August 2006 - The InTowner

Transcription

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E
FRE
TheInTowner
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Now 100,000
Vol. 38, No. 2
AUGUST
2006
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September 8
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Since 1968 • Serving Washington D.C.’s Intown Neighborhoods
Adams Morgan Day
Festival Set for
Sunday, Sept. 10
Explosion of New Retail
Set for 14th From Thomas
Circle to Columbia Hghts.
By Janet Lugo-Tafur*
By Michael K. Wilkinson
T
he lazy hazy days of August hide the
bustle of activity as residents and businesses prepare for the 28th annual Adams
Morgan Day Festival, to be held on Sunday,
September 10th, between 12 Noon and 7
p.m. Successfully reorganized by Adams
Morgan Main Street in 2004, the popular
cultural street festival now attracts both
local residents and patrons from around the
metro region. “One of our best accomplishments is the wonderful crowd flow around
the single row of vendors, which safely
accommodates throngs of thousands while
retaining the neighborhood feel,” explained
festival Co-Chair Maria Gomez of Mary’s
Center for Maternal and Child Care.
T
he Mid-City Business Association
hosted the 7th annual “Dog Days of
Summer” event during the weekend of
August 5-6, 2006, to promote the many businesses around the 14th and U Streets corridors. In conjunction with the “Dog Days”
event, the Cardozo-Shaw Neighborhood
Association (CSNA) held a “MidCity
Development Showcase,” during which
developers with current and future projects
in the 14th Street corridor met with community residents to discuss their projects.
Washington Heights Historic District
Now Official in Adams Morgan Despite
82% of Business Owners in Opposition
By Anthony L. Harvey
A
fter a brief presentation of a wealth of fascinating architectural and historical
data regarding early to mid-20th century buildings located in the Adams Morgan
area, and identified on an 1888 subdivision plat as Washington Heights, the city’s
Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) unanimously adopted a motion by
Board Member James Kane to establish Washington Heights as the District’s newest,
statutorily protected historic district.
Within the boundaries of a roughly triangularly shaped section bordered by 18th
Street on the east, Florida Avenue on the south, and 19th Street to Columbia Road
on the west and north, the new district comprises 386 individual structures which
were mostly built between the late 1890s and 1930s
photo—Michael K. Wilkinson—The InTowner.
Emblematic of the ongoing construction along
the 14th Street corridor is this shadow image of
a member of the crew building the Tivoli Square
parking structure on Park Road.
photo—courtesy, DCPages.com
The behind-the-scenes diligent work by
the Adams Morgan Main Street Group and
its volunteers underpins a festival now profiled in national travel guides, and known
for celebrating international cuisine, cultures, diversity, and music. Festival-goers
will enjoy a variety of live music and dance
acts across several stages, interesting and
diverse vendors, and the unique Dance
Plaza and Kids Fair on the Marie Reed
School grounds.
Adams Morgan Main Street is proud of
the support shown by the local businesses
and non-profit community organizations
that are participating in various ways. “We
Cont., ADAMS MORGAN, p. 7
☛
WHAT’S INSIDE ☛
Letters
Community Forum
Community News
Crimes Reported
Neighborhood Theater
Scenes from the Past
Museums
Food, Dining
Classifieds
Service Directory
Real Estate
■ ■ ■
3
3
4
8-9
11
12-13
14-15
16-17
18
19
20-24
Where to find the InTowner:
See updated list at our website
www.intowner.com
While 14th Street is over a decade into a
remarkable resurgence, there is still a steady
stream of new residential and commercial developments, from Thomas Circle
to upper Columbia Heights, to report on;
hence this survey of the retail and other
commercial spaces that are under construction or planned. They range from “signed
and sealed” deals in which all parties are
willing to be named, through the “letter of
intent” stage where negotiations between
specific parties are underway but the deals
are not complete or public, to tentative discussions and parties openly marketing their
spaces to general categories of retailers.
Lower 14th Street
Thomas Circle to Q St.
• The Alta at Thomas Circle. The Alta
is a 126-unit luxury condominium building
on 14th Street just south of Thomas Circle,
and with residents set to begin moving in
around press time, the building is essentially complete. It features two retail spaces
on the ground floor. The larger, at 4,000
square feet, has not been leased yet, but
developer PN Hoffman is in discussions
with a number of restaurant groups in the
fine dining (non-chain) category. An agreement is expected in the fall. Generally,
once a deal is inked, restaurants take about
six months to build out, so it is likely that
the space will be open some time during
2007.
The other space, at 1,100 square feet,
will be occupied by Daily 14, a locally
owned coffee shop and newsstand which
will be geared to residents in the building
and the immediate vicinity. The business is
re-opening (under a different name) after it
was forced to close due to renovations at its
previous location at 1101 Vermont Avenue.
Build-out is expected to commence within
Cont., RETAIL, p. 9
map—EHT Traceries, courtesy DC Historic Preservation Office.
The overall final boundaries are denoted by the thick border line; specific properties highlighted
in red are designated as “non-contributing” structures.
Armed with a voluminous and professionally constructed formal application, and a crisply informative 20-minute
Power Point presentation, both prepared
by Laura Trieschmann of EHT Traceries
— under a contract with the Office of
Planning’s Historic Preservation Office
(HPO) — and supported by the indefatigable efforts of Ann Hughes Hargrove
and members of the Kalorama Citizens
Association (KCA), HPRB Board members and a packed hearing room audience were visually and articulately
informed of a stunningly intact section
of handsome turn-of-the century and
early 20th century houses and apartment
buildings which, together with colorfully and eclectically altered commercial
structures, are located in the heart of one
of the city’s most vibrant mixed-use commercial and residential neighborhoods
— Adams Morgan.
The individual dwellings and row
house structures, together with the small
apartment buildings in the purely residential portion of this neighborhood
range in style from Queen Anne to
Romanesque and Classical Revival; this
five-block wedge of residences from
Vernon Street to Belmont Road presents an instructive sampler of a dozen
distinguished architectural expressions,
many with façades and fenestration of
extraordinary beauty.
Although tear-downs and defacements
within this area have been few, such
recent controversial out-of-scale additions to existing row houses on Belmont
and Ontario Roads, popularly referred
to by neighbors as “towers,” the first
of which involved destruction as well,
alarmed historic preservations throughout Adams Morgan. And, tall penthouse
apartment structures constructed on top
of the old Alwyn — now Kalorama
— apartments on Columbia Road, and
Cont., WASH. HEIGHTS, p. 20
Page 2 • The InTowner • August 2006
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Website: www.intowner.com
Editorial and Business Office: (202) 234-1717 / email: intowner@intowner.com
Press Releases may be emailed (not faxed) to: newsroom@intowner.com
Display Advertising inquiries may be emailed to: advertising@intowner.com
Publisher & Managing Editor—P.L. Wolff
Associate Editor—Anthony L. Harvey
Contributing Writers—
Paul K. Williams, Michael K. Wilkinson,
Rafael E. Valero
Layout & Design — Mina Rempe
Webmaster—Eddie Sutton
Historic Preservation—Paul K. Williams
Restaurants—Alexandra Greeley
Food in the ’Hood—Joel Denker
Real Estate—Jo Ricks
Photographer—Keith Kreger
Circulation & Delivery—George Morgan
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The InTowner (ISSN 0887-9400) is published 12 times per year by The InTowner Publishing
Corporation, 1730-B Corcoran Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20009. Owned by The InTowner
Publishing Corporation, P.L. Wolff, president and chief executive officer.
Copyright © 2004, The InTowner Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved. Unsolicited
articles, photographs, or other submissions will be given consideration; however, neither the
publisher nor managing editor assumes responsibility for same, nor for specifically solicited materials, and will return only if accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope.
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Distributed monthly without charge in the District of Columbia at Dupont Circle, Scott,
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s readers of this newspaper know, we do not cover the news of all of DC; our primary
focus is on those neighborhoods in Wards 1 and 2 that lie between Rock Creek and
North Capitol Street and north of downtown. And, since the Ward 2 City Council seat
is not up for grabs this year, only Ward 1 requires our main focus, although we will have
something to say about the important at-large seat being contested as well as the Ward 3
race that calls for our comment also.
First off we should note that we are great believers in the view, shared we have discovered by many experienced political campaign consultants, that one way to judge the
potential effectiveness of a candidate should he or she get elected is to watch how the
campaigns are run, especially to observe if the candidates themselves and the people
they bring on board to manage those campaigns have any smarts; after all, a successful
candidate’s inner circle of policy and operations staff will most likely be drawn from the
loyalists who helped get him or her elected.
With this in mind we always find it most telling if candidates’ campaigns don’t even
bother to reach out to the newspapers that serve the very constituencies they hope will
jump on their bandwagons. There can be only two possible explanations for the seeming
lack of awareness of our existence: either those campaigns are being managed by total
incompetents on behalf of a candidate who lacks awareness of the institutions in the community where they are campaigning or both campaign staff and the candidate are simply
arrogant and are taking the voters for granted. Either way, it is a sad reflection on the lack
of commitment to fully reach out and make certain that their positions on issues are fully
revealed to as many voters as possible.
In Ward 1, for example, the incumbent, Jim Graham, has proven that even though
he appears to be the favorite he does not take his constituents for granted. His continual
outreach not only to the local press but to his constituents has been legendary; he understands the importance of communicating (and not just to make himself look good; he is
truly committed to keeping his flock informed).
It has been the responsiveness by him and his dynamic staff to inquiries from us and
his constituents and his pro-active nature to take hold to solve problems, not only with
respect to the delivery of services, but also wrestling with difficult policy questions and
working to craft sensible solutions and programs that have a chance for success, that has
impressed us so greatly. And it is not just with his “down in the trenches” constituent
services about which we hear many glowing reports that we admire. We have been enormously impressed with his performance on the Council itself, both through his trenchant
questioning of witnesses and his overall contributions to the debates among the members.
Probably where he has contributed the most has been with his stewardship of the
Committee on Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. The oversight by that committee over
an executive department that impacts so directly on our daily lives has been stellar. In
addition to seriously insisting on his committee vigorously carrying out its legislative
oversight role over that department’s actual operations -- a critical role by the legislative
branch -- the council member has earned our plaudits for a number of significant legislative achievements thanks to his leadership and persistence, particularly with matters
affecting the rights of tenants and with crafting initiatives that give us optimism that the
important goal of retaining as much as possible true economic and social diversity though
affordable housing will ensure that Washington not evolve into an enclave only for the
rich and famous to the exclusion of the rest of us.
If, by our comments above it isn’t already clear that we support Councilmember
Graham for re-election, we so state now loud and clear.
The importance of the role of the four at-large members of the Council cannot be
underestimated since they are supposed to represent all voters city-wide no matter where
they reside in the city, like Phil Mendelson who comes out of Ward 3 and is in a tough
battle with well-known political operative Scott Bolden, who hails from East of the Park.
Bolden has been unrelenting in his attacks on Mendelson’s handling of his Judiciary
Committee chairmanship, denouncing him for stretching out consideration of legislative
proposals dealing with crime and police resources.
Yet, that bothers us less simply for the reason that when considering enactment of new
laws that can impact so directly on Constitutional rights a legislature must be especially
careful in crafting solutions that will not be later likely to be overturned causing the possibility of opening up all sorts of old cases that could lead to overturning convictions.
Furthermore, simply rushing in to enact new laws to “do something” about crime does
seem to lead to the kind of mish-mash we recently have achieved. (The only good thing
about that new crime bill is the prospect that there will be increased actual street officers
truly assigned to the streets.)
We concede that the council member is a very deliberative sort, yet from our direct
experience with him from his council staff days and our observing him while serving
at-large, we appreciate his very deliberative approach to complex issues. And, while we
have not necessarily agreed with his positions or approaches on all issues, we believe he
Cont., EDITORIAL, p. 7
NEXT ISSUE—SEPTEMBER 8
DISPLAY ADVERTISING SPACE
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➧
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1
Classifieds Deadline: Friday, September 1
(See classifieds section for information about procedures)
News, Events & Letters Deadline: Friday, September 1
NOTE: Publication date always second Friday of month.
➧
August 2006 • The InTowner • Page 3
COMMUNITY FORUM
LETTERS
Letters must be mailed, faxed, or delivered to our office or sent via e-mail to: letters@intowner.com.
All correspondents MUST supply a home address AND both day and evening telephone numbers
for verification purposes. Persons employed by or volunteering with entities that are the subject
of their letters MUST reveal their positions with same so as to avoid misleading the readers as to
their special interest. In appropriate instances, if so requested, letters may be printed on a “name
withheld by request” basis. We reserve the right to edit for propriety, clarity, and to fit the available
space. Identifiers below writers’ names are inserted at the editor’s discretion.
Special Note: Only envelopes from government agencies, recognized civic groups and other
organizations, or mail from individuals in envelopes bearing verifiable return addresses that
include sender’s full name will be opened; any other postal or hand-delivered mail will be
either returned to sender or destroyed.
Ward 1 CouncilMember
Deserves Our Support
The DC September Primary is just around
the corner. First, be sure to vote. Second, for
those of you in Ward One, be sure to vote
for Councilmember Jim Graham. It is often
said the leadership starts from the top. This
is truly the case with Graham’s office. He
and all of his staff are very responsive and
go out of their way to assist with constituent issues. Our neighborhood association
constantly calls on his office about every
issue ranging from safety to trash and rats.
We get assistance and guidance. Ward One
is compact, diverse and dynamic. Ward One
continues to need Graham’s voice of reason
balancing all of our interests.
Larry Ray
North Columbia Heights
Editor’s Note: The writer is president
of the North Columbia Heights Civic
Association and a former Dupont Circle
ANC commissioner when he resided in
that neighborhood several years ago.
The Newseum’s Relation
with the Freedom Forum
Clarified
We appreciated your Page One feature on
the plan for a new central library [“Mayor’s
Plan for New Central Library to Replace
Existing MLK Building Continues in
Limbo; No Immediate Action Expected, ”
July 2006], and was glad that you thought
enough of the Newseum project to include
us as a sidebar. [Ed note: see, [“Polshek’s
Prominence as an Architect Evident by
Local Commission on Major Site,” also
page 1.]
At the same time, I’d like to correct one
item. The Freedom Forum is a nonpartisan
foundation dedicated to free press, free
speech and free spirit for all people. The
foundation focuses on three priorities: the
Newseum, the First Amendment, and newsroom diversity. The Freedom Forum funds
the operations of the Newseum, which
you correctly note is a mixed-use museum
building currently under construction on
Pennsylvania Avenue at 6th Street.
But your identification of the foundation
Cont., LETTERS, p. 5
WHY ADRIAN FENTY SHOULD BE
ELECTED MAYOR
By Peter D. Rosenstein
The writer, a long-time Dupont Circle resident, is a “Team Fenty” volunteer
who has been serving as the Issues Committee chairman since the campaign’s earliest days — a position he also held in both of Mayor Anthony
Williams’ political campaigns.
I
don’t know if The InTowner will endorse
a candidate in the mayoral election
but I am taking the liberty of sharing my
thoughts on how I decided to support and
work for Adrian and why with each new
entrant into the race I could justify my
views even further.
Adrian is young, dedicated, ambitious,
intelligent and creative and has two terms
on the city council. Not a bad résumé for
the next mayor of Washington, DC. Ken
Gibson was 37 when he became mayor of
Newark, Gavin Newsom in his 30s in San
Francisco, and JFK was only 41 when he
became President. Leaders aren’t all older
and they often become leaders at a young
age because of the kind of qualities that
Adrian has in abundance: the ability to
move people and affect their lives.
Adrian and his family will present an
image that can only help DC in the eyes
of the world. He is a home-grown young
family man with a wife who is an attorney,
twin boys just starting public school, and
parents respected in the community for
their work and for running a successful
business.
