Chuck Gregory, a native Washingtonian, died in San Francisco on February 22 after a long struggle with cancer. He was 49. The son of Janice and Neal Gregory, Chuck was born at Georgetown Hospital on January 8, 1976, and grew up on Capitol Hill. His formal name was Chellis O’Neal Gregory III, but he was always known as Chuck.
A service of remembrance and a celebration of his life will be held at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church at 1:30 pm on Sunday, March 30.
Chuck was an acolyte at St. Mark’s, a member of the Boy Scouts and a star soccer player for his Soccer on the Hill championship team. A lifelong interest in public policy and politics began during the summers when he was a page for the U.S. House of Representatives. He attended Peabody and John Easton Public Schools, St. Anselm’s Abbey School, and graduated from Edmond Burke High School.
He received a degree in communications and film from Tulane University, where he was a member of SAE fraternity. He worked as a desk editor in the Washington Bureau of ABC Television News, later joining the staff of the Vancouver International Film Festival in Canada, working in promotion and development. He met Akiko Kano – who became his wife – in Vancouver while they were both teaching English as a foreign language.
He earned a master’s degree in international relations at the University of British Columbia and was a development officer for UBC’s Sauder School of Business. Ten years ago, he moved to San Francisco as a development officer for Sutter Health, which operates 24 hospitals and over 200 clinics in Northern California.
Chuck had a dry wit and was always smiling. His fellow students and coworkers delighted in his storytelling talents. He had an uncanny ability to adopt the accents and mannerisms as he related tales from a wide variety of characters. He could imitate Louisiana Cajuns, Southerners, Texans, New Jersey mafia, Boston Irish and variety of other groups with comic accuracy.
In addition to his parents, Neal and Janice Gregory, Chuck is survived by his wife Akiko Kano and their 11-year-old daughter Sara Gregory of San Francisco; and two sisters, Jennifer Cross of Santa Cruz, CA, and Kate Stark of Scotts Valley, CA.
More than 100 residents turned out for Wednesday night’s community meeting on the Rumsey Renovation plans which was held in the North Hall of Eastern Market.
City Scales Back Rumsey Aquatic Center Plan
by Larry Janezich
Posted March 13, 2025
Thursday night, DPR and DGS presented design options for renovation of the Rumsey Aquatic Center which were substantially different from the more ambitious plans of CM Charles Allen, who secured additional funding for the project based on those plans.
The boost in $15 million in funds for the Rumsey renovation was intended to support a new second story with community amenities like a senior center with a tech lounge, a business incubator space, and an indoor fitness center. These were in addition to the DPR’s initial budget ($20 million) to expand and renovate the swimming pool which would occupy the first floor of the new building.
That’s not what the designers brought back to the community.
Instead, developers presented to the community three slightly different proposals, all of them without a build-out on the second floor, as well as a host of reasons why the original vision could not be realized. In addition to what they characterized as a limited overall budget of $35 million, the designers cited the cost of LEED/net zero certification as a significant constraint.
Here’s Allen’s reaction:
“Two years ago, I asked DPR and DGS leaders what it would cost to build a second floor to expand services and programs while modernizing Rumsey pool. They gave me an exact number, and I found that exact money – that’s the budget we have. It’s clear from tonight’s meeting there’s not enough space on one floor to meet the needs of the community here, and I’m frustrated how quickly they’re trying to walk away from the fully funded second floor. I will work to get them back on track and believe we will find a solution to deliver the generational project everyone wants.”
ANC6B Commissioner Jerry Sroufe, in whose single member district the Rumsey Center falls, said “if you only have three options and no second story that’s a bitter pill to swallow. I didn’t think they were very responsive to the concerns raised and I don’t think that the things they said they couldn’t do because of various restrictions are true. I am sure they could do things differently if they wanted to – exceptions can be made and they didn’t make any. I didn’t like any of the options in particular. It seems they wanted one story.”
Two polls taken during the meeting to which there were 66 respondents showed a clear preference for bigger and better pool space and fewer amenities. Regarding the possible amenities squeezed into the first floor – a hot tub, a yoga studio, and a fitness studio – a 40% plurality chose “none of the above.”
