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Hasn't been much swirling around lately worthy of a full blog post, but here are a couple items so that people don't think I've shut down (though most of them have already been seen on my Twitter feed, aka the "I'm Too Lazy to Blog" feed):
* The light tower at the Yards Park is being installed today, about four weeks in advance of the scheduled grand opening on Sept. 10. I hope to have pictures at some point.
* Greater Greater Washington reports that MPD fanned out around Nationals Park on Wednesday night, ticketing drivers and pedestrians and handing out flyers on safety. GGW also brings up the public meeting held by Tommy Wells back in March about the notion of reworking M Street under the "Complete Streets" principles of creating road networks that work for pedestrians young and old, cyclists, public transportation users, and drivers. by doing things such as adding dedicated bike lanes, creating safer crosswalks, etc. At that meeting, residents of Southwest were unimpressed with the possibilities, but the few Southeast residents in attendance seemed more open to it.
UPDATE: TBD reports that the truck driver in last week's incident is not being cited.
* The Post did a video feature on Hoopernatural, the hula hooping fitness outfit. They are running classes for mixed-levels of hoopiness during August at Canal Park, on Saturday mornings from 10 to 11 am.
* The Capitol Riverfront BID is running a survey to get feedback from residents, workers, and visitors on the types of events the BID holds (concerts, outdoor movies, farmers' market, etc.). Let your feelings be known here.
* While my griping about the bad signage on the SW Freeway (highlighted again by the Post on Thursday) is technically out-of-boundaries, it is on topic to also mention to DDOT that the various blue "services" signs for the South Capitol Street exits on I-395 probably need to get rid of the gas station icons, since the days of having three gas stations right on South Capitol and two within a few blocks to the east are long gone. (But @DDOTDC has put me in a time out after Thursday's flurry of transit-related tweets, which also included this good suggestion from a reader about the need for a left-turn signal on northbound Third Street, SE at Virginia Avenue, for people needing to get onto I-395 southbound.)
* And I stumbled across this study by the New America Foundation about "online-only" news outlets in DC. It counted 61 of them, noting that the "city's oldest local blogs that still command an audience began to spring up in 2003," with JDLand being one of the "original few," thanks to my January 2003 vintage. The piece looks at DCist, GGW, Prince of Petworth, And Now Anacostia, and TBD (though it hadn't yet launched), along with a few nice words about this site. But I have been thinking a lot lately about how I'm an old lady compared to the rest of the DC neighborhood blogosphere, and this article (coming on the heels of my [redacted] birthday) certainly reminded me of it. :-)
 

From TBD.com's On Foot blog, the news from that DDOT director Gabe Klein and his staff have spent some time watching the traffic at First and M, where two trucks have struck pedestrians this year, killing one of them. The article says:
"They noticed that 'trucks coming north on First Street are just not stopping' when they make the right onto M Street, [DDOT spokesman John] Lisle says. 'They maybe take a quick glance, and they're really just making that right turn without a full stop.' That's the intersection where a pedestrian was hit by a dump truck last week. Lisle says they now plan on making right-on-red illegal at that corner from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
"'That area is still pretty industrialized, even though a lot of people live there and work there,' Lisle says, adding that a couple of asphalt companies are based in the neighborhood. 'There are still a lot of trucks circulating right through.'
"Lisle says the city will probably deploy some mobile speed display signs along M Street as well."
 

(h/t to reader JL) US transportation secretary Ray LaHood just posted on his "Fast Lane Blog" an entry about the recent accidents on M Street, SE near the USDOT headquarters that have resulted in one DOT employee being killed and another being seriously injured after being hit by dump trucks. He writes that he is "really, really worried about our employees' safety," and that he met today with DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier, DDOT's director Gabe Klein, and staff from both agencies to talk about ways to prevent future pedestrian injuries.
He writes: "We agreed to work on a plan that attempts to solve this problem from a variety of angles. Some ideas under consideration include: Extended crossing-guard hours; Stepped-up pedestrian and vehicle enforcement; Pedestrian training and education; Speed trailers (the roadside digital signs that display a driver's speed); Prohibiting "right turn on red" in the Southeast Federal Center area."
But, he also reminds everyone that "the quickest way I can think of to prevent more accidents like these is for employees and visitors walking to and from our building to, please, stay alert." As he says, "[W]hether you're a pedestrian, a bicyclist, or a driver, having the right-of-way does not guarantee your safety."
Judging by the comment thread in my post about Wednesday's incident, there's a lot of concern about pedestrian safety in Near Southeast, not just on M Street but on most of the other streets, as well.
 

