Room 11 Seeks to Expand Outdoor Patio – Columbia Heights Listserv Chaos Ensues

What I thought was going to be some just straight up good news – is slowly devolving into listserv hilarity/insanity.

The super popular Room 11 is hoping to expand its outdoor patio at 11th and Lamont St, NW. I hear they’ll be adding 18 seats. To do so they’ll need to amend their voluntary agreement. Which leads us to the Columbia Heights Listserv which started with the following message at 8:25am this morning:

“Commissioner Boese,

You’re a lowlife! I was under no obligation to stay until the very end of the meeting. Other commissioners left before the meeting’s end; why couldn’t I?

–Lenwood Johnson, ANC 1A10”

An email from ANC rep 1A08, Kent Boese, sent to one of the owners of Room 11 (as well as all ANC reps) was included in the above message. Apparently the offending language was:

“1) While we were able to add the amendment of your VA to the agenda of the last ANC meeting, but the time we got to that item Commissioner Lenwood Johnson had left the meeting reducing the number of commissioners present to five. We need at least six for a quorum. Because of this, we were not able to take a vote.”

You can find the full emails and resident responses on the Columbia Heights Listserv here.

While ANCs can play a positive role in our neighborhoods, (and personally I think voluntary agreements can be very useful) this is a perfect example of why many people either actively dislike ANCs or completely tune them out.

At the end of the day – I hope this doesn’t negatively affect Room 11’s ability to expand their patio.