advisory Neighborhood Commissions.
Monday was the first day prospective candidates could get the nominating materials. They have until Aug. 10 to collect the signatures of 25 of their neighbors in their single member districts to get on the Nov. 8 ballot.
So far, the candidates include:
- Single Member District 01
- Marie-Claire Brown (704 10th St. NE)
- Single Member District 02
- Commissioner Phil Toomajian (631 10th St. NE)
- Single Member District 07
- Commissioner Sondra Phillips-Gilbert (1744 E St. NE)
- Single Member District 03
- Brian Ready (622 1/2 I St. SE)
- Single Member District 04
- Commissioner Kirsten Oldenburg (423 12th St. SE)
- Single Member District 07
- Aimee M. Grace (1219 Potomac Ave. SE)
- Single Member District 10
- James Zeigler (1717 East Capitol St. SE)
- Single Member District 03
- Commissioner Scott Price (517 E St. NE)
- Single Member District 06
- Heather Edelman (1152 5th St. NE)
- Single Member District 05
- Katelynd Mahoney (1250 4th St. SW)
Metro Transit Police Investigating Thursday Attack on Red Line Metro Train — Metro is investigating after a man reported that he was attacked by a group of teenagers on a Red Line Metro train Thursday afternoon. The group of teens reportedly boarded the train at the NoMa-Gallaudet University station about 4:30 p.m. and harassed several passengers. [Washington Post, Washington City Paper]
Southwest Residents Raise Concerns About Buzzard Point Development — As development brings more people to Buzzard Point, residents want to make sure that the area is prepared with transit options and public spaces. [Hill Rag]
Monthly Capitol Hill Area ANC Meeting Roundup — Hill Rag takes a look at what happened last month with Capitol Hill area ANCs, including 6A, 6B, 6C and 6D. [Hill Rag]
Suspect Arrested for Capitol Hill Sexual Assaults, Robberies Escaped from Halfway House Before Crime Spree — Melvin Dehardt Latney, the suspect in multiple sexual assaults and robberies in the Capitol Hill area walked out of a halfway house the day before beginning his crime spree. [NBC Washington]
ANC to Meet to Consider Two H Street NE Developments — Advisory Neighborhood Commission 6A’s Economic Development and Zoning Committee will hold a public meeting tomorrow to consider proposed mixed-use developments at 1300 and 1701 H St. NE. [Frozen Tropics]
Construction Set to Begin at H Street Connection — Notices went up last week announcing that the area around the now-empty H Street Connection shopping center will be fenced off for construction. [District Cuisine]
House Office Building Cafeteria Employees Hospitalized Due to Exposure to Lead Paint Dust — Eight cafeteria employees at the Longworth House Office Building at 9 Independence Ave. SE were hospitalized after being exposed to lead paint dust released during overnight renovations. [Washington Post]
Bayou Bakery Expands Dinner Service Starting Friday — Capitol Hill eatery Bayou Bakery will start serving dinner on Friday, with plans to serve fried chicken livers, seared Cajun pork belly and blue crab fritters. [Washington Post]
Turf Athletic Field at Randall Recreation Center Almost Complete — Construction on a new turf athletic field at Randall Recreation Center in Southwest is almost complete. The field includes a new scoreboard, soccer field and baseball/softball field. [SWTLQTC]
Monthly Capitol Hill Area ANC Meeting Roundup — Hill Rag takes a look at what happened last month with Capitol Hill area ANCs, including 6A, 6B, 6C and 6D. [Hill Rag]
NoMa Parks Foundation Purchases Two Acres North of New York Avenue NE — The NoMa Parks Foundation purchased two acres from Pepco at the northern end of NoMa to convert into a park. It’s the second park purchased by the parks foundation, a branch of the NoMa Business Improvement District. [Washington Business Journal]
D.C. Councilmembers Speak Out Against Pepco-Exelon merger — Ward 6 Councilman Charles Allen joined Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh and At Large Councilmembers David Grosso and Elissa Silverman on a letter urging the District’s Public Service Commission to reject the proposed takeover of Pepco by Exelon. [Washington Post]
Monthly Capitol Hill Area ANC Meeting Roundup — Hill Rag takes a look at what happened last month with Capitol Hill area ANCs, including 6A, 6B, 6C and 6D. [Hill Rag]
Enterprise Car Rental to Open in Southwest This Week — Enterprise car rental is slated to open its new location at Waterfront Station at 1100 4th Street SW this week. [SWTLQTC]
Video Compares H Street Streetcar to Simpsons’ Monorail — A song created by Express writer Sadie Dingfelder, who has written other local transit-themed tunes, compares the H Street Streetcar to the Springfield Monorail from The Simpsons. [Washington Post]
Group Opposed to Hine Project Development Files Freedom of Information Act Request for ANC Documents — The Hine Coalition, a group of Capitol Hill residents opposed to the Hine Project development next to Eastern Market, have filed a Freedom of Information Act Request for documents related to ANC 6B’s consideration of the project. [Capitol Hill Corner]
Monthly Capitol Hill Area ANC Meeting Roundup — Hill Rag takes a look at what happened last month with Capitol Hill area ANCs, including 6A, 6B, 6C, 6D and 6E. [Hill Rag]
Pedestrian Killed in Car Accident on Maine Avenue SW on Friday — A person driving a car struck a pedestrian just before 8:30 p.m. Friday on Maine Avenue SW. The pedestrian died shortly after arriving at the hospital. [WUSA]
Meet the Neighbors: Hill East’s Spider Lady and Her Famous Halloween House — Lara Walker, 48, is the self-proclaimed “Mama Spider” behind the Capitol Hill spider house at the intersection of 13th Street and South Carolina Avenue SE. Almost every Halloween, the elaborate decorations seem to weave their way out of the brick home. [Hill Now]
Some Capitol Hill elementary school students are set to get a new playground this summer.