Roy Philips, a neighbor and frequent user of Rumsey Pool who attended last night’s meeting, said that “the presenters didn’t provide options that capture what the community is looking for. In building options they have lots of constraints …. Due to the constraints they said all they can do is build a new structure that is roughly the size and footprint as the current building. They can make the pool about 12 feet wider to accommodate 2 more swimming lanes. There were no options to extend the building into the plaza or with a second floor…It seems like they are focused on all the impediments rather than a vision of what the community really wants.”
The Week Ahead…Rumsey Meeting Wednesday Night & Some Photos from the Past Week
by Larry Janezich
Posted, March 9, 2025
Community Meeting on Rumsey Pool Wednesday Night. DC Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) and the DC Department of General Services (DGS) will host a community meeting to discuss the survey results and see the initial concept designs for Rumsey Aquatic Center.
(Also, Rumsey Aquatic Center will be closed starting Monday, March 10, for annual scheduled maintenance. The pool is expected to reopen on Monday, March 17.)
The Flea Market at Eastern Market Returns to 7th Street SE. On Sunday, Diverse Markets Management brought the flea market back to 7th Street SE, after its January – February winter hiatus. Diverse Markets: “The Flea Market at Eastern Market remains an essential space for small businesses, artists, and creative entrepreneurs to exhibit their products. bFrom vintage fashion to one-of-a-kind artistic impressions, the Flea Market continues to be a creative force of local culture. Alongside our colleagues in the Eastern Market Main Street corridor, we are optimistic for the season of our entire community.” For more market updates, follow the Flea Market at Eastern Market Facebook page and Flea Market Instagram: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=the%20flea%20market%20at%20eastern%20market & (https://www.instagram.com/fleamarketateasternmarket/?hl=en )
Barracks Row Aloha Medical Marijuana Application Runs into Trouble. Last Tuesday night, ANC6B’s Alcohol and Cannabis Committee considered the medical marijuana license application for Aloha, at 539 8th Street, SE – formerly LaVagna. The committee agreed to 1) file a complaint with ABCA that Aloha’s parent company, Tobacco King at the same location, is selling (or gifting) cannabis illegally, 2) a motion to recommend the full ANC protest the license on the grounds of peace, order, quiet, parking, property values, and proximity to a school, and 3) a motion that the committee file its own complaint that ABCA improperly accepted the application for a medical marijuana license because the store’s location is within 400 feet of a school.
Work Has Begun on the Pennsylvania/Potomac Avenues Intersection Project. Construction started on February 18 and is expected to take 700 days to complete, without counting snow and weather days. The hoped for completion date is December 28, 2026. Construction of bike lanes east on Pennsylvania Avenue will begin once the circle project is complete. The National Park Service will maintain the circle. The canopy for the Potomac Avenue Metro entrance has been put off until 2026.
Garfield Park Renovation Update. Construction on the project – including installation of playground surfacing and restriping of the tennis courts – was paused recently pending the arrival of warmer weather. As of now, the new tennis court surface has been poured and cured but painting the surface requires consistent temperatures in the 40s and 50s and is scheduled to occur in early April. DGS says the general contractor is continually monitoring the forecast and will improve upon the schedule as weather permits. The project was to have been completed last fall but has fallen behind schedule. Here’s a link to the kick off construction presentation in June of 2024 where readers can judge where DGS is in the process. They look to be close. https://app.box.com/s/mixr9jrjfy8lmor9ozprk6xuvayjee09
Here’s a shot of the resurfaced tenns courts.
Folger Park Renovation Update. The National Park Service closed Folger Park near 2nd and D Streets SE, to the public on Monday March 3 for renovation. It will remain closed until December 31st 2025. The renovation will include:
Improving the historic walkways
Restoring the historic flagstone plaza
Repairing and adding benches
Restoring vegetation in the plaza
The Week Ahead…
Tuesday, March 11
ANC6B will hold a hybrid meeting at 7:00pm.
Meeting location will be 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE; First Floor (entry adjacent to Trader Joe’s).
