
Columbia Heights

This rental is located at 2440 16th Street, Northwest. The listing says:
“Urban living at it’s best! Stylish, bright & airy top floor corner unit w/2 MBR suites in sought-after Park Tower, across from Meridian Hill Park, walking distance to metro, Adams Morgan nightlife and Harris Teeter at the back door; kitchen has been renovated w/42 inch cabinets, stainless steel, and granite; w/d in unit, walk-in closet; extra storage, bike and exercise rooms, 24 hour front desk.”

You can see more photos here.
This 2 bed/2 bath is going for $2,695/Mo.

A reader reports:
“So on Tuesday from 7am – 7pm there is street cleaning on the north side of Euclid Street between 13th and 14th streets. So on Tuesday by 7am, residents in zone 1 on that street must move their cars from the north side of the street to the south side; where it is zoned and acceptable to park only on Tuesday from 7am to 7pm.
When residents get home from work, they must move their cars back to the north side of the street at 7pm. Here’s where it gets tricky and the altercation occurred. To move your car right as the stroke of 7pm happens is near impossible, so residents usually move their cars between 6:30pm and 7pm. Yesterday my neighbor moved his car around 6:45, and there was a parking enforcement guy who begun giving tickets. I pointed this out to my neighbor as I had just gotten hope from work myself. The parking enforcement guy (real jerk about it), told him to move his car back to the south side quickly and keep it there till right at 7pm or he would give him a ticket. There was also another neighbor that had parked his car but was already inside so I had to call him to race down before the parking enforcement gave him a ticket. In the meantime, I stood in front of his license plate to block parking enforcement from taking a picture of the back or the front license plate, as they are required to do to issue the ticket; this was all occurring at 6:50pm, 10 minutes before parking is acceptable on the north side of the street.
The parking enforcement gentlemen became aggressive and yelled at me to move, which I refused. He took my picture; which is when I begun taking his; he even stepped out of his car to “flex his abusive power” over the residents of Euclid Street. After he left, post 7pm, he called the police and showed up with them, I was still standing outside with my neighbors, around 10 minutes later. The police did nothing but I was reprimanded for interfering with city government procedures, they say it could be considered assault and local government and firefighters are protected under this. I understand but at the same time, it just seems amoral to ticket like this.
All in all, it seems like a flawed system. How can you allow for no grace period? It seems like a racket to me, to come along and make people sit in their cars to move them right at 7pm would be chaos. It seems like just another way for the city to get money from ridiculously strict parking enforcement.”

Hurrah! The Meridian Hill Park fountains are filled again. Though the pressure seems lower again like it was last year:

Also the restoration of the 16th Street entrance/retaining wall has been completed:


But the Washington Meridian marker plaque is gone!! Let’s hope it doesn’t got the way of the Armillary Sphere.

Here’s what it used to look like:

Photo by flickr user David
“The inscription reads: THE STONE MARKING THE WASHINGTON MERIDIAN WAS FORMERLY LOCATED 52 FEET 9 INCHES WEST OF THIS TABLET WHICH WAS PRESENTED BY THE ARMY & NAVY CHAPTER DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 1804 1923
L’Enfant planned Washington around a right triangle, having its 90° vertex at the Washington Monument, its eastern vertex at the Congress House, and its northern vertex at the President’s House, now called the White House. The west side of L’Enfant’s triangle forms a natural prime meridian passing through the President’s House. The following five features on this meridian are listed from south to north. In 1793, Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson surveyed and marked with a wooden post the southwest vertex of L’Enfant’s triangle, establishing the second Washington meridian, the one through the President’s House. The wooden post was replaced by the Jefferson Pier in 1804, while Jefferson was President of the United States. After removal and replacement several times, it was permanently replaced in 1889 by a two foot (0.7 m) square, two foot tall granite pier, now 119 m WNW of the center of the Washington Monument. Its longitude is 77°2’11.56″W (NAD 83). In 1890, the Meridian Stone was placed at the center of the Ellipse on the same meridian. It is an 18 inch (45 cm) square granite post set flush with the ground. In 1923, the Zero Milestone was placed on the same meridian on the north side of the Ellipse, intended to represent the zero mileage point for all United States roads (but never was). It is a granite pillar about 18 inches (45 cm) square and about 3.5 feet (1 m) tall. The most prominent feature on this Washington meridian (besides the White House) is 16th Street, which extends due north from the White House. The last feature on this meridian no longer exists. It was a small freestone obelisk placed in 1804 on top of a hill 1.5 miles (2.5 km) north of the President’s House, hence the name Meridian Hill. It was at the northern end of 16th Street, north of Florida Avenue, before 16th Street was extended northward soon after 1900, covering it up. Now adjoining the east side of 16th Street where the obelisk once stood is Meridian Hill Park.”

