ANC6B Transportation and Public Space Committee, chaired by Commissioner Tyler Wolanin, met Wednesday night.
Roberta Flack Leads in Vote to Name SE Traffic Circle
by Larry Janezich
Posted July 8, 2026
Wednesday night, ANC6B’s Traffic and Public Space Committee received a report from ANC6B Commissioner Karen Hughes in early returns in on-line ranked choice vote for renaming the Pennsylvania/Potomac Avenue Traffic Circle. Hughes said preliminary results indicate “an absolute blowout … Roberta Flack has definitely has taken a decisive lead.” So far, 668 votes have been cast. Voting will end at midnight, July 10th.
Hughes suggested the method to give the community a voice in the naming of the circle and created the on-line poll. The procedure was sanctioned by ANC6B and Hughes distributed the poll by email to the community on June 17. July 10th is the deadline for voting .
ANC 6B had consulted with the Office of Planning and community members to narrow a list of potential candidates for whom the circle should be named down to 3 possible names:
- Roberta Flack – Roberta Flack (Wikipedia) was a multi-grammy winning artist who was a DC public school teacher before she launched her career from the upstairs of Mr. Henry’s, here on Capitol Hill.
- Bobby Mitchell – Bobby Mitchell (Wikipedia) was the first African American man to play for the Commanders (then the Redskins) and was inducted in to the pro Football Hall of Fame in 1983.
- Elizabeth Catlett – Elizabeth Catlett (Wikipedia) was a DC native, Howard graduate, and world-renowned artist whose art spoke powerfully about injustice.
As of Wednesday night’s meeting, totals at the end of Round 1 of 2 were:
Flack – 403
Catlett – 174
Miller – 91
Totals at the end of Round 2 of 2 were:
Flack – 468
Catlett – 200
After Hughes’ report, the Committee voted to recommend that ANC6B deliver a letter to CM Charles Allen and the DC Council reporting the results of the poll and urging the Council act to name the circle in accordance with results of the vote. Under statute, the council is required to “give great weight” to ANC opinion. The final totals will be announced at next Tuesday’s meeting of the full ANC6B at 7:00pm at 700 Penn and on-line.
Click here to vote by July 10: https://app.rankedvote.co/rv/jxw28jwkwfommc99s6/vote
CAPITOL HILL CORNER 
Just curious as to how these three names were decided upon? What was the criteria to be on the original list? What was the criteria used that resulted in these 3 names? Nothing wrong with the 3 names. Glad to see diversity of gender but some racial & ethnic diversity would have been nice and maybe more of a tie to that specific neighborhood, e.g., Mangialardo Circle would have been a good option to be included–local family business in the neighborhood for decades. I’m sure there are others that don’t readily come to mind. Personally I would prefer something benign like Potomac Ave Circle.
Great question, William: the ANC 6B Transportation Committee worked with the Office of Planning and other community stakeholders to come up with a list of names (for instance, the idea of Elizabeth Catlett came from the Brent Elementary renaming process). The long-list was then winnowed to a shortlist at the Transportation Committee’s May meeting; those were the names included in this poll.
I am thrilled to agree with naming the new circle after the magically-voiced Roberta Flack. Sincerely Wendy Blair