Ludlow-Taylor Elementary School at 659 G St. NE is scheduled to receive a new playground over the summer, according to an email from ANC 6A Chairman Phil Toomajian. Mayor Muriel Bowser submitted the request to fund the new playground after several community members raised concerns about a lack of play space at the school, Toomajian said.
The new playground is not the only scheduled improvement at the elementary school this summer. The school also has plans for a new rain garden and school garden, which were both funded by a grant from the District Department of Energy and Environment RiverSmart schools program. The RiverSmart schools program provides funding for greenspaces at schools that create habitats for local wildlife and prevent stormwater runoff.
Photo via Google Maps
Traffic patterns along Maryland Avenue NE are scheduled to change next week after the street’s newest traffic light officially begins to operate.
The District Department of Transportation is set to fully activate a new signal at the intersection of Maryland Avenue and 10th Street NE on Tuesday, ANC 6A chairman Phil Toomajian told locals on a neighborhood listersev and Facebook. The stoplight currently is flashing to prepare drivers for its full activation.
The signal is the result of “many years” of community members asking the DDOT to improve safety along the road, Toomajian said.
“While the new signal at 10th should allow for much safer crossing there, this change overall should provide for a smoother commute along Maryland Avenue,” he said. “I’ll be monitoring the changes to help ensure that they are successful and don’t have unintended consequences.”
When the signal at 10th Street officially goes into service, the stoplight near the intersection of Maryland Avenue NE and 9th and E streets NE will turn off.
Toomajian called the light near 9th and E streets the “only mistimed light between the Starburst intersection and Stanton Park,” noting that its removal will alleviate frequent stopping on that section of Maryland Avenue.
Photo via Google Maps
The construction of a playground on an empty lot near Eliot-Hine Middle School moved closer to reality last night.
ANC 6A unanimously approved a proposal to transform the vacant property at 20th and C streets NE into a park for children. The decision came after Events DC, which manages the land, spent months trying to solicit support from locals.
“Our ANC is supporting installation of a playground at this location because we believe our neighborhood can be best served by providing additional space for children and families to play and gather,” ANC 6A chairman Phil Toomajian wrote in a letter he plans to send to Events DC on behalf of the commission. “In addition, residents in our ANC living near this location have expressed support for the proposed new playground.”
Events DC has yet to discuss any possible features for the park, which still needs the approval of the organization’s senior officials before construction can begin.
“Just because you guys will provide a letter of support does not necessarily mean this is going to happen,” Events DC spokesman Peter Kirschner told ANC commissioners. “But it’s certainly a help and push in that direction.”
With or without the new park, Events DC still plans to maintain the nearby Oklahoma Avenue NE playground, which also is on property the organization manages. But Events DC may demolish that playground to make way for future development.
Andrew Harrington, Events DC’s director of venue operations, said in August the Oklahoma Avenue property is “sort of a high priority area for whatever is going to be there down the road.”
Stadium-Armory Delays May End This Year, Metro Says — Metro’s assistant manager for infrastructure said repairs to the power substation that caught fire in September could finish by the end of the year, returning normal service to the station earlier than initially thought. [WTOP]
Assistant Police Chief Tries to Assure H Street NE Residents That Police are Addressing Crime — Assistant police Chief Diane Grooms told an ANC 6A meeting last night that police are working to address recent crime on the H Street corridor. [Capitol Hill Corner]
Events D.C. Hires 11th Street Bridge Park Architects to Design RFK Campus — Events DC, the organization that manages the RFK Stadium campus, hired the company that designed the future 11th Street Bridge park to draft design concepts for RFK’s grounds. [Washington Business Journal]
Councilman Allen Joins Eight Other Councilmembers in Opposing Private School Voucher Program Extension — Eight members of the D.C. Council, including Councilman Charles Allen of Ward 6, sent a letter to Republican leaders in Congress opposing their plan to extend the District’s private school voucher program. [Roll Call]
Homebody Reopens at New Location Below Forecast — Former Barracks Row home goods store Homebody reopens today at its new location in the basement of Forecast at 218 7th St. SE with an opening party at 6 p.m. [The Hill is Home]
NoMa Development Moves East of the Tracks — Developers in NoMa say that in a few years, development on the eastern side of the neighborhood will turn it into one of the most densely populated areas in the city. [District Source]
Monthly Capitol Hill-Area ANC Meeting Roundup — Hill Rag takes a look at what happened last month with Capitol Hill-area ANCs, including 6A, 6B, 6C and 6D. [Hill Rag]
Anti-Abortion Group Develops Strategy to Prevent Planned Parenthood in NoMa — Abortion-Free DC, an organization launched in July to oppose the future Planned Parenthood site in NoMa, is working to prevent the clinic from opening by scrutinizing permits and canvassing neighborhoods. [Washington City Paper]
Locals Petition Against ‘Misplaced Priority’ of New Redskins Stadium at RFK — A group called “Prioritize DC” is calling on city officials to “focus on District-wide priorities, not football” for the RFK Stadium campus as D.C. works to redevelop the area. [Hill Now]
Ward 6 Councilman Charles Allen and D.C. State Board of Education member Joe Weedon will attend the monthly ANC 6A meeting tomorrow night to participate in a public forum on education in northeast Capitol Hill.