When elected, Adrian will have the
benefit of a solid constituency that will
back him as he makes the hard decisions
he will need to as mayor. He has proven
he can generate the buzz, as he did over
school modernization, to take an initiative
with zero chance of getting anywhere and
making it a reality. He introduced the first
smoking ban bill and he introduced the
Affordable Housing Task Force bill. He
really is a born leader. He can walk the
streets from Ward 8 to Ward 1 and connect
with people whether they are young, old,
rich, poor, black or white, Asian, Latino,
lesbian and gay. There is a charisma which
one is either born with or not, and Adrian
was born with it.
He will be able to challenge a new generation of leaders in DC. He will attract
successful young African-American attorneys, businessmen and women, and entrepreneurs to join him in serving and he will
have a government as diverse as this city.
We will finally get the opportunity to move
away from what many of us call the permanent government that has run this city and
fed at the trough since Walter Washington
first became mayor. If we are to truly move
into the 21st century we must enable the
next generation take its place in the leadership of our city. And I say that as a member
of the older generation.
Adrian takes government seriously.
He has taken the time to meet with San
Cont., FORUM, p. 6
AROUND OUR COMMUNITY
The editor welcomes the receipt of information about community happenings,
such as church-sponsored events, neighborhood and block association activities, public meetings dealing with neighborhood issues, and other events of a
non-commercial nature. These may be emailed to us at newsroom@intowner.
com, or sent by regular mail but not by fax.
www.augustanadc.info
Because we are a neighborhood newspaper and not a city-wide or regional publication, we restrict our reporting to that about news and activities occurring
within the specific neighborhoods we serve — Adams Morgan, Mt. Pleasant,
Columbia Heights; Dupont, Scott, Thomas & Logan Circles; Mt. Vernon Square/
Pennsylvania Quarter; Cardozo/Shaw, U Street.
• Fri., Aug. 11: Now up and running
are the EXTENDED SUMMER HOURS
through Labor Day for the Wards 1 and 2
Recreation Centers. The extended hours
for several that are located within the neighborhoods served by this newspaper are
shown below. Youth subject to the mandated curfew will be issued MPD-authorized
special passes as they leave for home in the
evenings.
Columbia Heights Youth Club (16th
& Harvard) Mon.-Fri. 6–9pm; Kalorama
(1875 Columbia) Mon.–Fri. 8am-11pm
& Sat. 10am-11pm; Keely’s Boxing and
Youth Center (1459 Columbia) Mon.-Sat.
2–11pm; Kennedy (7th & M) Mon.–Fri.
8am–12mid, Sat., 10am–12mid & Sun.
12noon-8pm; Latin American Youth Center
(1419 Columbia) Mon.-Fri. 6–9:15pm;
Marie Reed (18th & Kalorama) Mon.-Fri.,
10am-12mid; Midtown Youth Academy
(2206 14th) Mon.-Sat. 6-11pm; Parkview
(693 Otis) Mon.–Fri.
8–12mid, Sat.
10am-12mid & Sun. 12noon–8pm.
and much more of 80+ years of collected
treasures that now fill space that needs to
new homes. All proceeds will benefit the
church’s missions. For more info, call 3479620 or visit www.mvpumc.org.
• Wed, Aug. 16 (8pm; doors open,
7:30pm): Comedians Zach Toczynski,
Leo Goodman, Jake Burton, Steve Varol,
and Tim Miller will be featured in a special COMEDY NIGHT being produced
by Omaemoda Productions at Staccato
Lounge in Adams Morgan (2006 18th St.;
tel., 232-2228). This will be a benefit performance to raise funds and awareness for
Omaemoda’s work in developing and maintain partnerships to enhance the DC Metro
Community, to cultivate and nurture local
performing arts talent, and to influence
our audiences toward positive social action.
Admission, $5.
Omaemoda’s performing arts productions are presented in partnership with
community service agencies. Currently,
these Brainfood, which uses food as a tool
to build life skills with young people in
Washington in a fun and creative setting;
Project Northstar, which has as its primary
mission to help children who are homeless or disadvantaged overcome barriers to
a quality education; and the Washington
Animal Rescue League (WARL) is a welcoming place for animals and the people
who love them. Last year’s community
partners included Books for America, DC
Central Kitchen, So Others Might Eat, and
Calvary Women’s Services.
• Thu., Aug. 24 (7:30pm): The Vegetarian
Society of DC (VSDC) will be kicking off its
new LECTURE
SERIES program
in the Josephine
Butler Parks Center
(2437 15th St.) with
a presentation by
Karen Davis, PhD
on Bird Flu: how it
spreads and how you
can help to stop it. She
will discuss how intensive
confinement of chickens,
turkeys, ducks, and other
birds around the world creates the ideal
breeding ground for this deadly pathogen,
and what we can do to help stop it. Dr.
Davis is the founder and president of United
Poultry Concerns, and editor of its quarterly
magazine, Poultry Press. For more info., visit
www.vsdc.org or call (202) 362-8349, box 2,
and leave a message.
• Sat., Aug. 19 (9am-2pm): Mt. Vernon
Place United Methodist Church (900
Mass.
Ave.)
will be holding
a
CHURCH
RENOVATION
SALE featuring
all sorts of interesting stuff being
cleaned out in
preparation of
its
upcoming
renovation project, including
antiques, small
pews, desks, pictures, decorative
items,
chairs,
tables, dishes, collectibles, lawn equipment
• Thu., Aug. 24 (7-9pm): The DC Fair
Budget Coalition, comprised of more
than 60 social and legal service providers,
will hold a MAYORAL CANDIDATES
FORUM at Busboys and Poets (2021 14th
St.). This will be an opportunity to hear
what the candidates for mayor are saying about issues that truly concern readers
of this newspaper. There will be a panel
of experts to ask questions about “quality
of life,” affordable housing, homelessness,
children and youth issues, and government accountability. Attendees will also
have an opportunity to ask questions; the
organizers intend this forum “to be a candid
and substantive dialog with the Mayoral
Candidates.” For more info, call Martina
Gillis at (202) 328-5513.
• Wed., Sep. 6 (7-8:30pm): The
Columbia Heights Citizens Association,
joined by both the South Columbia Heights
Association and the North Columbia Heights
Civic Association, will be featuring Ward 2
Councilmember Jack Evans, who will be
introduced by Ward 1 Councilmember Jim
Graham, presenting checks for SCHOOL
UNIFORMS to the principals of the
Bruce-Monroe, Raymond, and Tubman
Elementary schools. To be held in the garden of Tom and Patty at 3616-10th Street,
this will be an excellent opportunity to join
in on a worthwhile community event as well
as to socialize with neighbors, meet and talk
with the council members and the three
neighborhood school principals. In the
event of rain, the event will happen at the
nearby Mental Health Center (1129 Spring
Rd.). For more info, send email to North
Columbia Heights Civic Association’s president, Larry Ray, at DCLarry@aol.com. ■
Copyright (c) 2006 InTowner Publishing Corp.
All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or
in part without permission is prohibited.
LETTERS
From p. 3
as “Gannett [News] Corporation’s Freedom
Forum” is incorrect. The Freedom Forum
was established in 1991 under the direction
of founder Allen H. Neuharth as a successor
to a foundation started in 1935 by newspaper
publisher Frank E. Gannett. The Freedom
Forum is not affiliated with Gannett Co.
Its work is supported by income from an
endowment of diversified assets.
Mike Fetters
Director
Mktg. & Communications, Newseum
Shaw Businesses Profiled
Just Tip of the Iceberg
Thank you for your article on three new
businesses along 9th Street, NW in the July
2006 issue of The InTowner (“Independent
Businesses with Quality in Mind Coming to
9th Street,” page 1). Shaw Main Streets has
been working for the past five years to identify and attract the types of businesses Shaw
residents have been asking for, and we’re
glad that we’ve been making such progress.
But your article really only scratched
the surface in terms of the new businesses
coming to 9th Street this year. In addition to Breakwell’s Coffee + Tea, A Taste
of Carolina Southern Cuisine, and Lettie
Gooch Boutique, six other businesses have
already opened there, and 10 others are
expected to open before year’s end.
TG Cigars opened in June at 1118 9th
Street, offering a wide variety of cigars,
cigarettes, and smoking accessories from
around the world. Abu Goldsmith opened
in July at 1249 9th Street, offering jewelry
repairs and sales; that business relocated
from 18th Street in Adams Morgan to be
part of the 9th Street renaissance. Queen of
Sheba Restaurant opened at 1503 9th Street
in February, with Ethiopian and ItalianAmerican dishes, as well as incomparable
fresh fruit smoothies.
Three art galleries have located in our
area this year. Longview Gallery at 1302 9th
Street opened in June, presenting the works
of nearly 100 local and regionally known
painters, sculptors, and photographers; the
gallery is a branch of a Sperryville, Virginia
gallery of the same name. A few doors north
at 1306 9th Street, the 9th Street Gallery
presents the works of guest and studio artists,
including Turkish-born Zeki Findikoglu.
And just a few steps off 9th Street at 903 U
Street, Project 4 Gallery opened in February,
presenting works in a variety of media in a
stark white, two-story tall space.
Among the forthcoming openings are a
new Reiter’s Bookstore at 1240 9th Street,
from the owners of the store of the same
name on K Street; Chez Hareg, a French
pastry shop at 1915 9th Street, headed
up by former Ritz-Carlton employees; La
Carbonara Italian Restaurant at 1926 9th
Street, bringing a popular cuisine that residents have long been awaiting; Nellie’s
Sports Bar at 900 U Street, a gay (and
straight-friendly) sports bar featuring cuisine
from the chef/owner of Cubano’s Restaurant
in Silver Spring; RasDashen Restaurant, a
new Ethiopian venue at 1914 9th Street;
Yenga 1920, featuring Spanish, Ethiopian,
and seafood dishes and the owner’s vocal
stylings at 1920 9th Street; Mongolian Grill
and Tokyo Sushi Bar will bring more Asian
cuisine options at 1207 9th Street; Old
Dominion Brewhouse will bring that brewery’s celebrated beers and pub fare to 1219
9th Street; Cakes and pies will be the star
attractions at D’vine Cravings, 1239 9th
Street; and Be Bar, a neighborhood lounge
with a gay following, is scheduled to open
this month at 1318 9th Street, featuring a
variety of unique martinis and pub fare.
So if you think things are hopping on 9th
Street, you haven’t seen anything yet. By the
end of 2006, more businesses will be open
on 9th Street than have been there since
the 1968 riots. And there’s more to come in
2007. Anyone interested in keeping up with
this activity can visit the Shaw Main Streets
website (www.shawmainstreets.com) and
ask to be added to our email list for news of
openings and events.
Alexander M. Padro
Executive Director
Shaw Main Streets
Epitaph for a Video Store
Another independent retailer in AdamsMorgan has closed. How many of us have
noted the departure of Video Americain,
a shop on 18th Street, and grieved its passing? The store, its casual, freewheeling staff,
and vast collection of films, domestic and
international, unparalleled in the District,
was a light in my life. I can’t count the
number of films my wife and I enjoyed that
I would otherwise have missed. There was
the Indian musical about a colonial cricket
match, a film about an Italian family selling
fish and chips on the Irish coast, and a variety of Aussie spellbinders.
The store was a tribute to the joys of
serendipity. I was exhilarated every time I
chanced on a new cinematic discovery.
The business closed for a number of
reasons. One of the factors, the decline in
interest from a cohort of patrons, is especially troubling. Many patrons reduced their
purchases, clerks told me, because of the
wide availability of titles on Netflix. They
apparently found it easier to dial up a film
than to walk over to the store and discover
something new.
Has it come to this? Would we rather sit
in our cocoons and commune with a film
directory on the computer than browse and
socialize? However convenient and efficient, Netflix is no substitute for roaming a
shop and finding an unexpected delight.
If computerized services can provide all
our cultural needs, why do we need bookstores, video shops, record stores, or libraries?
Joel Denker
Dupont Circle
Editor’s Note: The writer is well-known
for this newspaper’s monthly “Food in
the ‘Hood” feature; regular readers will
be pleased to know that this former Peace
Corps member and now university teacher
has interests of even broader cultural scope
than they might have otherwise realized
when reading his informative essays on
the history of foods from around the world
and the cultures that have influenced the
amazing culinary riches that are available
right in our own backyard thanks to our
neighborhoods having evolved into centers
of considerable ethnic variety.
Baseball Stadium Deal
Continues to Rankle
The $611 million ballpark spending cap
is about to be blown after a mere five
months in the ballgame; it didn’t take long
for the ballpark spending cap to be violated.
In its most recent report submitted for the
month of May, the Sports & Entertainment
Commission admits the cap has blown. It
apparently intends to seek budgetary refuge
by raiding the ancillary development money
from the sweetheart deal the mayor hastily
has arranged in a no-bid manner.
(See the very pregnant passages on the
first page of commisssion’s May report,
dated June 15, 2006, especially the last sentence on that page which reads as follows:
“The DCSEC will seek other sources to
fund the expected overrun in environmental remediation costs as allowed by the Cost
Cap, including any revenue derived from
development rights at the Ballpark Site.”)
It is high time for Mr. Tuohey and
Company to leave their complimentary box
seats and to ask the new owners to share
equally in covering the now-certain overruns. MLB [Major League Baseball] and
the Lerners closed the deal knowing the
District of Columbia would spend no more
than $611 million. The time has come to
broach the subject with them formally. Nice
as it may seem to have “Herb’s proposal,” as
Mr. Evans [Ward 2 council member and
chairman of the council’s Committee on
Finance and Revenue] calls it in his overly
chummy manner, cover the cost overruns
as a near perfect 10 percent contingency of
$61 million, that money must not be used
unilaterally by DC to fund more stadium
construction overruns without at least equal
participation from the Lerners. Messrs.
Barry and Orange especially insisted the
ancillary development rights be used for the
direct benefit of the DC community. If 100
percent of that new public money now also
goes yet again into funding a single-use facility built for the exclusive use by a private
enterprise, what public property or “public
good” really is there that’s left for DC’s
citizenry? We might as well get ready to
transfer to another buddy of the mayor and
Mr. Evans (via another pre-wired deal) the
development rights for the Wilson Building
too, in the hope of supposed incremental
tax revenues someday. What a racket.
After a mere five months, it is patently
apparent that the cumulative cost overruns
by 2008 will far exceed even the added $61
million in ancillary development giveaways
on top of the supposed $611 million cap.
We may well be on our way to the cool $1
billion stadium that Mr. Graham [Ward 1
council member] so intuitively predicted
-- a process which began in 2004 with
the mayor’s and [Chief Financial Officer]
Mr. Gandhi’s disingenuous and highly
calculated low-ball original $340 million
cost estimate. Remember that initial bill
of goods supposed professional financial
pros like the mayor and Mr. Gandhi concocted with light quantification to sell the
taxpayers and the council? Time is up for
the seemingly semi-autonomous Sports and
Entertainment Commission to come clean.
If they do not approach the Lerner family right now, the precedent will already be
set when the accelerating overruns quickly
drain the added $61 million, and DC will
be forced to cover those costs unilaterally
forevermore too.
Dave Mallof
Dupont Circle
Editor’s Note: The writer initially
addressed this matter of the stadium
financing in his letter that appeared in our
May, 2006 issue in which he commented
on our previous month’s editorial, “Batter
Up For Better or Worse--We Fear it Will be
For Worse” (From the Publisher’s Desk,
April 2006, page 2.
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FORUM
From p. 3
Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, New
York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, The
deputy mayor of Baltimore, and School
Superintendents Klein of New York and
Crew of Miami and looked at best practices around the nation. He is looking at
new management tools and new ways of
doing business. This is what we need from
a mayor. We need some thinking that is
out of the box and we won’t get that with
only the recycling of the people and ideas
of the past.
I won’t talk about Vincent Orange or
Michael Brown because I really believe
that they won’t be factors in this race. I
will give Marie Johns credit for being a
highly intelligent woman, but I think we
went that route in the District before. We
found out how hard it is for a person who
has not been involved in DC government
to take the reins. There is no built-in constituency to support the changes they want
to make. There is no history with council
members, unions or community groups to
do the horse trading often needed on bills
and projects. There is no real understanding of the difference between moving a
public bureaucracy versus a private one.
