Town Topics

Marit Fosso • June 18, 2013

This year’s annual National Cherry Blossom Festival will celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the gift of cherry trees from Tokyo to Washington D.C. The famous Cherry Blossoms have already started to bloom, although the festival didn’t officially began March 20. Get ready for five weeks of events and programs in and around Washington, ranging from arts and culture to world-class entertainment. “No events are moving because of the early peak bloom,” says Danielle Piacente, communications manager for the National Cherry Blossom Festival.

The festival kicked off with the Pink Tie Party fundraiser on March 20. The party featured spring- and cherry-inspired cuisine and cocktails, and a silent auction. Most of the events during the Cherry Blossom Festival will however be free and open to the public. You can also experience spring- and cherry-inspired dishes and cocktails through the festival’s Cherry Picks Restaurant Program —www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org/visitor-information/cherrypicks — that includes nearly 100 restaurants who will offer this on their menus.

On Sunday, March 25, the opening ceremony will be at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, presenting performances that tell the story about how the gift of trees turned into the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. This event is free; you just have to register online in advance, at www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org/2011/07/15/openingceremony

That same weekend, the National Building Museum presents Family Days, a two-day festival of family entertainment. On March 24, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and March 25, 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Family Days features activities such as creating shoji screens and pop-up architecture, dressing up in traditional Japanese costumes and interactive lessons on climate change and energy conservation —www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org/2011/07/15/family-days

On March 31, you can have fun and go fly a kite at the Blossom Kite Festival which presents demonstrations of Japanese woodblock printing and painting, kite-making competitions and shows.

From March 31 until April 15, the Sylvan Theater on the Washington Monument Grounds will be the site of more than100 free performances, ranging from hip hop, folk/bluegrass and jazz artists to different dance ensembles. The schedule will be posted online at www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org/2011/07/15/sylvanstage.

Another top event worth attending is the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade on April 14, with its marching bands, performers, floats and giant balloons. The Parade will run along Constitution Avenue from 7th to 17th Streets from 10 a.m. until noon. The festival ends on April 27 with the Petal Fest & Closing Block Party on Woodrow Wilson Plaza.

Georgetown institutions and businesses will also celebrate the Cherry Blossom Festival.

Bacchus Wine Cellar will serve rose wine every night from March 23 through 30, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
On March 22, Tudor Place presents “Hanami, the Art of the Cherry Blossom,” providing a close look at an hanami-themed vase from Japan and exploration of the cherry blossoms in the Tudor Place Gardens and an Asian-themed menu.

Sprinkles Cupcakes will serve a festive, seasonal cherry blossom cupcake throughout the season.

On March 25, the Cherry Blossom Bike Ride & Cycle Expo that benefits the American Diabetes Association will take place in Georgetown, with rides along the Capital Crescent Trail and educational demonstrations and vendors in front of Jack’s Boathouse.

At the Old Print Gallery, there is a special spring exhibition of artwork celebrating the beauty of spring’s blossoms. The exhibition runs through May 11. [gallery ids="100587,100588" nav="thumbs"]

Robert Devaney •

The Citizens Association of Georgetown has expanded the use of security cameras in the neighborhood.

Here’s CAG president Jennifer Altemus’s report: “In response to serious and wide-spread community concerns about public safety, the Citizens Association of Georgetown has broadened its Public Safety Program. We are installing security cameras in various locations throughout the residential community. We hope that the presence of these cameras will act as a deterrent to crime and assist the Metropolitan Police Department with criminal investigations. Right now we are focusing on the gateways into and out of the community, but we hope to expand the program within the year.

“Georgetown resident, Bill Dean, CEO of M.C. Dean, Inc., has generously donated the cameras for our pilot program. His company will handle the camera installations and maintenance.

“These cameras are just one of the elements our association has in place to keep us safe. Our private security guard program employs two guards in patrol cars policing our streets, escorting residents home, checking up on properties when residents are away, and working with the police to deter crime and track down criminal suspects.”

