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Mary Bird • August 4, 2014

The Georgetown Business Association chose one of the best possible evenings, given the recent late afternoon deluges, to board the Boomerang Pirate Ship — thanks to Nikki and Dave Dubois from Boomerang Tours — at Washington Harbour on July 16. “Dressing like a pirate” was optional for local business persons, who enjoyed signature libations and ample treats from Jetties, Simply Banh Mi and J9 Yoga as they sailed past landmarks and watched the sunset. Luckily, no one walked the plank. The next GBA networking reception will be in September.
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Robert Devaney •

The Metropolitan Police Department’s Mountain Bike Tactical Unit is joining up with the Citizen’s Advisory Council to host their annual community bike ride event, the Orange Helmet Patrol. This event will take place 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., Thursday, July 10. The ride will begin at 26th and P Streets, NW.
Meet your neighborhood officers. Identify street lights that are out and other problems. Be part of a new high-visibility crime prevention strategy.

The Orange Helmet Patrol of bicyclists is a new twist on an old concept. Begun in the late 1980s in Washington, D.C., Orange Hat Patrols have become a widely used and accepted component of community policing. Wearing orange hats to show neighbors that they are helping to check out the community, groups of volunteers have proven to be a crime deterrent. With the increasing popularity of biking, the Second District has implemented a new community policing bike program.

All skill levels and ages are encouraged to join the ride. For more details, email Kaitlyn.Bush@dc.gov.

Note from MPD: Participation in the community-police bike ride is voluntary. Participants will be required to sign a liability waiver before the ride. Children under the age of 16 must wear a helmet to participate.

Gary Tischler •

In troubled times, the precious daily dealings we do demand to be noticed, as if they might lose themselves in the morning headlines and the nightly news.

Of late, we have lived a summer of ongoing sorrow as well as one in which the weather has contrived to bring us rain and heat and the tribulations of storms during the week, and often picture-perfect weekends which we embrace with urgency.

In Washington, D.C, where the world news is local news and politics are like soot in the air, these patterns are especially poignant. We saw recently flowers grow like gardens at the Malaysian Embassy and the Embassy of the Netherlands, where mourners signed condolence books and President Barack Obama visited. It was the Dutch who suffered the most deaths in the shocking, horrific shoot down of a Malaysian over battle-contested territory in Ukraine. Nearly 300 deaths came from that act, suspected to be committed by pro-Russian separatists armed with sophisticated missiles, obtained from Russia, in eastern Ukraine. Bodies of passengers and uniformed crew members and children and toys, laptops, scarves and shoes and notebooks fell from the sky and scattered across the war-torn steppe.

The protagonists in that tragedy are still sifting through the physical and emotional wreckage that came from—there were funeral marches, candlelit vigils, full churches and anguish both spoken and held in the quiet of the night. In the meantime, the quasi-civil war continued in the Ukraine, apace, some of it fought near the site of the crash.

In the Middle East, there was nothing but death and fire everywhere, most dramatically in the Gaza strip, that embattled, compact land in which Palestinians live in stark contrast to many of their neighbors. A series of events—the murder of three Israeli teenagers, a retaliatory killing of a Palestinian teenager and the launching of rockets by the militant group Hamas into Israel—led to eventually an Israeli invasion of Gaza in search of deadly tunnels and launching sites. Gaza has become a killing ground with half-hearted truces quickly broken. A thousand Palestinians have died, many of them civilians, many children among them. There have been significantly more Israeli military casualties than in previous such clashes.

There seems to be no end in sight—thousands dying in Syria in the civil war there, hundreds more in Iraq where a preternaturally violent terrorist group is still within sight of Baghdad, killing with terrible efficiency.

These are the daily news of our lives—they often obliterate other news, as well as the politics of our divided times, including the big national questions of what to do with the flow of Central American youngsters to the American borders in Texas.

This is the stuff of coffee house talk, morning headaches, anguish and sorrow for many Washingtonians, this most international of cities, who have friends and relatives in the areas of conflict and killing.