The compassion and heart that have been
on display during her campaign and talking about being a volunteer and a mentor
doesn’t necessarily play well or provide the
experience needed as a government leader
having to make the hard choices. The
largess one can share as a corporate executive using other people’s money to support
a few favored projects just doesn’t always
equip one to lead a government. There
are of course the exceptions like Michael
Bloomberg in New York, but being a billionaire and building the company, not just
being a hired hand, are what has made the
difference there.
As to Linda Cropp, well that is a different story. She has been here for 30 years
and is an extremely nice and intelligent
person. But I believe her 30-year history
is part of her problem. She is a part of the
permanent government and was as much a
part of the problem for the first 25 years of
her service as she would now like to claim
credit for being part of the solution for the
last seven.
Though she constantly reminds people
that Adrian has never managed anything,
she doesn’t like to be reminded that neither has she. Linda Cropp had her opportunities as school board president during
the years when we should have been building and modernizing schools and building
a local in-house special education program
to do those things. Because these things
weren’t done in those times as they were
by other big city school systems, we are
seeing the problems enhanced now. Linda
Cropp never met a Marion Barry budget
she didn’t like and has to assume some of
responsibility for Congress imposing the
Control Board. I have tried to research her
statements from the past and haven’t found
where she even warned of the impending
disaster if the government didn’t change its
ways, no less stood up and spoke out forcefully to do something about it.
Ms. Cropp also has shown she believes
government works best when it makes
decisions behind closed doors and presents
completed deals to the public for approval.
The nearly total fiasco of baseball financing being a case in point of her closed-door
way of running government. She also clearly misunderstood the difference between
private financing and publicly backed
private financing and needed a letter from
the CFO to explain to her that the bonds
issued for the baseball stadium do have an
impact on the rest of the budget and what
the city can do in other areas. The way
Ms. Cropp believes government should be
run is something that won’t change at this
time in her career. I also fear that we will
have a co-mayor if Ms. Cropp is elected;
and though I respect Dwight Cropp, I am
concerned about all the people from the
Barry administration that he has gathered
together as her senior advisors. The value
of open government and transparent operations is something foreign to her.
Ms. Cropp is also not a leader. There is
no legislation in her 30 year career that she
can claim as landmark legislation -- no single outstanding area where the public can
see that she made a real difference. She is
better at tinkering around the edges and
passing small bills to solve small problems.
While this is important it is not the thing
that Leadership is made of.
Again I hope it is OK that I shared these
thoughts with you. I am of course biased
in favor of Adrian Fenty and that may color
my view. But my views also come from a
career of nearly 40 years which includes
being a public school teacher in Harlem
in the New York City public schools,
working for Congresswoman Bella Abzug,
being Coordinator of Local Government
for the City of New York in Mayor Abe
Beame’s administration, then coming to
Washington in 1978 to work in the Carter
administration as Executive Director of the
White House Conference on Handicapped
Individuals/Implementation Unit. I have
since spent 25 years as a CEO of non-profits and, as I think you are aware, I am also
a community activist, gay activist, columnist for the Washington Blade and was Vice
Chair of the UDC Board of Trustees for
nearly four years.
I thank you for taking the time to read
my thoughts on this campaign which I
truly believe will determine the direction
of the District of Columbia for many years
■
to come.
See Our
Website
For Links
To Our
Advertisers
www.intowner.com
EDITORIAL
From p. 2
brings an important sense of balance to the
Council’s debates and thus is truly a stabilizing influence. While some members
want to just plunge right in and “do something” for the sake of doing, this council
member understands the importance of
stepping back and imposing some analysis
and discipline before proceeding.
So, we urge Councilmember
Mendelson’s re-election not only for these
reasons but also because he has proven
himself to be fair and equally caring of the
concerns of all citizens across the city no
matter where they live or their economic
or social status. What a perfect quality for
a legislator who must represent everyone!
One thing we do urge, however, is that if
he is re-elected he be assigned to chair the
Committee on Government Operations;
the mandate of that committee is such
that he would make an absolutely ideal
chairman to conduct the kind of oversight
necessary when confronted with the highly
ADAMS MORGAN
From p. 1
forgo revenue by allowing only a single row
of vendors, and giving discounts and preferences for Adams Morgan businesses,” said
Main Street’s president and festival Co-Chair
Lisa Duperier. “Not only do our businesses
all stay open now, but a group also takes
advantage of the discounted vendor space.
“The new festival layout originated by Main
Street highlights the neighborhood scale
architecture and leaves all the business storefront façades visible to Festival strollers.
Brand new last year, and back by popular demand, is the Dance Plaza located
on the basketball court of Marie Reed
School. Packed with hundreds of people,
the Dance Plaza features such groups as
photo—courtesy, Adams Morgan Day Festival.
Afro-Cuban rumba, Bolivian dance troupe,
West African dance, and a youth step group.
People watched, learned, and then jumped
up themselves to dance on the temporary
wooden dance floor set up for the event.
The always popular commemorative Tshirt this year will feature local artist Jennifer
Golden’s original artwork, titled Dancers.
New this year according to Festival Director,
Kassandra Kearse, “is a partnership with the
U.S. Postal Service which will be offering a
“one day only” Adams Morgan Day Festival
postmark cancellation envelope for purchase
which combines the T-shirt artwork and
Festival logo.” Some of the local businesses
with logos on the commemorative T-shirts
include Adams Mill Bar & Grill, Chloe, El
Tamarindo, Millie-‘n-Al’s, and Tom Tom.
The signature Florida Avenue and
Columbia Road live music stages return to
technical aspects of overseeing the government’s management affairs.
Finally, a few comments about the Ward
3 race. Bill Rice is presumed to be the
odds-on favorite; certainly he has received
lots of good press, no doubt from having
developed some close relationships with
certain members of the press who have
extolled his apparent (to them) responsiveness when he served as the DDOT spokesperson. Our experience, however, does run
counter to what we have heard said by others. We have found that his attention span
is short, frequently not even evident, that
he has -- again, in our experience -- demonstrated a lack of follow-through or even
a true get-up-and-go approach. He’s a nice
guy, but we don’t think there’s a lot there.
One thing we will say about Bill Rice is
that if he is elected his personality is not
such that he would be a destabilizing force.
We cannot say the same about the most
vocal and in-your-face angry candidate,
Jonathan Rees. He has so absolutely polarized everyone he has come into contact
with, has become infamous for his overthe-top rants, his personal character attacks
bookend 18th Street. Washington Post Radio’s
Jerry Phillips celebrates his 20th year producing the Florida Avenue stage with such acts
as The Ed Hahn Quintet (Contemporary
Jazz), Cubano Groove (Latin/Salsa), and
Third Eye Reggae Band (Caribbean), making their Festival debut. New to that stage
is a performance by the Dance Institute of
Washington.
Bank of America is sponsoring the
Cultural Stage on the church steps at Euclid
Street and Columbia Road. Coordinated by
Celestino Zapata, it will showcase a broad
mix of musical genres, theater, dance, and
cultural performances, including the Sitar
Center students. Other major sponsors are
PNC Bank, Radio Shack, the Adams Morgan
Business Improvement District, and BB&T
Bank.
“Arts on Belmont” with over 30 artisans
displaying original artwork in a variety of
media will line the shady residential side
street. Coordinated by Avner Ofer, who also
produces Western Market each Saturday,
attendees can expect high-quality artisans
from contemporary to traditional.
Kid’s Fair Coordinator Samantha Cribari
plans a mini-stage this year with face-painters, jugglers, clowns and other performers
to wow the crowd, in addition to the moon
bounce and rock wall. Educational exhibits
about the human body, mechanics, nature
and biology, will be offered by Celebra La
Ciencia/Celebrate Science in English and
Spanish to encourage kids to think about science in different ways.
Harris Teeter, Adams Investments, DC
Lottery, Hilton Washington, DC Chartered
Health, Safeway, and Comcast are also participating as sponsors. But the success of the
festival can be attributed to the efforts of local
volunteers, who gather petition signatures,
work on vendor layout, plan for stages, and
work the “day of”! . Volunteer opportunities
abound including pre-festival through “day
of” and breakdown. To volunteer, email Irving
Washington at VolsAMDay@AMMainStreet.
org or call festival director Kassandra
Kearse at (202) 232-1978 or send email
to AMDay@AMMainStreet.org. Check for
Festival updates on: www.AMMainStreet.
org.
■
* The writer, a proud mixture of the
Guatemalan and Peruvian cultures, is
a DC native and Executive Director of
AdamsMorgan MainStreet Group.
and AdamsMorgan MainStreet Group. All
rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in
part without permission is prohibited.
on individuals who disagree with him,
and worse that we fear his presence on
the Council could completely destroy any
hope for continued collegiality which is
essential if it is to function effectively.
But there is one candidate that we
believe would be able to make a significant
contribution not only to the work of the
Council but also on behalf of his constituents. We refer to Eric Goulet, possibly not
a household name, but a candidate who
the voters should take a serious look at.
First off, he has the kind of personality
and genuine intellect that will contribute
greatly to the work of the Council; he is
not only collegial, but he is patient and
communicates well and is a true breath of
fresh creativity. But beyond that, he knows
his stuff.
One of his major strengths is his impressive knowledge and understanding of the
complexities of DC finance, and has served
admirably as clerk of the Committee on
Finance and Revenue. He would bring
another crucial voice of fiscal rationality
that continues to be so desperately needed.
In addition, thanks to his years of service
as legislative counsel for health and aging
issues when serving as a member of former
Councilmember Sandy Allen’s Committee
on Health, he was immersed in a range of
critical issues that require the attention of
council members who truly understand the
heath crisis affecting such a large portion
of our citizens; he would bring to the table
much needed insight and ideas. All we ask
is that voters make an effort to learn more
about him; they will be very impressed
indeed.
All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in
part without permission is prohibited.
SELECTED STREET CRIMES: Reported, June 30 - July 31, 2006
Following is a sampling of reported crimes in the expanded 3rd Police District and the
Bloomingdale neighborhood portion of the 5th District. Times shown are when reports
recorded by police; actual incidents will have occurred earlier. Occasionally we include
reports not recorded by the MPD. Emphasis here is placed, for the most part, on listing
crimes against persons occurring in or adjacent to public space. Not generally reported are
the extraordinary numbers of burglaries, auto heists, and “smash and grab” from parked
cars. These crimes appear to be consistently a problem from Rock Creek eastward and from
downtown north, spread fairly evenly throughout affluent, transitioning, and low-income
neighborhoods. Also not reported, for reasons of space, are most assaults stemming from
verbal altercations nor most of the numerous, random purse & other snatchings that can
occur anywhere and at any hour.
• Belmont, 1800 blk.: 2 persons robbed at gunpoint by man who approached from
behind [1:30am, Thu., 7/27]
• Caroline, 1500 blk.: 3 persons walking home from work accosted from behind by 2
others, one of whom grabbed the woman in the group & held gun to her head while all
3 were robbed [3am, Thu., 7/13]
• Champlain, 2300 blk.: while walking to his car man shot in foot by unknown person
[2am, Sat., 7/8]
• Church, 1700 blk.: man robbed at gunpoint by another [2:15am, Sun., 7/23]
• Columbia & Euclid: woman accosted by man who pushed her to ground & robbed
her of pocketbook after wrestling it away from her & then left scene in waiting car
[3:30pm, Tue., 7/25]
• Mintwood, 1800 blk.: person accosted by 2 others who jumped out from behind
some bushes, one of who brandished a gun & demanded, “Give me your money,”
whereupon person ran from the scene but in the process dropped some property which
was picked up & made off with [2:45am, Fri., 6/30] (Note similarity to incident several
blocks south in the 1700 blk. of 19th St. about one hour earlier)
• Monroe, 1300 blk.: 2 persons, hearing running behind them turned & were confronted by man with gun who ordered them to ground & robbed them after further
ordering them to “throw everything on the ground” [10:30pm, Mon., 7/3]
• Monroe, 1400 blk.: man riding bike accosted by 3 others who blocked his way with
one of them holding it while the other 2 went through his pockets & robbed him & then
punched him in his face [2:30am, Sat., 7/15]
• Morton, 600 blk.: woman accosted by man who came from behind as she was entering her building, grabbed her by the neck, threw her to the floor, causing her to bang
her head, & robbed her of pocketbook [12noon, Mon., 7/24]
• Mt. Pleasant, 3000 blk.: man robbed by another of iPod at gunpoint [6:15pm, Thu.,
7/27]
• N, unit blk.: man accosted by 2 others who came from behind demanding the four
$20 bills he had in his hand while pointing a gun at him [7:30pm, Sat., 7/8]
• New Hamp. & T: man getting ready to purchase lottery ticket robbed of property that
was grabbed from his shirt pocket by another who jumped in front of him & tyhen fled
premises [1:45pm, Thu., 7/13]
• Columbia, 1400 blk.: man robbed at knifepoint of cell phone & money by 3 others
who approached from behind [6:30pm, Sun., 7/9]
• Ontario, 2300 blk.: 2 persons robbed at gunpoint one man while the other acted as
lookout (case closed when robbers located, positively identified & arrested) [2am, Sat.,
7/22]
• Crescent, 1600 blk.: man on bike assaulted by another who was on foot who punched
him, knocking him to the ground & robbed him & then made his getaway in a waiting
car with several others [10pm, Tue., 7/4]
• Otis, 1300 blk.: man robbed & stabbed in abdomen by another & found by passerby
on ground holding his hands down on the wound [2am, Sun., 7/9]
• Euclid, 1400 blk.: woman’s property snatched from her by man who came from
behind [4:30pm, Mon., 7/31]
• Fairmont & University: man accosted by 2 others who came from behind, thrown to
ground & robbed [6:45am, Mon., 7/17]
• Fairmont, 1300 blk.: man’s gold chain snatched from around his neck by another
who rode past him as he was walking [11:30am, Fri., 7/7]
• Emmanuel Ct., 600 blk. (rear): Community activist & mayoral candidate Chris
Crowder, a resident of the 1300 blk. of 7th St., found lying beside his toppled wheelchair suffering from multiple gunshot wounds (later pronounced dead upon arrival at
Wash. Hosp. Center); also found at same location another man seriously injured with
gunshot wound to body & transported to hospital where admitted in critical condition
& whose name withheld because considered a material witness. (Persons with any information urged to call MPD’s Violent Crimes Branch at 727-9099.) [3:45am, Sat., 7/8]
• Florida, unit blk.: man walking home from store accosted by 3 others who came
from behind, one of whom grabbed him by neck, forced him to ground & robbed him
[12:45am, Sat., 7/8]
• Harvard, 1400 blk.: woman pedestrian talking on cell phone approached by 2 men
coming from opposite direction whereupon one of them struck her on her cheek while
the other grabbed the phone [4:30pm, Wed., 7/5]
• Harvard, 1600 blk.: man accosted by 2 others from behind & as one stuck a gun to
his side & pulled his wallet out from his pocket, took out the cash & handed it to the
other man who was holding him, the gunman said to the other, “Here you go” [7am,
Sun., 7/9]
• Hobart, 1600 blk.: man accosted from behind by another who pushed him to ground,
struck him with his hands & robbed him [3:45am, Sat, 7/1]
• Kalorama, 1800 blk.: 3 persons robbed at gunpoint by 2 men [3:30am, Sat., 7/15]
• P, 1700 blk.: man forcibly robbed by 2 others who had crossed over from the opposite
side of the street to accost him [11:15pm, Sun., 7/16]
• P, 2000 blk.: man involved in a minor auto collision when he drove his car in a manner that caused the side mirror of the affected car to be knocked off confronted by that
driver who demanded, “you’re gonna give me some money right now for my mirror”
& when he said he had no money on him the other driver threatened him with a gun
[1:30pm, Mon., 7/24]
• Q, 1700 blk.: bike stolen from storage area that had been left unlocked so that landscaping contractor could have access [12noon, Thu., 7/13]
• Q, 1700 blk.: man robbed at gunpoint by another who came from behind [5am,
Thu., 7/27]
• R, unit blk.: 2 persons robbed at knifepoint by 2 others [12:30am, Thu., 7/13]
• R, 1400 blk.: man’s property snatched by another passing him on sidewalk & because
he was intimidated by the robber, he kept on walking [6pm, Thu., 7/6]
• R, 1500 blk.: man accosted by another who punched him in face causing him to fall
to ground & was then robbed [11:15pm, Fri., 7/28]
• Rhode Is., 600 blk.: woman’s property snatched from her hand as she was walking by
man who came from behind [10:15pm, Mon., 7/3]
• S, 1700 blk.: 2 persons walking home robbed at gunpoint by 2 others who announced,
“This is a robbery; you know what’s up” [1:15am, Sun., 7/2] (Note similarity to incident
a couple of blocks away in the 1700 blk. of 19th St. about 30 minutes earlier)
• Spring, 1300 blk.: person punched in face by another who attempted to steal cell
phone, causing facial laceration & bruised shoulder [6:15am, Mon., 7/17]
• Swann, 1500 blk.: 2 persons walking home robbed at gunpoint by man who had been
standing next to a tree [3am, Sun., 7/23]
• Kalorama, 1900 blk.: man robbed at gunpoint by 2 others [2:15am, Tue., 7/25]
• Swann, 1800 blk.: person accosted by 2 others who emerged from nearby alley &
robbed at gunpoint [2:45am, Sat., 7/1]
• Kalorama, 2100 blk.: man grabbed from behind by another who had an unknown
cutting instrument in one hand while he robbed the man of his property [11:45pm,
Tue., 7/4]
• U, 1200 blk.: woman’s property snatched from her hand by person who came past
her [7:45pm, Sat., 7/22]
• Kilbourne, 1700 blk.: woman approached from behind by man who first asked if she
would like to have the flower he had in his hand & when she declined he pulled a gun,
placed to her head, demanded that she drop her bags & robbed her of cash [10:45pm,
Fri., 7/28]
• Lamont, 600 blk.: man accosted by 6 others who began to punch him about his body
& demanded money but fled scene when a witness approached [10:15pm, Fri., 6/30]
• Lanier, 1700 blk.: Adams Morgan ANC Commissioner and candidate for DC
Congressional Delegate Andy Miscuk robbed at gunpoint as he was walking home from
working late in his campaign office [1am, Mon., 7/31]
• Logan Cir.: woman walking on outside of Circle accosted by 2 men who came from
behind, pushed her to ground & robbed her [6:30pm, Mon., 7/3]
• Logan Cir.: man sitting on bench in the park approached from behind by 3 others
who grabbed him by his arm & around his body & robbed him of cash from inside his
sock [12noon, Sun., 7/30]
• V, 200 blk.: man standing in his front yard with his cell phone in his hand robbed by
man who came into the yard, pulled a gun & swung it at him but missed hitting him
[10:15pm, Sun., 7/23]
• V, 1100 blk.: man accosted by 4 others who first beat him about his head & face then
robbed him of wallet & cell phone (wallet recovered 2 blocks away) [1pm, Fri., 7/21]
• Willard, 1700 blk.: man walking home accosted by another brandishing a gun &
demanding money but who fled when man started to scream for help [2:30qm, Sun.,
7/31]
• 3rd & Q: man accosted by another who got out of a car that drove onto the sidewalk
to block his way, then demanded his money & when man started to flee, the assailant
got back into the car & pursued the man but he got away [2:45am, Sat., 7/29]
• 4th, 1700 blk.: man about to ride off on his scooter accosted by another from the side
who pushed him off onto the ground & declared, “Shut the f**k up, you white boy; I
hope you die, you f***” [10:15pm, Wed., 7/19]
Cont., CRIME, p. 9
RETAIL
space, leaving the perimeter walls open to hang local artists’ work; the real estate broker plans to participate in the
neighborhood’s monthly “gallery crawl.”