For info on how to join the virtual meeting, go here: https://anc6b.org/
Among items on the draft agenda:
Consent Calendar
Letter in support of DDOT Lincoln Park study, in partnership with ANC 6A.
Late Breaking – Write DDOT urging a stop sign on Independence @ 5th St SE.
Support BZA application for 1227 Independence Avenue, SE.
Support HPA Application for Library Court, SE.
Support Withdrawal of Barney Circle Historic District application.
Presentations
Office of Charles Allen
Office of the Mayor
Metropolitan Police Department
Late Breaking – Ms. Skye Webster of RiverSmart Homes Program
Other business:
Acqua al 2, 212 7th Street, SE. Application for restaurant liquor license – possible Settlement Agreement.
Aloha, 539 8th Street, SE. Application for Medical Cannabis license.
Discussion. Update on presentation invitations to DC Attorney General Schwalb and Office of the US Attorney for DC.
Letter to request a DDOT Lincoln Park traffic study, in partnership with ANC6A.
Update on Rumsey Aquatic Center Renovation.
Follow-up on Eastern Market Community Advisory Committee letter about security barriers.
Late Breaking – Elections. (ANC6B Chair Vince Mareino is stepping down as chair, citting professional and family obligations.)
Zoning Regulation Change Affecting Ability to License Group Homes for Foster Youth over the Age of 18.
Priscilla Hall, Resource Development Specialist, Office of Planning, Policy and Program Support, Child and Family Services Agency.
RiverSmart Homes – DC’s Residential Stormwater Management Program Skye Webster, RiverSmart Homes Environmental Protection Specialist, Department of Energy & Environment.
Consent Agenda
Recommendation: ANC6A and ANC6B send a joint letter to DDOT requesting a traffic study around Lincoln Park.
New Business
Suggested Motion: ANC6A send an official Letter of Appeal to the Director of OANC asking for reconsideration of the denial of ANC 6A’s 2024 grant of $1,000 Guerilla Gardeners. The purpose of the grant was to hold a public, community event to plant Tulips around the periphery of Sasha Bruce House. The appeal letter should capture the public benefits of this grant.
Capitol Hill Corner would also like you to know about:
Tuesday, March 11
Free DC is having a Ward 6 meeting at 6pm at the Northeast Library (7th and Maryland Ave NE). According to Free DC co-founder Alex Dobbs, “For anyone interested in joining our effort you can come to one of our campaign organizing meetings – we provide an overview of our strategy and how to get involved.
Two eminent, essential local writers on jazz are featured in the March 12 session of the series.: Georgetown University Professor Maurice Jackson and NEA Jazz Master Willard Jenkins
The Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize, created in honor of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Anthony Hecht, is awarded annually for a poetry collection by a poet who has published no more than one previous book of verse. This season, the O.B. Hardison Poetry Series and co-sponsor The Waywiser Press celebrate Julia Thacker, the 19th winner of the Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize with this year’s prize judge, Irish poet, critic, playwright, and translator Paul Muldoon, who will read with Thacker.
Please note: Children under the age of 4 are not permitted.
Friday, March 14
Hill Center Event 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Award-Winning Duo Veronneau Perform the Music of Joni Mitchell & Carole King,
Veronneau perform the music of two iconic artists, from their iconic albums – Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” & Carole King’s “Tapestry.” “Inspiring & Joyful…excellent performers” – The Washington Post “The kind of thoughtful artistry one can expect from masters of the music.” – Washingtonian Magazine. Tickets $20.00
Last week, Congressional Cemetery wrapped up a month long series of Death Doula Pop Ups held inside the cemetery’s chapel. These “Mortality Tea Rooms” were an extension of the “Death Café” program sponsored by the cemetery. The “Death Café” is a loose knit international movement to facilitate regular discussions about death over food and drink with a dozen or so participants.
This series was coordinated and hosted by Congressional Cemetery’s Death Doula in Residence, Laura Lyster-Mensh.
A visit to one on the events last week found Lyster-Mensh offering tea and information through a series of exhibits illustrating a death doula’s mission and her own approach to her practice.
And that’s what death doulas do – provide information about end of life choices both for families and individuals and support for terminally ill persons and their families.
