Yesterday we posted the three-part oral history interview with Mrs. Lauretta Jackson.  It turns out that another neighborhood resident, a professional documentarian, is about to start filming a 30-minute documentary about the neighborhood.  When it’s finished, the program will air on DCTV, the District’s public access channel.  We’ll let you know when it airs.

In the meantime, are there any facets of LeDroit Park you want to know about or you think might be interesting to feature?

Mrs. Lauretta Jackson has lived in LeDroit Park since the 1940s.  The Humanities Council of Washington DC, located in the white rowhouse at Vermont Avenue and U Street, sponsored this three-part interview with Mrs. Jackson.  It’s truly a fascinating window into the neighborhood’s history.  Mrs. Jackson explains the stories behind many of the neighborhood’s notable houses and details the neighborhood’s nineteenth-century birth.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3

Photo by flick user niallkennedy

Cities have toyed with the idea of installing free wireless internet access as a way to bridge the digital divide. During the dot-com era, techno-evangelists fretted that the lack of internet access would further marginalize the poor in an increasingly digital world.  Inexpensive wifi promises to close the gap by broadcasting free internet access at short ranges.

Over in Bloomingdale a plan has been brewing for several years to install a series of wifi antennae to broadcast internet to residents for free. Interestingly, the District’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) recently revealed that the city has indeed already installed wifi hotspots on the Mall. OCTO is partnering with Bloomingdale to bring the Bridge, as the program is called, to fruition.

The aptly named Bridge is expected to seep into parts of LeDroit Park and Eckington, too.  Have a look at the proposed coverage map.

View The Bridge – Bloomingdale’s Free Wifi in a larger map

512 Florida Avenue sits at the southeast corner of Sixth Street and Florida Avenue, just across the street from LeDroit Park.  You may have noticed some construction work going on recently.

Indeed, TBD reports that Mr. Abbas Fahti recently bought the building for $500,000 from Howard University and is renovating it to include housing and retail space. The top floor will include two one-bedroom apartments and one two-bedroom apartment.

The entire ground floor will be cleared out to make one single retail space. While Mr. Fahti doesn’t have a tenant lined up, we’re hoping for a tavern or cafe.

We’ve thought about the building before and its many virtues as a sit-down food establishment. First, it’s located at the boundary of Shaw and LeDroit Park, so it can legitimately claim to serve both neighborhoods. It’s also located along Florida Avenue, a street whose traffic will also generate business from passersby.  When the weather is nice, the extraordinarily wide sidewalk on the Sixth Street front will provide ample room for outdoor seating.

Hear ye, barkeeps and baristas: this is your chance!

We missed the groundbreaking ceremony at the Howard Theatre yesterday, but the City Paper caught some video of the musical act. Give it a hit!

See how the Howard Theatre looks today (it’s a mess inside) and how it will look after the renovations. Groundbreaking is today at 10:45.

(h/t: Maria F.)

The LeDroit Park Market will be remain closed for the next two weeks while it undergoes some minor renovations and electrical repairs. We’re afraid we’ll have to satisfy our ice cream cravings elsewhere.

 

We’re back from our half-month vacation and LeDroit Park and Shaw are about to see some construction action starting today.

Wednesday, September 1 – 10:30 am

Just when we thought construction on the park on the site of the old Gage-Eckington School would begin, along came the parks scandal last October. Then in March, Harry Thomas Jr. (D – Ward 5) tried to prevent the mayor from appropriating money to the park project; he then reversed himself after an avalanche of constituent criticism.  The new contract was ready to go until Councilmember Marion Barry (D – Ward 8) put a hold on the contract in late July.  Mr. Barry’s delay procedure just expired and the mayor’s office will host a groundbreaking ceremony today at 10:30 am at Third and Elm Streets.

3:00 pm

Over in Shaw, the two block site currently occupied by Giant and a crumbling old market façade is about to start its journey to become a vibrant mixed-use development.  Join the Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), Mayor Adrian Fenty (D), Council Chairman Vincent Gray (D), Councilmember Jack Evans (D – Ward 2) and Councilmember Kwame Brown (D – at large) for the groundbreaking.

Thursday, September 2 – 10:45 am

After years of planning and promises, construction on the Howard Theatre begins in earnest.  Join the developer, ANC Commissioner Myla Moss, and other notables for the official groundbreaking.

We’re relieved to see these long-promised projects finally moving forward to construction.

DDOT just activated the new contraflow bike lanes on the two blocks of New Hampshire Avenue connecting from U Street.  Cyclists traveling against the flow of car traffic now have separate lanes in which to travel all the way to the crossroads of U Street, Sixteenth Street, and New Hampshire Avenue.

At the intersection, DDOT has installed special bike traffic lights to allow cyclists to cross into the bike-boxes ahead of the queues of car traffic waiting on Sixteenth Street. (See the green bike-boxes ahead of the stop lines in the diagram above.)

This is a pilot project for DDOT and there are a few kinks to work out. First, the bike signals are not placed in ideal positions.  Look carefully at southwest corner of the diagram above.  Notice that a cyclist stopped at the stop line on New Hampshire Avenue does not directly face a bike signal.  The cyclist must know to look to the right and to look up to heights that are unusual for bike signage. In much of the world, bike signals are placed five to seven feet above the ground.  Even if the signals cannot be located to other poles, lowering them on their existing poles could help.

Second, there are induction loops embedded in the pavement to sense a waiting cyclist but there’s no indication that cyclists should wait exactly at the stop line in order to trip the sensor. While filming, we pulled to the curb to stop and failed to trip the sensor.

This is merely the first step in DDOT’s plan to reconfigure the intersection, which suffers a high number of pedestrian injuries.  Until now, these two blocks of New Hampshire Avenue have been the missing link between New Hampshire Avenue and Sixteenth Street and the bike lanes on T and V Streets (eastbound and westbound, respectively).

An early image of the Howard Theatre

The most contentious issue at Thursday’s meeting of ANC1B was the proposal to grant $4,000 to subsidize the groundbreaking celebration of the Howard Theater on August 22 and the proposal to spend $1,000 to purchase an advertisement in the celebration’s commemorative brochure.  Commissioners Brianne Nadeau (1B05 – Meridian Hill) and Sedrick Muhammad (1B03 – Cardozo) were particularly opposed.  Ms. Nadeau was displeased with the idea of a general subsidy for the event without knowing exactly for what items and services the money would be spent.  Mr. Muhammad didn’t think a one-time event warranted so much public money.

The ANC narrowly approved the $5,000 grant 4 to 3 (vote tally below) and then took up a grant application for the Banneker City Little League, which sought $3,000 to subsidize a little league for neighborhood children.  The commission approved the grant request without much ado.

As for $5,000 grant for the groundbreaking ceremony and the brochures, the votes were as follows:

Voting yea:

• Ms. Myla Moss (1B01 – LeDroit Park)
• Mr. Peter Raia (1B02 – U Street)
• Mr. Eddie Ferrer (1B10 – North of Howard)
• Ms. E. Gail Anderson Holness (1B11 – Southern Howard University & Southern Pleasant Plains)

Voting nay:

• Mr. Sedrick Muhammad (1B03 – Cardozo)
• Ms. Brianne Nadeau (1B05 – Meridian Hill)
• Ms. Rosemary Akinmboni (1B08 – Southern Columbia Heights)

(See a map of the single-member districts in ANC1B)