In times like these, in this city, we cherish the joys we can manage, almost with a kind of guilt, the news always out there like a reproach. Still, the sun reflecting on carefully stacked tomatoes, bright and shiny, from the Eastern Shore, is a welcome, almost energizing sight: the colors seem perfect, even blessed. At the Dupont Circle Sunday market, musicians—a black, wiry man playing jazz with his violin, a smallish man in blue jeans putting a folk and country wail into a song about love gone dry in the long ago.

We wander through the market, where ready-made food is an increasing presence, buy our Sunday crab cakes because we must, take home West Virginia potato salad and a scrumptious peach and strawberry pie.

At Eastern Market on Capitol Hill, we mingle with the many who have come to enjoy the sun and its bearable temperatures and blue sky. We buy a stack of chocolate chip cookies from a woman who says, “Money back guaranteed, the best cookies on the street.” We go to the bookstore stacked with so many used books over two or three floors that the building seems to list. “Been here over two decades, sitting right here behind the counter,” the proprietor says. “You need to get out more,” somebody tells him. Children run, fathers lift their baby boys, dogs abound and jewelry from South Africa sparkles like a gift to come.

These days, you notice these things in what appears to be a sad, dangerous summer, filled with bright skies and omens.

In 1914, 100 years ago, on July 28, World War I began — after a month before there was another impossible blue-sky day like that in Sarajevo, when Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb, shot the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, setting off a series of events that would lead to the deaths of millions and change the world.

Natalie Koltun •

Equinox, the upscale fitness club known for its luxury facilities and seasoned personal trainers, has announced its plans to acquire the Sports Club/LA properties in Washington, D.C., July 28, as well as those located in New York, Boston, Miami and San Francisco.

With the six newly acquired clubs, Equinox now operates a total of 73 fitness centers around the world, including several in London and Toronto. Next to the Ritz-Carlton, a newly acquired Sports/LA — and soon to be renamed — is located at 1170 22nd St., NW. An Equinox club can also be found on Elm Street in Bethesda, Md.

“This acquisition is a testament to the continued expansion of the Equinox brand as a global leader in luxury health and fitness and the growing demand for our unique offering,” says Harvey Spevak, CEO of Equinox.

Since its inception in 1991, the company has provided a holistic approach to fitness and offers a variety of strength and cardio training programs, group fitness classes, personal training, spa services and products and healthy food and juice options. Seeking to expand its range of health and fitness options and reach a broader scope of clientele, Equinox introduced an outpost of Pure Yoga, a popular Asian yoga studio, in New York, as well as acquiring a majority interest in SoulCycle, the trendy boutique cycle studio to open Saturday, August 2, on M Street.

Equinox will take operational control of the new clubs immediately and will begin transitioning the clubs to the Equinox brand. During the transitional period, the company’s signature classes will be introduced to members as well as new strength and cardio training equipment. Members will receive special access to Equinox’s mobile app, which stores the member’s fitness activity and data while exercising both inside and outside the club.

“Equinox is committed to an unparalleled member experience,” Spevak says. “We are thrilled to welcome all of the existing Sports Club/LA members to Equinox. We think they will welcome the changes in their clubs, and look forward to continuing to serve them with a luxurious lifestyle fitness experience.”

For more information, visit Equinox.com.

Joseph Park •

U.S. District Court Judge Frederick Scullin ordered a 90-day stay on his ruling that D.C.’s total ban on carrying handguns in public is unconstitutional. Scullin relied on the fact the plaintiffs in the lawsuit did not oppose the stay so that the District Council can have the time to re-write the gun law.

Of his decision, Scullin wrote, “. . . An immediate 90-day stay is appropriate to provide the city council with an opportunity to enact appropriate legislation consistent with the court’s.”

On July 28, D.C. Attorney General Irvin Nathan asked for a stay on the ruling until the D.C. decides on a potential appeal for the ruling or 180 days which will give the city lawmakers enough time to approve a new legislation that will regulate public gun carry within the District.

The stay will be in effect until Oct. 22 for the District Council to come up with new regulations or appeal the judge’s ruling to a higher court

Below is the original news story.

The D.C. ban on handguns carried outside the home was struck down as unconstitutional on July 26 by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. District residents are now permitted to carry legally registered pistols in public. Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier sent out an instructional memo telling officers not to arrest individuals carrying legally registered handguns.

