The District’s “#SplishSplashSummer” is on its way to public pools in West End and near Howard University with free after-hours swimming and music from DJs.
Tomorrow, Banneker Pool at 2500 Georgia Ave. NW is slated to open from 7 to 11 p.m. as part of the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation’s annual Summer Late Night Pool Party Series, according to an online event posting. The pool normally closes at 6 p.m. on Saturdays.
Locals of all ages are encouraged to RSVP online for the Banneker Pool party.
On Saturday, Aug. 20, West End’s Francis Pool at 2535 N St. NW also is scheduled to stay open late and host a DJ. But DPR hasn’t released a website to RSVP for that party yet.
Photo via Flickr/awiseman
Road crews are set to begin painting four blocks of bus lanes near Howard University a bright red color tonight.
Workers will apply a “red high friction surface treatment” to the new dedicated bus lanes on Georgia Ave. between Barry Pl. and Florida Ave. NW from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. each night until Saturday, according to the District Department of Transportation (DDOT).
The right lane on both the northbound and southbound sides of Georgia Ave. NW will be closed while workers apply the red treatment, DDOT said.
Painting the stretch of Georgia Ave. NW is the last major activity of the road’s Dedicated Bus Lanes and Streetscape Project.
The new lanes allow buses of all types, taxis with passengers, emergency vehicles, paratransit service vehicles and bicycles to travel both directions on Georgia Avenue without having to drive with normal traffic.
Buses on the 70 route are set to have four blocks of relatively unencumbered travel near Howard University starting next week.
Georgia Avenue NW, between Florida Avenue to Barry Place NW, is scheduled to lose lanes for normal northbound and southbound traffic Monday when the two, dedicated bus lanes go into effect, according to the D.C. Department of Transportation. The changes will allow buses of all types, taxis with passengers, emergency vehicles, paratransit service vehicles and bicycles to travel both directions on Georgia Avenue without having to drive with normal traffic.
The bus lanes, which will receive a coat of red paint in May, will be in operation Mondays to Saturdays from 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.
A stretch of Georgia Avenue NW near Howard University might be a little more backed up than usual tonight, according to D.C.’s Department of Transportation.
Road crews will alternate between closing the southbound and northbound lanes of Georgia Avenue between Barry Place and Florida Avenue NW between 8 p.m. this evening and 5 a.m. tomorrow morning.
During the project, which began last night, crews will mill the existing asphalt as part of the Georgia Avenue NW Dedicated Bus Lane and Streetscape Project. The overall project is expected to be completed by May 2016, DDOT said.
Photo via Google Street View
A new bookstore with a laid-back vibe and tens of thousands of new and used books to buy is coming soon to Georgia Avenue.
Walls of Books, a store set to open at 3325 Georgia Ave. NW on Dec. 12, will include a literal wall of 30,000 books in English and Spanish, said owner Pablo Sierra.
Sierra, who lives in Brightwood, said he hopes the new bookstore will become a hangout for the neighborhood.
“People like bookstores,” Sierra said. “This is where I wanted to open up. I like this community and I wanted to provide something to it.”
Sierra said the 2,400 square foot space will include book shelves alongside space for couches and chairs to read.
“It’s a great big space. It’s wide-open,” Sierra said. “It’ll be a pretty chill environment. I want this to be a place where people can sit down.”
Sierra said most books will cost between $5 and $10. In addition to selling books, the forthcoming store will also buy them from residents. And Sierra added that he’ll also sling lively conversation, free of charge.
“We’re really excited to be part of the community,” Sierra said. “I love books. I love reading. … Reading is great, but reading as a community is better.”
Photo courtesy of Pablo Sierra
A man was stabbed following an altercation that occurred near Howard University last night, said D.C. Police.
Police said the crime happened after two men got into a fight near the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Gresham Place NW around 8:37 p.m. The victim was stabbed after walking away from the man he was fighting with, police added.
