Juliana Zovak • March 10, 2016

D.C. Public Schools has cut funding for the Fillmore Arts Center from its proposed budget for the 2016-2017 school year, according to Friends of Fillmore.

The Fillmore Arts Center provides arts education to students from the D.C. elementary schools of Hyde-Addison, Key, Marie Reed, Ross and Stoddert by offering art classes, after-school programs and Festival Evenings to showcase student work.

Friends of Fillmore, a non-profit volunteer board made up of parents and community members, posted on its website Feb. 19 that D.C. Public Schools told the five school principals that they would not receive any funding for the 2016-2017 academic year.

The center is funded in part by the individual schools, and DCPS funds the transportation, supplies and some of the salaries for the instructors. Without DCPS, the schools will have to pay for the entire program out of their own budgets.

The current operating budget for Fillmore is $1.6 million. DCPS provides $600,000.

The alternative is to have individual arts programs at each of the schools, but John Claud, president of Friends of Fillmore, says the five schools do not have the capability to run comprehensive arts programs on their own. Some are dealing with being over capacity and with being housed in temporary classrooms. They lack the space and funding to provide the spectrum of classes that the center has offered them and rely on Fillmore to give their students an opportunity to engage with the arts.

Claud believes that the Fillmore program is an affordable one, especially once the budget is examined and costs are trimmed down, including a transportation cost that was much higher this year than in any other year. Friends of Fillmore and the individual schools will be in conversation with DCPS to attempt to come to an understanding of an affordable budget to keep the program running, a discussion that did not happen before the announcement of the cut.

Posts on the Friends of Fillmore page as well as on the websites of Stoddert Elementary and Ross Elementary are encouraging parents and community members to call, email and tweet to DCPS and its chancellor Kaya Henderson in protest of the proposed cut.

A similar fight took place in 2013, when DCPS proposed a $300,000 budget cut for the 2013-2014 year, according to the Washington Post. DCPS eventually decided not to make cuts to the budget for that year.

Juliana Zovak •

More businesses are opening in Georgetown, some completely new and others simply redesigned and improved.

Bar à Vin

Bar à Vin will open Monday, March 7, at 1035 31st St. NW, next to and part of French restaurant Chez Billy Sud. The wine bar will feature an extensive list of mostly French wines and will be open from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. Brothers Eric and Ian Hilton, who own the 31st Street places began the original Chez Billy in Petworth. opened the bar to be an expansion to their restaurant in addition to serving wine enthusiasts. A fireplace in one of the rooms accentuates the comfort and coziness the owners are hoping to cultivate.

Glover Park Hardware

Glover Park Hardware owners Gina Schaefer and Marc Friedman reopened a new 7,500-square-foot location at 2233 Wisconsin Ave. NW on Feb. 25, taking the place of the neighborhood hardware store that closed in January of 2015. The store is in the lower front level, next to the bar, Breadsoda. After losing its lease after 10 years, the business left its old location at 2251 Wisconsin Ave. NW, which now houses a Rite Aid. The store’s general manager is Noe Delgado, who began working at since 2010.

T.J. Maxx

On March 3, clothing discounter T.J. Maxx will celebrate a grand re-opening, with a ribbon cutting ceremony scheduled for 7:30 a.m. The store will be open from 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. — the first 1,000 customers will receive reusable bags. At 3222 M St. NW since, the store is expanding into space previously shared with Home Goods, a T.J. Maxx company.

Bangkok Joe’s

Bangkok Joe’s, a Thai favorite on the waterfront for 10 years, announced on Feb. 25 that it will return in March to its old location at 3000 K St. NW, where the short-lived Mama Rouge restaurant used to be. Both restaurants are owned by chef Aulie Bunyarataphan and proprietor Mel Oursinsiri, and while Mama Rouge offered an Asian/French fusion menu, Bangkok Joe’s will return to a more traditional Thai menu. Old favorites like the dumpling bar will still be on the menu, complemented by new creations.

This article was updated March 2. [gallery ids="102261,128764" nav="thumbs"]

Juliana Zovak • February 18, 2016

When Donguk Kim first came to America from South Korea in 2003, he never dreamed he would one day be the proprietor of a storied market in Washington’s most historic neighborhood. But he did have dreams.

