Tree Watering Planned for Saturday

Pitching in to help care for the new trees on New Hampshire Ave near the intersection of Georgia Ave. has been tough.

The trees southwest of Georgia Avenue have been in particular need.

To that end, there has been a call for All Hands on Deck this Saturday at 7:00 am to water this section. If you have the time and ability, gather at the sculpture at the Metro station. The more the better.

The watering will be done with buckets — the water being supplied by Donatelli from the new construction across the street.

Trees in New Hampshire Median Need Your Help!

The trees along New Hampshire Avenue between Georgia and Sherman Avenues are in horrible shape, being stressed due to lack of water. If you live along this stretch of road and would be willing to help keep them watered … the neighborhood and the trees NEED YOUR HELP!

The good news is that Casey Trees will be watering them tomorrow morning.

The bad news is that I alerted DDOT to this Sunday night, and they quickly indicated that they would contact Casey Trees. It wasn’t until the last 12 36 hours, starting with Wayan Vota last night and me this morning that Casey seems to have gotten wind of the problem.

While we have a small victory that the trees will be watered tomorrow, Casey Trees is looking for a neighborhood solution. So, if you live in the area and are willing to assist, please speak up.

You can see from the photo below that Wayan Vota supplied how rough the trees have gotten.

DDOT/Metro … We Have a Problem

I discovered when I arrived at the Georgia Ave./Petworth Metro this morning that the sudden downpour this morning flooded, of all things, the Metro station. Nearly the entire length of the platform was flooded.

Tracing the water down the platform, I quickly learned that the leak was coming from above.

I think its logical to presume that the median work on New Hampshire Avenue has compromised the integrity of the Metro station, and that there will continue to be water during showers until this is addressed.

I know the community has been concerned that the median work has not gone deep enough to support the planned trees … but guess what, that may not be an option. Ultimately, the neighborhood may have to accept smaller plantings. We’ll see.

The cause was likely a clogged storm drain or ventilator shaft, which is much better than my initially assumption which showed my complete ignorance of the construction details of this station. This is one instance where I’m am thrilled to have been wrong.

Accident on New Hampshire Avenue

Petworth News has an interesting post on an accident last night caused by a car speeding away form police after it had been pulled over. The pattern sounds similar to other recent auto crashes in the area. Upon impact, the youths fled the scene. I find it particularly interesting that the new medians, which aren’t even complete, contributed to an accident whith oncoming traffic as the fleeing car turned into the wrong lane and, presumably, couldn’t cross over into the correct lane because of the medians.

For photos and more details, go to the Petworth News post here>>

Following the Progress of the New Hampshire Ave. Medians

Wayan Vota writes: Looking at the new medians going in on New Hampshire Avenue, I see a small problem — the contractor is not digging down to dirt and he’s leaving piles of concrete like this one which will kill anything planted nearby.

Progress on New Hampshire Ave. Medians

More photos from Wayan Vota on the installation of the New Hampshire Ave. medians from the Georgia Ave/Petworth Metro to Grant Circle.

It looks like the medians will have grass and trees … if 4 inches of dirt is all that’s needed to support the grass. For a moment I’d thought that perhaps some areas would be bricked, but the bricks I saw must have been for the curb areas.

On a side note, Wayan also noticed that the trees that were planted on January 8th of this year were outfitted with water bags yesterday.

Median Work on New Hampshire Continues

Following up on Wayan Vota’s post last week that medians were coming to New Hampshire Ave. in Petworth, progress is being made.

Originally, it was assumed that the medians would contain grass and create a tree lined avenue. Right now, I can confirm that this will not be the case for the entire stretch.

The area around the intersection of New Hampshire and Quincy is clearly going to have brick centers. I suspect this is the area above the Metro station, and having plantings on top of it would be problematic.

Medians Coming to New Hampshire Avenue

I am so excited to report that today I saw the start of what (hopefully) will become a tree-lined median in the middle of New Hampshire Avenue quite soon. During a mid-day run I found these three DDOT planners painting construction lines on the pavement.

New Hampshire Avenue is to have a raised island median from Georgia Avenue to Grant Circle, and in this median will be trees. Yes, small trees at first, but soon enough, towers of green shade to cool what is now a sea of asphalt.

I am still shocked that during one ANC meeting I went to, a resident along NH Ave actually was against the threes, saying they would cut down her visibility and increase car accidents. I’m thinking that trees would both quiet the car noise and slow cars down before they commit vehicular tree slaughter in Grant Circle.

The only people against this median would be the churches that would loose center-street parking for their Maryland parishioners, but so far I haven’t heard them object. Do you?