Candidate forum on March 29 at Church of the Holy City. From left: Sekou Biddle, Tom Brown, Dorothy Douglas, Joshua Lopez (at microphone), Patrick Mara, Vincent Orange, Alan Page and Bryan Weaver. (Luis Gomez Photos)
From Michelle Lancaster. You can follow her on Twitter me @MichLancaster.
Reform was the buzzword at the At-Large City Council Candidate Forum, held Tuesday evening at Church of the Holy City, 16th and Corcoran NW. Education reform, ethics reform, zoning reform, reforming the DCRA process… all were part of a robust question and answer session attended by all candidates running for the seat. The event began with an introduction of the candidates, proceeded into a question and answer period and concluded with a brief closing statement by each candidate.
The event was well attended, as 70-plus citizens packed into the room, some standing the entire event, to hear the candidates discuss their positions. The majority of the candidates and attendees continued on to the reception graciously sponsored by Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse, following the event, which offered the opportunity for one-on-one discussions with candidates. The event began with candidates Sekou Biddle, Joshua Lopez, Patrick Mara, Alan Page and Bryan Weaver. They were later joined by Dorothy Douglas, Tom Brown and Vincent Orange.
The cherry blossoms are in full bloom this weekend. (Luis Gomez Photos)
From Laura Herman. Follow her on Twitter @Lmhhabs.
March Madness Final Four! Opening Day! Cricket World Cup! Like it or not, sporting events are everywhere you turn this weekend. So do it right, and head to your favorite local sports bar to catch a game. My pick is Touchdown at 1334 U Street NW, a relative newcomer that’s already made a splash through their unique take on the classic sports bar concept, complete with local art and international flair. You can read my review of their soft opening party here.
In and around your March Madness schedule (if you still care), it’s worth it to wake up early on Saturday morning to head over to Touchdown for their Cricket World Cup viewing party as Sri Lanka and India face off in the final. Touchdown’s doors open at 6 am on Saturday in time for the game, and they’ll be offering a special breakfast menu until midnight. Alcoholic beverage service begins at 8 am and don’t worry, you are definitely allowed to disco nap after this one.
March 20: One of the nine dinners from No. 68 Project that are being held at Fathom Creative on 14th Street NW. (Photo: Chris Eichler)
From Keri Douglas. She is a writer, photographer and communications consultant who lives in Logan Circle.
A select few evenings of sensory and culinary delights enters Logan Circle via London. The No. 68 Project is hosting nine theme parties with celebrity chefs and mixologists from New York and D.C., based on themes “discovered” in Chinese fortune cookies.
Hosan Lee, the cultural director from New York, and Jill Richmond, the culinary director (who just returned to D.C. from London), founded No. 68 Project in an effort to bring more meaningful discussion forward to highlight innovation. Lee said she has a “desire to bring people together and connect on a human level.”
I had the good fortune to attend the March 20 event with Todd Gray, chef/owner of Equinox and the upcoming Watershed in NoMa. An intimate table for 45 guests was set up at Fathom Creative on 14th Street NW. The space glowed with floating candles, spring branches, video streaming on the walls as techno sounds vibrated throughout.
“Industrial Bank” is from specimenlife in the Borderstan Flickr Pool.
From Luis Gomez. You can follow Luis on Twitter @LuisGomezPhotos and at One Photograph A Day.
Photos of the Day are pulled from the Borderstan Reader Photos pool on Flickr.
Today’s photo, “Industrial Bank,” was taken by specimenlife on March 20. The original branch of the Industrial Bank opened in 1934 at 11th and U Streets NW.
If you don’t already have a Flickr account, you will need to sign up for one, and then join the Borderstan Reader Photos group. Already a Flickr member? Join the group! You can submit up to five photos per day in the Borderstan reader pool. We are looking for photos from D.C.’s Dupont, Logan and U Street neighborhoods.