“I wanted to be a successful businessman in America and I heard there were many chances there,” he said.

He came to Maryland in 2004 with his wife and son. They lived in a homestay and attended church with their host. Through a church connection, he began running a dollar store a few months later. After that, he ran a deli in Silver Spring. That’s what Kim was doing in 2012 when he saw a listing in the Korea Times for Scheele’s Market, at 1331 29th St. NW.

Considering the market’s loyal customer base, taking over Scheele’s was no simple matter. The 120-year-old market has been a staple in the neighborhood for generations. Indeed, a few years ago, neighbors contributed to a special fund to ensure that the building remain a market through an agreement with the property owner.

Kim has taken the initiative to maintain the market’s strong relationship with the customers who come for groceries, beer and wine and fresh deli sandwiches. The blizzard of 2016 also gave him a chance to shine: he was open throughout the weekend. “I’m always listening to what my customers want and I try to get it soon,” he said, referring to his plan to add requested merchandise to the shelves.

Kim’s customers, meanwhile, love the quality of the food, the dedicated service and the friendship the quaint market fosters. Scheele loyalists include senators and the Secretary of Energy, who once posed for a photo with Kim.

They are just as devoted to Scheele’s as Kim is to them. One customer described the recent attempts to get a few tables and chairs out front, allowing customers to eat their sandwiches while enjoying the scenery and the buzz of life in Georgetown (that plan has not yet been approved by the District).

Kim believes that the market has the potential to become more profitable. Grocery purchases currently account for about half of sales, he said, and new customers are few. Though the work is hard and the hours are long, he enjoys interacting with the community and getting the chance to experience life in the nation’s capital.

“I’ve liked adventure all through my life. South Korea is not a bad country, but I was always longing for America.”

Along with running a business, Kim has managed to fulfill that desire for adventure by visiting places such as the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Mexico and Miami. And he also has Scheele’s, which, though quiet and unassuming at first glance, has certainly been an adventure of its own.

Juliana Zovak •

The Arlington County Board will vote tonight on whether to approve a Multiparty Memorandum of Agreement for a study on the feasibility of a gondola between Rosslyn, Va., and Georgetown, D.C., according to its website.

The project was conceived by the Georgetown Business Improvement District, which, according to the website Arlington Now, will pay $75,000 toward the study. The county, if the MOA passes, is expected to contribute $40,000, which the Arlington County Board report listed as 16 percent of the total cost.

The Georgetown BID proposed the gondola in its Georgetown 2028 15-year Action Plan, in which it recommended a “feasibility study on the use of a gondola lift to provide a fast, reliable, and exciting transit link between the Georgetown Commercial District, Georgetown University and Metrorail.”

That long-shot proposal got a lot of buzz in the local press and real estate blogs.

Christopher Slatt, chairman of the Transportation Commission, wrote in a letter to the Chair of the Arlington County Board that the Commission recommends the approval of the MOA.

“The majority of the commission felt that without a study, it is hard to say whether the gondola could be a worthy project that solves a real transportation issue in a cost-effective manner,” Slatt wrote. “The gondola would bypass Key Bridge congestion and is, perhaps, uniquely suited to handle Georgetown’s topography.”

According to the Arlington County Board’s report, those not in favor of the gondola are concerned it would simply be a tourist attraction and not assist in transportation issues.

Juliana Zovak •

On Jan. 26, the Arlington County Board approved a Multiparty Memorandum of Agreement to help fund a feasibility study for an aerial gondola between Rosslyn and Georgetown, according to the Washington Post.

The study will determine whether a gondola could be a viable form of transportation, alleviating traffic on the Key Bridge and compensating for Georgetown’s lack of a Metro rail station.

Under the agreement, Arlington County will pay $35,000, the Post reported. The Georgetown Business Improvement District will contribute $75,000 toward the total cost of $250,000 with Georgetown University, the District of Columbia Department of Transportation, the Rosslyn Business Improvement Corporation, JBG Associates L.L.C. and Gould Properties/Vornado making up the difference.

According to the board, Arlington County will also lend staff and technical support to the its executive committee as it investigates the possibility of an aerial gondola across the Potomac.

The schedule on the board report indicates that the study will begin by March after a consultant has been awarded a contract and will conclude by October of this year.