Roundup from just outside the 'hood

City Center: The new gastropub Againn, that we previously shared details on, has opened across the street from City Center at 1099 New York Ave. [Eater, Thrillist]

image of Againn interior courtesy of Eater

Northwest One: The next phase of nearby Northwest One will be 300 residential units at North Capitol and Patterson. [DCMud]

Chinatown: Nick Cho, who helped Max Brown get Chinatown Coffee off the ground, has been indicted for past tax evasion at the former Murky Coffee on Capitol Hill. [WBJ, PQLiving ]

Mayor's Office: Cary Silverman outlines the rift between Fenty and our City Council. [The Other 35 Percent]

Pictures from the Walker Jones School ribbon cutting

A few pictures from Tuesday's ribbon cutting ceremony for the Walker Jones School.


Clockwise from top left: Mayor Adrian Fenty; DCPS Superintendent Michelle Rhee (crouched); interior shot of library; ANC6C commissioners Mark Dixon & Lena Brown

Walker Jones School Ribbon Cutting

This upcoming Tuesday the office of the Deputy Mayor of Economic Development (DMPED) is holding a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of the Walker Jones School.

The new facility, located at New Jersey Ave and L Street NW, is the first new school built by the Fenty Administration. It will serve as the education (K-8) and recreation anchor for Northwest One, one of the District's four New Communities projects.


While Walker Jones sits just across the street from the Mount Vernon Triangle's official boundaries it does serve as the voting precinct for residents of several Triangle buildings including City Vista.

Temple Courts demolition

DCMud is featuring a post today called DC Makes Way for Northwest One. The post includes quotes from Mayor Adrian Fenty on the demolition of the Temple Courts housing project and the new plans for the area dubbed Northwest One.

The following is from a WaPo article on Temple Courts:

The brown-brick buildings of Temple Courts have failed federal housing inspections for years. Rats and bedbugs have taken up residence in some apartments, and the stairwells smell of urine.

The building and its environs have been a magnet for crime. Temple Courts and Sursum Corda served as catalysts for the New Communities program, after 14-year-old Jahkema Princess Hansen was fatally shot at Sursum Corda in January 2004. Days earlier, she had witnessed a killing at Temple Courts.

Violence visited again 10 days ago, when a 10-year-old girl and two adults were shot outside Temple Courts on Memorial Day.

In its original form, New Communities included a "vital" principle known as "build first," which was designed to keep gentrification in check by keeping poor residents in place until multi-income housing was built around them.

The intended result: economically diverse neighborhoods where ghettos once stood.

Temple Courts and Sursum Corda are located just east of the Triangle's New Jersey Ave border.

For more press on Northwest One follow these links:

• Temple Courts: Symbol of the Pain and the Hope Facing the City (Tommy Wells blog, Jun 2007)
  
• Northwest One Unfolds (DCMud, Mar 2008)
  
• Northwest One Revival (DCMetrocentric, June 2008)
  
• Trouble for Northwest One? (DCMetrocentric, Oct 2008)
  

DDOT suggests cutting 395 to Mass Ave

WTOP has reported that section of Interstate 395 between New York Avenue, NW, and Massachusetts Avenue, NW, could be closed to traffic permanently.

Rationale:
A letter obtained by WTOP from DDOT Director Emeka Moneme to Council member asks for a study on I-395 traffic in a letter to Phil Mendelson.

"Based on a Transportation Planning Board finding that a high proportion of New York Avenue traffic has neither an origin nor a destination within the District, DDOT has requested the option of closing a section of I-395 between its current northern terminus at New York Avenue and its interchange with Massachusetts Avenue."

At this stage no action is eminent DDOT just wants to leave the option open to explore. GreaterGreaterWashington.org has suggested that DDOT could coincide this move with the completion of the 11th Street bridge improvements that will improve a current bottleneck of the SE Freeway. This will make the SE Freeway the best bet for through traffic and in theory ultimately reduce traffic along New York Avenue.

Impact to the Triangle:
What is the impact to the Triangle? I'm just absorbing and processing this information but at the moment it still feels like a mixed bag.

Let's first consider the improvements that DDOT already planned for the Triangle because a potential closure would occur 5 or more years down the line.

• 4th Street changed from one way to two way traffic
  
• New Jersey Ave changed from one way to two way traffic
  
• L Street extended over I-395 to New Jersey Ave
  
• 3rd Street extended to meet new L Street extension
  
• DDOT would allow for a park along the 3rd St extension
  
• Presumably the District would sell the air rights along the new L Street segment to developers
  
• These transportation infrastructure improvements help connect Northwest One new community to the MVT

Image from Mount Vernon Triangle Transportation and Public Realm Design Project
[double click image to enlarge]

So while cutting off I-395 at Mass Ave would allow the city to remove the big divide in the Triangle created by the highway - existing plans were in place to take on this task by building over it. Was a build over more a hypothetical pie-in-the-sky idea than one that would have received enough budgetary funding to come to fruition?

What I wonder is what this closure does to the proposed new end of the highway at Mass Ave. That area has a confluence of roads including Mass Ave, H Street, 2nd Street, 4th Street, and New Jersey Ave. That interchange area could become a mess. The new two way streets at 4th and New Jersey could see a dramatic surge of through traffic. Thoughts?

Another links roundup

• Renew Shaw highlights $631,749.38 (!) in expenditures (taxes/repairs) Shiloh Baptist Church has spent on their portfolio of vacant properties in Shaw since 2005.
  
• Fisher Raw's title says it all "D.C. Official: Outdoor Seats At Pizza Place Will Mean Rapes And Murders". A post on DCist also discusses the topic.
  
• Several sources discuss DDOT's plan to move low cost regional buses from Chinatown to L'Enfant Plaza (Examiner | DCist | GGW ).
  
• Sparked by comments on a posting about the West End days earlier, Greater Greater Washington asks: "Is it true the West End has no community because it has no families, and it has no families because it's all tall buildings and small condos".
  
• DCMetrocentric has renderings of Northwest One project just east of the Triangle's New Jersey Ave border. This development aims to tear down and rebuild the area (including the Sursum Corda housing projects) as a new community. Northwest One will be mixed income, mixed use including a new clinic, library, recreation center, and rebuilt Walker-Jones elementary school.