Town Topics

John Blee • June 18, 2013

H Street is a wide boulevard in Northeast, large enough to hold the city’s past and expansive enough to herald the future. It’s still a work in progress, with sidewalks of cracking concrete, and almost as many permits on still un-rehabbed spaces as open and functioning stores, restaurants, and bars. It is a magnet for possibility, and it’s happening now.

Long-time D.C. resident and realtor Joel Martin recalled H Street was the third largest commercial district in D.C. from the ’20s through the ’40s, but much was destroyed in the riots of 1968. The Hechinger Mall was built in the late ’70s and was said to be the harbinger of urban development, but it took three decades for that to happen.

On a recent evening crowds poured out of restaurants and night spots, including Granville Moore’s Gastropub, Sticky Rice, the Coney Island-inspired Palace of Wonders, and the H Street Country Club. Everyone seemed to be having a good time and was respectful of one another. It reminded me a little of living in the East Village in the ’70s and walking Avenue A, then an edgy experience, but now in the heart of boutique-Manhattan. Residents of the Hill are thrilled by H Street’s resurgence, especially in this downturn economy.

Granville Moore’s is unique and when I stopped by on a Saturday night there was a two-hour wait for their mussels and Belgian beer. Dr. Granville Moore was a neighborhood doctor who provided free service for the sick in the house that it is now the restaurant. The interior is modeled on the traditional English pub. It is furnished simply, and the food is modern European.

I had stopped at Taylor’s during the day for an excellent salad and sandwich. The owners of Taylor’s, Casey Patten and David Mazza, both share an Italian/Philadelphia heritage and said that their aim was to make a great hoagie in D.C. They have succeeded well with bread imported from Philly. They gave me a tour of one of their high tech apartments above Taylor’s, as well as their office space just featured in Dwell magazine.

In recent years, the H Street corridor has developed its own theatre district, with the opening of the H Street Playhouse and the Atlas Performing Arts Center. In fact, the area is called the Atlas District. The H Street playhouse was the neighborhood pioneer in 2002, transforming what was originally a 1920s auto showroom into a 100-seat black box theatre. With up-and-coming troupes like the Theatre Alliance using the venue, the Playhouse gained a quick reputation as D.C.’s off-off-Broadway. If the H Street Playhouse still has a scrappy, upstart feel, the Atlas complex in the same block delivers something akin to a neighborhood Kennedy Center. This larger and glossier facility features four theatres, dance and rehearsal studios, a lounge, and production facilities. Theatre, dance, and musical groups use the Atlas, and you might find anything from the Washington Savoyards to the well-regarded In Series to jazz and cabaret on the monthly bill.

Moving to the area last year, Conner Contemporary opened a fantastic gallery space on Florida Avenue and recently sold a major work to the National Gallery. Annie Gawlak of G Fine Art is moving her gallery nearby. She says, “The 5 years at 1515 14th Street were invigorating for the gallery. But the forces of the real estate marketplace dictate that once the arts make a location attractive, restaurants, clubs, and other retail establishments move in. As a result the rents are raised. The area in Trinidad and the H Street Corridor is healthy for us. It is welcoming, has a diverse population that is desirable, and feels right. Leigh Conner and so many other individuals have made the area a known location for the arts. There are buildings that look like they would be perfect for artist housing and studios, it is exciting and already comfortable. I plan to open in probably two months.”

Right now in the middle of H Street new trolley tracks are being constructed. A trolley will bring a bit of old DC back into the new downtown and hopefully bring even more consumers into the area.

Siobhan Catanzaro, editorial director of The Georgetowner/Downtowner, lives near H Street. She relates, “My favorite place right now is Little Miss Whiskey’s. It’s really inconspicuous. It doesn’t even have a sign outside to tell you where it is, just a little purple light and on the weekends there is usually a wait to get in, but once you do get inside there is great music usually with a DJ on the second floor and good drinks.