(A sadly well-timed edition of my series of posts looking back on the "old" Near Southeast)
On August 25, 1984, 24-year-old Sandra Scott of Anacostia went on a birthday visit to her mother, Maudie McBrayer, at her Capper apartment at 920 Third Street, SE. Sandra brought her husband, Theodore "Teddy" Crisp, and their three children, five-year-old Chanta, one-year-old Sophia, and six-week-old baby Tandra.
The family then went to a Metrobus stop on the south side of the 200 block of M Street, SE, standing on what was at that time a narrow sidewalk with the long red brick wall left over from the Navy Yard days behind it. Also at the bus stop were 18-year-old Charron McKethean and her six-month old daughter Charquita, who lived at 210 L St., SE, in the Cappers; they were going shopping with Charron's best friend Linda Taylor and Taylor's boyfriend Willie Callihan for an outfit for Charquita's christening the next day.
As they waited at around 6:15 pm, a Plymouth Valiant going eastbound at an estimated 70 to 80 mph in the westbound lanes struck the median, went airborne, landed in the eastbound lanes, partially hopped the curb, and struck all nine people waiting for the bus. The car then flipped, crashed, and burst into flames near Third Street.
The Washington Post described rescue personnel calling the resulting scene "one of the most gruesome they had witnessed," with some of the victims having been crushed by the car against the wall and a lamppost on the sidewalk. "I've been 21 years on this job, and I've never seen anything like it," said Fire Capt. James Thorn, saying that the driver had "just ground [the victims] right into" the lamppost and the brick wall.
Seven of group were killed: Sandra Scott and her entire family died, as well as six-month-old Charquita McKethean and Linda Taylor, who was 18 and lived in the 200 block of M Street, SW. It was believed to be the deadliest car accident in the city's history to that time, and appears to still hold that title today.
The driver of car was 41-year-old Robert Lee Williams, whose blood alcohol level at the time of the crash was .10 and who admitted to having used heroin about 25 minutes before the crash. He had been paroled six weeks earlier after serving less than four years of a 20-year sentence for a 1980 bank robbery conviction in Alexandria, and was also on parole in the District for a 1977 armed robbery conviction. There were also convictions for housebreaking, robbery, and grand larceny on his record.
In 1985, Williams pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter while armed (with a car) and five counts of manslaughter, along with a count of driving while intoxicated. He was sentenced to 35 to 105 years in prison. At his sentencing, he told the courtroom that he was sorry and would give his "own life to save those kids." Charron McKethean, one of the crash's two survivors and mother of one of the youngest victims, was in the courtroom with her 2 1/2-month-old baby, and told the Post, "I couldn't look at the man that killed my daughter. The sentence was reasonable, but it is not going to bring back any of our lives."

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While wandering around the web site for the city's Department of Real Estate Services, I found out that the deadline has been extended until noon tomorrow for the request for offers to lease data center space at the revamped 225 Virginia Avenue (aka the old Star/Post Plant). They've also posted a Q&A about the RFO that may or may not hold any nuggets of interest.
But what broke my heart is the last sentence of a press release from mid-July touting the financing deal that's allowing construction to begin on the project late this year:
"In related news, the address for 225 Virginia Avenue, SE will change. The new address will be 200 I Street, SE."
Waaaaaaahhhhh! It will always be 225 Virginia to me!
But, looking at the rendering of the redesign, it appears that they're moving the main entrance to the south side of the building, facing Canal Park, hence the I Street designation.
 

Those who don't follow my Twitter feed may not be aware that a pedestrian was struck by a dump truck at First and M streets, SE, today, necessitating a helicopter landing at Canal Park in order to transport the female victim to Washington Hospital Center. According to WTOP, she was in a crosswalk, and charges are pending against the truck driver. The victim has not been identified, but a tweet from a reader indicated that she is a USDOT employee. ABC 7 says that her injuries are not as serious as initially thought. I'll update this post with additional news as it comes along.
This is the second serious incident involving a pedestrian being struck on M Street this year--on April 29, 42-year-old Amy Polk of Takoma Park was killed near First and M.
UPDATE, 8/13: TBD reports that the truck driver in this incident was not be cited.
 

