http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/article/20832984/doors-arent-closing-just-yet-on-latenight-metro-service
Jacob Weisman, a 26-year-old line cook at Daikaya who also pulls some shifts at Bantam King, can’t afford to take an Uber home to Greenbelt, Maryland, when his night ends. And there’s no good bus route for him, either.
Already, Daikaya has reduced weekend hours to close at 11 p.m. so employees and patrons can still take Metro home before the train’s midnight closure during SafeTrack repair work. The notion that Metro would make the change permanent—and also end service at 10 p.m. on Sundays, as Metro general manager Paul Wiedefeld has proposed—strikes Weisman as an assault on the city and the people it serves.
“It’s a huge deal,” he says. “For me personally, there’s not really a bus that goes directly to my place. I think there are three separate buses, and I don’t think they run where I need them to. And calling a car, if there’s a deal, maybe it’ll be $10. But during surge times, it could be upwards of $50 to $65.”
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 8 September 2016 16:39 (eight years ago) link
In the Sunday newsprint version of the New York Times, this article had a different title-- something about "Gritty North Shaw"
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/11/travel/five-places-to-go-in-washington-dc.html
Here's the opening paragraph:
North Shaw is popping as a vibrant urban landscape with new shops and restaurants and more in mid-construction. Formerly a 15-acre swath known for gritty streets, parking lots, vacant buildings and chain-link fences, it’s the latest residential, retail and creative hub in the nation’s capital. On warm nights now, crowds pack the outdoor tables of tasteful restaurants on the wide sidewalks near the intersection of Florida Avenue and Eighth Street Northwest; street murals by local artists brighten building facades; and posters promote sumo wrestling and free henna tattoos.
Oy veh.
― curmudgeon, Monday, 12 September 2016 18:00 (eight years ago) link
My wife does some volunteer work for the Smithsonian so we got a sneak peek preview of the new National Museum of African American history and culture. Spent 5 hours there and did not see it all. Poignant, often somber, and also inspiring.
― curmudgeon, Monday, 19 September 2016 14:49 (eight years ago) link
Public opening is the 24th, and there's a fest going on at the mall Friday through Sunday.
http://dcist.com/2016/09/photos_finding_chocolate_city_at_th.php#photo-1
― curmudgeon, Monday, 19 September 2016 15:25 (eight years ago) link
A bunch of Washington Post restaurant lists posted--Sietsema top restaurants one plus Tim Carman on Cheap Eats and Ethiopian ones
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-restaurants-guide-fall-2016/
Sietsema's latest list
Analysis of it by numbers;
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/going-out-guide/wp/2016/10/13/tom-sietsemas-2016-fall-dining-guide-by-the-numbers/
Below two are from Tim Carman
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/the-10-best-places-to-eat-cheap-food-in-the-washington-area/2016/10/07/dbd11f42-8010-11e6-9070-5c4905bf40dc_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/the-10-best-ethiopian-restaurants-in-the-washington-area/2016/10/12/0c38147c-8027-11e6-a52d-9a865a0ed0d4_story.html
― curmudgeon, Monday, 17 October 2016 17:57 (seven years ago) link
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CvOZtzmUAAAr_A8.jpg:small
― mookieproof, Thursday, 20 October 2016 17:20 (seven years ago) link
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arts/article/20837636/blagden-alleys-last-remaining-artist-is-being-priced-out
Overview re Bill Warrell and the history of art spaces downtown, from his dc space club on 7th & E to Warrell's current status as last artist left in Blagden Alley
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 20 October 2016 17:25 (seven years ago) link
x-post-- Funny...but I think Dischord has already shut those items down, as no money was going to the artists not approved , etc.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 21 October 2016 04:06 (seven years ago) link
The bittersweet Blagden Alley, Warrell piece has me wondering do other cities help artists and musicians via zoning and real estate laws, etc. Is DC worse than others or just the same?
Warrell’s looming departure from Blagden Alley isn’t just another example of an artist being priced out of his neighborhood. In Furioso’s view, it’s emblematic of why the arts have not fared well in D.C.
“The city of D.C. has never given one square foot to the visual arts,” he says. “You can go to almost any town—any city practically—in this country and they’ll give you an old building, an old post office, an old something.”