The ruling came after five-year long lawsuit, Palmer vs. District of Columbia, and was brought by the Second Amendment Foundation and four licensed gun owners in the District. The legal started when three licensed gun-owners had their gun registration denied by the MPD because they intended to carry their guns in public.

The fourth plaintiff in the lawsuit is a New Hampshire resident who was charged with illegal gun carry after he was stopped for speeding. He later applied for a legal permit which would allow him to carry his handgun when he traveled through the city but had his gun licensing application rejected by the MPD.

“Congratulations, Americans, your capital is not a constitution-free zone,” wrote attorney Alan Gura, who represented the gun owners in this case, on his blog in response to the ruling. “Obviously, the carrying of handguns for self-defense can be regulated. But totally banning a right literally spelled out in the Bill of Rights isn’t going to fly.”

Ted Gest, a spokesman for the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, which defended the city’s ban, told the Washington Times that the city is studying the opinion and its options, which would include appealing the judge’s ruling and asking the judge to stop his ruling from going into effect during any appeal made by the city.

Robert Devaney •

The first phase of Metrorail’s Silver Line opened to riders July 26 after an opening ceremony with politicians from Virginia and Washington, D.C. The new Metro links for Tysons Corner and Reston represent the first major addition to the Metrorail system in more than 20 years.

The nearly $3-billion project connects new stations — McLean, Tysons Corner, Greensboro, Spring Hill and Wiehle-Reston East to the Orange Line and to downtown D.C. and Maryland.

The nearly 12-mile length of the first phase of Metrorail’s Silver Line — which will connect D.C. to Washington Dulles International Airport by 2018 — is the first new line since 1991 when the Green Line opened. Metrorail first opened in 1976.

The Silver Line’s inaugural day drew nearly 10,000 riders, according to Metro. The line will likely transport 25,000 riders a day. As an example, Metro indicates that a typical ride from the Wiehle-Reston East Station to Federal Triangle will be 42 minutes and cost $5.90 (peak) and $3.60 (off-peak).

Robert Devaney • July 31, 2014

The first of two major redevelopments expected on Pennsylvania Avenue, “America’s Boulevard,” broke ground July 23 as construction began to transform the Old Post Office into the Trump International Hotel.

The Trump family, including Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump, was joined by Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, Mayor Vincent Gray, Councilmembers Marion Barry, Anita Bonds, Muriel Bowser, Jack Evans and Vincent Orange, as they broke ground on the ultraluxe hotel at 1100 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, which is less than four blocks from the White House.

Trump signed the $3-million annual lease in August 2013, after being selected by the General Services Administration to make over the building in February 2012.

A block away and across the avenue, the F.B.I. is pondering a new headquarters before it leaves its square-block building, providing the second key for redevelopment and re-energizing Pennsylvania Avenue.

“We are absolutely thrilled to break ground today on what will be . . . one of the finest hotels anywhere in the world,” said Donald J. Trump, head of the Trump Organization during the July 23 ground-breaking ceremony in front of the entrance to the Old Post Office. “Throughout the next two years, we will work to restore this magnificent building to even well beyond its original grandeur . . . and it will be completed prior to November of 2016—a very special date.”

Ivanka Trump, lead developer for the $200-million conversion project, said, “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to redevelop one of this country’s most historic buildings, and we will spare no effort to ensure that the hotel, once completed, lives up to the legacy and integrity of this iconic landmark.” She also thanked all the right people.

In her remarks, Eleanor Holmes Norton said to Ivanka Trump, “I can’t believe you gave birth to a baby and a building in the same year.”

Among the crowd was Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and is known for urging that the GSA redevelop or sell underused federal properties. He was thanked by Donald Trump, who asked him to speak. Mica simply went to the microphone and said, “Thank you.”

Also stepping up to the podium was Councilmember Muriel Bowser, Democratic nominee for mayoral and chair of the District Council’s Economic Development Committee, who turned to the elder Trump and said, “Donald, I know you make no small plans.” Bowser added, “And that’s exactly what we see in our future: No small plans.”

And the Old Post Office is no small place.

