Dear friends and neighbors,
Spring has arrived—finally. The cherry blossoms, magnolias…so many flowers. Warm and cold weather alternating day by day.
There’s quite a bit happening in the neighborhood right now—from planning for Earth Day to community cleanups to some bigger conversations about the city’s future. Here are a few updates and things you might want to plug into your calendar.
Here’s what’s below:
Earth Day happenings
Woodley House neighborhood block party
DC 2050
Quick items, safety on Conneticut Avenue, and real estate
Calendar
ANC news: meetings & issues 📝
🌎 Earth Day (and beyond)
We’re starting to pull together some ideas for Earth Day and broader environmental activities in the neighborhood. There’s a lot of energy right now around trees, green infrastructure, and local stewardship.
A few things worth highlighting:
There are rebates and programs for rain barrels, permeable surfaces, and tree planting through DC’s RiverSmart Homes and Casey Trees programs. I signed up for a free, no-obligation site audit and had a nice person from the DC Department of Energy and Environment come by and give me ideas for how to improve things around my house. If you’ve been thinking about doing something on your property, this is a good moment.
We’ve invited local artists (children, mostly) to submit Earth Day themed designs for a bookmark, which will be distributed for free at the library and through the ANC. The winning design will be announced at the Cleveland Park Library on April 18 at 11am. Please come down Earth Day reflections, some snacks, and a bookmark.
Working through the ANC, we will be supporting an educational series on xxxx
If you have ideas—or want to help organize something—please let me know. This feels like a place where we could do something both practical and fun.
🎉 Neighborhood Block Party for Woodley House
Coming soon: Neighborhood block party hosted by Woodley House at the Maret School. The goal is to have fun and to support Woodley House’s programs for Washingtonians facing mental illness and housing instability. There will be food trucks, a virtual golf simulator, live music and more. Donation requested, but not required.
Woodley House Spring Block Party
📅 Saturday, April 11
🕞 3:30 – 6:30 PM
📍 Maret School (3000 Cathedral Ave)
🏗️ Planning for DC’s future: DC 2050
DC Office of Planning is engaging with workshops and for the long-term comprehensive planning process that will shape housing, transportation, and development in the city. These discussions matter for issues like:
where new housing goes
how we balance growth and preservation
transit access and density
If you have strong views about Connecticut Avenue, transit, or housing in Ward 3—this is a good place to weigh in.
🚶 Other quick items
A few more things on the radar:
At long last, DDOT is moving ahead with safety improvements for Connecticut Avenue. This follows years of debate over a more ambitious redesign (including protected bike lanes); DDOT is now moving forward with a narrower set of intersection fixes. It’s better than nothing. For now. See the Connecticut Avenue Multimodal Safety Improvement Project (initiated 2019!). They plan to redesign intersections including:
Connecticut & Ordway (left-turns)
Connecticut & Macomb (moving bus stop)
Connecticut & Devonshire (adding crosswalk)
Connecticut & Cathedral (adding crosswalk)
Connecticut & 24th (squaring off the intersection, adding crosswalk)
You can see the plans plans and make comments until May 4.
Connecticut and Cathedral is one of the most dangerous intersections for pedestrians in DC. Ward 3 is doing well in food waste collection:
Another house listing in the neighborhood. We live among the oligarchs.
📅 Coming up
April 11: Woodley House Block Party (see above)
April 22: Earth Day!
April 23: Cleveland Park Night Market (5–9 pm).
May 2: Truck Touch 2026 is rolling in! On Saturday, May 2, 2026, RFK Stadium’s Lot 8 will rev up with excitement from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM for the District of Columbia’s annual “Truck Touch” celebration — a high-energy, hands-on experience for all ages. Hop in a dump truck, cheer on student EV racers, enjoy games & free lunch for kids! Reserve your spot.
Update on ANC activity 📝
The next full meeting of ANC 3C will be April 20 at 6:30pm. We are experimenting with a hybrid in-person meeting at the library. Find the agenda and registration information here.
Calendar and other meetings can be found here.
As always, I’d love your feedback. Even negative feedback is helpful to improve what we’re doing.
And if you see me out and about (walking the dog), please say hello.
Gawain
ENDS///
the photo of agents in camo with cherry blossoms is iconic, thanks for that shot, Gawain. your neighborhood is caring, active and neighborly, thanks for keeping this Mom way out in CA up on your civic life. Z Kripke