Visit CAG’s website to see how you can help and contribute: www.CAGtown.org

Donna Evers •

When George Washington rode off to war in June 1776, he told Martha he would come back home in the fall. Instead, he didn’t return to Mount Vernon until December 1783, eight years later.

The war went on much longer than General Washington, or anyone else, had thought it would. Even the British felt the skirmish with renegade colonists could be settled in months. During this long and hard-fought war, Washington proved to be a brilliant military strategist, a man of impeccable integrity and a gifted leader who was able to rally his troops during even the bleakest weeks and months of the long war.

In the fall of 1783, when Washington got word that the Treaty of Paris was signed, he and his troops waited outside of New York City until the ships carrying the remaining 20,000 British troops and the thousands of colonists loyal to the king set sail for England. Then, they rode into the city for a triumphal march and a series of celebrations and parties in their honor. Washington’s many fans urged him to declare himself king or emperor, but he reminded them of the freedom they had just fought so hard to win, and instead told them he was going home to Mount Vernon. Some of his officers formed the Society of the Cincinnati, in honor of Washington, who like the Roman General Cincinnatus, after his great war victories, resigned as wartime consul of Rome and went home to his farm and “his plough.”

When it came the time to say goodbye to the “band of brothers” who prevailed with him in victory against incredible odds, Washington set up a farewell party at Fraunces Tavern in New York City. He got up to make his farewell speech and his voice broke. “With a heart full of gratitude,” he said, “ I now take leave of you. I devoutly wish that your later days may be as prosperous and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable.” Each man, one by one, embraced their leader and parted with tears in their eyes. Washington resigned his commission in Annapolis and attended a ball in his honor, making sure to dance every set, so that the ladies could say that had danced with him. Then, he set out from Annapolis on horseback and reached Mount Vernon as the sun was setting on Christmas Eve. He and Martha were sure that they would settle down to farm the plantation and grow old together at Mount Vernon, but six years later, he was unanimously elected as the first president of the new republic he fought to create.

When the Treaty of Paris was signed, King George asked an American visitor what General Washington planned to do after the war. When the man replied that the general would probably go back home to his farm, the king said, “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”

Robert Devaney •

The Georgetown House Tour — the 83rd on April 27 — could not have asked for a more beautiful Saturday. Nine homes were on the tour, which began in 1931. It is the oldest in the nation and the programs of St. John’s Episcopal Church on O Street. Organizers estimated that a least 1,200 persons had gone on the tour. It was a busy Saturday in Georgetown. Besides checking out some beautiful houses, visitors and neighbors may have also spied the likes of Conan O’Brien and Psy who were in town for the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner on Saturday. O’Brien was seen walking along P Street. [gallery ids="101271,148402,148379,148396,148386,148393" nav="thumbs"]

Gary Tischler •

Weekends in Washington are unlike weekends anywhere else in the country.

Sure, things happen in New York. Sure, there are picnics, festivals, election campaigns and the odd soccer or baseball game. But no other place has quite the flavor of this city we call home.

You want politics? We have politics. In this year of living dangerously, the Washington, D.C. Democratic Party, on the local level, held its straw poll (and a candidate forum) at Howard University last Saturday. The results were both surprising and, perhaps meaningful.

You want sports, and its power to make you forget about everything else? We had a major league debut of a true phenom, a natural just last week. Stephen Strasburg finally came up from the minor leagues for a stunning debut, then followed it up with a road appearance in Cleveland on Sunday, which was followed almost as closely as the World Cup.

Almost spontaneously, this city (so international, so worldly, so sports nutty) got into the spirit, the joy and the celebratory nature of this huge international sports event, which happens every four years and included an early showdown between the United States and Great Britain. Everywhere you went, there was soccer.

On Saturday and Sunday, the city’s gay community, already dizzy with the passage of the gay marriage legislation earlier this year, celebrated with its annual Capital Pride parade and festival, which drew thousands of people.

