It’s all about the neighborhood
A car crashed into the middle of Grant Circle last night. This isn't the first time this has happened... at least once a year there's a story about a car driving into the circle park, running over bushes and even taking out the lights.
Read MoreIf you're a runner or someone who loves freedom AND running, then President Lincoln's Cottage has the race for you. The Annual President Lincoln’s Cottage Freedom 5K is set for Saturday, September 26th, and early, discounted registration is open now. There's even a "tot dash" for kids! Olympic champion and running icon Joan Benoit Samuelson will participate in the race for a second year.
Details about the race and a link for early bird registration after the break:
Read MoreRooney Properties, who purchased the former Sweet Mango Cafe's foreclosed building at 3701 New Hampshire Avenue NW this past April, told the Washington Post that they are looking at options to save the Chuck Brown mural painted on the side of the building.
The developer's current plans call for construction to begin on the new building next summer and to find ways to preserve the mural. (See my previous article on the 21-unit building to replace Sweet Mango Cafe.) None of the plans seem to involve saving the actual wall where it now stands, but involve pictures or perhaps moving it someplace else.
“I love the mural,” said Lex Lefebvre, director of development for Rooney Properties, to the Washington Post this week. “We obviously know the mural has a lot of significance in the neighborhood and so we talked about a couple of ways we can incorporate it into the new project.”
Current design for the new 21-unit apartment building to replace the Sweet Mango Cafe building.
While the mural is relatively recent, having been painted in 2012, it's a local favorite. There has been a fair amount of unhappiness at the potential loss of the mural (as well as Sweet Mango Cafe).
Apparently one of the ideas the developer has to preserve the mural is to take high-resolution photographs of the mural and hang photos in the lobby of the new building.
Another idea, according to Lefebvre, is that the wall facing north on New Hampshire Ave will be blank in the current design (as opposed to the southern facing wall the mural is now), and that perhaps that northern wall space can be used for a new mural.
The Post article states that: "But Lefebvre noted that the building’s neighbor is allowed to build against that wall, so the spot is not ideal. The mural could also be placed in the lobby of the apartment building or in one of the retail spaces. 'We are certainly looking at all options,' Lefebvre said."
There is a new restaurant, "3701 Jerk Station," temporarily in the building. They're hoping to reopen in the same location after the current building is torn down and the new building is completed.
Source: Washington Post
The fourth Petworth Dance Project is set for this Saturday, August 8th at the Petworth Park (8th & Taylor St NW). There's a special kids' dance class at 6:30, and then the first dance starts after that.
Saturday's dance project should be special, as one of the companies performing is Aras Dance, led by Sara Herrera-Kopetchny, who runs the Petworth Dance Project. Also performing is Coyaba Dance Theater.
Timber Pizza Co. will have their mobile brick oven on-site for fresh pizza -- 10% of the proceeds go to support the Petworth Dance Project, so come hungry for culture and mozzarella and basil!
In an effort to continue to help raise funds for the Petworth Dance Project, Sara Herrera-Kopetchny will be teaching a dance class on Friday night. If you have ever wanted to try contemporary dance, here's your chance to learn. More info.
Friday August 7th from 7pm-8:30pm at Dance Loft on 14th, All levels, 18 and up, $10 cash only at the door.
In a useful first for ANC 4C, the draft agenda sent out for next week's August meeting includes some short summations of the agenda items. The intention is to give residents an opportunity to understand what will be discussed and contact their commissioners with questions. They will also be voting on a new Vice Chair, as the prior Vice Chair, Joe Maloney, has resigned from the commission. (Seat's open if you're interested.)
After the break is the agenda with summations, as sent out by both ANC 4C Secretary Taalib-Din Uqdah and Commissioner Zach Teutsch...
Read MoreLocal DC chef and Food Network Star finalist Alex McCoy is opening up a Southeast Asian-themed restaurant with business partners Hunter Campbell (who owns Mason Inn restaurant in Glover Park) and local real estate agent Marc Dosik from Help-U-Sell.
