Back in January I asked if folks had a name preference. At the time I voted for Meridian Hill because I had never seen Malcolm X actually written anywhere until I saw this sign. So I’m going to take the biggest cop out ever and from this point forward call it Meridian Hill/Malcolm X park. Weak, but I think it’s the proper solution. Does this sign change anyone’s mind on what is the proper name of the park?
My favorite place to get away from it all during the work week is Constitution Gardens. For downtown workers it’s a short walk (about 10 minutes from the White House). To avoid the tourists, I like to walk down 19th Street, where the entrance to the park can be found right across Constitution Ave. The park area contains a large man-made lake, a memorial and several walkways and (mostly empty) park benches.
The memorial island in the middle of the lake has stones bearing the names and signatures of the fifty-six men who signed the Declaration of Independence. Continues after the jump. (more…)
I was psyched to see this little park behind the new building at Georgia and Taylor. This building is the Residences at Georgia Avenue that we spoke about a couple weeks ago. The park is located on the Kansas Ave. side.
photo by Bob
I received the following awesome email:
“The Office of Planning, in coordination with the National Capital Planning Commission and the District Department of Transportation, are working on a re-visioning of the North Capitol Street Cloverleaf interchange at North Capitol Street, NW and Irving Street, NW.
We are in the process of doing a study to test other design options, such as a traffic circle, for that location and looking at how these changes affect neighborhood character.
We could really use help getting the word out to younger residents of Petworth, Bloomingdale, Brookland, Eckington, Park View, Pleasant Hills, and Pleasant Plains. We are hosting a community workshop on Saturday, March 14, from 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. (at the Pryzbyla Great Room , Catholic University Student Center, 620 Michigan Ave, NE) to ask for community input on what they’d like to see happen at this interchange.
(http://planning.dc.gov/planning/cwp/view,a,1354,q,645949.asp). It is an opportunity for residents to help create a vibrant, Dupont Circle-like area east of the park.”
Wow, this sounds like a phenomenal development. So my question is two fold. Do you think a “Dupont Circle-like area east of the park” is realistic? Secondly, as I’m a huge fan of all the circles in DC, I’m wondering if there are other fans of DC’s circles? I know some folks don’t like them because of driving issues. What do you think – do you dig them?
Car repairs? How would one get a car into the park in the first place?
Last weekend I had one of my usual cravings for Taco Bell. Instead of hitting my usual spot on 14th Street I decided to hit the one on Connecticut Avenue in Van Ness. I had a beef mexi melt and a nachos supreme washed down with a Dr. Pepper. Delicious. But I mention this because I ended up stumbling down Tilden Street in post T-bell ecstasy. What amazed me was that ten minutes ago I was on busy Connecticut Avenue and the next thing I knew I wound up in beautiful Rock Creek Park. I often hit the park in the warmer months but it was so refreshing to explore a bit in near solitude. The creek itself was amazing. I even spotted a little waterfall that had me mesmerized.
Continues after the jump. (more…)
Thanks a million to a reader for sending the following response to his inquiry:
All of the necessary infrastructure work, as well as construction work on the entire lower level of the park, were completed over a year ago.
Construction of the lodge house on the upper level has been completed and was inspected last week. That inspection revealed a few items that need to be corrected by the contractor before the Park Service accepts the building. Until these corrections have been made and the building is occupied, the fencing and plywood around the lodge house will remain in place to prevent vandalism.
The lawn areas on the upper level of the park have been regraded and sodded, and are under contractor warrantee. This means that the contractor is responsible for maintaining the lawn areas for 1 year and turning over a well established, lush lawn to the Park Service at the completion of the contractor maintenance period. The contractor has the option of leaving the snow fencing up during this maintenance period, and we expect them to do so since the contractor will face a substantial financial burden should the lawn areas be damaged.
If you are concerned about the amount of available space, the lower level is open and has not been affected by construction on the upper level.
Sincerely,
Adrienne Coleman
Superintendent, Rock Creek Park
National Park Service
From a reader:
“Just thought you’d like to know, I happened to see someone posting a sign prohibiting dogs on the field at Raymond park (between 9th St. NW, Quincy St. NW, and Spring St. NW – the park a block away from the GA Ave/Petworth Station). This is a popular spot for off-leash play and it’s not uncommon to see people walking dogs there at various times of the day, so it gets a lot of use from the canine community. While I’m sympathetic to dog owners in the neighborhood (I use this park to walk my dog once in awhile as well), I guess we should also take into account the fact that there had been a sign stating that all dogs must be on a leash and owners must clean up after their dogs. The majority of owners seem to clean up after their dogs, but unfortunately the leash rule was often ignored. Hopefully the new dog parks planned for the area will fill the void, but in the meantime we dog owners should try to be exemplary citizens when it comes to dog walking etiquette in order to avoid more restrictions and to endear ourselves to our non-dog-owning neighbors and the rest of the community.”
Last Friday I wrote about the coming dog park at 17th and S Street, NW. In the comments section a reader wrote:
“For a variety of reasons, the Park Road space will not be an “official” dog park anytime in the immediate future (if ever). However, dog owners may note the improved layout of the space (there should be gates going in to fill those two spaces in the fence at some point) which happens to be conducive to use by dogs, and should feel free to congregate, informally, accordingly. Hopefully, regular users will take an interest in keeping the space clean, tidy, and green.”
I spoke with some folks today that confirmed the above comment. The space is owned by Metro and the gate will be intentionally unlocked so that folks can bring their dogs there. MPD won’t bother you because it is Metro land but I agree with the original commenter that it will be up to the community to keep the space clean. I think Councilman Graham probably deserves a fair share of credit as he did quite a bit to make this an official park but it seems to me an unofficial park should be just as good. From what I understand it’s good to go right now. So for folks with dogs be sure to write me and let me know how it goes.
So from time to time when I write about Meridian Hill Park people get a bit upset because they believe the true name is Malcolm X park. But I just noticed walking by the other day that it has Meridian Hill etched into the stone on the border of the park. So is that a recent addition? When did the name change occur? Anyone believe one name is more appropriate than another?