Furioso has tried to keep Warrell in the building as long as possible. He didn’t raise the rent until last year, when years of property tax increases made it impossible for him to charge the same price as when Warrell moved in.
Furioso wishes the city offered more incentives to developers to keep low-income residents in their buildings. “We’re not even asking the city to do anything except give that deduction through property tax.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 21 October 2016 15:52 (seven years ago) link
lololol
georgetown-rosslyn gondola feasibility study (pdf)
― mookieproof, Thursday, 3 November 2016 14:44 (seven years ago) link
SummaryIn terms of potential ridership, the findings of thisstudy suggest that a Gondola connecting Rosslyn toGeorgetown could significantly contribute to a moreeffective multi-modal transit system while addressingtransportation needs in the immediate study area. Thissection provides an overview of the development of theridership projections.
Ha. Once they do this and get the trolley going all the way to Georgetown, all of the area's transportation issues will be solved (plus Metro is gonna have non-existent buses take the place of late-night Metro trains...)
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 3 November 2016 15:17 (seven years ago) link
I'm trying to imagine the circumstances in which I'd wait for a fucking gondola rather than just walking across the bridge, and I am failing. However, if you devise a trebuchet that can fling me from Wilson & N. Lynn to a trampoline placed at Wisconsin & M Street, then we'll talk.
― pumpkin spice was the Spice Girl who died suspiciously (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, 3 November 2016 15:29 (seven years ago) link
http://local.washingtoncitypaper.com/event/walter-e-washington-convention-center/washington-free-press-50th-anniversary-reunion-cl
Saturday panel discussion on Washington Free Press, 1966 to 1970 DC radical newspaper that was harassed by the FBI
― curmudgeon, Friday, 4 November 2016 12:47 (seven years ago) link
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/11/ted-leonsis-wizards-capitals-verizon-center
In a recent conference call with the Washington Post, Capitals and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis grumbled that his teams were “disadvantaged” because he was forced to pay more in building costs than other teams in other cities, in a Verizon Center deal he called “the worst building deal in professional sports.” Leonsis pays an estimated $36 million mortgage annually on the Verizon Center.
He also hinted that in six or seven years’ time, when the mortgage ends, he “will be a free agent,” suggesting that he could could possibly move the teams.
...This is absolutely preposterous. Yes, Leonsis may have to pay more for his mortgage than other professional teams, but just because those other teams duped cities into paying for their stadiums shouldn’t make D.C. fans feel bad about the deal here.
The Wizards and Capitals have spent plenty of money. They’ve spent an ungodly amount of money. The Wizards are currently spending more than the NBA Salary Cap, so for Leonsis to say that he can’t spend enough on his players is outrageous. He can’t spend more on his players because the league expressly prohibits him from doing so. The Capitals are also considered a “cap team,” having spent close to the cap every year in recent history.
The reason the Wizards and Capitals haven’t won a title has nothing to do with Leonsis’ mortgage and everything to do with the fact that he’s hired bad people who have done a bad job. Ernie Grunfeld, as Deadspin pointed out, is still somehow the general manager of the Wizards, even though he hasn’t shown like once in his entire career that he has any idea how to effectively run an NBA franchise. The team has wasted draft picks and signed the wrong guys to big deals and kept ineffective coaches and on and on.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 4 November 2016 14:51 (seven years ago) link
so it seems like we spent about a week staring at the sidewalk and now everybody is gearing up for a long slog. Is that everybody else's take?
― El Tomboto, Friday, 18 November 2016 02:40 (seven years ago) link
yeah. Although it feels like everyone's's going to be far more involved than the passive resignation post-2000 and even 2004.
― controversial but fabulous (I DIED), Friday, 18 November 2016 06:06 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, it's going to be freezing at the inauguration protests.
― El Tomboto, Friday, 18 November 2016 14:08 (seven years ago) link
true.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 18 November 2016 17:20 (seven years ago) link
DISTRICT II
In less serious news. Lots of exhibits worth checking out around DC. Just noticed that this opened at the Building Museum:
District II
November 19, 2016 - February 12, 2017
This poetic visual essay explores the changing streetscape of downtown Washington in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s through the urban street photography of Bill Barrett, Chris Earnshaw, and Joseph Mills
http://www.nbm.org/exhibitions-collections/exhibitions/district-ii.html
― curmudgeon, Monday, 21 November 2016 15:57 (seven years ago) link
I saw the Van Vechten Harlem Heroes photo exhibit, and the Herman Leonard Jazz photos ones. Both worth seeing although I agree with the following:
Of the two exhibits, Herman Leonard’s jazz photographs exude more verve and cool. Van Vechten’s images, taken as much as 20 years earlier, are more historically groundbreaking and serve as a fitting memorial to Van Vechten’s role as a patron of African-American artists—but as artistic objects, his images fall short.