I'm catching up on a few items now that I'm more or less back to full speed, and one of them is DDOT's new Capital Bikeshare program that set the DC blogosphere on fire a week or so ago. One thousand bikes spread across 100 stations will be arriving in September, allowing users to borrow a bike for round trips or one-way journeys.
In the initial rollout, Near Southeast will have one station, right in front of the Starbucks in the USDOT building at New Jersey and M, which I'm guessing will make transportation secretary Ray LaHood happy. (It's marked properly on the official map, but ignore notations calling the location "400 M Street, SE." I've confirmed with DDOT that the Starbucks location is the correct one, and they'll be giving it the proper designation of 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE soon.) The next closest location is at 8th and I, just north of the freeway on Barracks Row. There will also be one just north of the new Southwest Safeway, at 4th and I, SW.
DDOT also says they'll be looking to add an additional bikeshare station at Nationals Park next spring, in time for the 2011 season.
[Rare personal aside: I'm really looking forward to this new project, because I'm not really interested in riding my bike *to* work, but I'll like having bike stations within three blocks that will allow me to ride home when the appropriate mood, weather, and clothing strike simultaneously.]
You can follow the launch via @BikeShare on Twitter.
 

Two Post articles of note this morning:
* A nice little piece in the Food section on Cornercopia; it notes that Albert and Danica are surprised that the majority of their business comes from their jam-packed deli sandwiches, instead of the groceries, beer, and wine part of their operation. If you don't follow @Cornercopia on Twitter, you're missing alerts on specials, hours of operation, and the occasional alert to cops ticketing cars and/or jaywalkers.
* Jonathan O'Connell's article on the Department of Homeland Security's search for 1.1 million square feet of office space (apart from their new HQ at St. Elizabeth's) mentions that, with the SEC's leasing of 900,000 square feet at Constitution Center (the old USDOT) in Southwest, the presumed top contender for the DHS lease is now out of the running. The article quotes an Akridge senior vice president as saying that "a number of companies with properties atop stations along Metro's Green Line, both in Prince George's County and Southeast Washington, were likely in play."
There are two current development sites in Near Southeast that would appear to meet the DHS lease requirements of space and proximity to the Green Line (Navy Yard, of course). Those would be the Yards (designed to eventually have 1.8 million square feet of office space), and WC Smith's planned development at 800 New Jersey (the parking lot north of the trash transfer station and west of 225 Virginia, nestled just south of the SE Freeway), which has been billed as a 1.1-million-square-foot mixed-use project. Neither of those would be ready for quick move-in, which I believe was originally part of the DHS solicitation (points for anyone who can find the RFP online--I can't put my hands on it). The WC Smith site would need DPW's move from the trash transfer site completed (which I've been hearing may not be all that far off) so that the various parcels of land on squares 737 and 739 can be properly squared off, which includes the building of I Street through to New Jersey Avenue (and H Street as well).
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More posts: cornercopia, Retail
 

The Post's Dan Steinberg blogged today about the latest planned "public art" at Nationals Park, first reported by WBJ last month, and linked to two renderings of the 30 stainless steel orbs lit by LEDs that will be installed on the infamous garages by the spring of next year.
On his "In Progress" page, sculptor Thomas Sayre notes how 70 percent of ballpark-goers arrive from the north side of the stadium, and that the garage facades that greet visitors are "large, powerful, and do little themselves to welcome fans to the magical experience of a baseball game."
He explains the concept behind his work thusly: "Inspired by the primary action of the game of baseball itself - the pitch followed by the hit - this public art project consists of a succession of polished stainless spheres derived from a spinning baseball which depicts physics of how a 90-mile per hour pitch is able to curve in such extraordinary ways. Eighteen stainless steel "baseballs" follow the theoretical model of the trajectory of a curving fast ball pitch. The western garage facade will show the more straight and higher-angled trajectory of the same ball as it is hit by the batter and is depicted with twelve "baseballs". The pitch comes at you from the left and sails off from you to the right as you enter."
UPDATE: After hearing a comment or two about the garages themselves, I thought a little bit of history might be in order. I just posted this in the comments:
If you weren't around during the haggling over the construction of the stadium in 2006, you missed all of the angst about the garages. MLB mandated 925 1225 on-site parking spaces. They also mandated a stadium ready by Opening Day 2008. And the city mandated a spending cap for construction. Those three requirements left the city little choice but to construct the garages in their current location, above ground.
I invite readers to plow through my *many* posts from back in the day, to learn of such things as the proposed Garages Wrapped With Development Goodness, and other ideas that fell by the wayside because of political and financial reality.
This doesn't preclude the eventual demolition of the garages and putting them underground, but I haven't heard that spoken of much since 2008, when most people saw the garages, sighed, and began just averting their eyes.
UPDATE II: A reader passed this link along--if you click on Projects, then Pitch Terrain, you'll see what's billed as a "finalist proposal" for the competition for the Nats garage art. This design, by Rob Ley, was an "undulating lighted facade system," using aluminum screens to simulate the flow of the ball between pitcher and batter.
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More posts: parking, Nationals Park
 