Read MoreIt’s great when a DC writer celebrates the culture and life of the city through fiction. Local DC author and former editor and book reviewer for The Washington Post Book World, David Nicholson does that with his latest book, “Flying Home, Seven Stories of the Secret City.”
His latest book takes a deeper look at DC, told through seven stories. “All too often, writing about black Washington focuses on pathology like drug use and crime,” David told me. “I didn't want to add to that body of work. Instead, I wanted to celebrate the extraordinary in the ordinary, to give glimpses into the heroic lives of ordinary men and women dealing with issues that are universal."
Read more and see dates of two local book readings by Nicholson:
Read MoreLet's talk a bit more about that yellow and green house. I've received about a few concerns about the yellow house survey article, so wanted to address those concerns. (Update: I've unpublished the first article as I felt it wasn't adding to any conversation to leave it live.)
First and foremost, the article is not intended to mock anyone -- it's asking why a house is super bright canary yellow and with dark forest green accents, and asking what neighbors think. It's obviously an "over the top" and very unusual color scheme. That said, the survey and article were meant to be facetious. About 5 of you wrote to me to say you thought the article was mean, and that wasn't the intention. If you thought so, I apologize.
In order to get more information, I stopped by the house this morning to talk to the owners... Read more
Read MoreExpand to see larger view.
The magic of the Petworth Library isn't just about books... on Tuesday, it's also reptiles!
On Tuesday, August 4 at 4:00, meet reptiles from all over the world in this wild, educational show featuring a giant snake, alligator, tortoise, monitor lizard and other amazing reptiles. This program is for ages 5 and up.
Petworth Neighborhood Library
4200 Kansas Ave NW
This could be you at the table!
Have you ever wanted to be an elected official in Petworth working with no pay? Yeah? Cool, then it might be your time to shine. If you live in the area bounded by 4C02, there's an open Commissioner seat. Joe Maloney, who held the commissioner seat, resigned from the ANC as his family is moving out of the area.
The map on the right shows the areas that 4C02 covers. (Basically, 16th Street on the west, Georgia Ave on the east, Buchanan on the south and Morrow Drive on the north.)
To be eligible for the Commissioner seat, you must live within the boundaries of 4C02. The full map of ANC 4C is available on the ANC4C.org website.
If you do live in that area, you will need to pick up nomination papers at the Board of Elections (441 - 4th Street, NW, Room 250N). You will need to get a petition signed by 25 people who also live in 4C02.
Candidates must live within SMD 4C02 boundaries and be registered to vote. Plus the people who sign the nomination petition must also be registered voters in 4C02.
Once you turn in your signatures, then you wait to see if you have an opponent. All petitions can be challenged, and once that period ends in September there will be a special election. ANC special elections are held in the back of the room at a regularly scheduled ANC 4C meeting, with the winner announced at the end of the meeting. If there is no opponent, then there won't be an election and you're in like flynn.
For more information, call the Board of Elections at 202-727-2525.
Good luck!
Image courtesy of UrbanTurf
If you were wondering what was going to happen to the Sweet Mango Cafe after it closed earlier this year, wonder no more. Looks like it's going to be torn down to build a 21-unit apartment building at 3701 New Hampshire Ave.
According to DC UrbanTurf, "the 65-foot, five-story residential development will have one and two-bedroom residential units on floors two through five and there will be retail on the ground floor."
And of course, the developer wants to get a variance to reduce the amount of required parking spots down from the 13 the zoning laws call for (not sure what the final desired number is). The developer will need to go before ANC 4C and ask for a letter of support, and then the DC Zoning Board will have to approve their request for the variance.
Considering it'll be an apartment building with 1-2 bedroom units located across the street from the Petworth metro and a block from Safeway, etc, I would image that they'll get that variance approved.
7/31 Update: For those lamenting the loss of Sweet Mangos Cafe, bear in mind that the restaurant closed in March 2015 due to financial troubles (the building went into foreclosure). It was subsequently purchased by Rooney Properties for $2,430,000. There had been rumors of a new restaurant, but since the lot is zoned for residential as well, it's not a surprise that it's being redeveloped into a larger building. This redevelopment into a new mixed-use building is not the cause of Sweet Mango's demise.