“They also have an outside patio area so that is always a plus. Only drawback is that they take cash only, but I guess that stops me from spending too much money. I also like the H St. Country Club. It’s fun to go with a group of guys and girls because they have delicious mojitos and indoor miniature golf.” Siobhan is one of the many young professionals who find H Street their favorite destination.

The buzz on tater tots is that Sticky Rice’s are the best! It’s all about the special sauce served on the side and that a bucket of tots is a great appetizer for the whole table. People are going to Sticky Rice just for the tots! Now, can a cupcake place be far behind?—

Georgetowner •

Vincent Gray has entered the building. And what an entrance it was.

After months of tentative, cryptic headlines, whispers across the blogosphere and hopeful speculation among the city’s disillusioned voters, the uncertainty surrounding the District’s 2010 mayoral race has reached its final denouement: Vincent Gray will indeed run against Adrian Fenty in the Democratic primary on Sept. 14, which, given the District’s stalwart record as a blue constituency, is likely to be the only race anyone pays attention to.

Gray made his “announcement,” of sorts, when he stopped by the Reeves Municipal Center March 30 to submit the candidacy forms for his campaign. Word had leaked out hours beforehand, and what normally would have been a dull administrative task morphed into an impromptu rally for the city council’s sitting chairman. With an electrified crowd milling inside, Gray slipped onto the scene conspicuously, irresistibly late, allowing time for a small mob of journalists, well-wishers, old supporters and disgruntled Fentyites to gather, cordoned off by police, and teased by Gray staffers clad in trench coats and armed with coy answers to questions about the upcoming campaign.

The affable but often stiff Gray, known as a catalyzing force on the council, has long criticized the Fenty administration, particularly on its education policy. The enmity reached a head last fall when Gray and other councilmembers skewered public schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, a Fenty appointee, at a hearing designed to scrutinize her laying off of 450 teachers after hiring nearly double that number the preceding summer. At the hearing, a visibly upset Gray catalogued the incident as an attempt by the executive branch to supersede the council in order to push through what was deemed underhanded educational reform. At that time, speculation about his run for mayor was already circulating among commentators. Afterward, it seemed all but a given.

Which made the chairman’s silence about his intentions throughout the winter all the more confusing. When he did step forward, though, no one seemed to mind the months of indecision. Gray, strolling up in a pressed suit and boyish grin, was met with a storm of cheers and shutter clicks, handshakes and kisses. As he weaved his way upstairs to submit his campaign papers, he stopped several times to exchange words with supportive voters, waved to catcallers on a balcony above and spoke noncommittally to the swarm of microphones pressed before him. It was democracy at work again.

Outside, he had only a few words to say, but still took time to pose with a line of supporters holding placards sporting the slogans “One City” and “Vince” — a sign the stodgy council chairman was, perhaps, giving his image a hip makeover. Gray said he was “absolutely delighted” to enter the race.

“I am a native Washingtonian. I am a graduate of the public schools. I absolutely love this city … and we will talk about ways we can do better throughout this campaign,” he said.

With that, he was gone, but a gaggle of constituents stayed behind, chattering excitedly, looking a little stunned at the tumult. Most were there because of grievances against the current administration.

One union worker with the Building Trades Council said Gray was “more reasonable” and “friendly to labor.” A Ward 8 resident was more blunt: “The current mayor is only helping out those who are fortunate. Right now we need to help out everyone.”

Traversing through the crowd, the Fenty bashing continued. It was clear Gray, if he couldn’t yet raise the money, could at least yoke a few extra votes. Karen Perry, who chairs Tenleytown’s ANC 3F, said the city needs “more than a photo-op mayor.” Tom Smith, chairman of Ward 3’s Democratic committee, agreed.

“This election is critically important to the future of the city,” he said. “This city needs new leadership.”