the month, with doors opening to the public in around 90
days.
• The Metropole, 1515 15th Street. Just a block away,
Metropolis Development is doing groundwork on the
Metropole, which will feature two retail spaces. The flagship space, at 22,000 square feet, will house Vida Fitness, a
modern fitness center opening its first branch in the Penn
Quarter later this month. The Metropole will be Vida’s
second location, and is expected to be completed sometime
in 2007.
The developer will begin to look for tenants for the
building’s second retail space (at 8.000 square feet) closer
to when the building nears completion, targeting primarily local, neighborhood-oriented retailers whose planning
timelines are much shorter.
From p. 1
• Abdo Development at 14th Street and Rhode Island
Avenue. As reported previously by The InTowner, developer
Jim Abdo plans to redevelop the northwest corner of 14th
Street and Rhode Island Avenue, where a Caribou Coffee
store is currently located. (See, “From Logan to Petworth:
New Projects Promise Residential & Retail Energy,”
February 2004, page 1.) The developer plans to build out
the air rights over the coffee retailer (which is housed in a
single-story structure at the prominent corner) without disrupting its operation, and to integrate the retailers at 1400
and 1402 14th Street into a larger, mixed-use (office/retail)
development. Construction is at least three years away, Abdo
told The InTowner, so neighbors can expect some stability in
the current retail mix for a few more years.
• Cooper Lewis Condominium and Lofts14-2. Metropolis
Development delivered its Lofts14 condominium project,
which houses furniture retailer Storehouse, in 2005. The
next two buildings in its pipeline are Lofts14-2 at 14th and
Church Streets and Cooper Lewis Condominium at 14th
and P Streets. While the retail space on the ground floor of
Cooper Lewis has all been leased, the developer was set to
ink a deal for the space at Lofts14-2 but it fell apart at settlement, leaving the developer with a prime, 5,000-square-foot
space to market. They have been in discussions with clothing and home furnishing retailers, and are offering the space
Union Row construction at 14th and V well underway.
in its entirety or divided into two different stores.
PNC Bank will occupy the prominent corner retail
space (4,110 square feet) in the Cooper Lewis project, and
real estate brokerage Hounshell Real Estate (formerly the
Hounshell Group/ReMax) will move into the space in the
northern half of the building, facing 14th Street. Owner
Bill Hounshell told The InTowner that they plan to use the
13-foot ceiling height in their space to create a gallery-like
atmosphere, with offices clustered in the center of the
CRIME
From p. 8
• 7th & Q: man accosted by 3 others demanding money & when he said “no” he was
struck on head with gun & then shot in his leg & then robbed [2:15am, Fri., 7/7]
• 8th & T: man walking home robbed by another who came from behind, stuck an
unknown object in his back & demanded his wallet, which he handed over [8am, Sun.,
7/2]
• 8th & T: man robbed at gunpoint of car keys as he walked away from having parked
it by man who then drove off in it [10:15pm, Fri., 7/14]
• 10th, 1300 blk.: man accosted by 3 others, one of whom pulled a gun & demanded
money but man was able to flee & call for help while the would-be robbers took off
[9:30pm, Sun., 7/16]
• 10th, 3600 blk.: 2 persons accosted by 6 others who came from behind, striking one
of them in the face & robbing them of cell phone & other property [10:15pm, Mon.,
7/3]
• 11th & M: man accosted by 2 others who robbed him at knifepoint [2am, Wed.,
7/19]
• 11th, 2000 blk.: man walking along & listening to music on his portable CD player
through his headphones accosted by 3 others who surrounded him, demanding, “Give
me your wallet, there is [sic] three of us,” whereupon they robbed him [7:45pm, Mon.,
7/31]
• 11th, 2700 blk.: woman’s purse forcibly snatched from her wrist by man who came
from behind [7am, Sun., 7/23]
• 12th, 1400 blk.: man robbed at gunpoint by 2 others who approached from behind
[11:30am, Sat., 7/15]
• 13th, 2200 blk. (rear): man who had walked into alley to enter his house from the
back accosted by 2 others who came from behind who struck him in the face & robbed
him [10:45pm, Sun., 7/16] (This robbery was followed 5 minutes later in the same block
by a second robbery by the same 2 men.)
• 13th, 2200 blk.: man accosted by 2 others who came from behind who punched him
on the neck knocking him to the ground & robbed him [10:50pm, Sun., 7/16] (This
robbery committed by the same 2 men as the one in the same block 5 minutes earlier. Later
that same evening, at about 11:50pm, MPD officers from the Mobile Force detail, along
with Third District officers, stopped 17-year-old juveniles at 13th and Corcoran Streets.
Both, were subsequently charged with three counts of robbery, force & violence and placed
under arrest in connection with these two robberies.)
• 14th, 1300 blk.: man accosted by another who motioned as if he had a gun demanding money (robbery not successful & case closed with arrest) [8pm, Mon., 7/3]
• 14th & Irving: man exiting Metro station accosted from behind by 2 others who
struck him around his head & face, knocking him to the ground & then robbing him
of wallet [12:45am, Wed., 7/19]
• 14th & Monroe: man approached by 2 others on bikes who blocked his way, whereupon another appeared with gun, hit him on his head with it, causing him to fall to the
ground & was robbed [12:30am, Fri., 6/30]
• 15th, 2400 blk.: man accosted by 3 others who punched him in the face causing him
to fall to the ground & then robbed him [8:45pm, Tue., 7/25]
• 1515 Arts Space, 1515 14th Street. Developer and
long-time local arts booster Giorgio Furioso redeveloped
the former Hudson Automobile showroom building into a
bustling center for the arts, with an organic restaurant on
the ground floor featuring frequently changing art shows,
and two levels of art galleries on the second and third floors,
including some of the city’s best known -- G Fine Art, David
Adamson, and George Hemphill among them. Furioso is
planning to add an ultra-modern addition to the top and
side of the existing building, but has been held up in zoning
and permitting. The new building will include additional
arts-oriented retail, but a construction schedule has not
been determined.
Cont., RETAIL, p. 10
• 15th, 2600 blk.: person robbed at gunpoint by another [11:45pm, Sun., 7/2]
• 16th & Monroe: 2 persons approached by another asking for a dollar “to get something to drink” and when told they had no money, 2 others approached, knocked one
of them to the ground & brandished a knife [1:15am, Tue., 7/4]
• 16th & Park: woman’s purse snatched “without permission” by man who came from
behind [2am, Sun., 7/16]
• 16th, 3700 blk.: as 2 persons got out of car, 2 others approached, one of whom
pointed a knife at one of them while the other, wielding a baseball bat, chased & struck
the 2nd person [8:30am, Tue., 7/4]
• 17th, 1600 blk.: Dupont Circle ANC Commissioner Mark Bjorge, while riding his
bike & calling police to report a possible criminal act, accosted from behind by the man
about whom he was calling to report & who snatched the cell phone from his hand &
fled from the scene but was apprehended shortly thereafter following complainant having encountering an officer at the 7-Eleven a block north & enlisting his assistance in
going after the man [10:15am, Wed., 7/19]
• 17th, 1700 blk.: man approached by another asking for a dollar & after giving it to
him continued walking, whereupon was confronted by same man again who this time
punched him in the stomach, causing him to fall to ground, and was robbed [2:30am,
Fri., 7/7]
• 17th, 3300 blk.: man robbed at gunpoint (semi-automatic) by 3 others [7pm, Wed.,
7/26]
• 18th & Ingleside: woman sitting in her car has it car-jacked by man who approached,
demanded the keys while stating, “You want me to shoot you?,” whereupon she handed
them over & he drove off throughthe alley [9:15pm, Mon., 7/10]
• 18th, 1700 blk.: 2 person accosted by 2 others who approached from behind, one of
who brandished a gun & demanded, “Give up all the cash or I’ll use this,” whereupon
they complied [3am, Fri., 6/30]
• 19th & Kalorama: 2 persons robbed by 2 others with guns who had approached from
behind, threatened to shoot them & then robbed them [2:30am, Sat., 7/1]
• 19th & N: 2 persons robbed by man at gunpoint [2:45am, Thu., 7/27]
• 19th, 1700 blk.: 2 persons robbed at gunpoint by 2 others who came from behind &
demanded the purse of one & the wallet of the other [12:45am, Sun., 7/2] (Note similarity to incident a couple of blocks away in the 1700 blk. of S St. about 30 minutes later)
• 19th, 1700 blk.: man accosted by 2 others who jumped out from behind some bushes,
one of who brandished a gun & demanded, “Give me your money,” whereupon man
ran from the scene but in the process dropped his cell phone which was picked up &
made off with [1:45am, Fri., 6/30] (Note similarity to incident several blocks north in the
1800 blk. of Mintwood Pl. about one hour later)
• 19th, 2300 blk.: 2 persons accosted from behind by 2 others, one of whom was hit on
the back of the head with gun which was then pointed at head while the other person
was grabbed & held until they gave up their property [3:30am, Sat., 7/8]
• 19th, 2300 blk.: 2 persons robbed at gunpoint by man who ordered them to the
ground, demanding their money [3:45am, Sat., 7/15]
• 20th & Kalorama: woman who responded to request by man in car who called her
over to ask for directions had her purse snatched by man who then sped off [10:30pm,
Mon., 7/17]
RETAIL
From p. 9
• The Matrix, 1529 14th Street. Two
newly built wings flank the early 20th
century structure of a former automobile
dealership in this loft condominium building under construction on the east side of
14th between P and Q streets. There is one
retail space in each of the three sections of
the building: in the new construction, the
smaller space covers 1,650 square feet and
the larger space is 2,330 square-feet. The
original building contains a much larger,
T Street Flats (initially to be known as
“Rapture Lofts”; see “Historic Preservation
Design Decisions Seen as Being Unfair and
Inconsistent,” InTowner, July 2005, page
1) will have a total of 5,800 square feet of
retail. Because construction has not begun
yet, very little marketing has been done.
Oddly, the space is divided into two sections by an interior wall which the Historic
Preservation Review Board has deemed
historic and which thus must be preserved.
Consequently, there are 1,500 and 3,300square-foot spaces available.
• 2001 14th Street NW. The biggest
news in Mid-City comes surrounding perhaps one of its smallest developments. Long vacant and boarded
up, the 10,500-square-foot building
at the prominent northeast corner of
14th and U streets is set to undergo
renovations and be reintroduced to
the commercial fabric of U Street.
A building permit has recently been
issued and construction is set to
begin on this elegant two-story structure. The owner, while initially just
building out a “vanilla box” to be
able to accept a range of tenant
categories, is seeking a “landmark
tenant” which will contribute significantly to the neighborhood, and
is actively marketing the building to
a bank or a fine dining restaurant/
lounge. “Discussions are underway
photo—Jon-Michael Higgins, courtesy Level 2 Development.
with a very reputable local restauShown here during the well-attended “groundbreaking” rateur,” owner’s broker Ken Naroozi
event on July 25th is a clear sign that the old Petrovitch told The InTowner, “who is looking
building demolition is moving along, to be replaced by
to build a flagship restaurant.” If a
the ambitious View 14 development.
restaurant is built, it will contain two
floors of dining, lounge and service
two-level retail space, with 3,835 square feet area plus a mezzanine, in addition to a roof
on the ground floor and an additional 1,250 terrace.
square feet below grade. The InTowner was
• Union Row, 2125 14th Street. One
unable to contact the retail brokerage company handling the commercial leasing at of the largest and most significant developments in the Mid-City section of 14th
the building by press time.
Street, Union Row is a large loft condomin• The Q14, 1600 14th Street. This build- ium building by PN Hoffman, under coning, developed by Georgetown developer struction with delivery expected in Summer
Fred Bahrami of Commercial Real Estate 2007. It contains the largest commercial
Services, contains two commercial spaces, space available in the submarket, at 27,000
one at 1,410 square-feet which will be square feet, and the developer has been in
leased, and another at 1,600 square feet various levels of discussions with several difwhich will be sold as a commercial con- ferent grocery store retailers, most generally
dominium. The developer is in discussions considered “upscale,” “gourmet” or “bouwith a settlement company, a coffee retailer, tique,” to take a majority of the space.
