November MVSNA Meeting

This month's MVSNA membership meeting will be held on Tuesday November 17th at 7:30pm in the community room of the Yale Loft condominiums (437 New York Ave NW).


The November edition of the MVSNA newsletter is available online [here].

October MVSNA Meeting

This month's MVSNA membership meeting will be held on Tuesday October 20th at 7:30pm in the community room of the Yale Loft condominiums (437 New York Ave NW).


The October edition of the MVSNA newsletter is available online [here].

September MVSNA meeting

This month's MVSNA membership meeting will be held on Tuesday September 22nd at 7:30pm in the community room of the Yale Loft condominiums (437 New York Ave NW).


The September edition of the MVSNA newsletter is available online [here].

Heart of DC Picnic on Sept 19th

The Community Picnic I previously issued a Save the Date for is now being branded the Heart of DC Picnic.


The following is from MVSNA First Vice President Si Kailian:

Dear friends & neighbors,

Please mark your calendars for the Heart of DC Picnic at Mount Vernon Square on Saturday, September 19th from 11am-5pm. The event will be held on the grounds of the Carnegie Library, home of the Historic Society, at 801 K Street NW also know as Mount Vernon Square. We will be having many fabulous offerings besides food such as games, walking tours, music, raffle & kids activities all in an afternoon of neighborhood fun! Come on out and celebrate the downtown neighborhoods from Shaw through Mount Vernon Square & Triangle through Chinatown & Penn Quarter. And don't forget to bring the pups, we will be having a dog show!

Hope to see you all there!

Si has created a facebook event page for the Picnic.

Credits: The Heart of DC Picnic is being brought to you and everyone in the community by: the Historical Society of Washington DC, Mount Vernon Square Neighborhood Association (MVSNA), Mount Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District (MVTCID), Downtown Neighborhood Association (DNA, and Convention Center Community Association (CCCA).

Save the Date: Community Picnic on Sept 19

Join your neighbors from Mount Vernon Triangle, Mount Vernon Square, Penn Quarter, and Shaw for a community-wide picnic on Mount Vernon Square on Saturday, September 19th from 11:00-5:00. There will be a WalkingtownDC tour of Mount Vernon Triangle beginning at noon. Also, a dog show, yoga demonstration, games for kids, and a tour of the Historical Society will be going on throughout the day. Bring a blanket and your favorite food to share!


The event is being brought to you and everyone in the community by: the Historical Society of Washington DC, Mount Vernon Square Neighborhood Association (MVSNA), Mount Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District (MVTCID), Downtown Neighborhood Association (DNA, and Convention Center Community Association (CCCA).

Image credit: trvlr

Bye-bye Billboards

The MVSNA and other Shaw leaders have been successful in pushing DCRA to crackdown on illegal billboards in the district. Many of these billboards are simply revenue streams for absentee landlords to profit on a vacant lot or nuisance property. The community is left to deal with the daily blight as the dilapidated lots are habitually littered with trash and in some cases the billboards provide cover for nefarious activity. The neglected property at 300 New York Ave (pictured below) was a prime example of a trashy lot accompanied by a sloppy billboard.

former billboard at vacant 300 New York Ave lot; photo from Cary Silverman

Not all billboards are created equal. The large signage on the north face of the Hampton Inn (6th & K St NW) is not in the same category as those erected in the Shaw nuisance properties. I may be in the minority, but I've found a few of the Hampton Inn signs refreshing including last year's Hancock ad and this year's Spread Peace message from Yoko Ono.

Smart Water billboard at 11th and K St NW; image from Daquella Manera

My favorite billboard at the moment is the Smartwater Jennifer Aniston advertisement nearby at 11th & K. This gigantic wrap around billboard is on a vacant Douglas Jemal building and probably does need to be removed to be even handed with the regulation enforcement. However I would point out that unlike many of the other Shaw offenders it is a sheik advertisement fastened to a well constructed billboard. Contrast that with the aforementioned 300 New York Ave plywood wall of cheap posters and flyers for cancelled TV shows and DOA movies. Perhaps the Smartwater billboard can find a more legitimate home elsewhere.