Georgetowner •

While traveling in Japan in the 1880s, writer and socialite Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore was impressed with how the magnificent flowering cherry trees were regarded as sacred in Japanese society. Much taken with their beauty, she started her one-woman campaign with the Japanese government to send some of these trees to Washington, D.C., to be planted along the Potomac River. It took 30 years and many mishaps, some of which reached the level of breaches in diplomacy, before her dream was realized.
After Eliza got things started, negotiations between Japan and the U.S. ensued and kept faltering, until First Lady Helen Taft heard about it. Mrs. Taft had lived in Japan when her husband was president of the Philippine Commission, and she responded immediately to Eliza Scidmore’s letter suggesting that cherry trees would beautify the riverfront. Helen Taft was the same person who once described Washington as “a mosquito-infested swamp and a rendezvous for tramps and criminals,” so she was anxious to do what she could to improve the looks of the capital city.

Ninety trees were immediately planted, but these were found to be the wrong variety and they were dug up and taken away. Then, in 1909, a shipment of 2000 trees arrived as a gift from the government of Japan. However, when the Department of Agriculture inspected the trees, they found them to be disease-infested and the president himself ordered the whole shipment to be burned. An exchange of letters followed, with the Japanese ambassador apologizing for the terrible mistake.

Next, a wealthy Japanese doctor stepped forward and offered to personally pay for cherry trees to be sent to Washington in the name of the city of Tokyo. The second shipment of trees came from Japan, and this time they were specially grafted to be disease-free. The 3,020 trees were planted along the banks of the Tidal Basin, and they became an instant success. Fifty years later, when Lady Bird Johnson began establishing mini-parks and flower gardens around the city, the Japanese government gave President and Mrs. Johnson another gift of 3,800 trees, which were planted on the grounds of the Washington Monument.

The trees have had their ups and downs. In 1938, during construction of the Jefferson Memorial, workers started to clear some of the trees for the construction site, and an angry group of women protested by chaining themselves to the trees to stop them from being destroyed. The government intervened and promised to replace any trees that had to come down. These trees are high maintenance, too. Some only last about 50 years, so the government is constantly replanting to make up for the ones that die. Then, the giant snowstorms of this past February wreaked havoc by breaking limbs and demolishing whole trees. But, the clean up went quickly and all is well again as we once more celebrate the Cherry Blossom Festival, a hometown favorite and huge tourist attraction.
Back in 1912, when those historic 3,020 trees were planted by the new Japanese ambassador’s wife, Viscountess Chinda, and Helen Taft, the ambassador had proclaimed on his way from Japan to Washington that, “Almost all the world is at peace today, and will be at peace for thousands of tomorrows. War has had its day.”

However, his prediction proved to be quite the opposite and, during World War II, our government took to calling the flowering trees “Oriental” instead of Japanese. But beauty makes a strong statement, and the cherry trees, or Sakura, as they are called in Japan, represent both rebirth and the fragile nature of existence — welcomed symbolism and a humbling reminder in our nation’s capital.

Head to the Tidal Basin and National Mall for the National Cherry Blossom Festival through April 11. Visit www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org for more information.
[gallery ids="99101,99102,99103" nav="thumbs"]

Gary Tischler •

What works for baseball works for embassies.

Someone had the bright idea of finally bringing a baseball team to Washington after many years of absence, based on the idea that if you build it, people will come. “It” turned out to be a very expensive stadium, and sure enough, people came, and probably more will come when the Washington Nationals get better, which could even be this year.

Something of the same principle has begun to work for Washington’s unique community of international embassies. Several years ago, the European Union nations decided to throw open the doors of their embassies and ambassador residences to the public in a kind of spring-like gesture of welcome to the Washington community, throwing in exhibitions, person-to-person meetings, music, culture and food.

The response — they called it Passport DC — was amazing. Thousands showed up for a day of cultural exchange, soaking in new things, residents and tourists alike.

In fact, things were so promising that Cultural Tourism, working with embassies and ambassadors and other partners, expanded the idea the following year, including many of the rest of the embassies in Washington. This year, Passport DC is a month-long event, with special events during the week, but comprising mainly four weekends of major inter-cultural festivities and contact.

Things began May 1 on the hottest day of the year in Washington so far with the Around the World Embassy Tour, in which some 30 embassies and some ambassadorial residences threw open their doors along Massachusetts Avenue’s Embassy Row, at International Court off Connecticut Avenue and various other sites.