The man was “conscious and breathing” when emergency crews took him to the hospital, said police and D.C. Fire and EMS officials.
Stabbing at 2045 hrs at Gresham/Georgia Avenue NW. LOF: black male, wearing all black, bald head 5279
— DC Police Department (@DCPoliceDept) September 8, 2015
No arrests were made in connection with the crime and police are still on the lookout for the suspect.
Here’s your last chance to cannonball into a local pool at night before next summer.
Banneker Pool (2500 Georgia Ave. NW) will host its last late-night pool party of the season this Saturday from 7-11:30 p.m. The pool previously hosted a late night pool party in July.
Like last time, attendees of all ages are free to splash around in the pool while bobbing their heads to music from a live DJ.
A photo ID is required to attend, and D.C. Parks and Recreation has requested that guests RSVP online beforehand.
Photo via Flickr/awiseman
Several recent burglaries at businesses in Columbia Heights and Park View may be related, say D.C. Police.
On Aug. 9, a man wearing a ski mask threw a rock through a window at arts nonprofit BloomBars (3222 11th Street NW) and allegedly took two donation boxes and change from a swear jar. A week later, a similarly dressed man was filmed smashing a glass door and entering a business on the 3200 block of Georgia Avenue NW.
Now, Colony Club (3118 Georgia Avenue NW) and Meridian Pint (3400 11th St NW), just blocks away, say they may have been hit by the same burglar.
Colony Club co-owners Ben Heller and Max Zuckerman say a masked man broke into their business last Sunday.
“He broke in at 2:30 a.m. Sunday morning,” Heller said. “He used some sort of mallet type hammer to break through our back door, which is a glass door.”
The alleged burglar was filmed by surveillance cameras swiping a handful of beers and a bag of tools.
“There was a moment yesterday where we maybe thought it was the same person [as the BloomBars burglar],” Zuckerman said. But the mask and the grainy footage make it hard to positively identify the man, he adds.
“In terms of what he actually stole, it’s probably no more than a couple hundred dollars,” Heller says. “The main expense for us is having to replace the back door, or at least the glass on the back door.”
Meridian Pint general manager Heather Kendrick says her business was burglarized just this morning.
“At approximately 3:40 in the morning, [the burglar] smashed the window in,” Kendrick says. “He made off with some booze from here. Super infuriating.”
Meridian Pint’s surveillance cameras were rolling as the alleged burglar raided the bar and restaurant.
“To my sleuthing self, the guy looks like to be the same guy as the BloomBars thief,” she adds. “Same time, same mask, same gloves.”
The Metropolitan Police Department’s Third District Commander Jacob Kishter said that although the burglaries are “most likely related,” police are still investigating the possible link.
Surveillance videos courtesy of BloomBars, MPD and Colony Club
A man was filmed smashing a glass door in connection with a burglary that occurred earlier this month in Park View.
Police say the burglary occurred on the 3200 block of Georgia Avenue NW Aug. 16 around 4:23 AM.
In a surveillance video released yesterday by police, a man in a baseball cap can be seen shattering a glass door with a small handheld object. The man then steps inside the business and runs off-camera, but returns into view and leaves the building a moment later.
One week prior on Aug. 9, an arts nonprofit roughly two blocks away was burglarized in a similar fashion.
Police did not say whether the two burglaries were connected.
Video via MPD
ANC 1A is asking for online feedback on what should be done with the former Bruce Monroe School site at 3000 Georgia Ave. NW.
Residents can share their thoughts on what should be done with the plot of land in a new online survey.
The District currently owns the parcel of land. Currently, the site is designated for temporary park use.
ANC 1A Commissioner Kent Boese wrote on local blog Park View, D.C. that the site “has mostly been a nearly three acre open space since that time with the exception of a fairly successful community garden located in the southwest corner of the property.”
The park also currently houses a Little Free Library.
The deadline to submit a survey response is Sept. 9, 2015.
Volunteers are being sought to help clean up graffiti along the lower part of Georgia Avenue NW.