Lyster-Mensh conducts a tour of her Mortality Tea Room exhibits:
Impermanence
Every day, she starts a new nature mandala – a geometric shape made of things in nature picked up on the cemetery grounds by visitors to the chapel. She says, “People are shy about things associated with bodies – so I’ve invited people to be part of building this geometric shape as a study of impermanence. At the end of the day, I wash it away – and we start over the next day.
Community Mourning
She references the Mexican tradition of Day of the Dead and said that that on the Day of the Dead last year an ofrenda was set up in the chapel. (Ofrenda means “offering” in Spanish and refers to the colorful altars set up to honor deceased loved ones on the Dia de los Muertos Mexican holiday.) She says that it displayed “hundreds of objects and photographs and flowers. It was just splendid – a way of introducing ancestors and a way of talking about the past.”
Choose Your Corpse’s Adventure
She moved on to what she called her pet project, a game called Choose Your Corpse’s Adventure. She says, “Most people don’t think about what happens to their body after they pass – that causes expensive chaos. So I set up toys to show people their options – how much money will it cost you to die and how much carbon will it take? I get them to think – if you have as much money as you want and as much carbon as you want, how much do you need? I ask them to think about that. Given options such as water cremation, human composting, or fire cremation, what is the actual cost financially and environmentally? And the party – what about the party you might have after you’re gone? By end of the game, people have gotten a better idea of death’s costs and impacts. The real thing is the conversation, especially with couples. That’s my goal – to get people talking and to think about their behavior in these terms.”
Library and Life Planner Area
Lyster-Mensh has a lending library including books and life planners. She lends them out and people bring them back. She wants people to organize and think about the chaos the day after they die. She adds, “There are so many kinds of organizers – some are funny and some are serious. I hand them a stack and let them go through them.”
Immortality
Lydia-Mensch doesn’t talk about immortality, but she alludes to it by giving away plant cuttings.
She says, “All living things come from something that has died. The cuttings are all from my mom’s plants. It’s a symbolic thing – I encourage people to think about taking my plants home; they will live or die and all these are coming from my mom’s plants which come from other plants and I like that idea. Snake plants, Swedish ivy, tradescantia, spider plants – I love the idea that they are going out into the world.”
Last February was the first month-long mortality workshop – which she says is a completely new way of encouraging contemplation of end of life scenarios – “It happened because the chapel was open for the month of February, and I asked to do it. Last year, I did individual appointments. The year before I did weekly gatherings and events.” She says the cemetery will probably repeat the experience next year.
Asked what motivated her, Lyster-Mensh says, “I’ve always had an interest even as a kid. As I get older and lose more people and get closer to death the ‘eye-rolling’ (encountering people’s annoyance or reluctance to take the issue seriously) motivates me. When I sit with dying people – and I’m with dying people a lot – their families and friends are often too frightened to be there and so they’re alone and that doesn’t have to be. So I feel that death awareness is a way to bring people back to being more loving and taking care of each other rather than just leaving people to suffer in fear and isolation.”
Here’s the scene at As You Are on Sunday afternoon, as attendees listen to Free DC organizer Alex Dodds.
Here’s a detail of Dodds rallying the crowd.
A Free DC volunteer makes signs for the campaign.
Sunday afternoon, Free DC held its first Ward 6 meeting on Barracks Row’s at As You Are. Event organizer Alex Dodds said that the purpose of the gathering to kick off the Home Rule effort was a and introduction and a “celebration with our Ward Six team.” More than a hundred supporters crowded into the second story of As You Are to express solidarity, interact, and to cheer approval as they listened to Dodds assert DC’s right to self-determination.
Asked for comment, Dodds said “Free DC is a new campaign to protect home rule and win dignity for people in communities of the District. Free DC is organizing in all eight wards, mobilizing people to protect ourselves from this administration and this congress.” The movement, she said, “started two years ago during the overturning of the Revised Criminal Code – Congress disapproved of a DC law for the first time in over 30 years, and no matter how you felt about that legislation, we felt very strongly that it was the right and responsibility of the people of the DC to decide the laws here. So a lot of the organizers who are involved now first started organizing two years ago when that happened. “
As for next steps, Dodds said, “For anyone interested in joining our effort you can come to one of our campaign organizing meetings – we provide an overview of our strategy and how to get involved. They happen every other week alternating in person and on line.” The next Ward Six meeting is Tuesday, March 11th from 6:00pm – 8:00pm in North East Library.
