yoga district official opening

here's the information from steve abete at yoga district regarding their pre-grand opening party on november 16th

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Yoga District (www.yogadistrict.com), known for its not-for-profit mission to bring affordable yoga classes to diverse communities in eco-sensitive environments, announces its Bloomingdale studio's Grand Opening & Winter Peace Celebration, with activities throughout the day and night on Sunday, November 16th. Proceeds will benefit Delfa Hercules' family and a Winter Peace Initiative, a fund to organize citizen street patrols around the yoga studio, as well as volunteers working with nonprofit agencies fanning out on area street corners to help those in need of social services. The November 16th celebration marks the start of the new studio's full schedule of classes and grand opening on Monday, November 17th.

The November 16th schedule of events at the new studio, located at 1830 1st Street NW, includes:

• 9am-9:45am: Community all-levels meditation class ($5 donation suggested).
• 10am-11:15am: Yoga 1-2 class ($10 donation suggested).
• 11:15am-12:30pm: Open House, Meet the Teachers, Winter Peace Initiative Volunteer Sign Up, and an Art Exhibition by local artists (accepting submissions- email info@yogadistrict.com if interested).
• 12:30pm-1:30pm: Vegan & Vegetarian Chef Cooking Demo- Light Lunch included ($6 donation suggested).
• 2:00pm-3:15pm: Flow Yoga 1-2 ($10 donation suggested).
• 3:30pm-4:45pm: Kids Yoga (ages 5-9; $10 donation suggested).
• 6:00pm-?: Evening events including DJs, acoustic performances, live graffiti art, freestyle performances, open mic, drinks and munchies ($10 donation suggested).

For more information, please see www.yogadistrict.com or email info@yogadistrict.com.

Steve Abate
Studio Assistant Manager
YOGA DISTRICT
www.yogadistrict.com
202-265-YOGA

bad economy?!? what bad economy???

downtown bloomingdale is booming! yoga district has a sign up now (it's just a temp. looking one, hopefully a more permanent one is coming soon). but what's that next door?!? another commercial space is getting fixed up? are we really in the middle of an economic downturn, 'cause it doesn't feel that way 'round here!


i talked with the gentleman doing the painting here at 1832 1st street (which is getting a color scheme similar to yoga district—purple, green, and yellow), and he said he doesn't know what's going in here, but whatever it is will be opening in two weeks or so. i'll update you all when i find out more.

yoga district schedule

commenter aparker asked to have the schedule at yoga district posted. it's available online here (warning: that's a PDF at that link), and here's the comment that jasmine included as well:

Hi! There's a limited class schedule until the Grand Opening on November 17th (fundraiser party on November 16th for Delfa Hercules' family and a Winter Peace Initiative- see www.yogadistrict.com for info). Until Nov. 17th, classes are 6:45pm-8pm every night, except Saturdays, which has morning class 10:45am-12pm. Details at www.yogadistrict.com under the "the classes" link. All the teachers are very different, so be sure to try a few. Classes free 10/27-11/2! Peace and thanks for your support!

for those that didn't know, yoga district is located at 1830 1st street nw, in the heart of downtown bloomingdale!

everyone's favorite sport—new grocery store speculation!

so, here's a fun little rumor that i picked up on sunday.

trader joe's, quite possibly the best low-cost grocery chain i've ever seen, has only one location in the district, at 25th and L in foggy bottom. there were rumors back in the day that they might be looking at opening a U street location at 14th and V (where yes! organic market will be opening soon).

while checking out, i was chatting with the cashier and asked her when trader joe's was going to be expanding in order to take over the city. she told me pretty matter-of-factly that she's heard that tj's is looking at new locations in "upper georgetown" (which sounds to me like either burlieth or glover park) and at 14th and S streets nw.

now, the 14th and S location would be of more interest to bloomingdalians. i'm not sure exactly which building that would be located in, but whitman-walker just sold their buildings on the northwest corner here, so maybe those parcels could be configured to make space for a grocery store.

near that corner, there's also the central union mission building (which they're leaving for 65 mass. ave nw) and the old church of the rapture building (on the southwest corner of 14th and T). that one's being fought over by the owner of tryst/the diner/open city and a furniture store from minnesota, so i'm sure that's not a possibility here.

so, does a trader joe's on the 14th street corridor sound like a real possibility, or was i just hearing unsubstantiated rumors?

wee kan speel

guess this is how you spell "avenue" in baltimore.