From Tom Hay. Questions for Tom? Send him an email. You can follow him on Twitter @Tomonswann.
Construction banners just went up at the long vacant lot at the southwest corner of 14th and R Streets NW. A spokesperson at Ellisdale Construction confirmed that construction of a 31-unit condominium project would begin around May 15. The property is currently a parking lot and was once a Zipcar location.
A check of D.C. property records shows that the owner of the property is Loford LLC. Back in February DC Mud reported on another property owned by Loford at 11th and V Streets NW that is being developed by Habte Sequar.
Sequar is also the developer behind The Josephine at 440 Rhode Island Avenue NW and Renaissnace @ Logan at 1618 11th Street NW.
The 14th and R property has had a number of owners and false starts over the years. At one time Robertson Development was going to develop the property. Robertson was behind the Visio, Woodson Row and Beauregard projects, all along the U Street corridor.
Just a block north of the property at 14th and S, developer JBG and Grosvenor broke ground two weeks ago for the District Condos project.
Of course many in the neighborhood will miss the love-it/hate-it mural on the side wall of the auto body shop adjacent to the vacant lot. A few years ago the mural was the subject of of an article by Washington Post art critic Blake Gopnik.
It’s Hump Day. Treat yourself to a really good coffee. (Photo credit: FrenchTwistDC in the Borderstan Flickr Pool)
From Michelle Lancaster. You know the drill, talk to me @MichLancaster on Twitter.
Huge Fire at 14th and I Streets
Pretty scary-looking photos over at TBD.com on the fire that broke out this morning. Apparently, a cooling tower was the source of the fire. The blaze was eventually brought under control and DC EMS was reporting no injuries as of this writer’s deadline.
Kite Festival Rescheduled to April 10
After the threat of Sunday snow, the newly renamed Blossom Kite Festival will now be held on the last day of the Cherry Blossom Festival. This is the first year the Smithsonian is not running the event, but the schedule of events should be familiar to kite lovers. See all the info at their site, including how to enter a kite into battle!
LOVE Sign Shows up at Dupont Circle
The LOVE sign in Dupont Circle. (Luis Gomez Photos)
I’m telling you, it’s there! I saw the pictures on Twitter, so it must be true. I guess everyone else has missed it so far, because I can’t find a report on it anywhere. Bonus points to the first reader that posts a photo (and yes, those points can be used for something real!) UPDATE: We got the photo!
“Facing South” is from ok-oyot in the Borderstan Flickr Pool.
From Luis Gomez. You can follow Luis on Twitter @LuisGomezPhotos and at One Photograph A Day.
Photos of the Day are pulled from the Borderstan Reader Photos pool on Flickr.
Today’s photo, “Facing South,” was taken by ok-oyot on March 20. The view is of Connecticut Avenue NW from Dupont Circle.
If you don’t already have a Flickr account, you will need to sign up for one, and then join the Borderstan Reader Photos group. Already a Flickr member? Join the group! You can submit up to five photos per day in the Borderstan reader pool. We are looking for photos from D.C.’s Dupont, Logan and U Street neighborhoods.
Have you tried to make your dog into a child? (Luis Gomez Photos)
Borderstan welcomes Tori Tyree who will be writing about you and your pets.
You may have seen her walking dogs down your street. Tori Tyree is the owner of “Walk of the Town,” a dog walking and pet sitting company. She has been working with animals most of her life — caring for them in animal hospitals, training dogs, volunteering at zoos and the Washington Humane Society and counseling customers about pet nutrition.
Tyree has been walking dogs in D.C. for more than eight years. She has built up a lot of experience and has some good stories to share. We hope you will find them useful for your relationship with your pets.
Full disclosure: The editors of Borderstan have used Tyree’s dog-walking services, but are not receiving any free services or discount in exchange for her occasional columns.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
From Tori Tyree
I’m going to start my first post with a daring statement and hope that you bear with me:
Our dogs are not children.
