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Permit master ‏@WashBizNeibs tweeted the news on Friday:

“Attention low budget shoppers — Five Below is coming to DC USA.”

From Five Below’s website:

Five Below, Inc. is the leading retailer of trend-right, extreme-value merchandise to the teen and pre-teen market – all for $1.00 to $5.00.

Five Below’s dynamic assortment of merchandise includes everything from sporting goods, games, fashion accessories and jewelry, to hobbies and collectibles, bath and body, candy and snacks, room décor and storage, stationery and school supplies, video game accessories, books, dvds, iPhone accessories, novelty and “gag,” and seasonal items. Five Below combines exceptional value with trend-right, quality merchandise in a vibrant shopping environment.

I wonder if they are coming into the space that was once touted as the future home of Ellwood Thompson’s before they backed out? If so, it’ll be right next to the coming soon Petco on Irving Street.

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The Peruvian Chicken & Steak spot located on Park Road just west of 14th Street, NW looks very close to opening. I peeked in the window last weekend and it looks like it could be ready to roll any day now:

I’m eager to check out the Peruvian steak, I’ve had Peruvian chicken before which I think is delicious so I’m super intrigued by the idea of Peruvian steak. Has anyone had Peruvian style steak before? What exactly makes it Peruvian, the seasoning?


“Dear PoP,

What is the status of soccer field behind DC USA? It has been cleared but nothing more has been done. I think you said it was now part of the HS’s property but they were short on funds. Any idea of completion timeline? And when complete will it be open to the community? And along those lines, is the community allowed/encouraged to use the HS fields for sports when school is not in session?”

There was a similar Dear PoP about this back in April. At that time a few commenters said:

“I saw a contractor taking measurements along the edge of the aforementioned vacant lot. He said that it would soon be an artificial-turf football field. I assume that the field would belong to the Multicultural school, since the DCUSA/school were actually developed by associated parties, and the empty lot is smack in the middle.”

and

“It is (hopefully) going to be a soccer field or some variation of an athletic field for the school. My aunt is on the board at Bell and she is one of the people working on raising the money needed to get things going. From what I understand they are very close to having all the $. I will drop her an e-mail and see if I can get a status update for everyone.”

I walked by this weekend and the tractor was new to me. It looked like some sort of digging had begun. Can any of the commenters update what the plans and/or timelines are for this project?


This is insane. What is this, like, the third one in a month (not including the stuffed polar bear.)? Unbelievable. I was walking back home around 3:30pm on Sat. and some other folks I spoke with said the building had been evacuated since around 2:30pm. This has got to be the most frustrating thing for the proprietors in the mall. But what can you do? If you get a bomb threat, you have to evacuate, yeah? If they ever catch these bastards I hope they get some serious jail time. So let’s speculate on who’s calling in the threats – dumb kids? folks opposed to the mall? serious terrorists?

How long do we think these threats are going to continue for?

I saw lots of red shirts all over the place, turned out they were target employees of course.



photo by pat padua

By now most people have heard of the Columbia Heights Metro closing on Tuesday due to a “suspicious package”. And of course the suspicious package was a stuffed “homeless” polar bear. And we learned that it was actually a Greenpeace/Mark Jenkins Collaborative art project.

The quote by Jenkins from Fox 5 says:

“My intention with this project was to leverage my street installations to promote awareness about the issue of global warming and the plight of the polar bear,” said Jenkins. “It was our shared goal that the public would develop empathy for the polar bear as they have for the homeless which we see as two connected issues.”

So the FQOD is: do artists/organizations involved with public art displays have a responsibility to alert the authorities of such displays? Or did the authorities irrationally overreact? Obviously there is hindsight now, but who knows what threats they may receive on a daily basis. Also, do you think this particular display is an effective one?


I’m not going to lie. I am no stranger to drinking beers and listening to a Mariachi band. I think it is one of life’s great pleasures. I just never thought I’d be drinking beers and listening to a Mariachi band in a Target…on a Tuesday night. And it was a truly beautiful thing. So thanks to a reader for hooking me up with their ticket to the Target festivities in Columbia Heights. I am forever in your debt. There was a huge turnout and I was happy to see a nice mix of regular neighborhood residents as well as folks who I imagine are part of DC’s “elite”. Let me say Target went all out. You couldn’t turn a corner without running into a band, a bar, food or a Target employee asking if they could help you find something. Obviously the first thing I asked help in finding was tube socks. Ok, first I had a couple of beers. Ok, then I had a burger and sweet potato fries. Ok, then I listened to the Mariachi band and some bongo drummers and then the Mariachi band again. But then I was whisked straight to the tube socks. The tube socks were a little anti climactic, I’ll admit, because I couldn’t find any with sweet racing stripes. But did I mention that there was a Mariachi band? Too cool. As for the Target it is gigantic. It actually has two floors and stocks just about anything you could possibly imagine. (Ed. note: This was actually my first time inside a Target.) As you may have imagined after the jump check out tons of cool pictures of the party and the store. (more…)


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