Downtowner DC March 25, 2020
By • March 25, 2020 0 920
UPTOWN THEATER CLOSES
The historic Cleveland Park movie joint the Uptown Theater has closed. Built by Warner Bros. in the 1930s during Hollywood’s Golden Age, the theater, on Connecticut Avenue, was the site of popular ’90s movie premieres like “Dances with Wolves,” “Dick Tracy” and “Jurassic Park.” The last film shown at the Uptown was Pixar’s “Onward.”
MYSTICS OWNER EYES TRUMP HOTEL
Sheila Johnson, owner of the WNBA team the Washington Mystics, is one of the bidders currently trying to acquire the lease to the Trump International Hotel in the Old Post Office Building on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Interested bidders typically have signed nondisclosure agreements and Johnson told the Washington Post she does not want to comment right now.
Mystics owner Sheila Johnson is interested in the Trump Hotel.
COUNCILMEMBER GROSSO ALLEGES ABUSE
D.C. Council member David Grosso said he was the victim of sexual abuse by Scott Asalone, 63, former rector at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Purcellville, Virginia. Asalone was later a management consultant and bookstore owner in New Jersey until he was arrested, the Independent reported. Grosso said the investigation was one of the main reasons he did not seek another term.
SERVICE WORKERS STRUGGLING
Service workers like bartenders, restaurant servers and hotel staff are facing shutdowns due to the coronavirus crisis and many have been laid off. The Washington Post said Ali Moore, 34, who worked at Madam’s Organ in Adams Morgan, was at one point making $400 a night in tips and is now at $0. Some relief has come in recent days from a Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington fund and the DC Virtual Tip Jar.
GYMS, YOGA STUDIOS STREAM CLASSES
Area gyms and yoga studios are currently closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Many around the D.C. area have had to stream their workouts online. Centers like Bluebird Sky Yoga, Haus Yoga, the Bar Method and CorePower have virtual offerings.
METRO RIDERSHIP TANKS
Metro ridership fell by a whopping 84 percent on Wednesday, March 18, NBC Washington reported. The drop in ridership happened after Metro announced that residents should use public transportation only for essential rides. Metro tweeted out that it was a “good day for responsibility, social distancing, the common good and shared sacrifice.”
MASTODON SKELETON INSTALLED AT (CLOSED) ART MUSEUM
Dugout of an upstate New York bog over 200 years ago, a 14,000-year-old mastodon skeleton is back on American land. The skeleton, shown being excavated in an 1806 painting by Charles Willson Peale, is on loan from a German museum as the centerpiece of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s exhibition on naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. Unfortunately, all Smithsonian museums are closed as a public health precaution.