(picture taken in hampden on 36th street)

creative bumper sticker

saw this on the way home from the bloomingdale farmer's market this weekend. pretty clever mixing obama with the outer banks.

geography lesson on an onion!

this is a picture of an onion that i picked up last weekend at safeway (i'm calling it the "seven safeway" [in ward 7 at minnesota and benning] since i haven't seen it nicknamed elsewhere) after the coalition for smarter growth's downtown ward 7 walking tour.

why write about an onion? well, i thought this was a good spot for a quick geography/history lesson. note the name of this onion brand—mayan sweets. then note where it's from (you can click on the picture to view a larger image).

if you didn't know already, the mayan empire was in present-day guatemala, belize, and mexico. the incan empire was in peru (where this onion is from). someone needs to rename their brand...

shots from this weekend's BFM

this weekend's bloomingdale farmer's market included a couple of new vendors: keswick creamery was selling cheese and pudding, and chez hareg was selling cookies and cakes at their tent. in addition, culinaerie was giving cooking demonstrations (and letting us sample some mean butternut squash soup!) i hope the new vendors come back; the cheese was flying off the shelves, so to speak, and hareg seemed to have brisk sales of her baked goods. hopefully our little farmer's market is growing up!

hareg is getting more cookies out and ready to sell. i bought some of the vegan sugar cookies (very, very good stuff!)

the cameras film the cooking demonstration from culinaerie.

this is where i always get my peppers, beans, and squash!

this little guy was at least getting most of his drink down the hatch!

yoga district now open—pictures from open house

yoga district's new bloomingdale studio (in the heart of downtown bloomingdale) held their open house yesterday from 10 to 2. people heading to and from the bloomingdale farmer's market were stopping in to pick up information (class schedules were available) and talk to the owners. they were busy when i stopped by, so i didn't get a chance to talk, but i did take a few pictures.

finally, "the purple building" has a use other than causing all of us to speculate what kind of mardi gras themed business would do well here.

for now, the only furnishing in the studio is this shelf in the front with a few yoga items for sale, but i overheard that more cubbies would be built in further back soon.

here's a few of the interior. that's sanded and polished plywood on the floor (plain and simple) with the original pressed tin ceiling, some HVAC ductwork and a few hanging lamps. a pretty simple place, but it's wonderful to see life on 1st street!

gotta keep taking note of this—george will #6

yeah, it has nothing to do with bloomingdale, but what the heck—look at the last word on the page here. the man just can't stop!

DO NOT VOTE MICHAEL A. BROWN - UPDATED

continuing a theme from yesterday—political advertising.

michael a. brown is running for council, and you should not vote for him. period. you get two votes. vote for kwame and someone else. make it carol, patrick, david, mark, i don't care. just not michael a. brown.

read this city paper article. he's an opportunist, and cashing in on his name seems to be par for the course. the man is just running for council to be on council. he ran for mayor, then councilmember from ward 4 when that clearly wasn't working for him (in the same election cycle).

hundreds of people around the city complain about his robocalls and his fliers on cars. he's just a menace that we should reward with nothing on election day.

update: he just keeps on getting people angry. here's another anti-love letter from inshaw.com titled "michael brown, i hate you"

ward 5 school board election—typo

robert brannum is vice-president of the bloomingdale civic association and is running against mark jones for the ward 5 seat on the school board. both have placed a lot of signs up around the neighborhood, but there's something notable about mr. brannum's signs. take a look at the close-up below, and take note of the spelling of 'positive'. at least it was fixed, but i feel bad for whomever had to use that red marker on every one of his signs. that must have been tedious.

baraki agreement

after a few community meetings, an agreement has been met between the folks protesting the liquor license for baraki (the new tavern set to open at 1st and t, nw) and the owners.

here are the important details:

—maximum capacity of 50 inside and 24 outide on the sidewalk café.

—open from 11 a.m. to midnight, sunday through thursday, and 11 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. on weekends. sidewalk café closes at 10 p.m. sunday thru thursday and at 11 p.m. on weekends.

–food will be available up until 1 hour before closing. last call for liquor will be ½ hour before close.

—trash pick-up will be 4 times per week, sometime between 7 a.m. & 6 p.m. the tavern will monitor exterior, sidewalk and & curbs 3 times daily for trash (guess that means that the guys who hang out on the block and use it as their personal trash can will have someone designated to pick up after them now).

—tavern will have rat control at least twice a month.

—no dj or live music allowed prior to 8 p.m., monday thru friday. signage will be posted at exit instructing patrons and employees that they're in a residential neighborhood and to should quietly.

—deliveries will be made on first street—no deliveries will be made on t street (guess that means that a few parking spaces on first will be eliminated for a loading zone).

—employees shall not park on the unit block of t street. signs will be posted within the tavern asking customers to be mindful of the parking needs of the residents of the unit block of t street (good for the folks on t street, but their gain is our loss. why no guarantees for seaton place, or first street? that's a rhetorical question, because i'm certain that 99% of the people coming to the tavern will be walking anyway.)