David DeSantis, Vice President of Sales
a furniture retailer and a high-end electronics manufacturer (which sells its merchan- and Marketing for PN Hoffman, told The
InTowner that they are “very committed
dise through its own retail stores).
to having a grocery in that building; the
neighborhood has told us very clearly that
Mid-City
they want and need it, and the DC govern14th & U (R to Belmont Sts.)
ment has indicated that it believes a grocery
• Source Theater, 1835 14th Street NW.
is an important use for at least some of
After a long period of uncertainty, the Source
that space.” Neighborhood activists have
Theater building has been purchased by the
been pushing for a Trader Joe’s, petitioning
Cultural Development Corporation, a priboth the developer and the budget-oriented
vate, non-profit group, and will be reopened
gourmet grocer’s corporate offices to sign a
as The Source, a center for the promotion
lease. DeSantis indicated that the developer
of the arts with new office space and classhas been in discussions with seven different
rooms, and a refurbished 149-seat theater.
companies, and stated, “It’s definitely going
For a period, the building was under conto happen.” With the first residents expected
tract to Bedrock Management, which had
to move into the building in the summer of
planned a restaurant and billiards hall for
2007, the commercial space could be built
the building. The well-known local resout on the same timeline if an agreement
taurateur withdrew its bid for the building
is reached soon enough, with doors to the
in light of strong public support, particugrocery opening at the same time as the
larly among theatergoers and supporters, for
condo building.
keeping the building within the arts comThe developer is looking at other neighmunity. The Source Theater was one of the
borhood-oriented retailers to occupy the
original arts institutions to put roots down
remaining commercial space. Categories
on 14th Street, laying the foundation for
include coffee shops, small restaurants,
the neighborhood’s current revival, but had
drug stores/pharmacies, even small furnibecome saddled with overwhelming rent,
ture retailers, hair salons and dry cleaners.
utility, tax and building maintenance costs.
• T Street Flats, 14th and T streets. A
luxury condominium combining the original structure facing 14th Street, for many
years used by the Church of the Rapture,
with a glassy, modern addition at the rear,
• The Solea, 14th Street and Florida
Avenue. This prominent corner has been
called “the gateway to Columbia Heights,”
and has been the subject of both design and
NEIGHBORHOOD THEATER
DreamCity Theatre’s DC-Focused Play, The 70,
Only to August 12 at MLK Library (9th & G Sts., NW)
W
hen asked by The InTowner what he
thought of the extraordinarily responsive, packed house audience at the opening
night premiere production of DreamCity
Theatre Group’s Metro bus drama The 70,
Charles Clyburn, who plays the lead role
of “Mr. Wonderful,” the retiring (from his
career as a Metro bus driver) but always
articulate captain of his motoring ship,
responded -- with gusto, “Man, that audience was not just there sitting out front, they
were with me, on the bus!”
And indeed, the 250 to 300 people in
the Martin Luther King Memorial Library
building’s lower level conference room
(which had been expertly converted to an
effective theatrical space by an artful layout
of chairs for spectators and an appropriately
minimalist but well-lighted stage set, raised
and opened to an outline of a Metrobus interior) were treated to a riveting succession of
one round after the other of passengers riding the number 70, the Georgia Avenue/7th
Street bus that runs from Maine Avenue on
the Southwest waterfront to the bus plaza at
the Silver Spring Metrorail station.
In a series of a dozen sequences in two
acts, The 70 presents a range of passengers
who reflect the colorful, even outrageous,
demographics of metropolitan Washington,
DC. The bus driver, aptly named “Mr.
Wonderful,” and based on a “real life” person, is charmingly and poignantly realized
both as conceptualized by playwrights John
Muller and Justin McNeil, in their first
dramatic work, and in a strong and sensitive
performance by Charles Clyburn, whose
obvious experience in both art and life
shines with a deep, compassionate glow. As
Mr. Wonderful, Clyburn provides the daily
dose of wise and patient counsel to a cast
that includes both “wannabe” miscreants
and aspiring, idealistic young professionals. Life’s tragic victims also people Mr.
Wonderful’s congregation of continually
changing passengers, including, in a tour
de force of ensemble performance, Clyburn
contending with a character known as the
Hack, a filthy, foul-mouthed White racist
drunk who is almost frighteningly realized
by a young actor named David Olmsted.
photo—John Mai, courtesy DreamCity Theatre Group
Mr. Wonderful’s verbal encounter, which
becomes almost horrifically over the top,
results in a Metrobus “death sentence;” the
Hack is permanently banned. Olmstead
also partners with Elwin Cotman, JD in
an earlier role, to play a pair of interracial
boyfriends serving as religious missionary
brothers; this sequence serves as an hilarious
counterpoint to the heartfelt portrayals elsewhere of classic African-American church
ladies. And Shaunte McKissick is terrific
as a “’70s”-style valley girl with an elegant
Starbuck’s coffee drink in hand but nothing
photo—John Mai, courtesy DreamCity Theatre Group.
smaller than a $5 bill with which to pay her
bus fare.
The 70 is book-ended with exchanges
between Mr. Wonderful and one of his most
faithful and admiring passengers, the down
and out bag lady named Gladys, who is
affectingly and vigorously played by Barbara
K. Asare-Bediako. Her feet are killing her
Cont., THEATER, p. 13
Scenes from the Past...
photo—Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
The Zalmon Richards House at 1301 Corcoran Street, NW as it appeared in 1974.
M
any passersby notice eleas a Superintendent of Police
gant brass plaques mounted
from 1864 to 1878.
on Washington’s numerous hisZalmon Richards had been
toric buildings, but the one on the
born on a farm in Cummington,
house at 1301 Corcoran Street,
Massachusetts on August 11,
NW that simply reads “Zalmon
1811, the son of Nehemiah and
Richards House” certainly tends
Elizabeth (Packard) Richards.
to arouse curiosity. Just who was
He attended the Cummington
this man with the odd first name,
Academy and the Southampton
and why was he important?
Academy to prepare for his entry
Some quick research reveals
into Williams College in 1832.
that Richards (1811-1899) was a
His tuition was paid for by prileader in both local and national
vate teaching and small loans that
public and private education,
he repaid after his graduation in
and one of the founders of the
1836. He also pledged himself
National Education Association
to abstain from alcoholic beverand the Young Men’s Christian
ages when he joined the Baptist
Association (YMCA). He and
church just prior to his underarchival image—Crimelibrary.com.
his second wife lived at 1301
graduate work.
Corcoran Street from 1882 until Mary F. Mather, Zalmon Richards’ secRichards returned to his alma
ond wife, was a direct descendant of Rev.
his death in 1899. Her family Cotton Mather, shown here, who was chief- mater to become the principal of
members, on the other hand, were ly responsible for the Salem witch trials.
the Cummington Academy after
chiefly responsible for the infareceiving an M.A. degree in 1838.
mous Salem witch trials!
The following year, he married his
Research does not reveal the origin of his rather assistant teacher, Minerva A. Todd, and they moved to
unusual first name, however. It is curious to note that teach at the Stillwater Academy in New York.
he signed his name only with a ‘Z,’ and was known to
Richards became principal of the preparatory school
have “vials of wrath if one called him ‘Zed.’” (Allen for Columbian College in Washington beginning
C. Clark, Records of the Columbia Historical Society, December 1, 1848. The school was established for stuvol. 42/43, p. 145.) His brother was seemingly equally dents wishing to enter Columbian College (now The
cursed, having been named Almarin. He served as George Washington University) and was then located
a principal of the old Prescott High School on 8th at 14th and N Streets, NW. Built of brick in 1822, it
Street, between K and L Streets, NW., and also served measured 25 by 30 feet and housed about 17 students.
The school had a checkered past due to the fact that
during its first 26 years in existence, from 1822-1848,
it had no less than 17 principals. Zalmon served as its
principal until 1851.
In the 1850s, the termination of the school year in
Washington was marked by examinations, followed
by public presentation of prizes. In 1851, a parade
of 2,000 students marched through the streets of
Washington, joined by the Marine Corps Band, Mayor
Walter Lenox, and trustees of the public schools, who
were all greeted by thousands of spectators; Richards
then addressed the crowds.
On September 12, 1851, Richards and his wife
purchased a 43-by-103-foot vacant lot the northwest
corner of New York Avenue and 14th Street, NW and
opened the Union Academy the following year.
On June 9, 1852, Richards attended the preliminary
organizational meeting at the Masonic Hall of the
Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), which
he served as its first president, beginning later that
month; The YMCA first occupied the buildings at
437-441 7th Street, NW.
The Academy flourished until 1862, when Richards
was employed as a clerk at the Treasury Department
during the Civil War. His wife ran the Academy alone
until the end of his Treasury job 1867.
That year, Richards had become active in securing the establishment of the National Department of
Education, and served as its clerk until it was transferred to the Interior Department in 1869, when he
went back to teach at his Union Academy. From 1869
to 1871, he served as the first appointed superintendent
of public schools in the District of Columbia. He was
later appointed the city’s auditor from 1872 to 1874.
Apparently, Richards enjoyed becoming intimately
involved in new organizations for which he had a
passion; he attended the organizational meeting of
the National Teachers Association on August 26,
1857, and was elected as its first president as well. It
later became the National Education Association.
Among its founding members
at least one-fourth were faculty
members or administrators from
institutions of higher learning,
including John Seeley Hart of
Princeton, Calvin Pease of the
University of Vermont, and James
R. Challen of Northwestern University.
Earlier, on June 3, 1861, Richards had been sworn
in as a Union supporter to the city’s Common Council,
representing the Second Ward. His brother Almarin
was elected from the Third Ward. The election
meeting had not gone smoothly, however, as the Star
reported in its May 29, 1861 edition:
“The meeting finally adjourned with an indefinite
amount of blowing, and in going out somebody’s fist
accidentally got into another body’s face whereupon
photo—John Mai, courtesy DreamCity Theatre Group.
THEATER
From p. 11
photo—Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
The north side of the eastern end of the 1300 block of Corcoran Street was built sometime between 1874 and 1878 in what
was then the popular French Mansard style. The Richards house, shown here in this 1974 photograph, occupies the corner lot.
half a dozen pitched into everybody in general and
no one in particular, the only object appearing to be a
desire to let some one fight out. Heads went down and
heels flew up; benches rolled up among themselves in
a hurry, and several serious collisions occurred at the
door between those getting out and others getting in.”
A true renaissance man, on July 4, 1864, Richards
even witnessed the signing of a
dedicatory hymn he had composed for the opening of the
Wallach School. In 1871 he
attempted a partnership with
Henry R. Miles to manufacture
paper files and carpet stretchers
on the Academy grounds; that venture failed the following year. The Academy itself was foreclosed upon
in August of 1877, and Richards and his wife moved
into the Rugby Hotel.
Richards’ first wife, Minerva, had died in the afternoon of July 15, 1873; just 13 months later, on August
19, 1874, he married Mary Frances. Mary had been
born in Darien, Connecticut on November 5, 1835.
She was 24 years his junior (he was 63; she then 39).
Mary was a direct, lineal descendant of the famous
Rev. Cotton Mather (1663-1728), a Puritan minister
at Boston’s Old North Church and chief cause and
promoter of the Salem witch trials. Following the wedding in Darien, they resided on the Academy grounds
at 1401 New York Avenue, NW.
In 1882, they moved into 1301 Corcoran Street,
and resided there until her death in 1896, and his
death there at 4:15 a.m. on November 1, 1899. He is
interred in a family plot in Oak Hill Cemetery next to
his two wives.
The Zalmon Richards house was placed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 1966 as an individual landmark, long before the surrounding neighborhood was considered for historic district status.
—Paul Kelsey Williams
Historic Preservation Specialist
Kelsey & Associates, Washington, DC
Copyright (c) 2006 InTowner Publishing Corp. & Paul
Kelsey Williams. All rights reserved. Reproduction in
whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
photo—University of Maryland Archives.
Civil War photographer Matthew Brady took these images of Zalmon Richards about 1865. A noted educator, he resided at 1301 Corcoran Street, NW from 1882 until his death there in 1899.
and Mr. Wonderful’s parting gift to Gladys
as he closes his career by completing his last
run as the No. 70 bus driver is nothing less
than “wonderful.”
The opening night audience included
family and friends of the entire DreamCity
Theatre Group, and such admiring supporters as Dan Tangherlini, Metro’s Interim
General Manager, who, in speaking with
The InTowner following the performance,
praised DreamCity’s successful capturing of the diversity and egalitarianism of
Washington’s Metrobus ridership, the integral part played by “The 70” in the daily
lives of its passengers, and the theatrical
skills displayed by the entire cast and creators of the play. And indeed, the impor-
tance of “the public, neighborhood bus” to
the lives of passengers throughout the city
is among the many thoughtful, underlying
themes of this impressively realized urban
drama.
The play’s two acts, presented without
intermission in approximately 90 minutes, is
tightly and terrifically directed by Michelle
Orr, effectively using its basic stage props
and set to move its action briskly through its
replication of Mr. Wonderful’s final tour of
duty driving the No. 70 Metrobus; it makes
for an unforgettable ride. The 70 will end its
run with the Sunday afternoon (3:30 p.m.),
August 12th performance -- free with no
reservations required -- at the Martin Luther
King, Jr. Memorial Library.
■
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21st & Q Sts., NW; tel., 387-2151
Tue.-Sat., 10am-5pm; Thu to 8:30pm;
Sun., Noon-7pm
Klee + all exhibits: $12
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Permanent Coll. only:
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P
aul Klee’s delightfully enigmatic and
endlessly creative artistic output was
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York Herald where he characterized Klee as
“that strange meteor from Switzerland.”
In a stunningly attractive exhibition of 80
works from American museums, galleries,
and private collections, including 13 of its
own, The Phillips Collection has mounted
a fitting celebration of the profound impact
on American art and culture of Klee’s paintings, drawings, and watercolors.
Paul Klee’s work is almost the apotheosis
of an artist’s dream sensibility -- one in the
case of Klee that was acutely attuned to
the very creativity of life itself. Klee’s emotional and cognitive sensibility embraced
and reflected everything he encountered,
from man’s parallels and intersections with
nature and natural forms and shapes, with
the immanent designs and communications
of the human psyche -- and with colors and
the uncanny. Klee’s fascination with the
dancing line of life, in both its expressive
flowering and its poignant enclosures is
captivating on every occasion.
In spite of the confused celebration
of Klee by the surrealists and the brutal
demonization of Klee by the Nazis (his work
was prominently featured in their infamous
“degenerate art” show), avant-garde artists
and connoisseur collectors in America purchased his work beginning in the early
1920s for inclusion in the first museums of
modern art -- The Phillips and New York’s
Museum of Modern Art and by what is
now known as the Guggenheim. And the
continuing championing of Klee’s work
by Alexander Calder, Duncan Phillips,
Katherine Drier, Mark Tobey, and Walter
and Louise Arensberg ensured an American
audience for Klee during the dark days of
the 19390s and 1940s.
The 80 wonderful works presently on
display in this “Klee and America” exhibit
range in date from 1913 to 1939; Klee
died in 1940 at age 60. Their styles include
densely composed, imagistic fantasies -- brilliantly colored -- whimsical line drawings
of an almost child-like joyous celebration,
along with watercolor paintings that mix
geometric abstractions with scenes of seaside regattas. It is especially fascinating to
observe the intersections of Klee’s work
with that of his many talented contemporaries. Where many of these artists used the
insights of cubism, surrealism, symbolism,
and the imaginary to constrict, destruct,
and reduce their work to anti-humanist
rejections of the body and its natural world
-- to insist in their work on the break-up and
elimination of figurative and pictorial forms
Picture Album (1937)
Yellow House (1915).