Thousands turned out again to experience a new (and free) event in which they could literally travel the far-flung corners of the world simply by standing in line and walking through a welcoming door. Embassies and sites as varied as Japan, Zambia, Colombia, Mexico, Australia, Indonesia, Croatia, Haiti, Bangladesh, Brazil, the Dominican Republic and Ethiopia, to name a few, welcomed families, visitors, tourists and residents. One woman, a recent transplant from Florida waiting in line for a calligraphy work at the Embassy of Korea, said that she had made it to eight embassies. “Pretty good piece of travel,” she said. “We don’t have things like this in Florida.”

A huge line snaked up to Massachusetts Avenue near the Dupont Circle Metro at Q Street, all people waiting to get into the Embassy of Colombia. Outside, a Colombian band played hips-don’t-lie kind of music and couples danced. Everywhere, there were lines of various lengths. They handed out green grocery bags at the Australian embassies and calendars at Kazakhstan. “We had about a thousand people here by two o’clock,” an official at the old, regal building of the Embassy of Zambia said.

The process will be repeated this weekend when the European Union Embassies’ Open House Day (May 8 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.), called “Shortcut to Europe,” kicks off the 2010 Europe Week (May 9-16). All the EU nations will be represented, including Great Britain, where you might get to chat election results with the ambassador, Sweden, Spain, Greece (don’t ask), France, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Belgium, Ireland and others.

On Saturday, May 15, it’s time for the Meridian’s fourth annual International Children’s Festival at the Meridian International Center near Adams Morgan from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This one charges $10 admission, a fair price for a nearly-all day festival of music, booths, performances, food, artistic, and craft demonstrations, with over a dozen embassies participating.

On May 22, it’s the fifth annual Asian Heritage Festival and the Fiesta Asian Street Fair on Pennsylvania Avenue.

For a complete schedule of events, exhibitions, performances and list of embassies, visit www.culturaltourismdc.org.
[gallery ids="102630,102621,102612,102603,102595" nav="thumbs"]

Gary Tischler •

Maybe someday, somewhere, somebody will write a song or two about the District: you know, “Clang, Clang Goes the D.C. Trolley” or “I Left my Heart in the District of Columbia.”

You couldn’t help thinking about stuff like that after the District’s Department of Transportation launched a four-day D.C. Streetcar Showcase at CityCenterDC.

Showcase number one was one of the city’s first new modern streetcars, which visitors could inspect up close and personal.

At the launch, Mayor Adrian Fenty promised that “in just two years — by this time in the spring of 2012 — streetcars will once again operate in the District of Columbia.” He called the streetcars, which will operate in a 37-mile, eight-line system “one of the pillars of a modern, multi-modal transportation network that will move the District forward, not backwards. We will be a leader in providing great transit choices four our residents.”

The FY 2011 budget, already extremely tight, includes $63 million to complete work on the H Street/Benning Road line and to buy additional vehicles. Work on two lines has already begun in Anacostia and in Northeast D.C. DDOT, in the meantime, has applied for $25 million in federal funding, through an urban circulator grant, to extend the line across the Anacostia River to the Benning Road Metro station.

Fenty also announced other future transportation initiatives, including issuing a Request for Information (RFI) from industry experts and manufacturers on the best design for future trolley cars, which might be able to operate without an overhead power supply.

In 2011, the District plans to host a national “Rail-Volution” conference, bringing to town national leaders, advocates and elected officials planning to build livable communities around new and enlarged transit systems.

There’s also an effort underway to map out the future of the highly successful D.C. Circulator bus system, which has seen huge growth since being introduced in 2005. There is also an announcement on a significant expansion of the District bike sharing program.

“We feel that our family of transit services, with the additions of the streetcar and alongside, the extensive regional bus and rail services provided by Metro, will make us a national leader in providing choices for people to easily get from place to place in economical and environmentally friendly ways,” Gabriel Klein, DDOT director, said.