Free DC is a special non-profit project of Community Change, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, and Community Change Action, a 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organization. It’s co-founders are Alex Dodds, founder and lead strategist for the public relations and campaign firm Worthy Studio; Nee Nee Taylor, Executive Director of Harriet’s Wildest Dreams; Kelsey Adams, co- director of DC Vote; and Keya Chattergee, member, Evergreen Advisory and Governing Boards and Executive Director of US Climate Action Network.
French Bakery Update – a source tells CHC that the progress on the opening of the long-awaited St. Georges Boulangerie across from Eastern Market is bogged down in the city’s interminable and increasingly stringent permitting process. The owner must be anxious to open, but timing is uncertain.
Razom for Ukraine appears to have set up camp at 603 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE. Razom is a U.S. based 501(c)(3) which seeks to help build a secure, prosperous, and democratic Ukraine. In 2023, Forbes Ukraine declared Razom one of the top 10 nonprofit organizations in Ukraine. (Wiki) Charity Navigator gives Razom a four star rating. Here’s a link for more info and to donate: https://www.razomforukraine.org/
DC’s first Mushroom Church is open on Barracks Row. An Instagram post for the “Entheogenic* Temple” says it wants to “bring the Divine to all people through our Sacred Sacrament the Mushroom. Mushrooms are only available for purchase for members of our Church through verified membership on location or through a Member Portal.”
*Entheogens are psychoactive substances, including psychedelic drugs (such as magic mushrooms) used throughout history in sacred contexts. (Wiki)
The Church is located in the space formerly occupied by Metropolitan Wellness Center and then by Mr. Nice Guys, over the former and future Popeyes on Barracks Row at 409 8th Street, SE.
Here’s a capture from the Mushroom Church’s Instagram page illustrating one of their products. On March 15, 2021, DC’s Initiative 81 went into effect, which did not legalize psychedelic mushrooms, but made policing and prosecution for use of them a low priority. Some groups seek a religious exemption from the DEA for use of psychedelics but there’s an application process – not just declaring yourself a church. The IRA as well may be curious about the legal status of an organization declaring itself a church.
Razom for Ukraine appears to have set up camp at 603 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE. Razom is a U.S. based 501(c)(3) which seeks to help build a secure, prosperous, and democratic Ukraine. In 2023, Forbes Ukraine declared Razom one of the top 10 nonprofit organizations in Ukraine. (Wiki) Charity Navigator gives Razom a four star rating. Here’s a link for more info and to donate: https://www.razomforukraine.org/
ABCA continues the crackdown on the illegal weed gifting shops, issuing a Notice of Closure to The U Smoke Shop at 607a Pennsylvania Avenue, SE.
The Week Ahead…
Highlight: Multiple representatives of the federal and local criminal justice system (maybe including Acting US Attorney for DC Edward Martin) will appear at Tuesday’s MPD’s 1st District Community Advisory Committee meeting – see below).
Monday, March 3
ANC6B Transportation Committee Meeting will hold a virtual meeting at 7:00pm.
Capitol Hill Corner would also like you to know about:
Tuesday, March 4
Folger Theater presents A Room in the Castle. On Stage through April 6. Tickets: $20 – $84.
How does a woman survive the court of Denmark? How does anyone? A Room in the Castle finds Ophelia, her handmaid, and Queen Gertrude on the other end of a wild prince’s antics and realizing just how dangerous life in this castle has become.
About The Tower: A bold, feminist debut novel, reimagining Mary, Queen of Scots’s darkest hour, when she was held hostage in a remote Scottish castle with a handful of loyal women while plotting a daring escape to reclaim her country and her freedom.
Congressional Cemetery Death Café. 6:00pm – 7:30pm.
Historic Congressional Cemetery Chapel 1801 E Street, Southeast.
