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.