The following was written by PoPville contributor David McAuley, founder of Short Articles about Long Meetings.
Southwest On-street Parking to Get Worse
[Ed. Note: Or better depending on your perspective.]
It will soon become even more difficult for visitors to park on-street near DC’s shiny new Waterfront. A resolution passed last night (October 16) by Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 6D/Waterfront urges DC authorities to extend the resident parking hours from 8:30pm daily to midnight, seven days a week, throughout the Waterfront area. Read More
Scott Davies, photo via ANC2B
The following was written by PoPville contributor David McAuley, founder of Short Articles about Long Meetings.
Commissioner Scott Davies (district 09) of Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 2B/Dupont missed last week’s meeting, but no one present faulted him.
“It’s more important than this,” said Commissioner Mike Silverstein (district 06) in an announcement at the beginning of the October 11 meeting.
Silverstein was referring to Davies’ work on the hospital ship USNS Comfort, which has been deployed to Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria. Read More
1333 19th St, NW entrance on New Hampshire Avenue Ave (before renovations)
The following was written by David McAuley, founder of Short Articles about Long Meetings.
Shop Made in DC (1333 New Hampshire Ave NW, next to Buffalo Billiards) received unanimous approval for a stipulated liquor license from Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 2B/Dupont Circle at its regular meeting October 11. However, there was some evidence that this DC-government sponsored retail establishment is having trouble getting its ducks in a row before its scheduled opening this month.
“They keeping shuffling the dates when we’re opening,” Stacy Price of People Make Place, an organization that advocates for local businesses, said.
Price and Stephanie Babin of the Neighborhood Restaurant Group made the presentation to the ANC in support of the request for a stipulated liquor license. A stipulated liquor license allows an establishment to serve alcohol while it is finishing the formalities necessary to get a permanent liquor license. It is one of the few acts that an ANC can take that is not only advisory in nature, that is, once an ANC approves a request for a stipulated liquor license, the license is routinely issued by DC authorities upon payment of a $100 fee.
Price and Bavin told the ANC that Shop Made in DC plans to serve alcohol from noon to 8pm, even though its application, if approved, will grant them longer hours, including until 10pm. The shop is planning to have 20 seats inside and 14 seats outside, the presenters said, although their license application as written might allow them more.
The ANC noted that the applicants did not yet have all the paperwork necessary to use the outdoor patio space, and that it wished to note that fact on the resolution otherwise supporting the liquor license application. Sidewalk cafes require a separate license from the District Department of Transportation, which in turn means a separate application to the ANC for approval. Since the October 11 ANC meeting was the last scheduled meeting before the planned opening, it would be impossible for Shop Made in DC to get approval before its long-planned opening this month.
The presenters told the ANC that there had been a lot of interest at DC’s Department of Small Business and Local Development in getting the shop open on schedule, so they were looking into work-arounds that would allow the outdoor space to operate legally. This included possibly obtaining a special events permit from DC’s alcohol licensing authorities.
The ANC amended its original resolution to note that its endorsement was conditional on the applicants obtaining the required public space usage permits.
The presenters also told the ANC that the establishment plans to have nine taps, eight dedicated to local beer brewers and one to “specialty cocktails”. It planned to start non-alcoholic coffee shop service at 7am on weekdays and 11am on weekends, and would start serving “fast casual” lunch at 11am.”
Photo by PoPville flickr user Barbara.K
The following was written by David McAuley, founder of Short Articles about Long Meetings. David will be starting a regular column for PoPville. And this is very good news!!
Report of last night’s Dupont Circle ANC Meeting
Private lawyers are drafting legislation to limit noise from street musicians, Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 2B/Dupont Circle was told at its regular monthly meeting last night (October 11).
A pair of lawyers told the ANC they intend to return and ask for support of a resolution favoring new legislation creating a “reasonable and enforceable standard” for the volume at which “buskers” (street musicians) can play. No resolution was proposed at last night’s ANC meeting. The lawyers said they had been “retained by commercial interests” to work on this legislation, which they intend to eventually send to the DC City Council for approval. Read More
From the Hill East listserve yesterday at 4:30pm:
“I watched a group of male Jefferson Middle School students harass a man at the Potomac Ave Metro this afternoon at 4 as I was on my way to get my own kids from School.
They had some kind of verbal confrontation and picked up a stick or a pipe. The man walked away. I called 911. The children then hid behind a granite retaining wall and waited for him to walk a block. Then, they chased him down the block. I followed. I told a passerby, an African-American man my senior with a USDA badge (whose name I wish I had caught!) that ‘those boys were going to hurt that man’. This heroic fellow chased after the boys to get them to disperse while the intended victim was able to slip into Jade Fitness and safety.
The boys waited for the victim to emerge and then doubled back to the Metro. MPD and Transit Police arrived before they got a second crack at him. Police spoke with the victim on the scene.
MPD’s response was prompt. Neighbors were alert. That’s good news. The bad? The behavior demonstrated by these students.
I spoke with Jefferson staff to report this incident just after it happened to stress the connection between this incident, a recent mugging, and other recent acts of trespass and harassment by a selection of the Jefferson student body.