According to a Park View blog post from April:
"The property is zoned GA/C-3-A. C-3-A permits matter-of-right medium density development, with a density incentive for residential development within a general pattern of mixed-use development to a maximum lot occupancy of 75% for residential use and 100% for all other uses and a maximum height of sixty-five (65) feet. Additionally, the Georgia Avenue (GA) overlay stipulates that the ground floor level of each building shall have a uniform minimum clear floor-to-ceiling height of 14 ft. To accommodate this, buildings permitted an additional five feet of building height over that permitted as a matter-of-right in the underlying zone, meaning that any new development on the site could be up to seventy (70) feet."
Chuck Brown mural on the side of the former Sweet Mango Cafe
It will be a shame to lose that awesome mural, though. The mural was put up in 2012 to honor iconic DC musician Chuck Brown (the mural was drawn from a 1992 photo taken by Washington City Paper) who passed away that year (here's his Washington Post obit). Sounds like a great opportunity for ANC Commissioner Timothy Jones (4C08) to reach out to the developer and work with them to get a new mural created at that location.
There's been some lively discussion on this topic on the Petworth News Facebook page. Feel free to add your thoughts on FB or below.
One resident posted this option on the Petworth News Facebook page:
Courtesy Mike Henry
Sources: DC.UrbanTurf, ParkViewDC
Ward 4 Councilmember Brandon Todd held a meeting at the Fourth District Headquarters last Thursday night, July 23rd. The meeting was an opportunity for residents to get a quick update on crime in the Fourth District and asks questions of Chief Lanier and 4D Commander Manlapaz.
Brandon opened the meeting by thanking everyone and mentioned that he was now 60 days into his term as councilmember. He called the Public Safety Meeting to make sure residents were able to share their concerns and to discuss the recent uptick in break-ins and robberies in the area.
Read my full notes and see pictures after the break:
Read MoreThe wilderness that is the Petworth Spray Park
I got a bee in my bonnet about the condition of Petworth Park. Talk about long grass! Petworth Park is in dire need of a hair cut.
I've been emailing the Department of Parks & Recreation (DPR) about the spray park signage since end of May, trying to get the sign replaced. The sign was ripped down and tossed on the ground at the back of the spray park (slowly being swallowed up by the untended grass). After getting tagged with a few choice vulgarities and three months of emails from me to the Aquatics Director, DPR finally removed the sign yesterday and has committed to getting a new sign with updated information (like the correct hours of operation) as soon as possible. According to John Stokes, the deputy director of DPR, it should be installed by mid next week.
My other concern is that grass! It's overgrown throughout the park, and insanely high in the spray park, which presents more concerns. The tall, wet grass inside the spray is a haven for mosquitos. Toddlers and blood-sucking, welt-forming insects are not a good match.
I'm pleased to say that according to emails this morning from Donny Gonzalez from the Department of General Services (DGS), the mowing of the grass is going to be expedited and should be done by tomorrow.
I hope so -- public parks should be a haven for happy kids, not mosquitos.
Updated 9pm 7/28/15: The park has been mowed and all the grass is pretty short.
With a minor rain delay starting things off a bit slowly, the Petworth Jazz Festival was a great show of youth talent and the extremely smooth sounds of the Mark Meadow Quartet.
I've posted a bunch of the personal and posed shots I took on the Petworth News Facebook Page to make it easier to share those. Feel free to tag yourself or people you know in the pictures. If you see a photo that you want as a high resolution version, contact me
See all the photos after the break:
Read MorePetworth News, a neighborhood blog on local news, information & events about the Petworth area in Washington DC.
Petworth News is a news site about Petworth area neighborhoods in Washington DC, written by Drew Schneider and other amazing contributing writers. It features facts and objective reporting, as well as an occasional subjective point of view and opinion.
Volunteer with the Friends of the Soldier's Home!
