Neighborhood news
Road construction, Cleveland Park changing, history in making
The pools are open, the weather sultry, fireflies are dancing, and the pace of life slows down a bit. Happy summer, everyone.
Cleveland Park Promenade
Last week, the Director of the DC Department of Transportation wrote to the ANC to announce that the Cleveland Park service lane will be pedestrianized when it is completed. They will put some bollards or obstruction at the entrance, and cars won’t be allowed to drive or park there.
I’m excited that we’ll have a new, friendly space in our community for outdoor dining, pop-up events, pedestrians. This outcome was the recommendation of the ANC, and we passed a resolution last month. There was an energetic debate, but a clear majority of residents supported closing the lane off to cars, more than 2 to 1 in my email inbox, not to mention petitions and other personal communications.
Commissioner Tammy Gordon ran an informal poll to rename it. Personally, I like Cleveland Park Plaza. What do you think?
Neighborhood roadwork coming
Washington Gas will be reconfiguring underground infrastructure and pipelines in July and August. The work is planned at the intersection of 32nd St NW & Cleveland Ave NW and will take 10-12 weeks. So expect some traffic disruption.
Our newest historic district
The DC Historic Preservation Review Board voted to approve a new historic district for our neighborhood: the US Naval Observatory. This includes the Vice President’s residence. You can learn more about the Naval Obervatory history and designation here. Personally, I’ve never been on the property, but hope to visit someday. Our ANC passed a resolution in support of the historic designation, which I sponsored since it’s in my district. With the Naval Observatory, we now have five historic districts in our neighborhood, can you name them?
What the ANC has done
Our ANC has been quite productive in the first half of the year. Since I haven’t communicated recently, I thought I should report a bit on recent actions. In May, we had 80+ participants in the monthly meeting. This is partly because we were considering some controversial issues (see service lane above). There was also debate on a resolution in support of the DC Office of Planning’s proposed development guidelines for Connecticut Avenue. This has been a long and interesting process with a lot of public consultation. Generally, the ANC is leaning forward on these issues and welcoming change and ambition. The ANC also approved a resolution I sponsored on WMATA’s Visionary Bus Network that highlighted the value of the 96 bus which serves our neighborhood and is proposed for elimination in the new plan.
Other items of interest
The Woodley Park Community Association organizes an annual clean-out and shred event. You can bring our your basement junk and hazardous material: old paint cans, electronics. See here for what kinds of things they take. This year will be July 15 from 9am to noon in Maret School’s east parking lot.
Some neighbors are concerned about dangerous and illegal traffic on Garfield Street. We’ll be taking up this issue in the next meeting of the ANC Committe on Safe, Sustainable, and Equitable Transportation on July 12. If you are concerned, please join the meeting.
The Mayor proposed to eliminate the Woodley Park circulator bus. But the final budget passed by the City Council restored funding.
If you have walked in Woodley Park, you may have wondered about that mysterious little garden patch in the traffic triangle of Connecticut & 24th Street in Woodley Park? This little essay/interview tells you more about it, although it remains mysterious.
For your calendar…
Next meeting of the Advisory Neighborhood Committee is coming up on Monday July 17 @ 7:00 pm. The agenda and sign up will posted here.
Please feel free to pass this newsletter along to friends and neighbors, especially if they live in the neighborhood.
ENDS//