Though I will leave it to the professionals to come up with a solution for tomorrow’s dismissal at Jefferson, I can certainly say that I look forward to it.
Dan
——–
Daniel Ridge
Commissioner, ANC 6B-09″
57 N Street, NW
“I am Bradley A. Thomas, Chair of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 5E and the Commissioner who represents Single Member District 5E, the SMD which includes the unit block of N Street, NW, where the proposed new restaurant, Republic Cantina, seeks to open. For the past four days, I have been reading e-mail messages and comments on the Prince of Petworth blog [Ed. Note: To clear up any misunderstandings, since 2013 this website has been called PoPville as illustrated in the logo and URL.] regarding ANC5E’s protest of the application for a Class C liquor license recently filed by the proprietor of the prospective new restaurant. The comments I have read, in general, reflect a misunderstanding of both the process of an Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA) protest and the factual background pertinent to this particular application. In the course of my responsibilities as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner, I don’t usually respond to blogs but in this case, since many of the comments have cast my colleagues on the Commission in what I believe is an unfairly harsh and demeaning light, I felt compelled to do so at this time. Read More
“Dear PoPville,
Would you please post a reminder about tonight’s ANC meeting regarding the Mount Pleasant Farmers Market?
The information is from the ANC’s website and longtime ANC member, Jack McKay’s monthly newsletter:
Mount Pleasant ANC Meeting Tonight Re Future of Farmers Market
The future of the popular Mount Pleasant Farmer’s Market may be in trouble. In the past, the approval process was easy for the Farmers’ Market. The ANC Commissioners did not object to the weekly event, and sent an annual approval letter to the Market’s representative without requiring a sponsor to attend an ANC meeting to present a case for why it would not be a disturbance to the neighborhood.
However, this year, three commissioners – Arturo, Rosa, and Franko – objected to sending a letter of approval to the Market. These commissioners want the sponsor to come appear at the Tuesday, March 24 ANC meeting to answer questions about its operations and value to the neighborhood.
It’s a mistake for the ANC to even appear to be obstructing the Farmers’ Market. The Market has been running for 11 years and is one of the best events in the neighborhood.
If you want to show your support for the Farmers’ Market and other events/businesses that will improve Mount Pleasant please attend tonight’s ANC Meeting.
Details:
Tuesday, March 24
7:00pm, Mount Pleasant Library, 16th & Lamont Street NW“
3200 Mt. Pleasant St, NW
Ed. Note: The Mount Pleasant Farmers Market (arguably one of the best in the District) is scheduled to run from April 4, 2015 – Dec 19, 2015.
From this morning’s rant/revel:
“Rant: Mt. Pleasant Farmer’s market may be denied permits this year. Please go to the ANC meeting to support them on Tuesday, in particular if you are in the SMD of one of one the three commissioners currently opposing the permit.”
Another reader comments:
“These three ANC members are being ridiculous – the ANC has routinely provided letters of support to DPR for events in the park without requiring the requester come before the ANC to explain how the event will work.
From what I read on the ANC 1D google group, these ANC members support the farmers market but are still requiring the market manager come to the ANC meeting before they provide the letter of support to DPR.
.
I’ve written to my ANC commissioner about this – one of the three – and no surprise, but he hasn’t responded.”
Thanks to a reader for passing on from CBS Washington:
“A leader of the District’s Dupont Circle neighborhood allegedly used a racial slur, threw personal items belonging to homeless people, and attacked his neighbor with a chemical substance during a bizarre early-morning rampage this week.
Witnesses say Robert Leo Dwyer, who was elected as an Advisory Neighborhood Commission representative in 2012, was “acting crazy” on the corner of 17th Street and Corcoran Street NW shortly before 3 a.m. on July 28.”
You can read the rest of this bizarre story and see the court papers here.
Earlier in the week it was learned that ANC 5B03 had become vacant. This seat was held by Tiffany Bridge and represented a section of Brookland. She briefly explained to the Brookland listserv why she decided to step down. It is among the more depressing posts I’ve ever read:
The seat has come open because I have chosen to step down.
The short version is, I have different ideas from the other commissioners about what, at a practical level, constitutes openness and transparency in local government. Which wouldn’t be a problem by itself (we’re all accountable at the ballot box for the kind of elected official we are, after all, and I don’t believe in telling other elected officials how to represent their districts), but the practical upshot had turned out to be: a lawsuit filed against the ANC for failing to honor a FOIA request, to which I am a party simply because I was on the ANC at the time; my subsequent lack of confidence that I wouldn’t get dragged into those kinds of shenanigans in the future by continuing to be part of that body; and personal abusiveness leveled at me from other commissioners because of my belief that our constituents are entitled to know what we’re up to and why.
I’m sorry to not complete my term- I hate being a quitter more than almost anything- but I could no longer ignore that being confident in the principles guiding my own behavior wasn’t going to be enough to keep me from getting dragged into nonsense I don’t want to be associated with.
So I’ve decided this isn’t something I can continue with. I will continue to look for other ways to serve the Brookland community that are more appropriate for me and look forward to seeing you all out and about at neighborhood events. In the meantime, I’d be happy to discuss ANC service with anyone who is interested in running for this seat.
