Ghetto Picasso's calling card.

…And CRASH!!! Sharesten, alone in The Christinsanity Chair, tilts over. The band plays on. Jo joins her. And the two balance The Christinsanity Chair. Friends fo’evah.

Wednesday morning we discovered that LeDroit Park had been “art bombed” with several found-art sculptures. The Brooklyn-based artist Ghetto Picasso adorned several sidewalks with his whimsical works. Each sculpture was tagged with a playing card with a few lines of prose and the artist’s web address.  The artist describes himself thusly:

Theorizing the green movement as a last minute prayer before the Apocalypse, Ghetto Picasso symbolically interprets mankind’s edification efforts with the use of junk, salvage and reclaimed materials.

As detailed in his blog, Ghetto Picasso currently has an installation at Tryst in Adams Morgan.

Found at the LeDroit Park gate.

Found in the front garden at T and Sixth Streets NW

Attached to a fence at T and Wiltberger Streets NW

Photo by M.V. Jantzen

The District recently renovated and reopened Champlain Street to cars under the Marie Reed Center.  The new street is one-way southbound for cars and includes a northbound contraflow bike lane.  The reopened street will improve street connectivity between Adams Morgan and the U Street corridor.  Currently, much of the car traffic is forced onto Ontario Road on the east and Eighteenth Street on the west.

The northbound contraflow bike lane will connect nicely to the westbound bike lane on V Street (mapped below).  Though bicycles are entitled to ride on all District streets, LeDroit residents who prefer bike lanes will find a more relaxed route along V Street (from Vermont Avenue) westward to Florida Avenue, then northward on Champlain Street.

Champlain Street and vicinity. The blue line marks the northwestern edge of the L'Enfant Plan

The roadway just south of the Marie Reed Center has been renamed Champlain Street to signify its continuation from the north.  Its old namesake, Old Morgan School Place,  has since been shortened from its former L-shape to its one remaining block between the Reed Center and the PEPCO substation.

We applaud DDOT and Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), who spearheaded the reopening, for accommodating cyclists and connecting the street grids.  Connected streets alleviate traffic jams as they provide more alternatives routes when the main streets become unexpectedly crowded.