And let’s not forget the Seersucker Social last Saturday.

And the news doesn’t stop here either: there’s more to come. Think Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Ballet Across America, Fringe Festival, Bastille Day and the World Cup, which continues for another month. The U.S. plays Slovakia next. Strasbourg is here to stay.

And, oh yes, MAN it’s hot out there.

THE STRAW POLL, AS OPPOSED TO STRAW HATS
It probably wasn’t the best of Saturdays for Mayor Adrian Fenty, a stand-up guy, who attended a funeral for a local musical legend and heard boos in the crowd, something that also happened at the candidate forum held at the city’s Democratic Party straw poll gathering.

The boos were bad manners. The results of the straw poll could be fairly called bad news, although what they foreboded is anybody’s guess in the early part of June.

For the record, challenger and city council Chairman Vincent “Vince” Gray, who is also starting to kick up his fund-raising, won the mayoral straw poll by a big margin, with 703 votes to Fenty’s 190. Former television reporter Leo Alexander received 75 votes.

Gray had more votes than any other candidate running for anything, including at-large Councilman Kwame Brown, who led the race for Gray’s open chairman seat by 585 to 329 votes for late-comer and former councilman and mayoral candidate Vincent Orange.

Gray’s supporters took a leaf out of Fenty’s game book when they showed up with large numbers of blue Gray signs in the morning, an early jump that Fenty supporters, who showed up in the afternoon, couldn’t match. That’s what happened at the earlier Ward 8 straw poll, when Fenty campaign signs swamped Gray’s, leading to a close win for Fenty, according to reports from the DCist and the Washington Post D.C. Wire.

No surprises elsewhere as Shadow Representative Mike Panetta won narrowly; Eleanor Holmes Norton swamped Douglass Sloan for delegate; Harry Thomas squeaked by often-time candidate Delano Hunter in Ward 5; Jim Gray swept aside challengers Jeff Smith and Bryan Weaver in Ward 1; Phil Mendelson won big over Clark Ray, who’s been campaigning forever for an at-large council seat and Tommy Wells looked good in Ward 6.

These straw polls involve party stalwarts, so the fact that Gray can get this much support in a race that will be decided by the Democratic primary in September may indicate he’s gaining some traction. Or that Fenty’s style still sits badly with some people. Either way, it’s good news for Gray, who still trails mightily in the all-important cash-on-hand total, but is increasing his fundraising bottom line.

THE WHIZ KID AND THE DREAM TEAM
Man, these are not the best of times. Maybe not the worst, but it isn’t good: the muck in the waters of the gulf, daily pictures of pelicans, birds and animals weighted down by crude oil, the mounting casualties in Afghanistan, floods in Oklahoma and Arkansas, a skeletal, shaky economy, an oppressive Washington summer and the Salahis apparently rewarded for their mischief.

Times like these, sports, no matter how much you might complain about ridiculous salaries, team owners and commercialism, retain their redemptive power.

Back on June 8, one man, a kid really, just about got people in Washington to stop talking about anything except the fact that in making his major league debut for the Nationals (yes, the Nationals). Stephen Strasburg struck out 14 Pittsburgh Pirates, allowed two runs and four hits in a little over seven innings. He belonged to us, right here in Washington, and even people who didn’t know a double play from a bourbon double talked about him, including people who hate sports.

Strasburg figured strongly in a Washington-magic weekend, when a lot of people were checking out what was going on in Cleveland, where Strasburg took the mound against the Indians, and, in spite of a wobbly problem with control, won his second game, striking out eight in five-plus innings. The kid was for real.

More people might have been paying attention to baseball last weekend, except for the fact that something else was going on, and seemed to be happening right here in town if you happened to be trying to get around Dupont Circle last Saturday afternoon.

The World Cup, which happens every four years somewhere in the world, kind of snuck up on Washington, as the world’s best soccer teams gathered in South Africa and began play in a 90,000-seat stadium in Soweto, where the real fight against apartheid had begun.