They are just as important to many of us — and maybe in some cases, more important than children if we don’t have any. But at the end of the day, it is a mistake to treat them as children or substitutes for children.
The very best thing you can do for your dog is to give him or her structure. Without a routine and a set of rules that they can depend on you to enforce, dogs become anxious and sometimes destructive. Perhaps you are thinking of a purse or Blackberry that you once owned or is no longer usable?
Don’t worry; I’m not here to take away all your fun. There are lots of ways that you can still spoil your dog and give her the structure she needs to make sure everyone stays sane — you, your family, the neighbors and the dog.
In the coming weeks I will address several dog-related topics including training tools, what foods you should be buying, tricks you can teach your dog (some are even for your cats!). I am also open to topics of interest, so please leave a comment. I look forward to hearing from Borderstan readers.
Best of D.C. 2011: Lots of winners in the Dupont-Logan-U Street area.
Matty Rhoades and Alejandra Owens contributed to this post
Last Thursday the Washington City Paper released the results of its annual reader poll, Best of D.C. Readers voted in four categories: Goods & Services, People & Places, Food & Drink and Arts & Entertainment. In addition, the City Paper has a shorter list of some of its favorites.
As in past years, there many winners in the Dupont-Logan-U Street area and we have listed them below by category. Since there are too many local winners to call out here, we will simply note which establishments/places/people received a 1st, 2nd or 3rd Place in more than one category (we’ll call it a Special Mention).
Special Mentions go to Whole Foods, The Phillips Collection, Wagtime, Busboys and Poets, Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe, U Street (the area), Nellie’s Sports Bar, Buffalo Billiards, ChurchKey, Lauriol Plaza, Komi, Sweetgreen, Local 16, Town Danceboutique, 9:30 Club, Black Cat and U Street Music Hall.
We give Nellie’s Sports Bar an Extra Special Mention for being recognized six times in the City Paper reader poll. The U Street establishment received two 1st Place awards, finished in 2nd Place twice and in 3rd Place two times.
Borderstan.com did not place in the Best Local Blog/Blogger category, but we appreciated hearing from readers who said they voted for us (thanks!). 2birds1blog won this category for the second year in a row; 2nd Place went to Prince of Petworth and 3rd Place to DCist.
However, Borderstan co-founder and co-editor Luis Gomez took 2nd Place in Photography Services (Luis Gomez Photos). Luis is responsible for site design, photography and much more here at Borderstan.com.
The 1400 block of Church Street NW is in Census Tract 52.01. This Logan Circle tract’s population grew 33 percent from 2000 to 2010 due to new residential buildings on Church, P and 14th Streets NW as well as Rhode Island Avenue. (Luis Gomez Photos)
From Matty Rhoades
D.C. is divided into eight wards. Ward 2 grew at a rapid rate and will have to shed residents. (DC Government)
The U.S. Census Bureau released D.C.’s results on Thursday. The big buzz was that (1) D.C. gained people for the first time since 1950 and (2) the black majority is on the verge of disappearing, with only 50.7% of residents now being African-American. There were huge gains in the number of whites and smaller gains in the numbers of Latinos and Asians living in D.C. Citywide, African Americans are about 51% of the population, Latinos are at 9%, Asians at 3% and non-Latino whites are at 35%.
D.C. now has more than 601,000 people, a 5.2% increase from 2000 — but still far below the city’s peak year of 1950 when the Census recorded 802,000 people in D.C.
Growth in Wards 1 and 2
Locally, Ward 2 — the bulk of the Borderstan.com coverage area — grew the fastest with a 16% population increase, from 68,000 to 79,000 people. This means it will have to lose people – certain blocks will have to be moved to other Wards — some eastern parts of the Ward could go to Wards 5 and 6. However, some northern chunks of Ward 2 could possibly go to Ward 1, which grew at a much smaller 3.9% rate.