Finally, there was some question surrounding the sales banners on Triangle condos. Several of my sources have relayed to me that in correspondence with DCRA these banners are deemed allowable during the initial sales period. As a neighbor I never found the City Vista sales banners to be aesthetically obnoxious. I do however wonder if you lived in the unit with a balcony next door to one would you hear it flapping violently on a windy day?

July MVSNA Meeting

This month's MVSNA membership meeting will be held on Tuesday July 21st at 7:30pm in the community room of the Yale Loft condominiums (437 New York Ave NW).


The July edition of the MVSNA newsletter is available online [here].

Douglas Development update concept for Squares 450 and 451

According to Jeff Parke's notes for last night's MVSNA meeting Paul Millstein of Douglas Development provided an update on the concept he presented last November for Squares 450 and 451.

RED=Square 450; BLUE=Square 451; ORANGE=Convention Center Hotel; GREEN=Old Convention Center

• Aim to lease properties on 1000 block of 7th Street in Square 450 for retail and restaurants very soon. No need to wait.
  
• Square 451 will be mostly office with 20k sqft retail.
  
• Assemblage of historic structures at 6th and K.
  
• Shalom Barranes is the architect.
  
• Square 450 mass will be broken up to prevent one wall effect on NY ave.
  
• Originally were going to put Waffle Shop (formerly 10th st) to 7th but think it would fit in better over by AVs at 6th and NY.
  
• The Square 451 office building will be curved along K to let historic structures elevations and facades read better.
  
• If successful the Square 451 office building will be occupied by 2013.
  
• Do not yet own the doctor’s office on the Square 451 but expect to work something out.
  
• Park service owns park on south block but Douglas will make sure it’s improved.
  
• Waffle Shop might be 2 years from completion

Does anyone have any additional interesting details to share that were not in these meeting notes? Was there any mention of the entertainment venue Millstein previously alluded to?

MVSNA requests no parking zone on Fourth Street

The following is the body of a letter from the Mount Vernon Square Neighborhood Association to DDOT's Jeffrey Marootian and Melissa Byrd of the Office of Planning.

The Mount Vernon Square Neighborhood Association (MVSNA) requests that the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) implement “no parking/no standing” restrictions along the 1000 and 1100 blocks of Fourth Street, NW, between K Street, NW and M Street, NW.

This area has long suffered from rampant prostitution, drug, loitering, vandalism, and other criminal activity. Some residents have lived with this crime for many years. Others who recently moved into the area, including units in City Vista, Madrigal Lofts, and Yale Steam Laundry, as well as many others who visit the area to shop at Safeway, Fifth Street Hardware, and Busboys & Poets, are shocked to experience the criminal activity firsthand on a daily basis.

The intent of the proposed no parking/standing restrictions is to reduce the prostitution and drug activity that frequently occurs in and through vehicles in this area. We suggest a 24-month approach for months 1-12, the restrictions would apply to all vehicles; for months 13-24, the restrictions would apply to all vehicles other than Zone 2/6 permit holders. At the end of this two-year period, DDOT would review the restrictions and determine their continued application after considering public comment. There would continue to be sufficient parking for neighborhood residents after implementation of the restrictions.

We have consulted with area residents and they overwhelmingly support the change. In addition, Advisory Neighborhood Commission 6C, in whose jurisdiction the block falls, has voted in support of the proposed restrictions. We have been advised by officers of the Metropolitan Police Department that these restrictions provide them with an additional tool to investigate this extensive criminal activity and enforce the laws that protect the neighborhood residents. We do not view the proposed restrictions as a silverbullet to eliminating illicit activity in the area, but a vital element of a comprehensive plan to foster a safer and more livable environment.

MVSNA goals and meeting minutes

The Mount Vernon Square Neighborhood Association (MVSNA) has posted their Goals and Priorities for 2009 and the meeting minutes from last night's May Membership meeting.

