DDOT will begin reconstructing U Street this fall. Stretching from 9th Street to just short of 14th Street NW, the project’s first phase will fix many of the worst pedestrian problems with this street. Sadly, not being a Great Streets project, it isn’t getting some of the decorative touches of other projects like H Street NE.

Most of the details in the plan are the same as they were three years ago. A major theme is that the street will better accommodate pedestrians, especially those in wheelchairs. DDOT is guaranteeing a 4-foot-wide clearance throughout the project, and to do so the agency will eliminate parking spaces and driving lanes and move walls, street poles, and trees where necessary.

On the 1300 block, the staircases of three buildings on the south side currently make for a sliver of a sidewalk. Instead of trying to move or reconfigure the stairs, which are on public space, and instead of looking for an exception to the 4-foot clearance, DDOT will remove parking spaces and extend the sidewalk toward the travel lane.

Curb extension design for the 1300 block of U St. NW. Image from DDOT.

Additionally, the construction process itself is designed to minimize disruptions to pedestrians. The city will require its contractor to work on only one block at a time and will divert pedestrians to the parking lane when the sidewalks are being replaced.

Phase 1 will start in the fall and construction is expected to last 9 months. Phase 2, which stretches from 14th Street all the way to 18th Street, will start after phase 1 and the 18th Street reconstruction project are both finished.

In phase 1, the roadway will simply be milled down and resurfaced, a process that itself takes about 3 hours per block. The sidewalks will also be replaced except in front of the African-American Civil War Memorial and the Ellington, where they are very new. Phase 2 is more complicated, involving digging up the entire road bed, replacing a century-old water main, and rebuilding the entire roadway. The phase 1 section’s water main was replaced in the late 1980s with the construction of the Green Line, so the road work is less extensive there.

On the 1700 block, the north side’s sidewalk is notoriously narrow, poorly lit, and buckled by tree roots. DDOT will eliminate an eastbound driving lane on this residential block and redistribute the reclaimed area to both sidewalks.

Design for the 1700 block of U St. NW. Image from DDOT.

At the intersection with 16th Street and New Hampshire Avenue, the agency will include bulbouts (“B”) to reduce the street-crossing distances for pedestrians.

Design for the intersection of U St., 16th St., and New Hampshire Ave. NW. Image from DDOT.

Just east of the intersection and on the north side of U Street, the agency will remove an existing retaining wall (“A”) on the public right-of-way and rebuild it several feet back. This move will widen this otherwise narrow section of sidewalk.

The elimination of the slip lanes onto New Hampshire Avenue on both sides discourages speeding and creates small pedestrian plazas.

As we have documented before, some transportation departments are prone to neglecting pedestrians or expecting them to take needlessly long detours around construction. This will not be the case on U Street, much to the relief of pedestrians and business owners.

To minimize obstructions along the sidewalks, the city will install multi-space meters. This will be a good time to consider implementing performance parking for the U Street corridor, as parking becomes especially difficult on Friday and Saturday nights. The increased revenue could be used to improve and maintain the street amenities over the coming years, as is being done on Barracks Row.

The city will save street trees where it can and replant new trees in empty boxes and where trees cannot be saved.

While these improvements will enhance the experience for the many pedestrians who traverse the corridor, this reconstruction lacks many of the decorative design touches of some other projects around the city including the Great Streets projects.

U Street will receive the standard blue-gray concrete sidewalks instead of the beige, exposed aggregate concrete sidewalks now on H Street and currently being installed in Adams Morgan. H Street’s sidewalks enjoy pedestrian-scaled street markers etched in granite slabs embedded in the sidewalks. The metal street banners are another nice touch on H Street that won’t come to U Street under the current plan.

We can certainly add some decorative elements later, but the sidewalk pavement is something expected to last decades and must be done right the first time. With such a storied history, U Street deserves some of the qualities of a Great Street.

Howard University is inching closer to finalizing its draft campus plan.

As you recall, each university in DC is required to submit a decennial campus plan to the Zoning Commission for approval.  The campus plan is a legally binding plan that commits the university to certain enrollment caps as well as plans for future physical changes to the campus.

Please note that this is a draft and the university is getting closer to finalizing the plan it intends to submit to the Zoning Commission.  There will continue to be many opportunities for community input and the Zoning Commission will likely decide on the final plan in the fall.

HU Draft Campus Plan (Part 1)

HU Draft Campus Plan (Part 2)

Is LeDroit Park a “food desert”?  The phrase refers to a neighborhood where the nearest grocery store is more than a mile away.  First, this metric would classify many of the tony precincts of Bethesda, Potomac, and McLean as “food deserts”.

Despite that, the metric isn’t entirely useless.  Distance does matter greatly to populations who, for whatever reason, do not have cars.  Groceries are heavy, after all.

Even still, WAMU’s recent characterization of LeDroit Park as a food desert is incorrect.  In fact, you can plug in directions from Anna J. Cooper Circle, the neighborhood’s center, to the Giant at 8th and P Streets NW.

The distance?  Under a mile. That’s about 15 minutes by foot.

In fact, if you’d rather take a bus, which we frequently do with groceries, the G2 runs every 30 minutes from LeDroit Park and along P Street.  It passes not only the aforementioned Giant, but also the Whole Foods on the 1400 block of P Street.  If you return in under 2 hours, the round-trip bus cost is $1.50.

This grocery store is slated to close soon so a new Giant, along with housing, can be constructed on the site.  After that happens, the 3-year-old Safeway at 5th and L Streets NW and the 6-month-old Harris Teeter in NoMA will vie for the title as nearest grocery store.  Each is exactly 1 mile away.

Furthermore, once the Howard Town Center project takes flight, it will feature its own grocery store.  The project is about a half-mile from Anna J. Cooper Circle.

So there you have it.  Within 1 mile of LeDroit Park one will find a Giant, a Safeway, and a Harris Teeter.  That hardly qualifies the neighborhood as a food desert.

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.