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/arts/museums-galleries/blog/20833380/at-the-smithsonian-american-art-museum-carl-van-vechtens-photographs-of-harlem-heroes
― curmudgeon, Monday, 21 November 2016 18:16 (seven years ago) link
x-post -- there were protesters at the Reagan Trade Center Bldg Saturday protesting the "alt-right" conference there.
― curmudgeon, Monday, 21 November 2016 18:19 (seven years ago) link
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/food/wp/2016/11/21/a-changing-neighborhoods-last-cheap-carryout-is-closing-owner-says-change-is-great/?hpid=hp_local-news_cheap-carryout-12pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
Carryout near Hecht's warehouse
Guzman, 41, is the owner of Louis’ Restaurant & Carry Out, which has operated since 1988 at Fenwick and Okie streets NE in now-gentrifying Ivy City. ...
On Wednesday, Nov. 23, Guzman will close the restaurant’s doors for the final time, but not before giving away free food to all of his neighbors, which include a homeless shelter next door. His landlords are doubling his rent, he says, after he made an offer to buy the building that was declined. (Several attempts to reach the building’s owners for comment were unsuccessful; no one at their number picked up.)
― curmudgeon, Monday, 21 November 2016 18:28 (seven years ago) link
At least Maggiano's donated 10 grand from the day the white supremacists showed up to eat and sieg heil
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 22 November 2016 14:02 (seven years ago) link
NY Times article on C*met P*ng Pong is not likely gonna be enough to stop crazies from harassing anyone associated with that pizza place, including musicians who have played there.
Maybe they'll move on and find a new conspiracy theory soon
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 22 November 2016 16:36 (seven years ago) link
We moved! Petworth is my new metro stop.
― El Tomboto, Wednesday, 23 November 2016 04:12 (seven years ago) link
sellout
― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie), Wednesday, 23 November 2016 21:06 (seven years ago) link
j/k obv but if you have a garage i will lol
― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie), Wednesday, 23 November 2016 21:07 (seven years ago) link
no garage. lol basemetn is hueg tho
― El Tomboto, Thursday, 24 November 2016 05:43 (seven years ago) link
Warning: hueg basement, like hueg garage, leads to failure to purge/massive accumulation of crap (at least if you are me).
Luckily we are solving the garage accumulation of crap by doing this lil project: http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/tiny_house_in_cleveland_park_historic_district_approved/11740
― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie), Thursday, 24 November 2016 21:20 (seven years ago) link
wau
― mookieproof, Thursday, 24 November 2016 21:58 (seven years ago) link
ooh can I live there
― slathered in cream and covered with stickers (silby), Thursday, 24 November 2016 21:59 (seven years ago) link
You are more than welcome there, just be warned that you may be sharing space with an elderly parent or two.
― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie), Thursday, 24 November 2016 22:04 (seven years ago) link
lol @ Granny Pod
― El Tomboto, Thursday, 24 November 2016 22:08 (seven years ago) link
Yeah that was spouse's choice of term. We're totally sneaking a roof deck in, btw, zoning be damned.
― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie), Thursday, 24 November 2016 22:09 (seven years ago) link
https://www.popville.com/2016/11/kramerbooks-expansion-coming-under-new-ownership-in-dupont/
free beer if you buy $50 worth of books, now through 12/31
― El Tomboto, Friday, 25 November 2016 03:09 (seven years ago) link
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/food/young-hungry/article/20845471/two-wage-theft-lawyers-cash-in-on-dcs-restaurant-boom
Just three years after leaving Maryland Legal Aid and launching his practice, the 33-year-old Zelikovitz has gone from using just a single room in a Chinatown townhouse to renting the entire building. He is one of several attorneys who have discovered that suing District restaurants over wage law violations doubles as doing good and doing good business.