According to the Trump Organization, the new hotel “will feature 270 richly luxurious guest rooms, averaging more than 600 square feet, making them the largest in Washington, D.C. Additionally, two extraordinary presidential suites, located in the historic former offices of the Postmaster General and averaging 3,500 and 5,000 square-feet, will be among the largest in the country. The property will also offer 36,000 square feet of meeting and event space, including a 13,000-square-foot grand ballroom, the largest among D.C. luxury hotels. Guests of Trump International Hotel, Washington, D.C. will also experience a 5,000-square-foot Mar-a-Lago Spa by Ivanka Trump and state-of-the-art fitness center, luxury retail and renowned restaurants.”

It was not all superlatives and glad-handing during the groundbreaking of gold-plated shovels.

At-large Councilmember David Catania tweeted, “Never been happier to NOT be there.”
Outside the 12th Street entrance to the groundskeeping stood members of Unite Here Local 25, a hotel worker union, which asserts, “Donald Trump is constructing a palace for the rich and keeping District residents poor at the same time.” The union fights for middle-class wages and has urged employers to fight inequality.

The Trump International Hotel is expected to involve 1,000 construction jobs, to hire 300 permanent hotel workers and to generate $100 million in taxes to the District of Columbia over 10 years.

Georgetowner •

The Metropolitan Police Department’s Mountain Bike Tactical Unit is joining up with the Citizen’s Advisory Council to host the annual community bike ride event, the Orange Helmet Patrol. This event will take place 7 p.m. to 8 p.m., Thursday, July 31, after a postponement due to bad weather. The ride will begin at 26th and P Streets, NW.

Meet your neighborhood officers. Identify street lights that are out and other problems. Be part of a new high-visibility crime prevention strategy.

The Orange Helmet Patrol of bicyclists is a new twist on an old concept. Begun in the late 1980s in Washington, D.C., Orange Hat Patrols have become a widely used and accepted component of community policing. Wearing orange hats to show neighbors that they are helping to check out the community, groups of volunteers have proven to be a crime deterrent. With the increasing popularity of biking, the Second District has implemented a new community policing bike program.

All skill levels and ages are encouraged to join the ride. For more details, email Kaitlyn.Bush@dc.gov.

Note from MPD: Participation in the community-police bike ride is voluntary. Participants will be required to sign a liability waiver before the ride. Children under the age of 16 must wear a helmet to participate.

Robert Devaney • July 24, 2014

Thai Village — thanks to the Royal Thai Embassy — rose up for its fourth annual event July 19 on the lawn of Grace Church, 1041 Wisconsin Ave., NW, just across from the embassy.

All things Thai were on display — from music, dance, massage, kick-boxing, sword play, muay Thai and, of course, a generous lineup of Thai food. As delighted visitors filled the venue, there was a lot to see and taste: eateries included D.C. Thai, D.C. Noodles, Tara Temple, Thai Tanic and Asia Nine.

Joseph Park •

SoulCycle, the New York-based, indoor-cycling studio, will open its first location in D.C. Aug. 2, the company confirmed. After months of great anticipation, SoulCycle’s first D.C. studio will be located at 2301 M St., NW, in the West End.

“SoulCycle is indoor cycling reinvented,” said Elizabeth Cutler, co-founder of Soul Cycle. “It’s a 45-minute long, full-body, cardio workout on a bike, with weights and core engaging choreography thrown in. It’s also a human experience that makes you feel alive. It’s a combination of inspirational instructors, riding as a community, high-energy music and a dark room that makes SoulCycle more than just physical.”

Cutler expressed her excitement in opening up a new studio in D.C. and discussed plans of expansion in metropolitan Washington. The West End studio is the 30th location for SoulCycle, founded in 2006.

“We’ve wanted to open in D.C. for a long time — really since we opened in New York,” Cutler said. “We are thrilled the time has finally come. Fortunately, we also found our second studio which will open in Bethesda at the end of the year.”

The SoulCycle studio, which has been attracting many celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, has provided locals with the unique experience to inspiring fitness experience.

“We are both searching for an inspiring and challenging fitness experience,” said Julie Rice, co-founder of SoulCycle. “The goal at SoulCycle is deeper than simply getting you to sweat. We help people find their personal strength and joy through exercise.”

The first class – “First Time Ride” – is $20. Thereafter, a one-time class is priced at $34 with other price packages for more classes. A 30-class package costs $850, which a 50-class package – with concierge service and other perks — expires after one year and costs $3,500.
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