The forum will take place at Miner Elementary School at 601 15th St. NE at 7 p.m. Thursday. Representatives from Miner, Eliot-Hine Middle School, Maury Elementary School, School Within School and Ludlow-Taylor Elementary School will also participate in the forum.
“This is a great opportunity for our schools to share about their programs and areas that we as a community can assist them,” ANC 6A chairman Phil Toomajian said in a Facebook post about the event. “It’s also a great opportunity for community members to learn more about your neighborhood schools and to learn how you can support them and get involved in them now.”
The forum is expected to last a little more than an hour according to the meeting agenda.
Photo via DCPS
A pocket park in northeast Capitol Hill soon might become an urban oasis of “tranquility, simplicity and balance,” a landscape architect looking to redesign the area said last night.
Speaking at a community meeting, architect Adrienne McCray said she is working with the District on plans to create a “Zen park” between North Carolina Avenue, 15th Street and Constitution Avenue NE. The triangular space, which is owned by D.C., currently has about a half-dozen trees that are surrounded by grass.
McCray said the vision of a D.C. Zen park developed by her and her colleagues doesn’t include sand for raking designs, a common feature of Japanese Zen gardens. Rather, they are looking to create “ways of escaping from the urban hardscape and really finding that natural space,” she said.
“Doing a little bit of research, we realized that Zen is not really specific features that are placed into a park, but is really the experience that a space provides and how people are engaging in it and the meditative process that is provided within that area,” said McCray, a senior associate with landscape architecture firm Lee and Associates.
Plans for the Zen park include mounds, shrubs, pathways and benches that would surround the trees. The area also would have free Wi-Fi.
Locals at the meeting held by ANC 6A’s transportation and public space committee expressed concern about the health of the trees and the maintenance of the Zen park, if it comes to fruition.
Shahrokh Ghahramani, a D.C. Department of General Services project manager, said after the meeting that he and his colleagues will look into the residents’ worries.
“We have to evaluate,” he said.
If the District moves forward with the current plans for the space, the Zen park likely would be ready by November, Ghahramani said.
Photo via Google Maps
(Updated at 2:10 p.m.) Councilman Charles Allen of Ward 6, a Metropolitan Police Department commander and other D.C. officials are scheduled to visit Rosedale tomorrow for a discussion on public safety in and around the area.
The meeting, which is open to the public, is set for 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the gymnasium of the Rosedale Community Center at 1701 Gales St. NE, according to a notice posted by ANC 6A commissioner Sondra Phillips-Gilbert yesterday on a neighborhood listserv.
In addition to Allen, Commander William Fitzgerald of MPD’s Fifth District, D.C. Office of Attorney General community outreach director Robert White and MPD’s Fifth District community outreach coordinator Fayette Vaughn-Lee are slated to speak during the discussion.
“I thought it was important to pull together the city leaders and some folks that could answer some questions and also provide resources and alert the community on what to look out for,” Phillips-Gilbert said. “I think that with input from the community, the police can better know how to assist us.”
The meeting announcement came after several violent crimes in and around the Rosedale this summer, including two shootings in June and one in July.
A new traffic light is set to arrive in Northeast Capitol Hill in the coming weeks, a neighborhood leader said yesterday.
The four-way signal is expected to replace two stop signs at Maryland Avenue and 10th Street NE in August, ANC 6A Vice Chairman J. Omar Mahmud told locals at a community meeting. But he said the District Department of Transportation has yet to release an exact date for the light’s installation.
Currently, drivers who approach the intersection on Maryland Avenue only have to stop there if pedestrians are present. Otherwise, drivers only are required to stop at the intersection if they come up to it from 10th Street.
The intersection, which is near a playground, is “unsafe,” Mahmud said.
“We’re happy to hear there’s finally a date set for doing the signal work at 10th and Maryland,” said Mahmud, who is a co-chairman of ANC 6A’s transportation committee.
Photo via Google Maps
