IMPROVING 14TH STREET: City planners have announced a three-step effort to involve the public in redevelopment plans for the 14th Street corridor in Columbia Heights. The planned effort will include atwo-hour workshop on June 3 to analyze community concerns and a five-hour workshop on July 12 to draft recommendations, capped by a public presentation in mid-September of suggestions for implementation.

On the agenda for the June 3 meeting is discussion of the impact that planned commercial development near the Metro station will have on neighborhood traffic, parking, pedestrians and bicycles. A new "streetscape" design – including plans for an open-air public plaza at 14th and Kenyon streets, opposite the Tivoli Theater – also will be discussed. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. at Tubman Elementary School, 13th and Kenyon streets NW.

The planning effort is a joint project of the D.C. Office of Planning, the D.C. Department of Transportation and the National Capital Revitalization Corp.

SEEKING WATER: Protesting what he has characterized as improper taxpayer subsidization of basic government maintenance services, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Nicholas Apostolides is urging Adams Morgan residents to demand repair of the long-disabled water service to a pocket park at 20th and Biltmore streets NW. Apostolides said neighborhood residents "have been forced to carry water to the park or drag hoses from adjacent properties into the dangerous intersection for water" to maintain a small flower garden there.

"These community gardeners have essentially been subsidizing the D.C. parks and other City budgets by taking on most of the maintenance and water services themselves for more than five years," Apostolides wrote May 30 as part of an online appeal for residents to express their displeasure to Neil Albert, director of the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation. The ANC commissioner said Albert’s department is "balking" at an estimated $18,000 price tag to restore water to the park, even though Apostolides asserted that "cheaper options have been suggested."

SHAW CELEBRATION: Organizers of the Shaw Main Streets program, which recently received a $420,000 five-year grant to help revitalize the neighborhood’s commercial areas, are inviting residents to learn about the program during a June 6 reception. The free event, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., will be held at Café Mawonaj, 624 T St. NW. Goals of the program, as presented in its city application for funding, include attracting new businesses to the neighborhood, strengthening existing businesses, creating new jobs and supporting historic preservation. The program’s target area is Seventh and Ninth streets NW between Mount Vernon Square and Florida Avenue, an area that includes the new Washington Convention Center.

GEORGETOWN PROJECT FALLS BEHIND: Morning rush-hour traffic congestion due to the massive overhaul of Georgetown’s underground utility infrastructure will be extended an additional half hour through the construction’s end as workers try to make up for weather-related schedule delays, officials recently announced. Crews will begin overnight work at 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, rather than 10:30, and continue working until 8 a.m. in most areas. Near Key Bridge, work is now scheduled to end at 7:30 a.m., instead of 7. Construction is halted on weekends and some holidays.

"We welcome any effort by the utilities to keep the project on track – or possibly even shorten it – by adding more productive time," Ken Gray, executive director of the Georgetown Business and Professional Association, said in a press release issued by the D.C. Department of Transportation.

The Georgetown Project is a coordinated effort by the city’s utility companies and the D.C. government to minimize disruption during the updating of the all public utility lines along the M Street and Wisconsin Avenue corridors. Street-level improvements also are planned as part of a new "streetscape" for the business district. Phase I of the project, which began along M Street in October 2001, is scheduled for completion next year. Phase II, along Wisconsin Avenue, began in July 2002 and is expected to be completed in 2005.

WILSON GOES ON-AIR: Students in teacher Shellie Bowers’ radio production class at Wilson Senior High School launched a new low-power radio station for campus listening on May 20. The one-tenth of a watt station, broadcasting at 88.1 megahertz, will provide live programming for an hour before the school day, during the lunch hour and for one hour after school. The unlicensed, non-commercial radio station can be heard only on the Wilson campus.

Funds to purchase the station’s transmitter for $2,300 were raised through donations, according to school officials. One of Bowers’ former co-workers at Voice of America installed the station’s antenna on the school’s second floor "almost free of cost," according to Bowers. Donations also are expected to defray operating costs for the station, which will broadcast a mix of music, talk and promotions of school activities.

DEDICATING CAPLAN PARK: Neighbors, friends and family of Marvin Caplan will gather June 7 to dedicate a city park in memory of the neighborhood organizer and civil rights pioneer who died in January 2000. The ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. at the park bounded by Alaska Avenue, 13th and Holly streets NW and will be followed with an open house at 1301 Geranium St. NW.

Caplan, the longtime executive director of the Leadership Conference for Civil Rights, was one of the founders 45 years ago of Neighbors Inc., an organization in Shepherd Park, Takoma, Manor Park and Brightwood to foster and maintain racially integrated neighborhoods.

Members of the Geranium Street Neighborhood Watch proposed the memorial designation for the park, which was sponsored by Neighbors Inc. and introduced last year as legislation by Councilman Adrian Fenty. The D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation maintains the park, which will receive improved plantings and memorial signage with the financial assistance of donations made through Neighbors Inc.