May MVSNA Meeting

This month's MVSNA membership meeting will be held on Tuesday May 19th at 7:30pm in the community room of the Yale Loft condominiums (437 New York Ave NW).


The May edition of the MVSNA newsletter is available online [here].

K Street Streetcar discussion

At tonight's MVSNA meeting new board member, and City Vista resident, John Thompson will lead a discussion on the possibility of a K Street Streetcar. John has talked with contacts at DDOT about extending the H Street NE/Benning Road streetcar project to Mount Vernon Triangle via K Street.

The H Street NE / Benning Road Streetcar (fact sheet from Streetcars4DC) has been in planning for several years and tracks are presently being laid. The proposed alignment from 2006 begins by the Minnesota Ave metro, travels west along Benning Road over the Anacostia, upon reaching the Starburst intersection the streetcar follows H Street NE until terminating in no man's land behind Union Station.

Click image to enlarge

John has been discussing the possibility of continuing to run the streetcar west to connect to K Street before terminating at Mount Vernon Square. This could increase benefit to the Mount Vernon Triangle and proposed development at Northwest One while also affording the H Street NE greater connectivity to downtown DC.

View Larger Map

The above map shows two potential extensions for the streetcar line to K Street NW. The red segment takes the straightforward approach of going over the H Street NE bridge, heading north on North Capitol for one block before heading west on K Street for 7 blocks. The green segment promotes integration with the Columbus Circle area in front of Union Station. This alignment, while more expensive, would place the streetcar at a more natural transfer point for Metro, buses, and future streetcar lines.

April MVSNA Meeting

UPDATE: The K at City Vista is actually 475 K Street NW not 499.

March MVSNA Meeting

DDOT response to NY Ave pedestrian safety requests

At Tuesday night's membership meeting I learned that DDOT's response to the MVSNA's request for improved pedestrian safety along NY Ave. Below in the content from the meeting handout:

Increase walk time of signal across N.Y. Avenue at 5th Street NW from 20 to 45 seconds.

At this particular time, DDOT does not recommend this change for two primary reasons.

DDOT is concerned that changing the walk time at this intersection may negatively impact pedestrian safety at this intersection further, in addition to negatively affecting traffic flow. We would like to share these two impacts with you.

Signal and pedestrian timing at this intersection is set as a standardized actuated signal, which is in agreement with the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). Further this standard is consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The MUTCD is the national standard for traffic signals and other infrastructure matters. In following these standards, the signal is designed to display visible countdown time only during the "do not walk" flashing time. Therefore the viewable walk time on this signal is only 20 seconds. The total time for pedestrians to cross however is 30 seconds. The breakdown for the signal's walk time is as follows:

5 seconds of walk time as background time (not seen)
3 seconds of yellow as background time (not seen)
2 seconds of red signal as background time (not seen)
20 seconds of visible walk time (viewable)

Although ten seconds are unseen, 20 seconds are still present for pedestrians to cross. Thirty full seconds are documented as walk time in this signal.

If the signal is changed, even in a small increment, the total cycle of signal length of the entire intersection will be altered and the allowable green time for traffic will be reduced. This could result in additional traffic delays further along New York Avenue. An overflow of traffic may adversely affect pedestrian safety as gridlocked traffic could occur through the intersections and crosswalks.

For the remainder of DDOT's responses to MVSNA recommendations please visit Cary Silverman's MVSNA posting.

February MVSNA Meeting

The February MVSNA meeting takes place this Tuesday February 17th at 7:30pm. The meeting will be held in the 12th floor community room at the City Vista K (475 K St NW).

From Cary Silverman:

The agenda includes an update on MVSNA's pedestrian safety efforts, election of officers for 2009-10, approval of a voluntary agreement for B&M, and presentation of the Hero of Mount Vernon Square Award. Councilmember Jack Evans will address the Association. Light refreshments will be served. We hope to see you there.