Logan Circle. Census Tract 52.01 is a great example of how Ward 2 gained so many new people in the past 10 years. The tract’s boundaries are 14th Street NW on the east, 16th Street on the west, Massachusetts Avenue on the south and S Street on the north. The tract registered a 33% increase, going from 4,559 to 6,077 residents. It’s easy to figure out how this happened: the new rental and condo buildings on the 1400 blocks of P and Church Streets NW, plus additional units on the west side of 14th Street and on the 1400 block of Rhode Island Avenue.
“Metro Dupont Circle” is from dracisk 365/365 in the Borderstan Flickr Pool.
From Luis Gomez. You can follow Luis on Twitter @LuisGomezPhotos and at One Photograph A Day.
Photos of the Day are pulled from the Borderstan Reader Photos pool on Flickr.
Today’s photo, “Metro Dupont Circle,” was taken by dracisk 365/365 on March 20.
From Wikipedia: “Dupont Circle is a Washington Metro station in Washington, D.C. on the Red Line that opened for service on January 17, 1977. The station’s north entrance escalators are 188 feet (57 m) long.”
If you don’t already have a Flickr account, you will need to sign up for one, and then join the Borderstan Reader Photos group. Already a Flickr member? Join the group! You can submit up to five photos per day in the Borderstan reader pool. We are looking for photos from D.C.’s Dupont, Logan and U Street neighborhoods.
Candidates for the DC Council, from left: Vincent Orange, Stanley Mayes, Joshua Lopez, Patrick Mara, Jacque Patterson (will not be on ballot), Sekou Biddle, Bryan Weaver and Alan Page. (Luis Gomez Photos)
From Matty Rhoades
Local organizations are sponsoring a forum for candidates running in the At-Large Council election on April 26. The forum is this Tuesday, March 29, at 6 pm in the Church of the Holy City at 16th and Corcoran Streets NW.
Forum moderator is Tom Hay, who writes about local business and government for Borderstan. You can submit questions to him at [email protected] You can get information and links to all the candidates at Vote-DC.org.
Seven of the nine candidates are expected to attend are Sekou Biddle (the interim appointee to the seat), Dorothy Douglas, Joshua Lopez, Patrick Mara, Vincent Orange, Alan Page and Bryan Weaver.
See Borderstan profiles on Patrick Mara and Bryan Weaver. Both candidates live in Ward 1, home to many of our readers.
The April 26 special election will be conducted differently from other ones in D.C. In a regular election season there is a September primary followed by a November general election. On April 26 all candidates from all political parties will be on the ballot. A majority is not required – the candidate who gets the most votes will fill the At-Large seat.
Sponsoring organizations are Borderstan.com, Dupont Circle ANC, Dupont Circle Citizens Association, Dupont Circle Merchants and Professionals, Foggy Bottom Association, Historic Dupont Circle Main Streets, Logan Circle Community Association and Urban Neighborhood Alliance.
Annie’s Paramount Steakhouse will host a reception for attendees and candidates at Annie’s Upstairs from 7:30 to 8:30 pm following the forum. There will be a cash bar and complimentary appetizers.
Sunday: Cherry Blossoms in Scott Circle NW. The statue is General Winfield Scott (1786-1866) who was commanding general of the U.S. Army for 20 years. (Luis Gomez Photos)
Mike Kohn has today’s Stuff for you, but surely there’s something he might have missed. Shoot him an e-mail or stalk him on Twitter @mike_kohn. He likes hearing from you. We promise.
Blossoms in Bloom
Hopefully, you’re all aware of these pretty little things that are blooming in the heart of D.C. That’s right, the Cherry Blossoms are here and the festival has begun. Starting this past Saturday with the official kickoff, the festival runs for two weeks with many events scheduled between now and April 10 (with peak bloom days from now until this Friday, April 1). You can find the full details over at the The Washington Post.
I love lamb.
