bloomingdale, you're finally getting a bar!

i haven't paid attention to the corner of 1st, t, and rhode island for a couple days, but check this out:
yep, that's a placard for a liquor license. a class c liquor license. a TAVERN! we are getting a bar, bloomingdale!


that first photo was in one of the doors on t street. this property, at 84-86 t street nw, has long been rumored to be home to a second location of heller's bakery of mount pleasant (whose donuts are quite good!) well, it looks like that's not the case now. a new, smallish window has been placed in the 1st street wall in the last few days, and that's home to the other placard.

i know it's hard to read, but here are the details:

• posted today (august 1, 2008)
• petition date: september 15, 2008
• hearing date: september 29, 2008
• name: baraki
• nature of operation: local tavern featuring standard american fare with occasional dj, occupancy limit is 99.
• hours of operation: sunday through thursday: 11 am - 2 am, friday and saturday: 11 am - 3 am
• hours of entertainment: sunday through thursday: 9 pm - 2 am, friday and saturday: 9 pm - 3 am

and the kicker: sidewalk café with 24 seats: every day 11 am to midnight!



so there you have it, bloomingdale. i always thought this would happen at 1822 1st street (the corner of 1st and seaton) before anywhere else in the neighborhood, but maybe that'll just have to be the home of a bar and restaurant, instead of a plain-old tavern like baraki.

international travel and the 4th amendment

i'm heading out of the country in a few days. i'll be gone for almost three weeks, spending on week in tunisia and nearly two weeks in italy. so, when i came across this article in the wapo today, i was intrigued and concerned.

Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop computer or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.

now, i'm no constitutional scholar, but here's the wording of the 4th amendment to the constitution:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

doesn't it seem pretty straightforward that taking your laptop without any suspicion of wrongdoing would be an unreasonable seizure of your effects? when the hell did i move to a third world dictatorship?

the truth is, i'm going to a country where they speak arabic and practice islam. i guarantee you that the TSA folk at dulles when i get back will have all kinds of fun questions for me. i'm looking forward to the trip, but potentially dreading coming back here.

metropolitan branch trail news

good news! progress on the metropolitan branch trail! here's a newsflash from heather deutsch, the person at ddot in charge of coordinating the progress on the trail:

Contract Signed!! Design/Build for the New York Ave. to Franklin Street segment: On Tuesday, July 22nd the contract was signed to begin the Design/Build for the trail segment from New York Ave. to Franklin Street. The contractor will have 12 months to design and build this segment which will include 5 neighborhood connections and will create direct access to the New York Ave. Metro Station.

Artist Selected! Met Branch Trail Artistic Identity: On July 21st a local DC artist was selected to create an artistic identity for the trail including signage and amenities. This project was sponsored by DC Arts and Humanities.

* Volunteer: we will be hosting community meetings and asking for your thoughts so stay posted!

Design Begun! Rhode Island Ave. Ped/Bike Metro Bridge: We have begun to design the pedestrian and bicycle bridge that will connect the Met Branch Trail to the Rhode Island Ave. station. Preliminary engineering drawings have been completed and bridge plans will be available for the public soon.

it's gonna be cold out there!

look near the upper left and check out the temperatures for next tuesday, according to the capital weather gang. from what i can tell, the low is going to be somewhere south of 200 million degrees below zero. guess that stuff i learned about absolute zero in school is all bunk, eh?

shot spotter comes to the edge of bloomingdale?

click here to see what the washington city paper reports is the area where shot spotter is being deployed in our part of the city.

the author gives a rough idea of where the area is that will be covered, but it's not very detailed. for example, it mentions the eastern edge being second street south from rock creek church road to new york avenue, but second street never intersects new york avenue. i've made what i think is a rough approximation of what the author meant, and if a more detailed description is made available, i'll update the map.

sidewalk cafe for windows!