ANNUAL YARD SALE: Dozens of families are expected to participate in the seventh annual Shepherd Park Community Yard Sale from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 7-8. Residents who participate in the sale, coordinated by the Shepherd Park Citizens Association, set up their sales at their own houses but are included on a listing of all the neighborhood yard sales distributed to shoppers on the sale days. Residents of Shepherd Park, Colonial Village and North Portal Estates – roughly, the area north of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, between Georgia Avenue and Rock Creek Park – are eligible to participate.

CARTER BARRON TO HOST FED CUP: Councilman Adrian Fenty says he plans to meet with officials from the National Park Service and the D.C. government to ensure that adequate parking and traffic plans are in place this summer when two major tennis tournaments are held at Carter Barron Tennis Stadium. The stadium, at 16th and Kennedy streets NW, hosts the annual Legg Mason Tennis Tournament but this year also will host the international Federation Cup women’s tennis team competition. The Fed Cup is scheduled for July 19-20 and the Legg Mason event will be held July 26 through Aug. 3.

FARMERS MARKET RETURNS: The Historic Brookland Farmers Market has returned for a second year. The market, located on the field adjacent to the Brookland/CUA Metro Station at 10th and Otis streets NE, operates from 4 to 7 p.m. on Tuesdays and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sundays. Rules for the market require that all fruits and vegetables sold be locally grown.

PUBLIC SAFETY SUMMIT: Councilman Vincent Orange will sponsor "A Face-to-Face Community Dialogue on Crime in Ward 5" on June 5 to allow residents to question top officials of the Metropolitan Police Department about recent high-profile crimes as well as continuing public safety concerns. The forum will begin at 7 p.m. at Trinity College’s O’Connor Auditorium, 125 Michigan Ave. NE.

Expected to attend the summit along with Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey are Deputy Chief Brian Jordan, who commands MPD’s Central Regional Operations Command, and commanders from the police department’s First, Third, Fourth and Fifth Districts. Topics to be discussed at the meeting, according to a flyer being distributed by the councilman’s office, include robberies along Brookland’s 12th Street NE corridor, the April triple murder atColonel Brooks’ Tavern, targeting of police officers who live in the ward, prostitution problems along Rhode Island and New York Avenues and random crime.

Also to be discussed is the proposed new boundaries for deployment of police officers, which would divide the Greater Brookland area between two police districts that are part of two different Regional Operation Commands within the police department. Orange recently sent a letter to Chief Ramsey objecting to this proposed realignment.

MAIN STREET KICKOFF: Brookland’s newly designated Main Streets project gets underway June 7 with the official opening of the Main Street Planning Office along the neighborhood’s 12th Street commercial corridor. The opening ceremony is scheduled for 11 a.m. at 3523 12th St. NE. The project’s aim is to revitalize 12th Street businesses between Monroe and Otis streets.

H STREET UPDATE: A joint committee of residents living in Advisory Neighborhood Commissions 6A and 6C, which both border the H Street NE commercial corridor, has drafted recommendations for a new zoning "overlay" district that would allow revitalization of the long-neglected area to be more closely controlled by the neighborhood. The two ANCs have scheduled a joint meeting on June 25 to formally consider the recommendations. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Capital Children’s Museum, 800 Third St. NE.

The two commissions decided to work together on their proposals to increase the influence of adjacent neighborhoods over the plan that eventually emerges from the citywide Zoning Commission, which has final approval of the zoning changes sought for the commercial corridor.

The draft, which addresses "desirable uses and superior design" for the area’s revitalization, calls for improvements to ensure safe and efficient pedestrian movement, minimized traffic impact, affordable housing on the upper floors of commercial buildings, the creation of distinct "destination" districts along H Street for retail and entertainment, preservation of existing businesses, reuse of existing buildings, and design guidelines for all new and rehabilitated buildings.

CELEBRATING EDUCATION: The Ward 7 Education Council hosted its fifth annual awards banquet May 30 at St. Luke’s Catholic Church to recognize the area’s educators and students – and to raise scholarship funds to help students who live in the ward advance their education. This year’s mistress of ceremonies was India Alston, a graduate of H.D. Woodson Senior High School and a former student member of the D.C. Board of Education.

HEALTH SUMMIT/FESTIVAL: Several on-site health screenings will be available to city residents on June 14 during Councilwoman Sandy Allen’s annual Ward 8 Health Festival. The festival will be held from noon to 4 p.m. at Patricia Roberts Harris Educational Center, 4600 Livingston Road SE. On-site mammograms and glaucoma testing, in addition to basic vision and hearing tests, will be among health services offered.

The festival will be preceded by a Health Summit from 10 a.m. to noon. At the forum, residents can get information from representatives of the D.C. Departments of Health and Mental Health, the Medical Assistance Administration, the Senior Wellness Center and the Children’s Hospital Health Project.

Allen, D-Ward 8, chairs the D.C. City Council’s Committee on Human Services.

FARMERS MARKET REOPENS: The Ward 8 Farmers Market began another season on May 24 in the old Congress Heights School parking lot at Martin Luther King Jr. and Alabama Avenues SE. The market – where merchants sell fresh fruit and vegetables as well as craft and gift items – is open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays through Nov. 15.

Copyright 2003, The Common Denominator