Saturday afternoon happened to be when a halfway decent United States team took on the heavily favored British squad. At the Dupont Circle fountain, two big jumbo-tron screens had been set up, and from the looks of things at least a couple of thousand people, many of them wrapped in country flags or beer logo T-shirts, showed up to cheer on their respective teams. Nobody won and everybody won, the two teams tied 1-1, thanks to a great American goalie, and to the British goalie (not so much). For the U.S., which plays Slovakia next, the tie wasn’t at all like kissing your sister — it looked like a winner.

The World Cup, a further tribute to the efforts of South Africa’s great-man-of-history Nelson Mandela, has attracted worldwide attention. Here in the District every restaurant and bar, and no doubt embassy, is tuned in. On early Saturday morning, you could walk the length of bar- and restaurant-heavy 18th Street in Adams Morgan and see brunchers and breakfasters at places like La Forchette, Tryst and the Rumba Room watching Nigeria and Argentina square off (Argentina won, 1-0).

The World Cup continues for the next several weeks. Check your local restaurants and embassies and see what’s going on. Strasburg is scheduled to pitch this Friday and again five days later.

PRIDE
Reports had it that over at least 100,000 people showed up to line the streets for the annual Capital Pride Parade, a festive, noisy, quite over-the-top occasion that took place amid a much changed atmosphere for gays and gay rights.

Another group of thousands showed up Sunday on Pennsylvania Avenue, where the Capital Pride festival took place. The spectacle included outrageous costumes and a performance of “Chicago.” The annual festival, which celebrates the lives of gay, bisexual and transgender men and women in Washington, was held in an atmosphere where the tide was turning on gay marriage, recently made legal in the District by the city council, although major struggles lay ahead across the country.

SEERSUCKERS IN THE NEIGHBORHOODS
Amidst all the Saturday morning soccer madness and Pride celebration in the District, it didn’t seem strange that when you drove home an army of people on bicycles should be passing through.

They were dressed in boaters, bow ties and long Victorian dresses with prim blouses, riding their bikes. One man was smoking what appeared to be a 19th-century pipe, and some were riding in bicycles built for two. Several yelled things like “tah-tah” and “tally-ho,” so we assumed it was some kind of English revenge thing, as if BP wasn’t enough. But we assumed wrong.

It was actually a group of local fans of dressing well and past time periods, called the D.C. Dandies and Quaintelles, participating in their Seersucker Social Bike Ride and Lawn Party at Hillwood Museum. Previously the group had held a Tweed Ride, with proceeds going to Arts for the Ages. Jolly good show.

COMING UP:
During the summer in D.C., every weekend and many weekdays are to be calendarized. Here’s a few things to look for in addition to the World Cup and Strasburg sightings.

BASTILLE DAY AT MAISON FRANCIASE
We celebrate the Fourth of July and Independence Day, but the French version is Bastille Day, which just might have something to do with the French Revolution. On July 10, La Maison Francaise and the Comite Tricolore is holding a Bastille Day celebration, with chefs from some of the top restaurants in Washington participating, including the Plume, Café Du Parc at the Willard Hotel, Ici Burban Bistro from Sofitel, the Ritz Carlton, Brasserie Beck, 2941 Restaurant, Bastille Restaurant and others. Lots of desserts, of course, and live entertainment. General admission is $85. For more information, go to www.houseoffrancedc.org.

CAPITAL FRINGE
It’s not too early to start thinking about the Capital Fringe Festival 2010, a nearly month-long extravaganza of cutting edge theater from all over the country, and probably the world. Sort of the world cup of the theatrically strange, unusual, weird, funny, young, fresh and new.

You can expect nearly 150 performances in venues all over the city July 8-25. More on this in coming issues. We just thought you should be warned. It takes a tough theater fan to make it to as many shows as possible.

THE SMITHSONIAN FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL
Once again, the folks at the Smithsonian Institution will hold their far-ranging festival celebrating the cultures of many lands, and in this year’s edition, of the Smithsonian itself.