Woman with Parasol (ca. 1883–‘85).
Cold City (1921).
A Special Treat
A
ccompanying “Klee and
America” is an interesting,
small display of early childhood
drawings by Klee and Pablo
Picasso together with other
drawings by children. Entitled
“When We Were Young: New
Perspectives on the Art of the
Child,” this focused study exhibition is accompanied by a scholarly monograph that inaugurates
museum’s ambitious program for
its new Center for the Study of
Modern Art. Like the large “Klee
and America” show, this small
and intriguing display continues
through September 10.
Small Picture of a Regatta (1922).
-- Klee’s compositions marched forward with
never-ending creativity and life-affirming
glee, complete with a mature, ironic reflection.
Among my many favorites in this
exhibition are the following standouts:
Hoffmannesque Tale (1921); The Twittering
Machine, Small Pictures of a Regatta, and
The Red Balloon from 1922; Sketch in the
Manner of a Carpet (1923); Youth Actor’s
Mask (1924); Palace, Partly Destroyed
(1925); Conjuring Trick (1927); Monument
Under Construction (1929); Arabian Song
(1932); and Gaze of Silence (1935).
The generosity of 40 museums and galleries and three private collections which
allowed for the provision of the 80 works
in this show is noteworthy. And Klee’s
work further lends itself to large format art
book reproduction. The exhibition catalog
accompanying this show is excellent and the
scholarly articles surrounding the beautiful
four-color reproductions of all 80 works in
the exhibition are engagingly written and
very informative. Through September 10.
*Anthony L. Harvey is a collector of contemporary art, with
an emphasis on Washington artists. He is a founding member of the Washington Review of the Arts. For many years he
was the staff person in the United States Senate responsible
for arts and Library of Congress oversight by the Senate’s
Rules and Administration Committee and the House and
Senate’s Joint Committee on the Library.
HIRSHHORN MUSEUM &
SCULTURE GARDEN
Independence Ave. at 7th St., SW;
Tel., 357-1300 / Daily, 10am-5:30pm
I
n a deeply troubling yet powerfully compelling exhibition of a half-dozen mixedmedia masterwork paintings, together with
three-dozen robustly precious sculptures,
smaller paintings, and watercolor drawings
on paper, the contemporary German artist
Anselm Kiefer is currently being gifted by
the Hirshhorn with a grandly installed exhibition of his artistic output through 2005.
This represents the second large museum
show at the Hirshhorn for Kiefer -- the first
having been almost 20 years ago -- and is
complemented for Washingtonians with the
National Gallery of Art’s installation in its
permanent collection of two of Kiefer’s most
grandiose works, his Angel of History sculpture from 1989 of a childishly constructed
large model of a ruined World War II
bomber with gashingly truncated wings atop
of which sit crudely made folio books with
molten lead leaves, and his huge, open field
landscape collage/painting titled Zum Zum
from 1990 where a central body of water is
flanked by farmland of charred stubble.
Kiefer is a child of the dying days of the
Third Reich , apparently born in Berlin
in early 1945; he appears to be in deep
Leviathan (2005).
Speer for Third Reich and Nazi party commemorative buildings. Here is Kiefer’s curator and interpreter Michael Auping on
Albert Speer: “Like Schmitt, Speer was a
controversial German figure whose ambitions toward exalted schemes combining
the political and the spiritual found unholy
results.” Like when Speer knowingly used
slave labor from concentration camps for
his late, wartime industrial enterprises, perhaps? And yet Auping somehow perceives
deep spiritual meaning in Kiefer’s evocations of Albert Speer’s design and architectural accomplishments as Hitler’s master
builder.
According to Auping, Kiefer only became
interested in an artistic career upon meeting
Joseph Beuys one weekend and subsequent-
The Order of Angels (1985-’87).
mourning for the devastation that occurred
in Germany during World War II. One
learns from the idolatrous essay by Michael
Auping in the exhibition catalog for the
Hirshhorn’s current exhibition, which is
modestly titled “Heaven and Earth,” that
Kiefer began his adult life as an admiring
student of the Nazi Party’s court jurist Carl
Schmitt, theoretician for the justification
as progress of the use of physical violence
in the idealistic creation of the ideal and
authoritarian state presided over by the great
ruler -- in this case, Adolph Hitler, himself.
By all accounts, Schmitt waged endless war
on what he considered to be a delusion,
namely the individualistic ideals of the
enlightenment and its humanistic respect
for the rights of every individual.
This is how Auping describes Carl
Schmitt: “A devout Catholic, Schmitt’s
philosophy fell on the side of authoritarianism for the sake of progress and what
he envisioned as a greater idealism.” This
whitewashing of Schmitt flies in the face of
the fierce arguments currently raging over
the use by neo-conservative officials in the
present Bush administration of Schmitt’s
philosophy—at least of that part of the
philosophy transmitted by his protégé Leo
Strauss at the University of Chicago. And
such terrifying concepts as the authoritarian
leader being the “decisionist” who harnesses
man’s violent nature for progressive “idealistic aggressions” is what Schmitt philosophy
is all about. What Keifer is all about is coyly
covered up in powerfully executed canvas
landscapes and enigmatically weak small
paintings and water color drawings—all
of which imply that Kiefer is some kind
of prophetic avatar for man in these post“holocaust” times.
Schmitt is even celebrated by name in
one of Kiefer’s paintings. Albert Speer is
celebrated by Kiefer’s depictions of Speer’s
signature Nazi light shows—for party celebrations—and drawings framed by large,
shed like classical structures designed by
Star Fall (1995).
Paul Celan. About Celan, Auping provides
the further disservice of simply repeating the
same errors and misinformation from earlier
art writings regarding Celan and his tragic
and suicidal life.
And why, we might ask, do we not hear
directly from Kiefer. Again, according to
Auping and the Hirshhorn’s collaborating
curator, Kiefer is too busing creating his art;
he refuses, it was said at the Museum’s press
conference for this show, “to break his artistic concentration by appearing in public,”
even, apparently for an exhibition of his own
work—one which is powerful and intriguing and cries out for an explication from the
artist himself. Kiefer’s almost overwhelming
work in no way--other than the obviously
irrelevant--explains itself.
Whatever, the last
work in this Heaven
and Earth, homage
to Anselm Kiefer is
a huge and terrific
expressionistic landscape painting with
a glacier piling into
the sea and a toy
submarine dangling
by a string onto and
in front of the lower
mid
foreground
of the work. The
painting is called
Leviathan, no doubt
in keeping with a
continuing if posthumous collaboration
with Carl Schmitt’s
analytical riffs on the
Biblical monster of
that name and the
famous treatise by
Man in the Forest (1971).
Thomas Hobbs, brilly spending three weeks as the guest of “the liantly misinterpreted by Schmitt.
hounds of heaven” at the Dominican monAnselm Kiefer’s content filled paintings
astery of La Tourette, one of Le Corbussier’s are bigger than life—even bigger than those
late architectural accomplishments. In a of his fellow expressionist Julian Schnabel.
single cell at La Tourette, as the artist Dangerous though they may be, they are
remembers it, recalls Auping, Kiefer “spent unforgettable to experience. The show conhis three weeks just thinking quietly about tinues through September 10, 2006, free to
the large questions,” heaven and earth, for the public in an expansively laid out exhibiexample. Aupig opaquely and referentially tion that is a credit to the Hirshhorn’s staff.
■
associates Kiefer with an extraordinarily
large and diverse grab bag of historical
and legendary figures—from Gilgamesh Copyright (c) 2006 InTowner Publishing Corp.
and medieval Jewish mystics in Spain to All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in
Immanuel Kant and the problematic poet part without permission is prohibited.
Part I of this story focused on the beloved
olive tree of ancient Greece, especially its
mythic qualities. Part II concludes with the
olive’s arrival in Italy.
Food in the ‘Hood
By Joel Denker
T
he Romans were enthusiastic olive eaters. To give the fruit a sprightly flavor,
they steeped it in oil, garlic, and salt, a
marinade we have inherited. Street vendors
hawked olives in cones made of papyrus and
sold olive cakes accented with cumin, anise,
and fennel.
“There are two liquids especially appealing to the human body, wine inside and
oil outside,” Pliny, the Roman naturalist,
wrote. His society gloried in both the olive
and grape on festive occasions. A shop in
Pompeii, unearthed by archaeologists, provided partygoers with olive wreathes to wear
and with oils to beautify their bodies.
A practical people, the Romans improved
techniques for processing olive oil and
exploited it as a commercial product.
Donkeys pulled wheels made of millstones
that pulped the fruit. A screw press, a Roman
invention, extracted oil from the paste. The
mills produced a spectrum of oil -- from
the most luxurious to the ordinary. Even
its wastes had value. The black residue was
used as a weed killer and as an insecticide.
Since the olive crop in Rome and its
colonies was uneven, plentiful one year and
meager the next, the empire faced an ongoing dilemma. The answer was trade. To fill
in the gaps, Rome, especially, depended on
“A Taste as Old as Cold Water”*:
The Story of the Olive — Part II
Editor’s Note: The writer, a former Peace Corp volunteer in Africa many
years ago, is the author of Capital Flavors: Exploring Washington’s Ethnic
Restaurants (1988, Seven Locks Press), which evolved from his series in
this newspaper over a decade ago, known then as “The Ethnic Bazaar.” In
addition, in June 2003, his The World on a Plate: A Tour Through the History
of America’s Ethnic Cuisines was published by Westview Press (www.
westviewpress.com), in which part of one chapter was drawn from articles
that originally had appeared in this space.
Queries, comments, suggestions can be sent to denker@starpower.net.
imports of the commodity.
The colony of Tunisia was by the 4th century A.D. Rome’s largest provisioner of olive
oil. The Romans wrung a bountiful crop
from the barren soil in the country’s interior.
They invested large sums in olive mills and
large presses that could turn out oil in bulk.
The oil business enriched African traders,
who showed off their wealth in expensive
villas. Magnates parlayed their financial
gains into political influence. African businessmen held seats in the Roman Senate.
Spain, the largest exporter of olive oil
today, grew into an oil bastion during Roman
rule. The Phoenicians, mariners who sailed
Celebrating Our 19th Year!
We could not have done it without you!
Enjoy our acclaimed Regional Italian cuisine
at moderate prices, overlooking the
bustling neighborhood scene
out from what is now Lebanon, planted the
land’s first olive groves. By the 2nd century
A.D., the Roman occupiers had built an
extensive system of orchards and oil mills in
the Southern region of Andalusia. Along the
banks of rivers, kilns manufactured amphorae, the vessels in which oil was transported
to market. Hundreds of thousands of these
vases, classical scholar D.J. Mattingly points
out, were crafted a year to meet the insatiable demand in the capital. Vessels plied the
rivers loaded with stores. Visit Rome today
and gaze at Mount Testaccio, a hill, near
the wharves of the old city, formed from
discarded or smashed amphorae.
Fortunes were also made from Spanish
oil. Although Italian-born, illustrious families, like those of Trajan and Hadrian,
reaped huge profits in the Iberian colony.
The Moors, who invaded Spain in the 7th
century A.D. and who controlled large parts
of the country for several centuries, revitalized olive culture. Keen agriculturalists, the
Muslims laid out new fields and tended
them religiously. The center of cultivation
continued to be Andalusia, which today
produces 80 percent of Spain’s olives. The
familiar pimento stuffed green olives, the
Manzanillas (or “little apples”), are grown
in this region.
Olive oil was only slowly accepted by the
Spanish Christians, who stuck to lard in
their cooking. Because olive oil was associated with Muslims and Jews, Catholics
shunned it. After the Reconquista, the vanquishing of the Islamists by the Christians,
pork was extolled. In time, though, olive oil
became the country’s flavoring of choice.
The Spanish names for olive and olive oil,
aceite and aceituna respectively, are Arabic
in origin.
The olive was incorporated in Church rituals. Priests were ordained by anointments
of oil, a symbol of constancy. On holy days,
worshippers were blessed with olive fronds
often cut from trees grown on Church land.
During the Lenten fast, many Catholics
abstained from butter in favor of olive oil.
Spain was eager to adorn its colonies with
the olive tree. Since the fruit only flourished
in a Mediterranean climate, the crown’s
ambitions went largely unfulfilled. The
tropical climate of the Spanish possessions
in the Caribbean, Cuba and Hispaniola,
was hostile to the olive. In Latin America,
only along the desert coast of Peru was there
fertile ground for the Spanish import.
In North America, Thomas Jefferson, who
called the olive “the worthiest plant to be
introduced into America,” found the South
inhospitable to large-scale cultivation. The
continent’s West Coast was friendlier. The
Franciscan friars, who pioneered Spanish
settlement of California, carried olive cuttings there from Mexico in the 1700s. In
addition to pears, pomegranates, figs, dates,
and almonds, the padres filled their mission
gardens with olive trees, which they planted
primarily for their oil. The variety was naturally called a “mission” olive.
The West Coast olive industry didn’t take
off until the late 19th century, when the
number of orchards had expanded and when
the product shipped in railcars arrived in the
Middle West and East. The California olive
was a characteristically American invention,
a creation of technology and mass production. Freda Ehman, whose son owned an
olive ranch in the state, devised a way to
chemically ripen green fruit. On the back
porch of her daughter’s home in Oakland,
historian Raymond Sokolov recounts, she
tinkered with curing methods. She discovered that a lye bath would produce a “black
ripe” olive.
This olive was perfect for canning.
Techniques for pitting, sizing, and stuffing
the fruit were also developed. The massproduced, bland olive appealed to a public
fearful of any exotic item with a sharp,
pungent taste.
Since then we have grown more accustomed to the olive. But it is still not part of
our daily routine. How many of us place a
plate of olives on our dining tables before a
meal? We are a long way from being aficio■
nados.
* The quote in the title is from author
Lawrence Durrell.
Copyright (c) 2006 InTowner Publishing
Corp. & Joel Denker. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without
permission is prohibited.
Mediterranean Olive Outlets
• L’Enfant Café-Bar: 2000 18th St. This Adams-Morgan bistro serves tapenade, a
Mediterranean olive spread.
Patio Dining • Piano Player
Convenient to major hotels and Dupont Circle Metro
1701 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. Washington D.C. 20009
(202) 667-5505
VALET PARKING FOR OUR DINNER CUSTOMERS
• Pyramids: 600 Florida Ave. Try the chicken tagine, a Moroccan stew flavored
with olives.
• Todito Grocery, 1813 Columbia Rd; tel., 986-5680. This Latin grocery carries an
assortment of olive products, including Manzanilla Spanish olives; Alcaparrado, a
mixture of capers, green olives, and capers; and large purple Peruvian olives.
RESERVATIONS RECOMMENDED
By Alexandra Greeley*
W. DOMKU
Neighborhood Eclectic
F
or non-city slickers, finding the way to
W Domku (the ‘W’ means “in the little
house,” said the waitress) in the Petworth
neighborhood is a bit of a challenge. And
if you arrive with no preconceived notions
about the restaurant, you may be left puzzling over what it all means.
At least, this one-size-fits-all place echoed
for me sounds of Berkeley and Birkenstock
past with its post-Salvation Army era eclectic
and mis-matched furniture, artwork (some
of it oversized) on the walls, and casual air
that welcomes readers, chatters, eaters. In
some ways, it resembles your crazy aunt’s
parlor, assuming she drinks lots of vodka in
one corner of the room and loves to play
pool behind a partition. Come one, come
all.
Finding the right mindset for Domku
is one thing, but figuring out the menu is
quite another. I was under the mistaken
impression that breakfast is served daily,
and figured on splurging with some interesting waffles or pancakes. As it turns out,
management has trimmed back its breakfast
days to Friday and Saturday only, deleting
Thursdays, and leaving lunchers with the
regular menu to pour over on other days.
