Last Friday the fences came down and the new Park at LeDroit finally opened.

DCPS closed Gage-Eckington Elementary School in 2008 and the process began to transform the site into something other than a vacant building. Now, three years later, the park is open.

Though the playground, garden plots, and walking paths are open, please stay off the fenced-off field so the grass can take root.  The dog park is expected to open in the coming days.

Mayor Gray will attend the official dedication on Friday at 12:30.

Rendering of 1905 14th St NW

It’s that time again.  The monthly meeting of ANC 1B will be on Thursday at 7 pm on the second floor of the Reeves Center at 14th and U Streets NW.

On this month’s agenda:

Liquor licenses

Mama Chuy DC – 2620 Georgia Avenue NW – Class C restaurant license – Full-service Mexican restaurant with carry-out and delivery service. No live entertainment. Summer Garden with 16. Seating capacity is 16. Total occupancy 32. Hours inside and outside: Sun-Thurs 9 am-2 am, Fri & Sat 9 am-3 am. Hours for sales and consumption of alcohol: Sun-Thurs 9 am-2 am, Fri & Sat 10 am-3 am.

Happy Hour – 1201 U Street NW (above the Islander) – Class C tavern license – Neighborhood bar with light food, games including Skiball, Wii Stations, and other electronic video games. Entertainment includes live bands. Hours (including alcohol): Sun-Thurs 11 am-2 am, Fri & Sat 11 am-3 am. Live entertainment: Sun-Thurs 6 pm-2 am, Fri & Sat 6pm-3 am.

Land use and transportation

• Proposal for a new apartment building at 1905-1919 14th Street NW (pictured above).
• Presentation from Howard University on its proposed new dormitories on 4th Street just north of LeDroit Park.

The ANC is starting a transportation committee to address parking policy, streetscape proposals, Metro service, and other transportation topics.

Though nearing completion, the new Park at LeDroit’s opening has been delayed until late next next week. The city has identified drainage problems that the contractor will have to mitigate before the site is ready to open. The opening of the dog park section will also be delayed until the park opens.

Please remember to keep off the park grounds until the park is open.

The LeDroit Park Civic Association will hold its annual officer elections on Tuesday, May 24 at 7pm in the basement of the Florida Avenue Baptist Church, 623 Florida Ave (enter on U street).

Officer Candidates

President: Marc Morgan and Richard Myers
Vice President: Maria Fyodorova
Secretary: Eric Fidler (that’s me)
Treasurer: Donna Morris

The Association will accept nominations from the floor.

The five candidates above have submitted short biographies about themselves.

Read the rest of this entry »

This Sunday we toured the just-renovated Ledroit Place condo building at 1907 3rd St NW. All of the units are now for sale and the top-floor units come with terraces with breathtaking views.

The building is open again this Sunday if you wish to see some of the views yourself.

The fourth meeting of the LeDroit Park-Bloomingdale Heritage Trail working group is this evening. Attend if you’re interested in the history of our neighborhoods and would like to help bring the heritage trail to fruition.

The meeting tonight is at 7 pm at St. George’s Episcopal Church at 2nd and U Streets NW.

In the coming months, Cultural Tourism DC, which sponsors the heritage trails, will collect all the interview transcripts and photographs and draft a series of trail markers like the one pictured right.

After neighborhood review, Cultural Tourism DC will install these markers throughout the neighborhoods marking locations of notable events, buildings, and residents.

Read the flyer for tonight’s meeting.

In case you missed Prince Charles’s visit to the Common Good City Farm, check out Fox 5′s segment:

Here is our slideshow of the photos we took. The farms director, Ms. Pertula George, is dressed in white and accompanied Prince Charles through the farm.

The new Park at LeDroit is nearing completion, but the dog park section needs your help.

The District builds dog parks on the condition that community groups maintain and take responsibility for them. For our park, the Friends of Bloomingdale/LeDroit Park Dogs is the neighbor-initiated non-profit steward.