Multiple anonymous sources are allowing CityBiz Real Estate to report: "Corporate Office Properties Trust is awaiting lender approval on a $120 million acquisition of Maritime Plaza, a 12-acre site located at the East End of the Washington, D.C. Naval Yard, multiple sources tell citybiz real estate." This follows a story earlier today saying that COPT was close to purchasing an unnamed site, described only as being a fully leased location occupied primarily by defense contractors.
If this goes through, it would be the third time the site has changed hands since construction on the second office building was completed in 2003, with Bernstein Cos. selling it for $92 million in 2004, and then Brickman Associates reportedly paying $115 million in October of 2005. The site, which has two completed office buildings, has included plans for two additional 175,000-square-foot office buildings and a 250-room hotel; leasing is handled by Lincoln Property Company. The land beneath the buildings and plans, however, continues to be owned by Washington Gas, as it has been since pretty much the dawn of time.
 

This week's calendar of events:
* Tuesday at 5 pm is PSA 105's "ice cream social and dog treat event" to celebrate America's Night Out Against Crime. It will be held across the street from the MPD 1-D substation at 5th and E, SE, in Marion Park. (Also, for your long-range calendar, note that the PSA's annual dog show will be on Sept. 25 at 10 am, also at Marion Park.) If you're just tuning in, PSAs are the Metropolitan Police Department's Police Service Areas.
* Also on Tuesday, at 6:30 pm, is the second Capitol Riverfront Heritage Trail Meeting, a joint project between Cultural Tourism DC and the Capitol Riverfront BID to create a Neighborhood Heritage Trail for the area. It's at Capper Seniors #1, 900 Fifth Street, SE. (Here's the flyer for the first meeting.)
* Thursday's outdoor movie, weather permitting, is Rocky. It starts at 8:45 pm at Canal Park.
And, I took a long-delayed photo trek around the neighborhood on Sunday (though remind me to never do it again on a game day--too many cars and buses getting in the way!). They aren't really terribly exciting pictures, and the clouds were uncooperative at times, but I did get updated images of the progress at 1015 Half Street, and of the final block (east and west sides) of Capitol Quarter's first phase. And I documented the now-empty space where the Little Red Building used to be. You can also browse the entire batch of the days' photos, and click on the icon to see all photos for a given location.
 

From the BID's latest newsletter: "Mark your calendars for the Yards Park Grand Opening weekend on Friday, Sept. 10 - Sunday, Sept. 12th! Join us to kick off the opening of the 5.5 acre world-class riverfront park, where celebrations will include live music, a variety of food and drinks, fitness classes, children's activities, and much more!" More details to come, they say.
You can see the photos I took of the park's progress back in late May, along with more details on the park's design--hopefully I'll get to take some more before too long.
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More posts: The Yards, Yards Park
 

(Though this is in reference to the neighborhood "around" Nationals Park, the locations are actually in Southwest. But it's still worth posting.)
From the Nationals: "The Washington Nationals Dream Foundation will team up with Earth Conservation Corps to give area residents and local businesses the opportunity to help beautify the neighborhood surrounding Nationals Park. More than 100 volunteers will take to the streets from 8am to noon [on Friday, July 30] to clean up areas at three separate locations - the Matthew Henson Center (2000 Half Street, SW); the intersection between 1st and Q Streets, SW; and the park at 3rd and I Streets, SW. Nationals Pitchers Tyler Clippard and Craig Stammen will also join volunteers for a portion of the morning's clean-up." I understand that Colin Balester is going to be part of the cleanup as well; I don't know if that's in addition to Clippard and Stammen, or in place of one of them.
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More posts: Nationals Park
 

From reader Linda G. of Richmond: "I want to let someone know how appreciative I am of the wonderful people that came to my rescue last Saturday night at the Dave Mathews/Zac Brown concert. I had ridden the metro and walked in. Then had to walk to our seats which were in section 418 three rows from the top of the stadium. By the time I got to my seat I was suffering from heat exhaustion and about to pass out. My son got wet paper towels and ice but ended up having to go get the first aid people to come help. They were WONDERFUL and I want to let them know how appreciative I am of them."
 