January MVSNA meeting

From Si:

We shall be meeting at Busboys & Poets on the upper level. Tuesday, January 27th, 7:30pm, 5th & K NW. Come on out, meet your neighbors, have a drink, have a bite and enjoy the ambiance.

We will be covering some business: Officer nominations (election is in February), a draft Voluntary Agreement for B&M food store on the 200 block of M. (The last item will not address the single sales issue as the ban has not gone into effect for Ward 6 yet), and other items of interest to the community.

Modern Liquors SSM exemption

Editor's Note: This posting is older news from November. I've intended to recap it for awhile but between the holidays and a frantic amount of January meetings this blogger has been SWAMPED.

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The November MVSNA newsletter was published electronically on the afternoon of Saturday November 14th. I first opened the PDF on Sunday night and saw that the "Modern Liquors Single Sales Exemption" was on the agenda. The headliner agenda item was that Douglas Development finally was going to share their development concept for Squares 450 and 451.


No details were promoted about the nature of the Modern Liquors Single Sales exemption agenda item on the Lifein MVSNA blog or elsewhere. I assumed exemptions would not be considered in a positive light given that MVSNA President Cary Silverman made a Ward 2 Singles ban a priority topic in his campaign to win Jack Evan's council seat.

When the topic was discussed at the membership meeting on Tuesday November 18th, Silverman recited external testimony exalting Modern Liquors as a well loved store that had already packaged together endorsements from ANC2F and two other neighborhood associations. The testimony touted the store as being under the same ownership (not in attendance) for 20+ years and selling only the belgian and microbrews as singles. One couple spoke up about attending tastings at the store.

I kept waiting for the devil's advocate. It never came. The vote began. I expected some division. Seemingly everyone (25 people) voted "Yes" but me. SHIT, I was shell shocked!! Did I want to take on twenty-five people by myself to object to a store that I had never been to? Am i possibly going to make a dent? I'm hardly a persuasive public speaker and I was armed with no ammunition (aka research & notes). I just didn't vote.

Had I thought a little more quickly on my feet I still wouldn't have voted "No". I would have just asked "Why are we ruling on this at all? We've not discussed the policy in depth. This will be viewed as a precedent setting decision by some and we've not considered the ramifications of that the endorsement will have on future requests.".

After this November meeting I learned more details that further stoked my disappointment with the vote on Modern. While the MVSNA did have a copy of the exemption application form that outlined certain core criteria a business needs to meet for consideration, they put forth this vote six days before receiving the full ABRA regulations on 11/24. Only at that point was it learned that neither brands of alcohol nor price points may be included in a voluntary agreement. It's basically all or nothing.

Additionally in a December 1st sit down with Ron Green from Good Libations he informed us that Modern Liquors does carry Steel Reserve 211 - aka King of the Hobo brews. I later visited Modern and did not see the 211's but Ron says they are in a case in the foyer. Because I was buzzed in immediately and did not linger in the foyer I apparently walked right past them into the main area without noticing them.

Since that November MVSNA meeting I've realized that I need to challenge the inertia that has been created towards endorsing exemptions primarily via adhoc 'make it up as you go' criteria and straw polls of 20 members.

ANC 6C urges DDOT to improve pedestrian safety on NY Ave

At last night's ANC 6C meeting, following the recommendations of their transportation committee, the commissioners voted to urge DDOT to take measure to improve pedestrian safety in the section of New York Avenue NW between 6th Street and New Jersey Ave. Specific focus was paid to the intersection of L Street, 5th Street and New York Ave NW adjacent to the new Safeway where the current pedestrian crossing allows 20 seconds to cross ~10 lanes of traffic.

View Larger Map

The recommendations from the transportation committee have the support of the MVSNA, MVT CID, DNA and neighboring businesses. I do not yet have a copy of ANC 6C's letter. However the below excerpt is from the letter drafted by the MVSNA.

There are several very simple, zero or low-cost changes that DDOT could make immediately:

• Provide at least 45 seconds, preferably 60 seconds, to cross New York Avenue at 4th and 5th Streets NW. This change costs only the time it takes a technician to change the traffic signals. Other nearby intersections along New York Avenue provide comparable crossing time. In addition, cars turning north onto 5th Street from the 400 Block of L Street NW (in front of the Safeway) cannot make it fully through the New York Avenue intersection before the light turns red.
  
