Streetcars in the City

The Washington Bisiness Journal came out with an article today, D.C. wants to revive streetcar plan, which starts out:

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty’s transportation director is trying to rejuvenate plans to return streetcars to the District by preparing to search for federal funding, seeking support among elected officials and forming a dedicated management team.

Streetcar tracks are being laid along South Capitol Street in Anacostia and H Street NE near Capitol Hill, for two pilot lines first planned under former Mayor Anthony Williams but long since delayed. Two years ago, Fenty’s former director of transportation planned for the Anacostia line to be up and running by 2009 with three cars the city had already purchased. Now officials are shooting for 2012. And D.C. still has not determined how to accommodate the ban on overhead wires in the areas governed by the L’Enfant Plan, including downtown and inner neighborhoods such as the H Street corridor.

Later in the article, it includes the text:

Simultaneously Klein, the founder and former CEO of the On the Fly food service, is trying to bolster support for a much larger network of lines along some of the city’s heavily trafficked corridors, such as K Street and Georgia Avenue NW and 8th and M streets SE.

It will be interesting to watch how this issue develops.

Report from Park View UNC Meeting

While several issues were discussed at last night’s Park View UNC meeting, the highlight was definitely the presentation by Ted Trabue of the Green Builders Council of DC and architect Greg Kearley of inscapestudio as they presented their ideas for the properties at 3628-3632 Georgia Avenue, DC.

It seems that their concept has evolved since PoP first reported that a bar was coming to Georgia Avenue. The Green Room looks to be anything but a typical neighborhood bar. From the drawings displayed at the meeting the goal is currently a high end, media heavy space. Emphasis will be on seating rather than packing folks in. Entertainment may be anything from sports to politics to music. As you might expect, the newly crafted space will meet the minimum LEED Basic level for green buildings.

The Current proposal is only for the building at 3632 (next to Looking Glass). If the economy picks up, they hope to have the planned five-story building they ultimately envision started in 3+ years. Time will tell on that.

Other meeting topics

Other items that were raised were concerns on traffic speed along Park Place, street cleaning along Park Place, a proposed curb cut on Warder Street, and illegal dumping behind the Fisherman of Men Church. I’ll report more on these topics as they are more fully developed in months to come.

This Date in History

July 29, 1922: According to an announcement made by the office of D. J. Dunigan, three groups of houses at Grant Circle on Varnum and Fourth streets had been completed. The homes were of brick construction, contained six and eight rooms, and had all the newest conveniences. The moderately priced homes were on deep lots, with some even having large brick garages in the rear.

Mr. Dunigan also stated that approximately 200 dwellings would be erected in this addition to Petworth. The tract covered six city blosck, with fifteen frontages. The boundaries of the development were Rock Creek Church Road to the east, Webster Street on the north, Grant Circle on the west, and Upshur Street to the south.

Bittersweet Corner Store Update

I was hoping that my last update on the store being renovated at the corner of Rock Creek Church Road and Warder would be more positive than this, but I guess  sometimes you have to take the good with the bad. It is the goal of the owners to have it opened in the next couple of weeks. As you can see from the one image, the interior is coming along. It looks like its going to be a nice, open area.

Now for the bad, within the last 24 hours, vandal have damaged the glass of the front door and one of the windows. While this validates the recent addition of bars on the windows, I think its sad that the store was targeting before its even had a chance to open. You may recall it was also the victim of graffiti back on June 19th.

Jim Graham Announces Financing of Park View CVS and Other Ward 1 News

From and email sent by Jim Graham tonight:

This week the D.C. Council approved emergency bills I introduced to help two important projects on Georgia Avenue.

One bill authorizes District financing assistance for the development of a CVS Pharmacy at Georgia and New Hampshire Avenues. This CVS is a long time coming for the Park View and Petworth neighborhoods. It will be a convenient addition to the growing communities.

The other authorizes closing the alley between Georgia and Sherman Avenues on Lamont Street. It will be replaced with a wider, more functional alley.

This will help with the construction of a new multi-family residential building at Georgia Avenue and Lamont Street. The building will house 69 units, at least half of which will be affordable.

Both of these developments are walking distance from the Georgia Ave-Petworth Metro station on the Green Line.

Latest on Central Union Mission

At last night’s ANC1A meeting David Treadwell spoke to the group to let them know what the latest was on the future of the Central Union Mission.

The planned land swap with the Georgia Avenue and Gales School properties no longer seems to be on the table, as the ACLU is suing. It is their contention that such a deal can not be made because a religious organization and a municipal entity are not compatible.

This does not mean the downtown site has fallen through and it’s back to the original plan. Rather, the Mission still hopes to work with the District to reach a deal on the Gales School to place its homeless shelter there. Right now they are working through the legal issues.

Treadwell focused most of his time on the Georgia Avenue property. Since the Mission cannot allow the property to remain vacant with no plan of development whatsoever, they are proposing a mixed use building. Treadwell stated that the location would be a good site for the Mission’s administrative offices and counselling services. The other parts of the building would be for mixed income housing and commercial. If things go the way they are currently planned, the Mission would retain ownership only of the sections of the building they end up using, with other tenants owning their footprints much like a condo is organized.

Perhaps most encouraging is that Treadwell indicated that the City has been working with the Mission toward the same goal and is assisting as much as possible to sort this out.

(My thanks to M.V. Jantzen for the use of the Mission image)

Yes! Organic Market on Georgia Ave. Nearing Completion

Nothing announces an impending opening like a big sign in the window. Yes! Organic Market is scheduled to open later this summer. The ribbon cutting for the building in which Yes! will be located — 3100 Georgia Ave. — was on March 31st of this year, so things are really moving along.(Thanks to Wayan Vota for sending this photo)