i caught wind of this in scott roberts' daily email yesterday, and i went to snap a picture this morning. i would assume this is going to be on the 1st street side of things, since there's a lot more space there. in addition, the kids that often hang out smoking in front of the chinese carry-out next door probably aren't the ambiance that you're looking for with a sidewalk cafe. (click on the image above if you want to actually read the notice.)

bye-bye, free ride

'tis a shame, but free ride, the express' blog, is no more.

it's been replaced by express night out, which appears to have all the entertainment and "going out" news of the old site, and none of the "DC news", like stuff about local politics, development, etc. kind of like a local US magazine.

too bad. met some cool people through free ride. don't think this new effort will stay on my radar.

tree boxes in bloomingdale — a good thing?

when i got back from the eastern shore yesterday, i found that new cast-iron treeboxes had been placed on first street in bloomingdale from rhode island avenue south to r street. it looks like this is part of the ddot grant that gave us the bloomingdale signs on the light posts in the neighborhood.

when i first saw them, i thought "great!" yet another example of making the neighborhood look more beautiful. but then i realized something upon closer inspection.


whomever installed these treebox guards (i'm assuming someone contracted by ddot) just ripped out whatever treebox decoration was there beforehand. some of these treeboxes had no ornamentation whatsoever, but some of them were lovingly taken care of by the homeowners who lived nearby. i met one of those homeowners while walking around the neighborhood this evening, and he expressed disappointment that the new iron treebox guards were installed without prior warning. he maintained one of these treeboxes, and his work was ripped out and destroyed in favor of the new order.

the decoration that was ripped out was unceremoniously dumped back on top of people's plants in the treeboxes. that's wrong. the contractor should have clearly seen that these plants were planted with a purpose, and those who put in the work to keep the treeboxes looking nice didn't deserve to have their hard work spit upon this way by the city.

from this tag on the treebox guard in the picture above, it looks like long fence is the contractor responsible for this.

don't get me wrong, i'm happy to see the treebox guards on first street. if taken care of (that's a big if) and properly maintained, they will go a long way towards making bloomingdale an even more beautiful neighborhood than it is. that said, there was no reason to use this work to trample on the hard work of our neighbors.

boo, ddot. poor, poor implementation. you should apologize to the homeowners who were taking care of things before you decided to come in like an absentee landlord trying to make things right.

condo building at the corner of north capitol and rhode island

does anyone who reads this blog live in the condo building on the southwest corner of north capitol and rhode island avenue? if so, i have a quick question for you. it would appear that your huge, old rowhouse has been lovingly restored from the shell that it was a couple years ago. that's great, it's wonderful to see old housing stock in this city used for something other than pigeon storage.

my question for you is this: when are you ever going to get some landscaping? the front and side of your building looks just like it did when the building was under construction. in other words: it's hideous. i feel bad for the people who have to wait for the g8 and the 80 bus lines on the street in front of your building, because it seems like you're not really respecting the community outside of your front door.

i'll take the dog owners, please

now, first off, a few dog owners jumped down my throat for this post, where i noted that they seemed to be illiterate, or at least obstinate, in ignoring the signs near the statue at the center of logan circle that say "no pets".

there has been some talk recently about converting some of the park area at the corner of 11th and q nw to a dog park. now, usually, i'm not a fan of the dedicated dog park, as i feel like kids deserve the use of parks before the four-legged friends get there's. that being said, when i saw the following mess at the park this morning, i was inclined to change my mind.





tons of garbage left behind by the adults using the basketball court the night before. there are more tecate cans here than i've seen in your average latin american market. i've seen grown men urinating on the skate park here, instead of finding a real restroom to take care of their business.

no matter what you think about dog walkers, they (usually) pick up after themselves and their pets. you can't say the same about the men who were here yesterday evening, which is pretty pathetic in my book.

now, the garbage was gone by this afternoon, but i'll bet dollars to doughnuts that DPW or DPR folks cleaned up this mess. dog walkers would have cleaned up any mess the second their pet made that mess.

bring on the dog walkers. to hell with the slobs who don't give a shit about their neighborhood.