Zelikovitz and attorney Jonathan Tucker, who left Maryland Legal Aid last year to join the firm, benefit from wage law violations they say can often be caused by scofflaw managers or ignorance among restaurant owners. They have more than 30 active cases, with nearly 20 others on payment plans.
When a restaurant fails to pay a dishwasher minimum wage or time-and-a-half for overtime pay, that’s an opening for the lawyers to send a demand letter on behalf of their clients, many of whom come to them via word of mouth or Spanish-language Google advertisements.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 2 December 2016 18:25 (seven years ago) link
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/local/wp/2016/12/04/d-c-police-respond-to-report-of-a-man-with-a-gun-at-comet-ping-pong-restaurant/
― FREE BRADY (daria-g), Sunday, 4 December 2016 22:05 (seven years ago) link
Crazy. Sounds like guy was arrested with no loss of life. Knuckleheads on twitter still pushing their conspiracy theory
― curmudgeon, Sunday, 4 December 2016 22:17 (seven years ago) link
yeah i just checked and clicking the trending topic it's all "this is a false flag, this place needs to be investigated"
wtf
i saw an acid mothers temple show there that was pretty loud but that's really it as far as weirdness
― FREE BRADY (daria-g), Sunday, 4 December 2016 22:32 (seven years ago) link
the inauguration is going to be such a fucking mess. I'm not worried, per se, about the grab bag of deluded stupid assholes who are going to descend upon us in January, but if I were a betting man I wouldn't put a dime of somebody else's money on the inaugural parade + affiliated nonsense going off without at least a couple of people winding up in the hospital
― El Tomboto, Sunday, 4 December 2016 22:42 (seven years ago) link
Also, the National Park Service has still not confirmed locations for the various anti-Trump protest organizations. They say that the folks who requested the Women's march location, filed late. Plus there are legal battles re locations near the Trump hotel on inauguration day.
― curmudgeon, Monday, 5 December 2016 00:30 (seven years ago) link
I'm probably just going to go to Freedom Plaza and see what happens
― El Tomboto, Monday, 5 December 2016 00:33 (seven years ago) link
I'm working in Downtown on 9th Street during it so good luck to me.
― Gukbe, Monday, 5 December 2016 01:42 (seven years ago) link
Was re-reading that during the Bush inaugural parade (the first time), some folks decided to show up at random sites and boo, rather than joining in the sole designated protest area...
― curmudgeon, Monday, 5 December 2016 15:32 (seven years ago) link
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/groups-call-blocking-inaugural-protests-unconstitutional-44029039
In the past, inaugural committees have let the park service know what land they won't be using, and then permits have been issued, Litterst said. The park service is awaiting word from Trump's inaugural team about its plans. Verheyden-Hilliard said activists are concerned that the inaugural committee will run out the clock on dissidents and she will take legal action in a bid to prevent that.
― curmudgeon, Friday, 9 December 2016 03:49 (seven years ago) link
So U St. condos get named after famous Black musicians, and H St NE ones will get named after historic NYC Black theatres/music sites?
The Apollo Apartments - Brand New Apartments
Live in Luxury on H Street at The Apollo. Now Leasing!
Amenities: Rooftop Deck, Fitness Center, On-Site Cafe, Resident Lounges, Dog Run, Bike Storage, 24-Hour Concierge, Guest Accommodations
600 H St NE, Washington, DC
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 29 December 2016 17:35 (seven years ago) link
https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/restaurants/the-20-diners-favorite-cheap-eats-of-2016/2016/12/28/58c95a1a-c890-11e6-bf4b-2c064d32a4bf_story.html?hpid=hp_local-news_20-diner-1155am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.280637d84bbb
Tim Carman lives in Maryland so its possible that is why the list has more Maryland places on it (or perhaps that is not why)
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 29 December 2016 19:08 (seven years ago) link
There was an Apollo Theater on H street NE. It's not named after the Harlem venue.
http://www.popville.com/2013/10/from-apolo-theatre-to-murrys-grocery-store-to-120000000-apolo-mixed-use-development/
― The beaver is not the bad guy (El Tomboto), Thursday, 29 December 2016 19:23 (seven years ago) link
Interesting
― curmudgeon, Friday, 30 December 2016 16:54 (seven years ago) link