As luck would have it, the day I dropped
by, several of the menu items hadn’t made it
to the kitchen yet, but there were still plenty
of choices, if one could only figure them
all out. Which, a bison burger Svenska or
a Polska kielbasa and kapusta? Nope -- too
much food for a hot day. Well, how about
a gravlax sandwich or possibly a plate of
Swedish meatballs? Or maybe the braised
beef wrapped with lefse, a potato flatbread?
Nope, nope, and nope. What I really
wanted was an order of Norwegian pancakes with a shot of one of their chilled and
oddball vodkas, but instead, I settled for
the cheese nalesniki, or Polish crêpes filled
with buckwheat, mushrooms, leeks, and,
of course, cheese. What the waitress -- she
was another reminder of hippier days gone
by — forgot to mention was that the crêpes
take forever to cook. Other patrons came in,
were served, and were happily working on
their desserts while the crêpes baked away
in the kitchen.
All this wait time allows patrons to ponder the joys of such cocktails as the Swedie
See the last
issue on our
website:
www.intowner.com
Pie, Budapest Daily, Velvet Revolution, and
Rzeczypospolitu Petsworthka; you’ll have
to stop by to find out. And that’s not even
dreaming of their slew of Polish, Russian,
and Ukrainian beers. All I know is that the
coffee was good and bracing — and very
nonalcoholic.
As it turns out, the crêpes are, well,
thin pancakes wrapped around a filling,
and these were no different than crêpes
elsewhere, except that they took so long to
bake; I guess the cheese needed to melt.
While not a three-cheers entrée, they did
pass muster and satisfied the inner pancake
person, especially the rich sauce, which was,
I suspect, three parts heavy cream to three
parts cheese. Intriguing, too, is finding a
scattering of buckwheat as part of the filling.
Just don’t consider the crêpes if you are in a
hurry; if you do, bring along a book or the
morning paper to while away the time.
And don’t skip the single-layer almond
cake for dessert — the only cake on offer
that day — because its frosting is a smooth
almond paste studded with sliced almonds.
The waitress noted that there wasn’t much
else offered for dessert anyway.
If you think W Domku is a bit of a puzzle,
just take it all in stride. Yes. it’s a bit wacky,
a bit out there, a bit edgy, and the food does
not resemble much else served in town. So
■
have a good time! Drink vodka.
W Domku • 821 Upshur St., NW; tel.,
722-7475. Hours: Tue.-Thu., 11am-11pm;
Fri. & Sat., 8am-10pm; Sun. brunch,
10am-3pm. Entrée price range: $10-$18.
Visa & MasterCard accepted.
Alexandra Greeley is a food writer, editor, and restaurant
reviewer. She has authored books on Asian and Mexican
cuisines published by Simon & Schuster, Doubleday, and
Macmillan. Other credits include restaurant reviews and
food articles for national and regional publications, as
well as former editor of the Vegetarian Times and former
food editor/writer for the South China Morning Post in
Hong Kong.
& Alexandra Greeley. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
Alexandra Greeley’s
reviews archived
at www.intowner.com
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Detailed chronological text and
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WASH. HEIGHTS
From p. 1
those atop the large, high-ceilinged, threelevel former automobile garage on 18th
Street which used to house Dance Place and
Cities served to further convert several key
observers, including ANC commissioners, to
the ranks of historic preservationists.
Thus, by the time the three year-effort of
the KCA and the HPO culminated in the
presentation of an historic district application to the HPRB, there was little if any
opposition to the proposed designation for
the purely residential streets of “Washington
Heights.” However, was both vehement and
well-organized opposition over the inclusion
of the commercial corridors on 18th Street
and Columbia Road into the same historic
preservation regime as that of the residential
sections.
Reasons for this strenuous opposition were
forcefully expressed by a panel of property
owners as being primarily the fact that the
façades and front walls of these commercial
structures, both those designated as “purpose
built” and those which were previously residential, have been in continual renovation
and reconfiguration over the past 40 to 50
years. The original front walls and applied
embellishments are no longer present, they
argued, and the very nature of the competitive Adams Morgan business culture
occupying these buildings — especially the
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restaurants and bars, many of which have
sidewalk patio seating — dictates constant
commercial re-design, build-outs, and redecoration. Indeed, many of these buildings
have already had their fronts built out to create additional space or to provide eye-catching display windows. Striking effects — out
of character with the traditional classical
architectural designs of Washington Heights
residential properties — have already been
achieved.
Dr. Charles Brazie, on behalf of the
Adams Morgan Business and Professional
Association (ANBPA), observed that “most
of these out-of-period alterations in buildings
and building façades have occurred in the
last 30 years, resulting in an attractive blend
of unique and diverse neighborhood architecture reflecting the multi-cultural styles
and diverse uses of the continuously evolving Adams Morgan community.” AMBPA’s
Executive Vice President Pat Patrick joined
Brazie (and Stephen Greenleigh in written
testimony to the Board) noting that “almost
all commercial lots in the 18th Street commercial corridor have been built out to,
or just below, their FAR [allowable floor
area ratio] so that additional development is
economically prohibitive.” Patrick more precisely asserted that only one small portion of
four contiguous lots and four other buildings
on 18th Street have not been built out to
their maximum developmental size.
Patrick’s fears are those of Dr. Brazie’s,
who concluded his testimony to the Board
with the observation: “Thus, many property
owners in our commercial strips view the
actual aim of the applicant and its supporters
is to obtain additional controls over the composition and operations of our commercial
strips, rather than preserving the unique period character and scale of the neighborhood.”
Brazie and Patrick both noted that over 80
percent of the commercial property owners
being directly affected by this preservation
designation had signed and sent petitions to
HPRB in opposition to their inclusion.
Two HPRB members countered with their
opinion that it was ignorance on the part of
the business community that was responsible
for the vehemence of the opposition. Board
member and architect Ronnie McGhee,
however, pledged his intention that while
serving on the HPRB he would keep in
mind this phenomenon of a continual and
constant evolution of the commercial store
fronts in the affected area.
“Historic” requests fared no better. In
spellbinding testimony from resident property owner Joyce Douglass who lives in the
18th Street red brick row house purchased
by her African-American businessman father
before she was born, Ms. Douglass recounted playing across 18th Street in one of the
city’s first neighborhood parks, the Happy
Hollow Children’s playground. Proposed
for inclusion in the new historic district
along with the adjacent Marie H. Reed
Community Learning Center, both were
struck from inclusion for one novel and
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distinguished 1930s Adams school. And the
hole being created by the absence in the
new district, or any other district, of the two
Universal buildings on Connecticut Avenue
between Florida Avenue and T Street was
deemed necessary because they are “noncontributing structures.”
The Wyoming apartment buildings, already
established as protected
historic landmarks, and
located on the extreme
western edge of the
new district, however,
were deemed part of
Washington Heights
because, said the proponents, the already landmarked buildings are
“contiguous.”
Comparing
these
rationales
for
the
Washington Heights
historic district with
those of the recent district boundary expansion for Dupont Circle
— where the Board’s
expansive philosophy
was that all sharp points
and jagged edges be
inclusively smoothed
and that vacant lots and
non-contributing structures be included for
design review purposes
(See, “Dupont Historic
District Hearing Raising
Policy Issues Seen as
map—EHT Traceries, courtesy Kalorama Citizens Association.
The original proposed eastern boundary bordering the Reed-Cooke Troubling,” InTowner,
section of Adams Morgan did include the Marie Reed complex with its March 2005) —and
school building and recreation areas, as can be seen in this first version of with no “donut holes”
the map accompanying the initially-filed application. (This was first pub— leaves one in doubt
lished by The InTowner as part of our April, 2006 page 1 report, “Adams
Morgan ANC Gets Behind Historic District Designation for Large Swath as to the consistency of
the HPRB’s legally bindof Area; Would Include 18th Street.”)
ing rulings, as does the
proposed drawing of a
Center required exclusion because it was George Washington University historic dis“out-of-period” — both too new and infer- trict with lines simply including contributing
entially too close to the district’s eastern and landmark- style structures.
edge; ironically, the house a block away on
HPRB Chairman Tersh Boasberg
California Street where Bishop Marie H. noted the support, contained in written
Reed lived is being included. Peter Lyden, correspondence to the Board, of Ward 1
who serves as president of the Reed-Cooke Councilmember Jim Graham for the new
Neighborhood Association, which had historic district designation and called on
joined in support of the KCA/HPO applica- Adams Morgan ANC Chairman Alan Roth
tion primarily because of the inclusion of to wrap up the Board’s morning session by
the Marie Reed site, eloquently bemoaned serving as the concluding witness, rather
than being part of earlier HPRB considerits exclusion, but to no avail.
Yet, this novel 1888 plat line argument did ation, as is customary for ANC testimony on
not hold for the exclusion of the southeast- regulatory and administrative review matern section of the triangular shaped lot at the ters before DC boards and commissions.
intersection of Florida Avenue, U Street, and Boasberg asserted to the Board and the
18th Street, where the building line for the audience that he and ANC Chairman Roth
newly constructed “Mint” was decreed for had done this before, and very effectively,
exclusion—being deemed a non-contribut- he stressed.
ing structure on the edge of the historic disIn a forceful, well-organized prepared
trict and required by the rules and guidelines statement, Roth strongly supported the KCA/
of the National Register of Historic Places HPO application and provided the Board
to be excluded. The use of this 19th century with copies, in reverse chronological order,
plat line results in the creation of what the of his outreach and informing efforts to his
HPRB/HPO call “jagged lines and sharp own single member district, which is in the
points” — to be avoided in historic districts. new historic district, and to the ANC generAnd the exclusion of out-of-period boundary ally — in both English and Spanish, but not,
edge structures seemed violated by the Board admitted Roth in a lighter tone, in Amharic.
in its inclusion in the new district of several The ANC itself, as Roth reiterated, suprecently constructed modernist buildings at ported the Washington Heights application
the extreme northeast tip of the new district by a record vote six-to-one. Following the
— east of 18th Street at Columbia Road and HPRB’s unanimous approval, it was asserted
Euclid Street.
by several persons that in light of the wellThe western boundary of the new district known multi-cultural nature of the Adams
has its own particularities, proceeding as Morgan commercial strips which are now
it does up the eastern side of 19th Street part of this new historic district, it was ironic
from Florida Avenue to Vernon Street, then that the crowded audience in attendance at
crossing westwardly to wrap around the this determinative session was a sea of white
John Quincy Adams School and extending faces, with only three African-Americans
to Columbia Road, California Street, and present, and seemingly no Latinos or Asians
■
Connecticut Avenue, thus carefully exclud- in attendance.
ing the entire Hilton Hotel site because,
it was said, this site is to become its own Copyright (c) 2006 InTowner Publishing Corp.
historic landmark. However, no historic All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in
landmark designation was proposed for the part without permission is prohibited.
one unusual reason. The novel reason was
that the eastern boundary line drawn on the
1888 Washington Heights plat excluded all
but a small portion of Happy Hollow—and
this line was controlling for the new district.
Further, it was asserted that Marie H. Reed
RETAIL
From p. 10
retail debate in the community. (See “New
Projects Bridging Gap on 14th Street; U
Street & Columbia Heights Linking Up,
InTowner, May 2005, page 1.). Community
activists had originally been calling for
Trader Joe’s to locate in the building’s
4,800 square-foot commercial space, but
the developer, Jair Lynch, won the rights
to develop the parcel partially on the basis
that they promised to sell a portion of the
commercial space (50 percent, or two, 1,200
square-foot spaces) to two local retailers who
had been feeling the pressure of rising rents
in the neighborhood. With commercial and
retail development blossoming throughout
the neighborhood, the pressure to locate the
grocer in the “gateway” space has abated,
and the two retailers, Trade Secrets and
Zawadi, are firmly under contract. The
remaining 2,400 square feet, also a retail
condominium, are being marketed to neighborhood-oriented retailers such as a coffee
shop. With groundbreaking scheduled for
fall 2006, grand openings could come in
2007.
• View14, 2303 14th Street and
Nehemiah Center, 2400 14th Street. Level
2 Development is planning two large condominium buildings across 14th Street from
each other. The first, View14, which was
the subject of an extensive report on the
sale of the landmark Petrovitch building a
year ago in this newspaper (“Longtime 14th
St. Auto Repair Business Sells Property to
Developer,” July 2005, page 1), includes
36,000 square feet of commercial space. At
grade, the developer is marketing 16,000
square feet of retail space to small grocers,
restaurants, banks and other neighborhoodoriented, pedestrian friendly businesses.
There are plans for an outdoor seating area
on the Belmont Street side of the building.
In the 20,000 square-feet of commercial
space on the building’s lower level, the
developer is in negotiations to install a stateof-the-art fitness center.
Across the street, the developer plans to
replace the Nehemiah Center, a one-story
complex with surface parking, with a 225unit condominium building designed by
noted architect Shalom Baranes. The building will feature a rooftop pool and green
spaces that extend from the lobby outside
to the courtyard of the building, with units
ranging from studios to two-bedrooms. It
will include 18,000 square feet of retail at
grade, which the developer will market in
the same way as the street-level retail at
View14.
Upper 14th Street
Columbia Heights
• The Heights of Columbia, 2750 14th
Street. This 56-unit condominium building,
almost complete at press time, will include
5,000 square feet of retail space and half
of its residential units set aside as affordable housing. The developer is looking at a
number of combinations for the retail space,
but has established a 2,500 square-foot sitdown restaurant as its top priority and is in
discussions with a number of national foodservice companies. Once the lead tenant
is identified, the remainder of the space,
including some below grade if appropriate,
will be marketed, as noted by leasing broker Len Harris, to “banks to fitness studios
and everything in between.” Harris noted
that the developer is “trying to do right by
the neighborhood, which they recognize is
moving in an upward direction.”
• Kenyon Square and Highland Park,
14th Street at Irving and Kenyon Streets.
Donatelli Development was awarded the
rights to develop two prominent parcels
View looking east from the 14th and Kenyon Streets intersection. Construction of Donetelli
Development’s Kenyon Square project is well-advanced, as can be seen to the right; on the left is shown
the just completed Park Triangle rental apartment building.
across the street from each other, both
directly over entrances to the Columbia
Heights Metro station. Construction on
Kenyon Square, on the east side of 14th
Street, is further along and includes 19,000
square feet of retail space. At the building’s
northwest corner, along Kenyon Street, the
developer has signed a lease with renowned
local restaurant group EatWell DC, whose
other establishments include Logan Tavern,
Grillfish and Merkado Kitchen. The new
restaurant will feature a high-end but relaxing atmosphere similar to the other restaurants in the group. It will also feature a
1,600 square-foot outdoor seating area along
Kenyon Street, and will include brunch in
its programming. The restaurant is tentatively dubbed “The Heights.” Build-out is
expected to begin in January 2007, with an
anticipated grand opening in the spring or
summer.
For space elsewhere in the building, the
developer is close to finalizing leases with
BB&T Bank, which will be located in the
corner next to the entrance to Metro, and
Starbucks, which will be located in one of
the spaces along the 14th Street side of the
building.
Across the street at Highland Park,
Donatelli is holding the prominent corner
space (facing Metro) for a well-known food
service establishment, as the terms of the
lease are worked out. Additional negotiations
are under way with other retailers including
a day spa, a national pizza retailer, a branch
of a local burger chain, and a national copy
shop/small business support services store.
They have also received strong interest from
two veterans of their Ellington project at
13th and U Streets, restaurants Alero and
Sala Thai.
For the remaining space not currently
under negotiation, the developer is looking
to place home furnishings and clothing
retailers, and a small restaurant.
While the developer has no mandate to
offer discounted terms to local small, minority or disadvantaged business enterprises
(LSMDBEs), president Chris Donatelli told
The InTowner they would be willing to
“work with the smaller guys on terms that
are flexible and meet their specific needs,
with negotiable items including lease start
dates, build-out allowances and security
deposits,” among other things.