Death Cafe is a global movement to encourage discussion about the often-taboo subject of death. These are intimate informal gatherings where we discuss death while eating cake and drinking tea to remind us of comfort and sweetness even in difficult times.
Empire Racquet at 419 8th Street, Barracks Row, opened Friday, February 28.
Here’s a shot of the new court.
Now Open: Empire Racquet on Barracks Row
by Larry Janezich
Posted March 1, 2025
Empire Racquet – Pickle Ball and Gym –opened Friday, February at 419 8th Street, in the former Capitol Hill Tandoor and Grill.
Saturday afternoon, owner Bryn Bryant said over 60 people have signed up for classes in the day and a half they’ve been open. Empire Racquet offers pee-wee tennis, cricket for adults, pickle ball for kids and adults and a full service tennis shop. The gym also offers classes in body sculpt and boot camp.
Bryant says he will be fully up and running by Monday. The space will include a lounge for parents and Wi-Fi. Signage is on the way and Empire Racquet has filed a permit for a logo on the front of the building. The gym will be open all day, seven days a week.
Bryant comes from NYC where he ran tennis clubs for 15 years.
Mirrors for Princes: “How To Be A Power Player – Tudor Edition” at the Folger Library
by Larry Janezich
Posted February 24, 2025
Just inside the entrance to the exhibit entrance one is struck by the deep purple color scheme – reminding us that wearing the color in Elizabethan England was a privilege reserved for members of the nobility ranked earl or above. An Earl is third in the British peerage system, below a Duke and A Marquess.
Washington is filled with people who are attracted to power and who strive to capture the attention of its brokers. This is a reality of governance that is reflected in the practices of power players throughout history. According to Heather Wolfe, Folger’s Curator of Manuscripts, the term “Mirror for Princes” is a metaphor which would have been known and commonly understood in the Elizabethan era and refers to a literary genre of political writings – playbooks – which offered instruction or rules on how to join, maintain, or advance one’s position at court. They were “mirrors;” if the reader saw him or herself in the text – which might describe the consequences of an action or behavior in terms of success or failure in governance or court – they could modify their behavior accordingly.
This new Folger exhibit opened last Friday. It consists of more than 60 objects from the Library’s collection and focuses on 13 of the rules gleaned from several Renaissance playbooks including Machiavelli’s The Prince, and Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier. Wolfe said that the number is arbitrary, limited by the number of display cases in the Stuart and Mimi Rose Gallery.
Modern names have been given to the rules to make the period more accessible and each reflects a skill you needed to thrive and survive in Queen Elizabeth I’s court. Like Washington today, the court is the place to do business and power players follow rules without thinking about them.
The 13 cases are each labeled with a rule and hold playbooks, the texts of which illustrate the rule displayed.
Here are some of them:
Study the Play Books (e.g. Bend the rules to get what you want, i.e., “the end justifies the means,” and “it is wiser to be feared than loved”) Pictured is a 1584 copy of The Prince.
Get on the Gift List (e.g. Not to receive, but to give to the queen on gift day – the 12 foot gift list of 1579 pictured here details who gave and what was given, including jewelry, clothing, books, gloves and delicacies.)
Hang on to Your Head. (e.g. The traitor list – Thomas Cromwell, Robert Devereaux and Walter Raleigh – featuring execution records)
Die a Noble Death. (e.g. A celebrity funeral. To help relieve the repetition of the static display of texts and objects, the exhibit continues in an adjacent room with a screen that depicts scrolling images of a series of 32 large detailed engravings of the funeral of Sir Philip Sidney, considered the ideal Renaissance man, who died in battle at 31 and whose procession featured hundreds of mourners.)
Wolfe says, “I hope visitors see the parallels between Tudor England and today. Cancel culture, brand management, nepotism, power dressing, and the idea of ‘fake it ’til you make it’ were all a part of life for people seeking a position in the queen’s inner circle. When I was selecting items for the exhibition, I was continually struck by the similarities between the self-help books for managers and leaders today and the how-to books for aspiring power players from the 16th century.”