And no, I’m just saying that because it’s in the room. If you love lamb, then place an order for lamb from New Asbury Farm, the lamb distributor at the 14th & U Farmer’s Market. They’re running some Spring Holiday Specials that you might want to take advantage of. Interested in getting your fill of meat? Place your order today at [email protected] so they can get it over to the American Ice House restaurant at 917 V Street NW for pick up on April 16.
Not Real Enough
What will happen to The Real Housewives of D.C.? It remains a mystery, according to DCist. Despite rumors proclaiming a final decision, Bravo is holding firm that they’re still unsure what’s going to happen to season 2. It doesn’t seem likely that the reality show will continue in our fair city, but we’ll wait with bated breath until the producers give the green light or the axe.
City Council Candidate Forum (and some shameless self promotion)
In case you haven’t marked your calendars yet, the Dupont-Logan-Foggy Bottom City Council Candidate Forum is coming up tomorrow at the Church of the Holy City at 16th and Corcoran Streets NW. You’ll have a chance to hear from 7 of the 9 contenders vying for Kwame Brown’s At-Large City Council position. In case that’s not enough of a draw, you’ll also have the opportunity to listen to Borderstan’s own Tom Hay, who will be moderating the event.
“Carnegie” is from FrenchTwistDC in the Borderstan Flickr Pool.
From Luis Gomez. You can follow Luis on Twitter @LuisGomezPhotos and at One Photograph A Day.
Photos of the Day are pulled from the Borderstan Reader Photos pool on Flickr.
Today’s photo, “Carnegie,” was taken by FrenchTwistDC on March 17. The Carnagie Institution for Science is located at 1530 P Street NW.
From Wikipedia: “Today the CIW directs its efforts in six main areas: plant molecular biology at the Department of Plant Biology (Stanford, California), developmental biology at the Department of Embryology (Baltimore, Maryland), global ecology at the Department of Global Ecology (Stanford, CA), Earth science, materials science, and astrobiology at the Geophysical Laboratory (Washington, DC); Earth and planetary sciences as well as astronomy at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism (Washington, DC), and at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington (OCIW; Pasadena, CA and Las Campanas, Chile).”
If you don’t already have a Flickr account, you will need to sign up for one, and then join the Borderstan Reader Photos group. Already a Flickr member? Join the group! You can submit up to five photos per day in the Borderstan reader pool. We are looking for photos from D.C.’s Dupont, Logan and U Street neighborhoods.
Council candidate Bryan Weaver in front of the Reeves Municipal Center at 14th and U Streets NW. (Luis Gomez Photos)
From Michelle Lancaster. You can follow her on Twitter @MichLancaster.
After challenging incumbent Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) in last year’s Democratic primary, Bryan Weaver is running for an At-Large Council seat in the April 26 special election. The seat opened up when Kwame Brown was elected Council Chairman; Sekou Biddle was temporarily appointed to the seat and is running for a full term. Since a number of Borderstan readers reside in Ward 1, we interviewed the two candidates who live in Ward 1, Patrick Mara and Weaver.
The profiles of Mara and Weaver are meant to provide readers with some insights into both candidates — with an emphasis on the personal as opposed to the political. Both Mara and Weaver are among the seven candidates scheduled to appear at Tuesday evening’s candidate forum at the Church of the Holy City, 16th and Corcoran Streets NW, at 6 pm.
Borderstan: When and why did you first move to D.C.? Where have you lived in D.C.?
Weaver: I moved to D.C. in 1991 to attend Howard University. One could argue that as a resident of Adams Morgan, I live on the border of the Borderstan area, but before moving to Adams Morgan with my wife, I lived in Columbia Heights and Pleasant Plains.
Borderstan: Favorite thing about living in the neighborhood? Least favorite?
Weaver: Diversity of people, diversity of businesses, the fact that it’s a total walkable community and there are some great places to eat. My least favorite thing would be losing some of the more unique businesses like HR-57, and that we’re still dealing with high rates of muggings and property crime.