3315 11th Street, NW
Thanks to all who sent emails and tweets about a Yoga District coming to 11th Street next to El Chucho.


A reader reports:
“that the park police came into Meridian Hill Park yesterday evening for the explicit purpose of ticketing dog owners with their pets off leash. Seemed to be an unnecessary “operation” considering there was no one else down there except for dog owners.”

Adam Nathaniel Yauch – MCA – August 5, 1964 – May 4, 2012.
From MPD:
“The Third District is investigating a shooting that occurred in the 1300 block of Harvard St NW.
Anyone with information is encouraged to call the Metropolitan Police Department on 202-727-9099.”
@alanhenney tweeted:
“U/D SHOOTING, 13th and Harvard Sts NW, DC. Victim is a 22yr-old man shot in chest in CARDIAC ARREST, probable fatal. No suspect info yet.”
@dcalerts tweeted:
“Shooting at 2345 hours in the 700 b/o 12th Street, SE. POSSIBLE lookout is for a B/M last seen wearing a red shirt under a black jacket”
a reader tweeted @PoPville:
“Ummmmmm….Did anyone else near Marine Barracks hear what sounded like gunshots??? @PoPville Sounded like about 10 to 14 shots.”
Update from the HillEast listserv:
“The shooting happened at 12th and K, around 11:30. There was a burst of small-caliber gunfire, followed by some larger-caliber (presumably) return fire. We looked out the window and saw one man running towards Hopkins and two others moving up 12th, towards I. This was the victim and another man. The victim was being dragged and looked very badly hurt. We called 911 and the police and ambulance were there in a few minutes. A small amount of blood and shell casings on the sidewalk are the only other things we saw. We were really hoping the victim was going to be OK (the police wouldn’t say), but it sounds like he was not.
The high number of shots was disconcerting – everyone on 12th St between I and K should check their cars and homes for stray holes. The police were fast, very professional, and very thorough from what I could tell. Mostly, we’re just pissed off that this happened at all in our neighborhood. I have yet to meet an unfriendly or aggressive person on our block, and we are outside everyday. This is such a stupid, pointless act, and so very sad.
We will be contacting the city about a brighter/better streetlight at the corner of 12th and K, and trimming back the large tree on the corner/putting in our own yard lights. All together, the lack of those things makes that corner very dark and, clearly, unsafe.
Thanks to the MPD to coming right away, though, and doing a good job in a very unpleasant situation. Our thoughts are with the family of the young man who was shot, and if anyone has more information I urge them to call MPD and report it.”

“Dear PoPville,
I wanted to write to you today about what I feel is an epidemic in that has hit Columbia Heights.
I live in the area slightly north of Meridian Hill Park and at least once or twice a week I see a smashed in window from yet another theft of items in someone’s car.
It has gotten to the point where when I walk my dog down 15th St or the 14th-15th St Blocks of Harvard, Euclid, or Girard on a Saturday or Sunday morning I am SURPRISED if there isn’t a smashed in window. It is just a constant stream of glass on the sidewalk and no doubt stolen property from yet another car.
What I ask is what are the police doing about this? I see numerous police officers writing up reports, but over the past 6-8 months there has been no letdown in the occurrences of this crime.
I am almost feel fortunate that I only use public transit/Uber and don’t have to park my car on the street each night. the rare occurrences I have a rental car I need to park overnight I have zero faith that anything is being done to prevent waking up to a smashed window and I almost feel it is a coin flip that I will walk up to one.
I can’t be the only one in this area that notices this on a very frequent basis. I am also taking about a very small coverage area strictly within Columbia Heights, I am sure this is a problem elsewhere as well.
Hopefully this can lead to something being done about this so the Columbia Heights community doesn’t need to cross their fingers every time they park their car on the street that they will have to file an insurance claim in the morning.”

“Dear PoPville,
I just had a rather unbelievable experience while I was out running errands in Columbia Heights. I live in a building immediately above the CH metro and am quite used to the large groups of people that gather on this corner. Today, however, as I was walking home from Giant and waiting in front of the CVS to cross 14th, a drunk man walked up next to me carrying a 40 and began screaming “F this, F that”. This is a pretty typical experience so I just stood there silently waiting for the light to change. He then got even closer to me (about 2-3 feet away) and started screaming that he was going to stab me with his knife.
I did a quick survey and saw 4 police officers on bicycles standing in front of Panera. Thank goodness! I thought. I booked it across the street to give them a heads up that this man was threatening to stab me. I was waving my arms and yelling “Excuse me officers!” All four officers looked at me and then got onto their bicycles and rode off.
I have absolutely no idea whether to report this incident or not. And I also have no idea who I would even report it to. I don’t think it is too much to ask for a group of officers to acknowledge you when you are running towards them and screaming to get their attention.
If nothing else, let this be a warning that there is a man hanging out by the metro in a baggy red t-shirt threatening to stab people.”