The group is hosting an information session and fundraiser on Sunday, May 8 from 4 pm to 6 pm at Bloomingdale’s Rustik Tavern at the intersection of Rhode Island Ave NW, T St NW, and 1st St NW.

Email bloomingdale.ledroitdoggroup@gmail.com with any questions you may have.

One of LeDroit Park’s notable residents was famed poet Paul Laurence Dunbar.  Mr. Dubar lived at 1934 4th St NW with his wife Alice.

After Mr. Dunbar’s death, his widow, Alice, published an article analyzing his poetry.  In it she noted that Spruce Street (now LeDroit Park’s segment of U Street NW) inspired the poem “Lover’s Lane”:

The white arc light of the corner lamp, filtering through the arches of the maples on Spruce street, make for the tender suggestion in “Lover’s Lane,” where the lovers walk side by side under the “shadder-mekin’ ”

Below we have reprinted “Lover’s Lane” followed by an old audio recording of Paul Robeson singing a hearty bass-barritone version of the Dunbar poem.

Lover’s Lane

SUMMAH night an’ sighin’ breeze,
’Long de lovah’s lane;
Frien’ly, shadder-mekin’ trees,
’Long de lovah’s lane.
White folks’ wo’k all done up gran’—
Me an’ ’Mandy han’-in-han’
Struttin’ lak we owned de lan’,
’Long de lovah’s lane.

Owl a-settin’ ’side de road,
’Long de lovah’s lane,
Lookin’ at us lak he knowed
Dis uz lovah’s lane.
Go on, hoot yo’ Mou’nful tune,
You ain’ nevah loved in June,
An’ come hidin’ f’om de moon
Down in lovah’s lane.

Bush it ben’ an’ nod an’ sway,
Down in lovah’s lane,
Try’n’ to hyeah me whut I say
’Long de lovah’s lane.
But I whispahs low lak dis,
An’ my ’Mandy smile huh bliss—
Mistah Bush he shek his fis’,
Down in lovah’s lane.

Whut I keer ef day is long,
Down in lovah’s lane.
I kin allus sing a song
’Long de lovah’s lane.
An’ de wo’ds I hyeah an’ say
Meks up fu’ de weary day
Wen I’s strollin’ by de way,
Down in lovah’s lane.

An’ dis t’ought will allus rise
Down in lovah’s lane;
Wondah whethah in de skies
Dey’s a lovah’s lane.
Ef dey ain’t, I tell you true,
’Ligion do look mighty blue,
’Cause I do’ know whut I’d do
’Dout a lovah’s lane.

We created this simple graphic to illustrate the disparity and unfairness we DC residents face. We are required to pay Federal taxes but are prohibited from electing anyone to the Senate or House of Representatives. Furthermore, our unique status gives a Congress we cannot elect the legal right to meddle in our local affairs to score points with various lobbying groups.

The American federal system separates the scope of local affairs from nation affairs. Americans duly elect one government for local affairs (the city, county, and state) and another government for national affairs (the House, Senate, and president). The 50 states collect taxes, pass budgets, collect garbage, pave roads, provide health services, and educate children without needing Congressional approval for every action.

DC residents elect a council and mayor, but Congress and the president may overturn any act of the elected DC government in a way they cannot for any state. Furthermore, DC residents have been able to vote in presidential elections since the 1964 election, but are denied the right to vote for any Senators, and are granted one non-voting (i.e. politically impotent) delegate to the House of Representatives.

On Christmas Eve in 1973, Congress passed a statute granting DC residents the “privilege” of a limited form of self-government.  The problem with this situation is that Congress can redefine or repeal this statute on a whim without any consent from the 601,723 people it actually governs.

Congress, however, cannot redefine or repeal statehood.

Statehood is the only way to guarantee DC residents our irrevocable and inalienable right to self-determination.  The time has come to admit the District of Columbia and its 600,000 residents as the 51st state.