  We were pleased to learn from you on December 18 that DDOT has completed a design to rephrase the traffic signal at 4th Street and New York Avenue, NW to improve the safety measures of pedestrians. Our understanding is that DDOT will reconfigure this signal by the end of January 2009. We appreciate this progress. We hope the plan will remain on track and that DDOT will implement similar changes at the 5th Street crossing as soon as possible.


• Make the crosswalk across New York Avenue at 5th Street NW more visible. The cost to repaint the crosswalk is negligible. Raising the crosswalk, or adding bricks, lights, and signs would further enhance pedestrian safety.


• Install a green arrow signal allowing vehicles heading eastbound on New York Avenue to turn north onto 5th Street without finding themselves stuck at the island or forced to run the red light into speeding New York Avenue traffic as it veers off onto L Street under the Convention Center.
  
  We appreciate your sharing with us in an e-mail received in December that DDOT agrees that a fully protected left turn phase is needed at the intersection of 5th Street, L Street and New York Avenue, NW for the eastbound to northbound movement. Our understanding is that the city has approved funding for the turn phase creation, along with other safety improvements at this intersection. Please keep us posted as DDOT moves forward with obtaining the needed equipment and preparing work orders so that implementation can begin. We hope that this can proceed as soon as possible.


• Remove some or all of the large highway signs along New York Avenue NW between New Jersey Avenue and 6th Street NW. Residents hold similar concerns with respect to signage on Massachusetts Avenue. There are already smaller signs in place indicating the entryway to I-395, and the directions to downtown and Route 50. We know of no other place in a residential community in the District of Columbia that has such a concentration of highway signs, which sends a signal to drivers that New York Avenue and Massachusetts Avenues are freeways.
  
  From our initial correspondence, our understanding is that DDOT favors keeping this highway signage in place, but the Department is willing to reconsider this stance in light of strong community support for changes in signage. As we discussed, the primary reason for urging scaling them back is pedestrian safety, not aesthetics. The signage sends a message, which dwarfs any improvements installed by DDOT, that this stretch is a superhighway, not an area where people live and cross. The signage is completely unnecessary.

My hope is that, if and when, the large highway signs are changed that the new signs no longer refer to Fourth Street as ALT-395.

ANC 2C endorses Single Sale Moratorium exemption

In addition to the calamity surrounding voting on a chairperson, ANC 2C also voted to endorse a Single Sale Moratorium exemption to Good Libations (1201 5th St NW). The ANC 2C voted 4-0 to endorse the exemption using the same voluntary agreement based condition drafted by the MVSNA.

DNA president Miles Groves was in attendance and outlined his objections to the endorsement. Good Libations falls just 1/10 of a mile outside of the DNA boundaries. The downtown neighborhood has had an ongoing problem with public drinking and loitering.

A corner by corner ban is not a sufficient approach. Vagrants who loiter around all day have all the time in the world to walk the extra 3 blocks to get their single beer. A 555 Mass resident has already witnessed former Chinatown Market (6th & H) single buyers going to Subway Liquors II (5th & K) were the singles ban is not yet underway.

Currently, the Chinatown Market single serve moratorium has gone into effect while the Subway Liquor moratorium is still in process. The impact of this is that there has been a significant increase in public drinking on our block in the last couple of weeks. It is hard for MPD to enforce because the guys keep their drinks in their jackets.

Last Saturday morning, I watched a procession of guys who usually drink at the Building Museum come into our part of the neighborhood to buy their alcohol. Many tried to stay and loiter on our building (they were run off). Others bought at Subway and returned to 5th and G NW. That being said, our neighbors in ANC2C are trying to get a single serve exemption a few blocks to the north of us. If this happens, the Subway moratorium will be undermined as these guys will still have a place nearby to buy their singles.