—no dancing is allowed. entertainment will be limited to a dj or live music with no more than 3 musicians. (guess we're just like the town in footloose—wouldn't want the kids dancing...next thing you know they might have googly eyes for each other and kiss or something like that!)

—security lights will be directed toward first and t streets. (hopefully this doesn't lead to some ugly motion lights or something like that.)

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now that that's over with, let's get them those permits and see some construction! i'm looking forward to my first chance to mosey up to the bar!

wilson building tour

(portrait of john a. wilson in the entrance to the building named after him (sorry for the glare))

on october 15th, i went to the open house at the wilson building. it's our 'city hall', and i felt pretty embarrassed that i'd never been there though i've lived in the city for over 5 years. so i decided to check things out. all of the council members' offices were open for anyone to walk in and see what they look like. i managed to visit the council chambers of marion barry, yvette alexander, jack evans, harry thomas, muriel bowser, tommy wells, and carol schwartz.

muriel bowser (ward 4) was the only council member greeting people in her office while i was there, and she was quite friendly. i would highly recommend taking advantage of an opportunity like this if something similar happens again. i hope to go back soon to get a better appreciation of the art collection that lines the hallways there.

below are the (kinda hokey looking) entrances to the council (legislative) and mayoral (executive) wings of the fifth floor.

interpretive signage in logan circle

i'm not sure if any other bloggers have picked up on this, but there are two (relatively) new signs up in logan circle. the one pictured here talks about general logan, whom the circle is named after. this one is on the east side of the circle. on the west side of the circle, there is a sign that tells some of the history of the neighborhood surrounding the circle.

as a history geek, it's nice to have more stuff like this to check out. bravo NPS.

yoga district open house this sunday

yoga district, a yoga studio with locations in dupont and on 14th street, is opening its third location here in bloomingdale next week.

they'll be having an open house this sunday from 10 to 2, and a soft opening will follow on monday with limited classes. they'll be having their grand opening on november 17th.

i stopped in today after work today to say hello, and jasmine, patrick, and joe (the three who were setting things up and doing the construction) were friendly and seem excited to get the studio open. we talked about how the space used to be a steak restaurant at one point, and what a change it is from red meat to yoga!

it's really exciting to see the vacancies on first street filling up with real productive businesses!

can't make up your mind?

this is the front door of the guilford liquor store at the corner of 5th and rhode island in shaw. this is in anc 2c02, ground zero in leroy thorpe vs. kevin chapple part 2 (the rematch).

click on the picture. either the store owners can't make up their mind who to support, or they're just being good sports and unbiased by showing advertising for both sides on the front door. i sure hope people choose the guy with the blue sign...

open house at st. george's episcopal this weekend

in addition to the alley block party listed below, here's another bloomingdale event taking place on saturday:

An Invitation To Our Neighbors!

You've put up with the construction noise and clutter at St. George's Church at 2nd and U Streets, NW. We’re glad it’s over and proud of what we’ve done. So we’d like to say "Thanks" and maybe brag a little by offering you food and refreshments. There will be jazz and contemporary music by our own James McKinney, and activities for the kids.

OPEN HOUSE Saturday, October 25, 11 AM to 3 PM

Take a brief tour of our newly renovated church. We bet you didn’t know we have a sanctuary wall filled with a bas-relief masterpiece by Lithuanian sculptor V. K. Jonynas (1907 – 1997), whose stained glass art decorates the National Shrine on Michigan Avenue, NE and St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

AT ST. GEORGE'S . . .

•We celebrate the unique gifts of each person in our community regardless of age, background, race, gender, marital status or sexual orientation.

•We welcome visitors and we invite to our Communion table any and all baptized Christians.

•We uphold the rights of all people and work hard to meet the needs of the community.

•We are proud of our long and close relationship with Howard University.

alley event this weekend in bloomingdale

scott roberts has posted about this a couple times already on the bloomingdale listserv, but i thought i'd post about it here as well just to make sure the word gets out:

A Fall Diversity Event!

Join your neighbors for an afternoon of celebrating cultural diversity with Food, Fun, Family and Music.

Come over on October 25 at 3:00 PM in the alley and back yards of the 100 blocks of S Street and Seaton Place, NW. Sample foods from Mexico, Latin America, Italy, Eritrea, Ethiopia, China, Germany and more...no to mention southern potato salad, Cajun jambalaya and sweet potato cupcakes! There will also be plenty of kids' activities and games.

In addition, you'll enjoy the entertainment of neighbor and jazz legend Maurice Lyles and the Maurice Lyles Trio!

Admission is free. Donations (cash and plant materials) will be accepted by the S Street and Affiliated Blocks Association to beautify the tree boxes. For more information, contact J.C. Blount, 202/ 986- 2772.

george will #5

quick update: i missed this a couple weeks ago. look at the first line of the fourth paragraph here.