Wow, that was fast. Kiko’s had opened up in March at 3703 14th Street, NW. Thanks to an alert reader for sending the news:
“You know, those of us in North Columbia Heights had high hopes for Kiko’s Chicken at Spring and 14th. It was disappointing. Last night we noticed that it is closed and has a sign up that a new Peruvian chicken place will arrive in August.”
Hopefully the Peruvian spot will have more success.
The Old Bi-Rite building slated to house Meridian Pint seems to be picking up steam. Here’s what it looked like in June. I wonder if it’s still going to look like the original rendering? It’s nice to see it starting to take shape.
Back in March I reported that a deli was going to open up in the old Carvel space on 14th Street just north of Park Road, NW. They officially opened their door on Friday. I took a peek inside and it looks really nice.
You can see their Web site here. This is their third location with two others at 2023 G Street, NW and 2400 M Street, NW. In addition to sandwiches there is also a separate section for coffee:
And what I saw as a great sign – they carry Dr. Brown’s soda:
Anyone check them out this weekend?
There is a time for doubt and a time for hope. This is most definitely a time for hope. When we discussed the park on Friday, some folks were rather skeptical. As I said in the comments there, I believe now is the time to offer the benefit of the doubt and to celebrate and enjoy the nice new facilities. In fact the opening celebration on Saturday afternoon was filled with joy, music, and good vibes.
There was an initial vote also held on Sat. to rename the park. The choices were picked by the “friends of the park” group. Nominees were Jim Graham Park, Mack Thompson Park (a local activist), Obama Park, Capital City Park, or a write in choice. The “winner” will be announced Monday evening. I put winner in quotes because the City Council will still need to pass legislation to officially rename the park. The park is being renamed because folks often confuse this park with the Girard Street Park which, incidentally, was also recently renovated.
A resident familiar with the background tells me:
“With respect to the naming of the park, this ‘friends of’ group established a shortlist for the community. The ANC commissioner for the park is Rosemary Akinmboni, and she agreed that the opening celebration of the park would be a good opportunity to get input from the community regarding the name. The main impetus for the renaming of the park is that there is another park down Girard St. closer to 15th St., which is commonly known as Girard Park. Needless to say, it is obvious how this could be confused with the 14th and Girard Park.”
This morning Mayor Fenty attended a ribbon cutting ceremony but you can join in the celebration on Sat. I took some photos last weekend but will update this weekend. It certainly looks like a really nice upgrade. Glad to see the built in chess boards. And bathrooms too!
More photos and full press release after the jump. (more…)
This condo is located at 1330 Park Road, NW:
The flier says:
“City dwellers delight!!! Updated and upgraded terrace level condo in heart of Columbia Heights. Open floor plan. Stainless, granite, custom cabinetry. Hardwood floors throughout. European master bath w/ tumbled marble. Large master walk-in closet. Close to metro and shopping.”
More info and photos found here.
I was really excited about this unit until I realized it was a lower level unit. The renovation itself looks fantastic and it does seem to get natural light so maybe the lower level isn’t a big deal. What do you think of the condo itself? Does $409,000 sound reasonable for this 2 bed/2 bath?
photo by John
Ed. Note: I didn’t have a photo of the firehouse at Newton so just picked a random one from flickr. Regarding the firehouse at Newton, I too have seen random people hanging out and setting up a small portable bbq and wondered if it was sanctioned by the firehouse.
“Dear PoP,
I wanted to raise the issue of loitering in front of the firehouse on 14th and Newton streets, as it’s caused a great deal of frustration for the residents of Newton and certainly beyond. Those familiar with this spot know that there used to be benches in front of the firehouse, a beacon for all types of characters. Generally, these people are unruly, intoxicated, offensive and pretty insensitive to anyone around. Jim Graham had the wood benches removed last year, but the cement structures of the benches remain, and now the regulars have taken to bringing their own furniture in the form of lawn chairs, desk chairs, etc. It’s easy to write these folks off as “homeless”, however, it’s become pretty obvious that they do have homes. They park cars along the curb of 14th St. and blast music; if it’s nice out you bet they’re grilling (that’s right they have a grill and meat to cook), and after they leave the entire area is a disaster. Trash is left everywhere as well as items that apparently aren’t worth holding onto.
We started by contacting the firehouse. The gentleman who was apparently in charge, asked if we were referring to “Bumfest”. That’s right, this is a civil servant. The obvious indifference to members of the community and apathy towards the situation outside of the firehouse is pretty frustrating considering we care about our neighborhood. Most of these firefighters are from other states, and seem to care less about the immediate community. Councilman Graham has expressed repeated frustration to his constituents, but there’s no loitering law in DC, and police claim they can do nothing.
I find it hard to believe that if my friends and I decided to congregate on the sidewalk and grill, start fights, curse out passersby, puke, and trash the area, we wouldn’t be punished in some way. It’s really embarrassing to have the first site visitors see on your street be a group like this.
Does anyone else in the neighborhood share my sentiment? We’ve contacted the non-emergency number close to 10 times now, but the problems persist. Please make the community aware of this issue, I really want to offer these people an alternative.”
When we talked about this last week the delivery stopped at Sherman. But thanks to your comments the initial delivery area has been expanded. From an email:
“Taking feedback from the comments section on PoP and some good Twitter traffic into consideration, we’ve decided to move the boundary on the east side of the initial delivery area to Georgia Avenue, not Sherman. This will allow us to incorporate the residential side streets between Ga and Sherman.
Also, there’s a $20 minimum on delivery orders.
We’re going to be taking the first week very much day by day. Co-owner and Petworth resident Joel Mehr will be taking all the calls, and using his judgment hour-by-hour as to whether the delivery staff can effectively deliver within the initial delivery area or not. If it’s slow, deliveries outside the area may be accepted; if it’s slammed, the area may need to be limited temporarily to ease the rush and ensure good service.
We’ll keep you posted. We’ll be tweeting as much as we can during the first week to keep things up to date. http://twitter.com/petes_newhaven
Thanks, PoP readers.”
The field located on 11th between Kenyon and Irving is getting totally redone. I wonder if they shoulda waited until after Columbia Heights Day which is scheduled for August 29 this year?
“Dear PoP,
I know you are going to be swamped with pics of today’s fire in CH. I figured I would give you a couple – since the fire happened literally below our balcony at Highland Park — we may be able to give a slightly different view of the aftermath…
We evacuated before taking pics from above of the fire in full bloom. But attached — you will see pics of the smoke from the street, as well as the aftermath of the burned up HVAC unit (which I am VERY hopeful that they will remove as it is now even more of a complete eyesore…)
I’m also attaching a couple of pictures of the SAME lot from last night — where — a group of appx. 25 folks was shooting fireworks off until about 3:30 a.m. Between fits of fireworks, they also engaged in boxing matches — taking turns beating the shit out of each other. It was quite the sight.
Despite calling 911 three times over the course of 3 hours — I only saw a trooper roll up after the third call. Quite ridiculous.
Needless to say– there were additional fireworks going off in the same lot throughout this afternoon – and I would not be surprised if a stray one is what caused the fire…
in my opinion — Someone needs to do something to either clean up this area or patrol it more frequently. (the lot in question is behind the highland park and homeless shelter buildings — aka – the alley that runs parallel and between Irving and Columbia;
there is A LOT of loitering there throughout the day (and — even into the evening) with some ridiculous behavior being exhibited.”
Yikes. Thanks to all the readers that sent photos of the fire. A few folks have speculated that fireworks could be the cause. More photos after the jump. (more…)