The festival will be held on the National Mall June 24-28 and July 1-5. Lots of music, food, crafts and performances will take place at this year’s event, focused on Asian Pacific Americans (“Local Lives, Global Ties”) and the “Smithsonian, Inside Out.” Visitors are invited to look at how things work at the institution in four areas of concentration or challenges: “Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe,” “Understanding and Sustaining a Biodiverse Planet,” “Valuing World Cultures” and “Understanding the American Experience.” The festival will also focus on Mexico and will hold a special tribute to Haiti.

BALLET ACROSS AMERICA
The Kennedy Center will hold a special performance program focusing on dance companies in the U.S. called “Ballet Across America” this week through June 20. It features: Houston Ballet, The Suzanne Farrell Ballet, the Pacific Northwest Ballet, Aspen Santa Fe Ballet, the fabled Joffrey Ballet, the North Carolina Dance Theatre, Ballet Arizona, Ballet Memphis and the Tulsa Ballet.

Georgetowner •

D.C. is a haven for green jobs, at least when compared to other parts of the country, according to a prominent green job listing Web site. The city ranked second behind California on Greenjobspider.com’s list of the top five states posting green job openings online in May. Researchers at the green job search engine checked more than 20 green-specific job boards and major job search aggregators to decide which states had the most positions available. Each state was ranked according to the total number of jobs across various green job titles, such as solar installers and engineers. Individual company sites were not part of the study.

The company defines green jobs as those jobs that create, support, maintain or regulate recyclable, energy-efficient or renewable energy products and services.

Ari Post •

Last year, the city said it would expand the SmartBike D.C. bike-sharing program tenfold in fiscal year 2010 — that is, from 10 locations with 100 bikes to 100 locations with 1,000 bikes. Last month, it announced even bigger plans: a joint partnership with Arlington, VA to create a regional bike sharing system with 1,100 bikes at 114 stations — the nation’s largest bike-sharing network. Expect the system to be fully operational this year, when residents and visitors will be able to pick up a bike in D.C. and drop it off in Arlington, and vice versa. Annual, monthly and daily memberships will be available for area residents and visitors.

Ari Post •

The Downtown BID’s Homeless Services Team has partnered with the D.C. Public Library, particularly Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library (901 G St.), to offer an innovative outreach program that addresses the dire needs of the homeless that frequently use libraries as a temporary refuge. MLK Library has a large homeless population during daytime hours. It has set aside second floor office space for the Homeless Services Team, which is on hand to help provide social services and assist the library in handling daily crises and addressing concerns about individuals who display mental health problems.

“We’re grateful for the partnership and believe our relationship with our customers without homes will improve,” said Pamela Stovall, associate director of the D.C. Public Library. “We have a social worker here now and can pick up the phone in order to get people connected to the proper social services. Thus far, it’s working out fine.”

Downtown Homeless Services Team members will begin training MLK Library staff and security this month. Stovall says the library hopes to expand the training into branches citywide. Meanwhile, the Downtown BID is tapping into established relationships with its partners, including the District Departments of Human Services and Mental Health, to focus on client-centered services that can connect the homeless to adequate services that improve their lives. Over the years, Downtown Homeless Services Team members have proven to be great assets in helping homeless individuals obtain medical attention and other social services.

Ari Post •

The District Department of the Environment’s (DDOE) new Green D.C. Map highlights D.C.’s environmental resources, including green buildings, bike share locations, farmers’ markets, community gardens, scenic walks and river restoration projects, with each venue attributed a specific icon. The print version showcases high profile sites that are easy to visit and also features information about Anacostia restoration initiatives, the Green D.C. Agenda and D.C.’s Climate Action Initiative. The online version uses a Google-based web platform and offers more sites and detailed information about each location. Users can customize the types of green venues and projects of particular interest and create their own trails and tours by selecting specific locations.

To use the map, visit www.green.dc.gov/map.