Town Topics

Ari Post • June 18, 2013

A new bill from the D.C. council, the Transportation Infrastructure Amendment Act of 2010, has been put in place to address the addition of aerial wires to be used in the 37-mile, eight-line streetcar system, expected to begin service in 2012. The law would prohibit installation of any additional telephone, electric lighting or other wires over any streets in the city of Washington beyond those that existed before July 1888, except for aerial wires that the mayor may authorize for the streetcar transit system.

The bill limits this use to H Street/Benning Road – one of the two lines currently under construction – until a citywide plan is developed for using the wires for additional streetcar lines. For the time being, the city wants to use more advanced vehicles that can operate for limited distances without an overhead power supply, in order to preserve the aesthetic of areas with scenic or historical value.

The only streetcar propulsion system that meets the affordability, reliability and serviceability test will require overhead wires for most of the designated route covered by the transit system, without having an adverse impact on the visual experience, explained Richard Bradley, president of D.C. Surface Transit, Inc. and executive director of the Downtown BID. In a Committee on Public Works and Transportation hearing, Bradley testified that the proposed streetcar system has the potential to more positively and dramatically impact community and economic development than even the Metro system – another transportation system attempting to revamp itself, with the system.

With due attention paid to urban design, these overhead wires can blend seamlessly into the city scene. Federal laws constraining the city, he added, pre-date D.C.’s Home Rule Act and were enacted by Congress in the 19th century. They do not take into account modern streetcar design and technology.
“It is our view,” Bradley said, “that the city should make its own determinations about how it will grow and be sustained into the future. This legislation puts the responsibility for determining an acceptable balance between community development and historic preservation upon the city.”

Gary Tischler •

In Washington, nothing is official until the mayor cuts the ribbon. Or the pasta, as was the case for the “official” opening of Carmine’s on June 5, the classic New York Italian family-style restaurant where everything is a little and a lot outsized.

The 700-seat restaurant with nine private dining rooms and a classic wrap-around bar is bound to make an impact at its new Washington location at 425 Seventh Street, a welcome addition and new sight during hard economic times.

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, in the midst of an increasingly tough re-election campaign, found time to make things official for the New York-based Alicart Restaurant Group’s foray into Washington. “This shows we’re moving ahead and in the right forward direction,” the mayor said. “We welcome Carmine’s as a terrific addition to our constantly growing downtown area.

“We’ve been to a lot of ribbon-cuttings lately,” he quipped to Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells, who’s also up for re-election. “I think I’ve lost track.”

Jeffrey Bank, CEO of Alicart, said the company would consider bring other restaurants like Artie’s Delicatessen and Virgil’s Real Barbecue to D.C. The Washington incarnation makes the fifth Carmine’s, including two in New York’s theater district, one in Atlantic City and one in the Bahamas.

“We’ll look forward to seeing that one,” Fenty said. Bank Developer Doug Jamal, Deputy Mayor Valerie Santos, Wells and others were on hand to help launch things at the restaurant, which combines a classy city design with a family-style atmosphere of both size and intimacy. The top people at the D.C. Carmine’s are General Manager Arlene Weston, Chef Terry Natas and Kyle Carnegie, head of special events and catering.

“Everything’s big at Carmine’s,” Bank said. “It’s a kind of wow factor, oversized. The portions are sized to share among one or more people. Big portions, low check.”

For the occasion, big plates of penne, chicken, and Caesar salad and grand portions of tiramisu were on hand.

The project, which brought over 300 new jobs to the District, is one of the biggest in recent stringent times, flying into the teeth of an otherwise depressed economy.

Ari Post •

Five months after D.C. Councilmember Marion Barry was censured and stripped of his committee chairmanship for giving a contract last year to an on-again, off-again girlfriend Donna Watts-Brighthaupt, the Office of Campaign Finance has admonished the former mayor but cleared him of violating city law.

Cecily E. Collier-Montgomery, director of the campaign finance office, reprimanded Barry (D-Ward 8) in an official order posted Monday after the office found that he did not follow the city’s regulations for employee conduct.

She wrote that Barry “failed to disclose his personal and financial relationship with Donna Watts-Brighthaupt. Disclosure of the relationship would have resulted in the transparency of the transaction and removed any cloud from the contract process.”