From City Paper's Housing Complex blog: "The Department of Real Estate Services tells me that Councilmember Marion Barry has dropped his disapproval resolution on the District Department of Transportation's move to 55 M Street SE, which momentarily put the whole thing in limbo. That means the move can go forward as planned, without having to wait until reconsideration by the Council in September."
 

From a story in today's Post on the growing Vida Fitness empire, a sentence that has set some hearts aflutter: "Next spring von Storch will open Vida's fourth location in five years in the renovated 1612 U, with a fifth planned for the Navy Yard in 2013." So, I checked with the folks at the Navy Yard (since, despite some peoples' desperate desire to call the entire neighborhood "Navy Yard," there is still a functioning entity with that name that's only been around for 210 years, and so to call something "Navy Yard" means that every single time it's used it will force the question "Do you mean inside the walls of the Navy Yard itself, or the neighborhood around it?"). While there was no firm denial, it was explained that fitness facilities on Navy installations are operated by the service's own Morale, Welfare, and Recreation personnel, and that that business model probably isn't changing.
Without anything else to go on--and with no neighborhood projects currently touting a 2013 delivery date--we'll just have to wait and see which developer cops to being in talks with Vida. Though, if I had to guess, I'd just say this--it would certainly be easy for someone who perhaps doesn't know the terminologies and layout of the neighborhood to easily mix up "the Navy Yard" with "The Yards."
[And now I'll return to mending from some recent medical stuff (nothing to worry about, but I do need to do some of this "resting" I've always heard about). Apologies if posting/Tweeting/replying/whatever remains slow for a bit.]
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More posts: Navy Yard, Retail, The Yards
 

If you're feeling like taking in a Nats game soon, and you live at the Jefferson (70 I), the Nats are offering discounted tickets for the Tuesday, July 27 game against the Braves [*cough*Strasburg*cough*]. Details are here; tickets start at $7.
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More posts: jpi, Nationals Park
 

Jul 22, 2010 2:21 PM
Yesterday I posted about how the city council had until close of business to decide whether or not to slow down DDOT's planned move to 55 M Street, SE--and now I'm hearing that Marion Barry has filed a "disapproval notice" that does delay the DDOT move. (Apparently he did the same thing with the contract for the new headquarters for the Department of Employment Services.) There will now probably be some behind-the-scenes wrangling to convince Barry to withdraw his disapproval--once/if he does, the contract would then be considered immediately approved, and the move can proceed.
 

Jul 22, 2010 2:33 AM
For your scheduling pleasure:
* Thursday's BID outdoor movie is Seabiscuit, the heartwarming tale of a horse swimming across the ocean for food (no, wait, that's not right). It starts at Canal Park at Second and M streets, SE, at 8:45 pm, but you can arrive early for some hula hooping with Hoop Jams at 8 pm. Rain cancellations will be posted on the BID web site by 4 pm.
* On Friday night (July 23) the Dave Matthews Band will be in concert at 7 pm at Nationals Park, with the Zac Brown Band opening. Tickets are still available, and the concert will go on rain or shine. (If you're heading to the ballpark for the concert and are unfamiliar with the territory, here's my Stadium Parking information page. But make it easy on yourself just take Metro.) Speaking of the stadium parking page, I've now added the new (tiny) $10 lot on the northwest corner of New Jersey and I.
* The rest of the weekend will be quiet (and hot), but then on Tuesday the 27th the Summer of Strasburg will return to the neighborhood, as Stephen is expected to pitch against the Atlanta Braves in a 7:05 pm game.
 

Jul 21, 2010 10:45 AM
Pay By Phone Sample StickerThis week DDOT has started a series of parking pilot programs across the city, trying out different types of street parking payment systems to determine which technology and solutions work best for DC. The pilot chosen for some of the streets near Nationals Park is "ParkMobile," which allows you to pay for parking with your cellphone. Drivers sign up at the company's web site, and can download an iPhone or Blackberry app or use a mobile web site to pay for parking. (Hurry up with that Android app, wouldya?) Here's a map showing the streets in Near Southeast where the ParkMobile pilot is underway (basically all of M and the streets from the west side of Canal Park over to South Capitol, north of M). You'll receive a text message reminder when you've got about 15 minutes left of time. (And DDOT says that ParkMobile's transaction fees are being waived during the pilot.)
Has anyone tried it out? If so, leave your experiences in the comments.
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More posts: parking, Nationals Park
 
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