The mirror forming the “O” in the word describing the theme of the exhibit is inscribed with a quote from Richard II: “O flattering glass, like to my followers in prosperity, thou dost beguile me.” A close look at the mirror reveals it does not return a true reflection, perhaps speaking to a deeper truth than the one perceived by the observer. Asked to comment on this presumed artistic license, Wolfe remarked that the slight distortion of the mirror’s reflection was not intentional.
Capitol Hill Arts Workshop Annual Meeting. Saturday, the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW) held its Annual Meeting. CHAW Executive Director Amy Moore is asking stakeholders and funders to step up and contribute to make up an expected shortfall in funding.
Rewild – Plants Workshops Design – at 232 7th Street, SE. Here’s a shot of the inside.
And here’s the reverse, looking across the street at Eastern Market.
The Ward 6 Public Schools Parent Organization is holding a Middle School Principals Panel Discussion on Monday, March 3, 7:00pm. Here’s a link to register for the event: bit.ly/W6PSPO25MSPrincipals (copy and paste)
Market Lunch in Eastern Market, today, circa 11:45am.
The Week Ahead…
Monday, February 24
ANC6B Public Safety Committee will hold a virtual meeting at 6:30pm.
Survey: Community input on the future of the Rumsey Aquatic Center. Deadline for submitting is Friday, February 28. Go here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Rumsey
The space formerly occupied by Lavagna at 539 8th Sreet on Barracks Row has a new tenant who has opened a Smoke Shop and applied for a Medical Cannabis license. Next door: that’s the Miracle Theater owned by National Community Church.
Here a capture of the Smoke Shop’s interior.
Last January, the owners of Café 8 on Barracks Row appeared before ANC6B to inform the Commission Of their intention to limit admission to the café and hookah bar to those 30 and older after 8:30pm. This is in part a response to complaints from the neighborhood about noisy early morning departures from the restaurant. Café 8 has been assured by city agencies of their right to impose the regulation. In passing, the owners offered that pending the expansion of the restaurant to the first floors of the adjacent buildings purchased by Café 8, the second story of one of the buildings would be leased to the proprietor of a retail outlet selling hookahs (also called Shisha) and hookah paraphernalia.
That new retail space is now in operation.
Here are some images from the interior.
The meaning of Triple Candie’s February installation in the window space of the former Li’l Pub on the 600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, is a little less puzzling than that of the typical exhibit. The background is a detail from The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault. And the overlay is a commentary on the situation.
Gericault’s painting has become an icon of French Romanticism. It depicts the aftermath of the wreck of the French naval frigate Méduse, which ran aground off the coast of today’s Mauritania on July 2, 1816. On July 5,1816, at least 150 people were set adrift on a hurriedly constructed raft. All but 15 died in the 13 days before their rescue. The event became an international scandal, in part because its cause was widely attributed to the incompetence of the French captain. (Wiki)
The Week Ahead…
Monday, February 17
Presidents Day Holiday.Trash and Recycling WILL BE PICKEDUp owing to anticipated mid-week snow storm. Compost Pickup with slide one day.
TSI Pending Field Installation. Latest Comment: DDOT has evaluated the traffic safety concerns regarding both pedestrian and vehicle safety at the intersection of 14th Street NE and Tennessee Avenue NE. Following a complete traffic investigation, DDOT has decided to install curb extension pavement markings to reduce the crossing distance for pedestrians and improve overall safety at this intersection’
Lincoln Park Traffic Safety. This has been discussed before by this committee. Committee Member Sussman attended ANC 6B’s Transportation and Public Space committee meeting to explore a joint letter to DDOT requesting a comprehensive traffic study.
New Business.
TSI Pending Field Installation. Latest Comment: DDOT has evaluated the Traffic Safety Input for the intersection of 13th and F Street NE regarding traffic and pedestrian safety concerns. DDOT completed traffic data collection and investigation for the subject location and determined that installing curb extensions will decrease pedestrians’ crossing distance and help manage traffic speed.
Thursday, February 20
ANC6D ABC Committee will hold a virtual meeting at 7:00pm.
The Polar Plunge is a way for the community to come out and show their support for the athletes of Special Olympics DC. There will be an above-ground swimming pool erected at the Yards Park, and participants will “take the plunge.”
CAPITOL HILL CORNER 