Those interested should meet at Torrie’s Restaurant (700 V Street NW) next Saturday at 10 a.m. to pick up supplies and receive training.
Cleaners will then break into teams and remove graffiti at 18 businesses and public spaces in an area that stretches from the intersection of Georgia and Florida avenues NW to Georgia Avenue and Upshur Street NW.
Event organizer and economic development consultant Jon Stover says a power washer and 25 graffiti cleanup kits were purchased to aid with the project.
“We’re going to train community members on the appropriate process for removing graffiti,” says Stover. “There’s so many big large tags along Georgia Avenue. Having a power washer is a great tool to address that.”
Artistic graffiti and murals will not be removed during the cleanup, adds Stover.
“Right now, none of the graffiti [we’re targeting] can be construed as art,” adds Stover.
The effort, funded by a grant from the Department of Public Works, is meant in part to study the feasibility of a Main Street organization along Georgia Avenue. The idea goes that if the community can coalesce around certain issues, conditions may be right to start a Main Street organization.
If all goes well and a Georgia Avenue Main Street organization is founded, Stover says the goal is to make the cleanup a regular event.
“We’re hoping the community to take ownership of it and it will be up to the community to develop it themselves,” he says.
Image via Flickr/Perspective
Commuters who travel on Georgia Avenue near Howard University will have to put up with “moderate-to-heavy delays” until May of next year, says DDOT.
On Tuesday, the city department closed one lane of traffic in each direction on Georgia Avenue NW between Barry Place and Florida Avenue NW.
DDOT says the closures are needed to construct dedicated bus lanes and a streetscape along that stretch of Georgia Avenue. The work also includes the replacement of sidewalks, curb and gutters, sidewalk ramps, mill and overlay of the roadway and new dedicated bus lanes in each direction.
These city expects to complete the project in May of 2016.
(Updated at 5:07 p.m.) Six people riding a Metro bus in Park View were treated for exposure to pepper spray around 3:45 p.m. today, say D.C. Fire and EMS officials.
The incident occurred while the bus was stopped near the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Irving Street NW.
According to Metro spokesperson Sherri Ly, a man and a woman began to argue with each other while the bus was stopped. As the female passenger began to leave the bus, the man followed her.
The woman then turned and sprayed the man with pepper spray, catching several others in the line of fire.
Both the woman and the man left the scene before police arrived, says Ly.
D.C. Fire and EMS spokesperson Oscar Mendez says emergency crews treated the victims for minor injuries related to pepper spray exposure near the 3000 block of Georgia Avenue NW.
Three of the victims were children, authorities say.
UPDATE: 3000blk of Georgia Ave NW. 6 pts transported with minor injuries. 3 adults; 3 minors.
— DC Fire and EMS (@dcfireems) July 28, 2015
Image via Google Street View
Swimmers will be able to splash well into the night at Banneker Pool tomorrow.
The D.C. Department of Recreation will host its second annual “A Splish Splash Summer” late night party at the pool, located at 2500 Georgia Avenue NW, from 8:30 to 11:30 p.m.
A live DJ will spin tunes during the pool party.
The event series is free and open to all ages. A photo ID is required to attend.
Photo via Flickr/awiseman
A man was caught on camera allegedly burglarizing a Park View business earlier this week.
D.C. Police are on the lookout for a person of interest in a burglary they say occurred on the 3600 block of Georgia Avenue NW on Monday between 7:45 p.m. and 11:10 p.m.
In the store’s surveillance video released by police yesterday, a man in jeans, a white tank top and a white baseball cap can be seen taking several items and stuffing them into what appears to be a large trash bag.
Crime Solvers of Washington, DC currently offers a reward of up to $1,000 to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for a crime committed in the District of Columbia. Your assistance is appreciated by your community.
Anyone who can identify these individuals or who has knowledge of this incident should take no action but call police at (202) 727-9099 or text your tip to the Department’s TEXT TIP LINE at 50411.
Video via MPD
