Author Archives: ljjanezich

 

 

The Week Ahead…

by Larry Janezich

Monday. November 5

CHRS Historic Preservation Committee meets at 6:30pm, 420 10^th street, SE.

Tuesday, November

Election Day – ANC6B has five contested seats and five seats which are not being contested.  The outcome of these races could determine much about how the Capitol Hill community evolves and develops.  Ward Six Councilmember Tommy Wells, whose constituents include the residents of ANC6B, is not up for election in this cycle.  Wells is exploring a possible run for mayor in two years. 

Wednesday, November 7

Eastern Market Community Advisory Committee meets at 7:00pm in the North Hall.

ANC 6B Planning and Zoning Committee meets at 7:00 pm, in the cafeteria at St. Coletta of Greater Washington, 1901 Independence Avenue SE.  One item on the short agenda is to hear a presentation from organizers on the 2013 Cupid’s Undie Run, Saturday, February 9, 2013.

The P&Z Committee meeting will be followed by Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 6B’s Special Call meeting to consider its response to the Zoning Commission on the Hine School Redevelopment.  The Special Call meeting is scheduled at 7:45pm, in the cafeteria at St. Coletta of Greater Washington, 1901 Independence Avenue SE.  On Wednesday, October 31, 2012, the applicant, Stanton-Eastbanc, LLC, filed an additional submission with the Zoning Commission https://www.yousendit.com/download/WUJiV28yRStPSHhFQmNUQw.  At its special call meeting, ANC 6B will consider its response to the applicant’s submission.

Thursday, November 8

ANC6B’s ABC Committee meets at 7:00 pm at Hill Center.  On the agenda are several items of interest to residents near Barrack’s Row.  These include a new retail wine and beer license for DCanter, the boutique retailer which will soon replace the Backstage Performing Arts Store at 545 8th Street, SE; a voluntary operating agreement for Balkan Concepts, operator of the new Serbian restaurant at 523 8th Street, SE, next to the new Chipotle; and a request from Hank’s Oyster Bar, 633 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, to extend hours one day on Sunday, December 9, 2012, from 12:00 am to 2:00 am.

CHRS Zoning Committee meets at 7:30 pm, 420 10th street, SE.

 

The Li’l Pub Goes On the Block and Is Under Contract – CVS Bids to Expand

by Larry Janezich

The Li’l Pub is on the way out.  Building owner Herb Lehner has entered into a contract to sell the property to the adjoining CVS.  It was offered to the long time lease holder Howard Schurr, proprietor of the Li’l Pub, but he declined to buy.  If the deal goes through, CVS will reportedly use the additional space to expand its pharmacy. 

The Li’l Pub is widely recognized as an iconic and authentic neighborhood bar with a diverse clientele and one of the last hold outs against a wave of renovated and redeveloped faux-traditional and theme-oriented restaurants catering to young professionals and congressional staffers.  Featuring inexpensive drinks, pool tables, and a killer juke box, the pub – with only a dozen or so seats at the bar – has a city-wide reputation far larger than the collective enthusiasm of its regulars.  It will likely soon join the long list of divey neighborhood favorites which have given way to the economic realities of Capitol Hill’s changing demographics.            

Lehner is a long time Capitol Hill real estate developer and has developed and renovated many properties on Barracks Row and Capitol Hill since 1969.  Many of the buildings on 8th Street at one time were owned by Lehner, including what was the Patio Cafe and is now the Old Siam, as well as the building housing Café 8, the former Ellington’s Café.  Lehner also owned much of the block on 8^th Street, just below I Street, closer to the Navy Yard.

 

Library of Congress Shelves Plans for Scholars’ Residence on East Capitol

by Larry Janezich

The Library of Congress (LOC) has cancelled plans to build a new Scholars’ Residence on East Capitol Street.  Capitol Hill Corner’s inquiry to the Library about the status of the Scholars’ Residence project proposed for 601 East Capitol Street, SE, resulted in the following response: 

“The Library has been working to build a program that would make extended periods of research and collaborative work with the Library’s collections and staff more affordable for young scholars and information professionals from around the country. The vision had originally been a bricks and mortar approach, but we have recently explored alternate means to achieve that goal and have decided on a different programmatic approach.”

According to a spokesperson, the statement has not been “issued” per se, since the Library had not previously issued any statements about the plans, but the stakeholders have been notified about this decision.  According to the spokesperson, “this was really a decision motivated by wanting to make extended research with our collections more affordable, and the recognition that there is more than one way to go about doing that. We believe we’ve identified a better solution than a building, and are looking forward to announcing more details in the near future.”

The Library of Congress Scholars’ Residence was expected to open for business in the spring of 2015.  The project envisioned 50 new rooms providing temporary housing for recipients of LOC fellowships and scholars on sabbatical while engaged in research projects at the Library.  

The federal government purchased the property in 1991 and converted the lower floor of the two building to a child care facility.  The upper floors have remained vacant.  It appears that the child care facility will remain in place. 

The website for the project with additional details about the original proposal (www.loc.gov/rsc) has been taken down.

Coffee and the Hurricane – Peregrine (per’e-grin,-gren); 1. Foreign; alien; 2. Roving/wandering; migratory

by Larry Janezich

Peregrine Espresso, open until 2:00pm today, was the beneficiary of the attention of new media photojournalist student Amy Brothers, whose project this week is “Coffee and the Hurricane.”  Brothers is pursuing a Master’s degree in new media photojournalism at the Corcoran College of Art and Design. 

