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All Recent Articles
| Housing town hall hosts plenty of ire |
VOICE writes, "By Arthur Delaney
Between feedback from the sound system and the echo effect of the cavernous venue packed with 400 residents, it was difficult to understand almost anything said into the microphone. But Ward 6 D.C. Council member Tommy Wells started off by acknowledging neighbors’ fears that development spurred by the nearby baseball stadium would overtake the community.
"We're here to address the concern that pretty soon those cranes and bulldozers will come where other people live and there won't be housing left for the people who are here," he said.
The neighbors who stuffed themselves into a town hall meeting on affordable housing at the Greenleaf Recreation Center in Southwest last week largely hailed from the adjacent Greenleaf Gardens public housing complex.
Wells, Ward 8 Council member Marion Barry and at-arge Council member Kwame Brown called the meeting to quell rumors that the city had plans to demolish public housing in Southwest to make way for condos. "
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Posted on May 13, 2008 16:37pm.
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| Noise continues over noise bill |
VOICE writes, "By Arthur Delaney
The D.C. Council gave initial approval to anti-noise legislation following a lengthy and spirited debate on Tuesday, and the bill is set for a second reading in June.
Council members voted 8 to 5 in favor of the bill after a compromise amendment that raised the bill's noise-disturbance threshold from 70 to 80 decibels in downtown areas or 10 decibels above the ambient noise in an area, as measured from a distance of 50 feet. The noise must also be deemed "excessive" by a "reasonable person."
Ward 3 Council member Mary Cheh co-introduced the bill last year with Ward 6 Council member Tommy Wells, responding to complaints from residents about extremely loud street preachers on H Street NE, who for years have used amplifiers to blast hate-filled sermons on Saturday afternoons. Citing labor unions' free speech concerns, the council tabled the legislation by a surprise vote last February. "
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Posted on May 13, 2008 16:34pm.
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| H Street streetscape delays frustrate residents |
VOICE writes, "BY BEN WEINSTEIN
It’s been more than five years since transportation officials started planning the H Street corridor streetscape renovations, and projected start dates have come and gone.
While those officials insist that the project is still a priority and that work will soon begin, Northeast residents involved in streetscape planning say they’re frustrated with the delays.
“We’ve come a long way,” Northeast Capitol Hill advisory neighborhood commission chairman Joe Fengler said at a recent meeting. “The plans we have in place are attainable but … I’ve been frustrated with a lot of the delays we’ve had.”
Fengler, who’s been working with the D.C. Department of Transportation, city leaders and other affected neighborhood commissions throughout the project’s planning phase, defined his role as a “cheerleader and an irritant.”
For the first few years, Fengler said, he acted as a project catalyst. But in the past year, while start dates have passed without groundbreaking, he said communication breakdowns with transportation officials have driven him to become the irritant. "
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Posted on May 13, 2008 16:31pm.
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| H Street farmers’ market blossoms again |
VOICE writes, "By AMANDA ABRAMS
Pushing strollers and bicycles, carrying cups of coffee and cutting through alleyways, young families converged on the H Street farmers’ market this past Saturday morning, celebrating the first day of the market’s season and greeting familiar faces after a long winter.
Now in its fifth year, the H Street market has become a gathering point for many residents of the H Street corridor and the larger Hill area — one that continues to swell as the neighborhood grows. Located on a city-owned parking lot between 6th and 7th streets, the market provides residents with a genuine connection to the food they put on their tables. All six vendors are direct producers of the goods they sell, from plants to produce to pork.
“We live around the corner and have been coming since the market started,” said Todd Richardson, one of the earliest arrivals. He was waiting with his two children for the opening bell to ring at 9 a.m. “It’s got good fresh food and is a great place to see people you know and hang out. We’ve gotten to know all the vendors.”"
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Posted on May 13, 2008 16:28pm.
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| Uh, oh ... here come the 60s again? |
VOICE writes, "
The low- to midpriced Kohl's clothing store is running a new TV ad with a pleasant musical theme: "We're all in this together." We're not quite sure what that has to do with the dresses it is selling, but there you are.
It could be just our seasonal allergies, but there seem to be signs of a new version of the '60s heading our way.
Environmentalism has big corporations posing as green. Race relations seem shaky again. Questions of class and power are always with us, but now there's a certain tilt away from the conservative mantras of the recent decades.
Look at the presidential campaigns. Each has been ensnared, some more than once, in demands that they denounce remarks by their supporters, remarks that are deemed politically incorrect.
And, of course, there is war -- "War, what is it good for?" goes the lyric -- that enters every political debate in so many ways.
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Posted on Apr 30, 2008 22:45pm.
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| Not just a wisenheimer |
VOICE writes, "By Joshua Gray
“You’ll recognize me from the column,” says Gene Weingarten, chuckling, as we set up our interview. “I look just like the drawing, only fatter.”
With a thicket of mostly dark hair, wire-rimmed glasses, his signature bushy mustache, and just the suggestion of a paunch, he’s easy to pick out. Slouched over an espresso at Port City Java, he was just around the corner from his Eastern Market home.
For thousands of readers, The Washington Post columnist Weingarten is a familiar voice, even if they don’t connect it with his face. Weingarten’s nationally syndicated humor column “Below The Beltway” is the first stop for many readers of Sunday’s Post. But Weingarten takes off the jester’s cap two or three times a year, scripting longer features on more serious subjects.
Last spring, his article “Pearls Before Breakfast” chronicled eminent classical musician Joshua Bell performing in a Metrorail station during rush hour. No mere stunt, it was a serious meditation on the scant space we leave for art in our busy, metropolitan lives. Accompanied by video and broadcast on The Post Web site, the article took on a life of its own, transcending the local angle. On April 7, Weingarten was rewarded with a Pulitzer Prize.
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Posted on Apr 25, 2008 20:39pm.
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| Racy fliers in Southwest cause fury |
VOICE writes, "BY BEN WEINSTEIN
Southwest residents who have complained that fliers featuring scantily clad women were being left on car windshields and scattered on streets may have reason to rejoice: An event organizer has agreed to curb the problem.
Owners of Bazz & Crue Events Hall, a club in Forestville, Md., agreed to end their promotional relationship with MetroMac, a flier-distribution company, after the District Office of the Attorney General filed a complaint against the owners earlier this year.
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Posted on Apr 25, 2008 19:52pm.
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