• Park Triangle, 1375 Kenyon
Street. One of the first of the big new
residential buildings to deliver in Columbia
Heights, with residents already filling the
hallways, Park Triangle has signed leases for
nearly all of the 18,000 square feet of retail
space in its prominent location facing the
public plaza at the intersection of Kenyon
Street, Park Road and 14th Street. Tenants
will include Sticky Fingers, a vegan bakery
which will serve sandwiches and soups and
feature outdoor seating; Pollo Campero, a
Salvadoran chicken restaurant with a combination of sit-down, take-out and outdoor
seating; a T-Mobile cellular phone retailer;
a dry cleaner; a Citibank branch, which
developer Ernie Markus notes is “architecturally more interesting than most other
banks;” a Lafayette Federal Credit Union;
and an Allstate Insurance branch office.
Two slots remain available, one at 1,200
square feet and the other at 2,400 square
feet. Presently the developer is in negotiations with a locally-owned “Tryst-style place,
more lounge than coffee house,” as Markus
describes it; and a frozen dessert retailer.
• DC-USA, 14th Street between Irving
Street and Park Road. Over six years in
the making and the centerpiece of the
Columbia Heights redevelopment, DCUSA is a 585,000 square-foot, retail-only
development with over 1,000 underground
parking spaces. Of all the developments
along 14th Street, DC-USA has been the
most publicized and debated, particularly
as all parties involved (the developer, the
city and the neighborhood) worked to find
a solution for how to finance a three-level
underground parking structure.
With construction under way, retail broker Peter Mallios of Newmark Knight Frank
reports to The InTowner that 13 leases have
been signed and many more are under
negotiation.
The project will have three levels of
retail, with anchor retailer Target occupying half of the second and third floors of the
project. The second half of the top floor will
be occupied by Washington Sports Center
(WSC) in what Mallios referred to as the
company’s “largest prototype urban location,” with a full-size pool and basketball
courts. There is one more small space available on the top floor.
Sharing the second floor with Target will
be Bed, Bath & Beyond and Best Buy, with
one more large space available, over which
the developer is negotiation with a large
sporting goods chain. Several smaller spaces
remain available on the second level.
On the street level, Caribou Coffee will
occupy the marquis corner space facing the
Metro station. Elsewhere along Irving, 14th
and Park: Lane Bryant, a women’s clothing
retailer; Marshall’s, a discount clothing and
home goods retailer; Mattress Discounters;
Panda Express, a Chinese food restaurant;
Quizno’s, a locally-owned sandwich shop;
Radio Shack; Staples; and the Vitamin
Shoppe.
Approximately 80,000 square feet remain
available, half of which has been covered by
Letters of Intent, and half of which is open
to new opportunities. The developer has
been in discussions with a shoe store, food
" Ê"ÊÊ t
Selected Recent Real Estate Sales
Prepared for the InTowner by Jo Ricks*
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SINGLE FAMILY HOUSES
1636 Argonne Pl.
1319 Belmont St.
1119 Clifton St.
1029 Euclid St.
1112 Euclid St.
1108 Fairmont St.
1440 Fairmont St.
2213 Flagler Pl.
1216 Girard St.
619 Gresham Pl.
1735 Harvard St.
1744 Hobart St.
1656 Irving St.
424 Kenyon St.
445 Kenyon St.
1032 Kenyon St.
1711 Mass. Ave. (pkg. space #68)
1351 Meridian Pl.
1430 Monroe St.
1628 Monroe St.
1903 New Hampshire Ave. 775,000
1803 Newton St.
2719 Ontario Rd.
1751 Park Rd.
1403 Perry Pl.
725 Princeton Pl.
1031 Quebec Pl.
915 Quincy St.
1107 S St.
1737 Seaton
1336 Shepherd St.
3035 Sherman Ave.
3338 Sherman Ave.
6 Snows Ct.
9 Snows Ct.
1742 Swann St.
1422 T St.
74 V St.
1714 V St.
1523 Vermont Ave.
3231 Walbridge Pl.
3022 Warder St.
2110 1st. St.
1822 4th St.
2127 10th St.
3524 11th St.
2236 12th St.
912 25th St.
CONDOMINIUMS
2611 Adams Mill Rd. #206 Lynshire
2611 Adams Mill Rd. #206 Lynshire
2611 Adams Mill Rd. #308
2627 Adams Mill Rd. #104 Avalon
2627 Adams Mill Rd. #409 Avalon
1610 Beekman Pl. #A
1658 Beekman Pl. #C
1415 Chapin St. #302
Hillside
1400 Church St. #506
Lofts 14 Two
Lofts 14
Lofts 14
Metro
Metro
1445 Church St. #42
Rainbow Lofts
1205 Clifton St. #A
1401 Columbia Rd. #217 Adams Court
1401 Columbia Rd. #412
Columbia Villa
1620 Corcoran St. #E
1624 Corcoran St. #F
1324 Euclid St. #1
Majestic
1441 Euclid St. #201
Euclid Manor
1321 Fairmont St. #101
El Dorado
El Dorado
1441 Florida Ave. #3a
Hillsborough
1336 Harvard St. #3
Harvard Lofts
1464 Harvard St. #4
Ivy at Harvard
1750 Harvard St. #2B
Richelieu
1901 Ingleside Terr. #203
1701 Kalorama Rd. #212
Delancy Lofts
1701 Kalorama Rd. #314
Delancy Lofts
1350 Kenyon St. #4
1038 Lamont St. #1A
1725 Lanier Pl. #22B
1 Logan Cir. #5
Logan 1 & 2
7 Logan Cir. #13
20 Logan Cir. #Ll1
436 M St. #8
Mohawk
1711 Mass. Ave. #118
Boston House
1711 Mass. Ave. #421
Boston House
1711 Mass. Ave. #709
Boston House
1438 Meridian Pl. #302
3314 Mt. Pleasant St. #1B Park Terrace
3314 Mt. Pleasant St. #2
Park Terrace
Park Terrace
Park Terrace
3314 Mt. Pleasant St. #22 Park Terrace
1420 N St. #211
Towne Terrace E.
1420 N St. #812
Towne Terrace E.
1440 N St. #609
Towne Terrace W.
1451 N St. #3
2130 N St. #106
Hastings Court
825,000
460,000
520,000
405,000
649,000
705,000
599,000
552,000
650,000
310,000
607,000
766,000
689,000
425,000
405,000
555,000
45,000
531,000
479,000
610,000
839,000
650,000
870,000
439,900
350,000
410,000
392,500
1,269,000
565,000
540,000
300,000
570,000
580,000
368,503
1,602,000
699,000
620,000
610,000
1,312,500
670,000
339,000
705,000
1,500,000
547,000
550,000
645,000
880,000
295,000
295,000
274,000
469,500
479,000
798,000
710,000
410,000
829,000
432,000
695,000
825,000
659,000
777,000
329,900
379,000
195,000
359,000
665,000
505,000
535,000
485,000
279,500
210,000
245,000
389,000
495,000
540,000
410,000
399,000
394,000
563,900
549,900
280,000
300,000
369,900
720,000
420,000
384,000
675,000
227,000
360,000
209,000
304,000
249,500
299,500
275,000
179,500
309,500
189,500
199,500
319,500
189,500
199,000
338,000
164,550
584,000
232,000
2130 N St. #107
Hastings Court
200,000
2301 N St. #507
Emerson House
415,000
1725 New Hampshire Ave. #707 Hampshire Plaza
357,500
1737 New Hampshire Ave. #1 Normantone
900,000
1816 New Hampshire Ave. #202 Concord
195,000
302,000
220,000
1417 Newton St. #408
Newton Hall
295,000
305,000
Overlook
349,000
1303 P St. #5
452,000
626 Q St. #South
317,000
1615 Q St. #407
Cairo
421,000
1615 Q St. #913
Cairo
325,000
1615 Q St. #1114
Cairo
324,750
1723 Q St. #G3
262,000
1433 R St. #2
Clift
649,000
949 Randolph St. #B
280,000
1441 Rhode Island Ave. #511
456,000
1441 Rhode Island Ave. #906
369,000
1809 Riggs Pl. #1
320,000
1900 S St. #202
Nineteen Hundred 492,000
1900 S St. #302
Nineteen Hundred 529,900
1731 S St. #7
380,000
1413 T St. #407
273,000
77 U St. #1
Ashburg
592,000
1744 U St. #D
449,000
1331 Vermont Ave. #1B
245,000
1239 Vermont Ave. #202
Crescent Tower
380,000
Crescent Tower
335,000
1239 Vermont Ave. #1009 Crescent Tower
332,500
Rhapsody
370,075
1418 W St. #104
Hamilton on W
280,000
1731 Willard St. #504
Willard Mansions
329,900
1736 Willard St. #103
Willard Mansion
412,000
1117 10th St. #304
Quincy Court
589,900
1117 10th St. #312
Quincy Court
435,000
1117 10th St. #404
Quincy Court
585,000
1111 11th St. #509
363,900
2004 11th St. #132
Lincoln
475,000
2004 11th St. #340
Lincoln
345,000
2020 12th St. #117
2020 Lofts
442,100
1621 12th St. #1
Symera
879,000
1621 12th St. #2
Symera
1,095,000
1325 13 St. ##5
Iowa
657,500
1211 13th St. #307
Rutherford
517,000
1211 13th St. #501
Rutherford
595,000
1211 13th St. #505
Rutherford
389,000
1245 13th St. #208
Park Princess
240,000
1300 13th St. (parking) #P14 Solo Piazza
48,000
1300 13th St. #604
Solo Piazza
579,000
1320 13th St. #44
Icon
515,000
1701 13th St. #2
Logan Minium
725,000
3500 13th St. #107
Columbia Station
267,500
3500 13th St. #204
Columbia Station
289,500
3500 13th St. #207
Columbia Station
269,500
3500 13th St. #209
Columbia Station
409,500
3500 13th St. #309
Columbia Station
419,500
3500 13th St. #401
Columbia Station
319,500
3500 13th St. #503
Columbia Station
310,000
1715 15th St. #6
Bishops Gate
490,000
1715 15th St. #38
Bishops Gate
365,000
1900 15th St. #3
279,770
1925 16th St. #201
Tiffany
368,000
2000 16th St. #508
Balfour
310,000
2008 16th St. #104
305,000
2440 16th St. #217
270,000
3420 16th St. #107s
Northbrook 1
292,520
1401 17th St. #203
575,000
1916 17th St. #103
299,000
1325 18th St. #606
Palladium
371,100
1736 18th St. #T1
Waterford
215,100r
1740 18th St. #301
Hampton
700,000
1725 20th St. #B2
Decatur Mews
375,000
1260 21st St. #304
Newport
278,000
1312 21st St. #3
655,000
1514 21st St. #7
Madison
694,800
1414 22nd St. #3
Dumbarton
535,000
1230 23rd St. #514
Metropolitan
902,500
922 24th St. #105B
Jefferson
345,000
922 24th St. #719
257,000
1010 25th St. #810
179,000
1112 25th St. #4
864,000
1001 26th St. #401
COOPERATIVES
2801 Adams Mill Rd. #409 Clydesdale
178,000
1832 Biltmore St. #41
520,000
1860 California St. #201
327,000
1801 Clydesdale Pl. #609 Saxony
185,000
1820 Clydesdale Pl. #406
371,500
1736 Columbia Rd. #102 Beverly Court
799,673
1736 Columbia Rd. #302 Beverly Court
429,000
2853 Ontario Rd. #220
299,000
3 Washington Cir. #702
399,000
2311 15th St. #5
Lofts at Meridian Hill 1,162,500
1701 16th St. #324
Chastleton
405,000
1701 16th St. #514
Chastleton
175,000
1915 16th St. #601
307,000
1514 17th St. #B7
Copley Plaza
200,000
1725 17th St. #112
Rutland Court
349,900
1725 17th St. #316
Rutland Court
380,000
1731 20th St. #16
275,000
730 24th St. #212
Potomac Plaza Terr. 235,000
*Jo Ricks is Associate Broker at City Houses in Washington, DC.
The sales shown here were handled by various agents from the
many real estate brokerage firms actively working in the neighborhoods reported on by this newspaper.
This view looking south on 14th Street shows the DC-USA project construction site as the structure is
very soon to emerge from below grade following foundation work and completion of the basement levels; groundbreaking, as reported by The InTowner three months ago, was celebrated on May 5th. (See,
“Long-Awaited Major Columbia Heights Project Underway,” page1.) Shown to the east of 14th Street
are the Kenyon Square and Park Triangle buildings, with Kenyon Street separating them.
RETAIL
From p. 21
stores (casual to full-service), a children’s
store, a hair salon, and a locally owned ice
cream retailer.
The developer had been close to an
agreement with Whole Foods Market, but
the high-end grocer eventually walked away
from the project because of differences of
opinion over dedicated parking, much to
the disappointment of both the developer
and the neighborhood. Discussions continue, however, as neighborhood activists
steadily pelt the corporate offices of Whole
Foods with letters and petitions imploring
the grocer to reconsider. The developer has
kept intact the space it originally designed
for Whole Foods, but as the project fills up,
it becomes increasingly difficult to keep
the space blocked off. “At some point in
the near future,” broker Mallios told The
InTowner, “we’re going to have to start giving up parts of that chunk of space as tenants sign up. Then it’s over for Whole Foods
at DC-USA. With so much support coming
from the neighborhood, though, we remain
hopeful.”
• Tivoli Square, 14th Street between
Park Road and Monroe Street. The first
of the new Columbia Heights retail developments to open its doors has been filling space steadily. Long home to just a
Wachovia Bank, an empty storefront with
Blockbuster posters in the windows and
several other empty storefronts, the original Tivoli Theater building was slower to
lease up than anticipated. Conditions in
the home-video rental industry doomed
the Blockbuster for Columbia Heights, but
opened up opportunities for local, nonchain retailers, including Destiny DeVe, a
salon and spa with hair styling and coloring,
nail and massage services; Nash’s Sports
and Casuals; Rumbero’s Latin-American
Cuisine, Art and Bar; and Kudos Beans,
a coffee shop and lounge which is seeking a liquor license presumably to be able
to operate a neighborhood place for folks
to hang out, much like Tryst in Adams
Morgan. A couple national names have
made it into the building as well, including
the Wachovia branch, a Carvel ice cream
and Cinnabon cinnamon roll shop and
Ruby Tuesday’s in the newly built structure on the prominent corner of 14th and
Monroe Streets.
• Washington Dance Institute, 3400
14th Street. Nearing completion, the new
showcase headquarters of the institute will
not initially contain any retail, but will focus
on the organization’s offices and dance
studios. However, in a second phase, the
institute’s director, Fabian Barnes, told The
InTowner, they plan to open a small dance
boutique, filling a void in the market left
when the region’s only two such stores, in
Bethesda and Clarendon, closed up shop,
leaving wholesalers and out-of-state retailers
as the only source of supplies for the many
university and private dance studios in the
Washington area.
• Allegro Condominiums, 14th Street
between Newton Street and Meridian Place.
The site of the former Giant Foods, which
was a suburban-style one-story grocery store
with a large surface parking lot, will host a
new condominium building developed by
Metro Properties, with retail at street level.
The project is still in the planning stages,
but the developer states that they plan to
eschew the stability of national chains in
marketing the retail space in favor of small,
■
local and highly upscale retailers.
DO YOU THINK MORTGAGES ARE
FRUSTRATING AND CONFUSING?
ASSUME THE OPPOSITE AND TRY TO PROVE IT.
THAT’S EUCLID MORTGAGE!
SMOOTH SERVICE, STRAIGHT TALKING,
DONE DEALS.
BRIEN DESILETS
Mortgage Specialist
Home Ofc: 202-332-1934
Ofc: 202-222-0641
Fax: 202-222-0777
EUCLID
MORTGAGE SERVICES
1737 H Street, NW, Suite 100
Washington, DC 20006
bdesilets@euclidmortgage.com
www.euclidmortgage.com

August 2006 - The InTowner

Transcription

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