She interviewed always friendly Peregrine barista Randy Kindle this morning.  Last week, her project featured Capitol Hill Books.  That video is already posted and can be viewed here:  https://vimeo.com/user13264144.  The interview with Kindle will be posted shortly. 

According to the Corcoran website, the Master of Arts in New Media Photojournalism is the first program of its kind, addressing the challenges facing photojournalism today and encourages experimentation with new ways of story-telling, documentation, and editing, and explores the latest digital practices taught in conjunction with the enduring fundamentals of visual reporting, editing, and ethics.

 

 

Maslin Trust Fund tops $35,000 – Fund Raising Effort Continues with On Line Donations, Events in November and December

by Larry Janezich

Funds raised so far for the family of TC Maslin, who suffered traumatic head injury in a mugging in August near Eastern Market have exceeded $35,000, according to CHAMPS representative Chuck Burger. 

The efforts of the community to help the family have been diverse and are on-going, and involve numerous volunteers and businesses.  Burger credits CHAMPS – the Capitol Hill Chamber of Commerce – and “Celebrate Capitol Hill” – a business non-profit which raises funds for worthy causes in the community, for organizing the fund raising endeavor.  

According to Burger, it was the Eastern Market merchants who first stepped up to help the family, and more than $10,000 of the total raised was in contributions to money jars placed with 26 merchants in and around Eastern Market by CHAMPS and Celebrate.  CHAMPS also set up an on line donation feature on its website. 

As CHAMPS and Celebrate looked for other ways to help the Maslins, Burger approached Daniel Holt, President of Brent PTA and together they hatched the idea to utilize the annual Brent Fall Festival as a vehicle to that end.  Renamed the Brent Fall Safety Festival, the community coalesced to turn it into a fund raiser for the Maslins in four weeks’ time.  The October 21^st event drew 1,000 residents including over 400 children.  Over 50 Capitol Hill organizations and business participated. 

“We were trying to raise money,” Burger said, “but the best result was the community-building nature of the effort.  It got people introduced to each other.”  Burger expects to build on this to make the Safety Festival an annual event for Ward Six, featuring a different aspect of public safety each year.  “Safe living is an important element in the quality of life on Capitol Hill – we intend to look for projects we can raise money for next year.”

Burger cited for special note the efforts of the following key organizing volunteers:  Barbara Rich, American Legion; Bessie Belcher, Brent Elementary; Carlson Klapthor, Brent Elementary; Daniel Holt, Brent Elementary; Kate McDonough, Capitol Hill Village; Dee Dee Branand, Coldwell Banker; Elsa Huxley, Coldwell Banker; Jack Pfeiffer, CHAMPS & Celebrate Capitol Hill; Joe Reid, Coldwell Banker; Kirsten Oldenburg, ANC6b04; Naomi Mitchell, Councilmember Tommy Wells’ Office; Johnson Law Group; William Phillips and Associates. 

Current and future fund raising events for the Maslin Family Fundraising Campaign:

Ongoing – On Line Donations on the CHAMPS website at:  http://www.champsdc.org/

Early November – Celebrate Capitol Hill’s Reception for Sponsors, Contributors, and Volunteers (TBA)

Tuesday, December 11th, 2012 (Evening) – Tune Inn’s Special Maslin Fundraiser

TC Maslin’s wife, Abby, blogs about her experiences at http://loveforthemaslins.blogspot.com. 

CHAMPS/Celebrate has released the following list of participants in the fund raising activities: 

Sponsors, Contributors, and Publicity & Jar Campaign Business Participants

EVENT SPONSORS   CSX, Acacia Mortgage, American Legion Post, Boogie Babes, Capitol Hill Exxon, Capitol Hill Village, CHAMPS, Coldwell Banker, Frager’s Hardware, Hill Rag, National Capitol Bank, Nationals, Sonoma, Uber, Xavier Cervera Restaurant Group.

Contributors of Raffle Prizes:  Aqua 2, Atlas Theater, Capitol Hill Wine and Spirits, Cava, CHAW, Folger, Fusion Grill, Grey Moogie Press, Hanks Oyster Bar, House Calls on the Hill, Judith V May, Photographer, Maid Pro, Nationals, Pound , Ringling Brothers Circus, Schneider’s, Tabula Rasa, Top of the Hill (Pour House), Uber, Xavier Cervera’s Restaurants.

Publicity & Jar Campaign Business Participants:  Bowers Fancy Dairy Products, Calomiris Fruits & Vegetables, Canales Delicatessen, Canales Quality Meats, Capitol Hill Bikes, Capitol Hill Poultry, Capitol Hill Produce, Dawn Price Baby, Eastern Market Grocery, Fairy Godmother, Fine Sweet Shop, Frager’s Hardware, Groovy, Howl to the Chief, Labyrinth Games Shop, Market Poultry, Metro Mutts, Monkey’s Uncle, Pound the Hill, Roland’s Corner Market, Southern Maryland Seafood, The Hill Center, Tortilla Café, Tune Inn, Tunnicliff’s Tavern, Union Meat Company, LLC.

Wednesday, October 24

ANC 6B Outreach and Constituent Services Taskforce meets, 7pm – 8:30pm, Hill Center. 

The agenda includes:

Presentation on the state of the tree canopy in the District

City programs and initiatives

Pruning and tree removal in Ward 6

Tree boxes. 

Also on the agenda:

An update on vacant and blighted properties