But Barry called the order a “vindication” at a news conference Monday and had harsh words for high-profile lawyer Robert S. Bennett, who led the D.C. Council’s independent investigation into the contract and into several earmarks Barry gave to groups in Ward 8. He accused Bennett of acting against the morality of the US Justice system, saying, “His attitude was guilty until proven innocent.”

Barry, whose legal troubles have pockmarked his storied political career, was apologetic to the public for using poor judgment. However, he vehemently maintains that he broke no laws to begin with.

The campaign finance office probe also cleared Barry’s staff and others involved in the earmarks process, though reprimanded his carelessness, writing that “Barry failed to closely monitor and oversee the activities of his employees and the operations. Because of these failures to take the appropriate action, Councilmember Barry’s conduct adversely affected the confidence of public integrity of District government.”

The probes into Barry’s contracts and earmarks were spurred by his arrest July 4, 2009, on allegations of stalking Watts-Brighthaupt in Anacostia Park. The charge was quickly dropped, but some council members questioned why Barry had hired Watts-Brighthaupt.

Ari Post •

As a cultural hub, Washington is usually on the forefront of most national trends, both minor and major key. However, the bursting popularity of the craft beer movement nearly seemed to have passed over the nation’s capital. Until recently, it felt like the only places to get a decent brew within the city were the Brickskeller or Pizzeria Paradiso.

But with many laudable new additions to the city’s bar scene serving unique microbrews and seasonal beer selections — among them the stellar Churchkey on 14th Street — it is clear that this town is coming around.

Now Washington is to receive the sanctifying cornerstone of any city’s beer culture: a brewery. DC Brau Brewing Company will be opening its doors this January. Founders Brandon Skall and Jeff Hancock, two D.C. residents, are acutely aware of the empty tap handle or store shelf where a local beer ought to be found. The pair share years of experience in both brewing and beverage distribution, and have combined their knowledge and passion to establish the District’s first brewery since before Prohibition.

Hancock will be the acting brewmaster, having made beer with Grizzly Peak Brewing, Arbor Brewing companies and Flying Dog Brewery. With the beers named for various elements of democracy, expect to see such drinks as the Public Ale, The Citizen Belgian-style IPA, and the Corruption IPA. Their seasonal selections will be named after the neighborhoods of the city, such as the Georgetown Porter. Keep an eye out for DC Brau at your local corner stores and watering holes this winter.

Ari Post •

In 1876, a group of European-born Orthodox Jews built the city’s first synagogue in downtown Washington. Since its construction, the building has been turned over to three congregations, converted into a grocery store and a barbecue joint, slated for demolition, saved and dubbed a historic landmark. In 1969 it was literally cut in half, torn from its foundation, and relocated to Third Street, where it was renovated and reopened as a museum owned by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington (JHSGW) at 701 Third Street.

Now, as fate would have it, the structure is being moved again to make way for a deck above an entrance to I-395 south of Massachusetts Avenue, meant for high-rises and greenery where there is now only a recessed highway.

“It’s a great opportunity for the museum,” says Laura Apelbaum, executive director for the JHSGW. “In 1969 when we were initially moved, it was fortuitous that the triangular lot where we sit now was on 395. But when 395 went through, it scarred that part of the city – it cut off F and G Street. Even though we were saved by that, it has never afforded us the opportunity to tell the bigger story of Jewish life in the city.”

The temple, originally Adas Israel synagogue, was founded and built by around three dozen Jewish families angry over liberal reforms instituted at the Washington Hebrew Congregation, including the new practice of seating men and women together, the use of English-language prayers and the playing of Christian-style organ music during songs. Raising $4,800, they constructed the building in Washington’s “Synagogue Row,” which served downtown’s immigrants along the growing Seventh Street commercial corridor. President Ulysses S. Grant attended the dedication ceremony on June 9, 1876, the first time a U.S. president attended a Jewish religious service.

When the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority decided to build its headquarters on the block spanning Fifth and Sixth Streets, the brick synagogue was forced to find a new home or face demolition. Through the historical society’s efforts in the late 1960s, the building became a federal and city landmark, and collected both congressional support and a number of private donors.

At nearly 300 tons, the building, for the second time, will be delicately uprooted and moved by flatbed truck to a temporary spot. It will end up permanently at its new address at Third and F Streets.

“We’re going to regain the historic and religious orientation of the building,” says Apelbaum. “It will face East — Jerusalem — like it originally did. And we will have additional land with which to build a museum with gallery and educational space … in the same neighborhood, the same context that we were in originally.”

Contact laura@JHSGW.org.