Hit Up History with a New Museum
• June 18, 2013

To the sprightly, upbeat salute of a six-piece brass band, American women writers turn a new page Monday, Feb. 13, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the 1275 K Street, NW, grand opening of the nation’s first museum honoring American women writers, both historical and contemporary.?

Roberta Shaffer, associate librarian for library services at the Library of Congress, will keynote, reading from favorite American women writers. The loved-by-everybody Salvation Army brass ensemble will entertain.
      
“Women purchase 70 percent of books sold in America. Audiences for literary events are predominantly female, as are the fields of librarians and literary agents. Yet until now, no national venue existed to showcase our writers such as Abigail Adams, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Harper Lee, Eudora Welty, to name just a few talents,” AWWNM founder Janice Law said. Networking support, while scouting a high visibility, affordable rent, downtown location, took Law almost a year. Using her monthly Social Security check plus savings as ballast, Law rented the startup, shared, storefront space, with entrance on 13th St NW as a temporary perch. For initial “stuff” at the Feb. 13 grand opening, Law purchased children’s art from San Jose Clinic, a long-time Houston institution sponsored by the Charity Guild of Catholic Women.?For more information go to  AmericanWomenWritersNationalMuseum.org

City Officials Talk Nighttime Economy
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This month, the Nighttime Economy Summit was held at The Hamilton, Downtown’s new 24-hour restaurant and entertainment venue, which opened last month.

“Let’s commit to do something this year,” urged D.C. Council chairman Kwame Brown, who delivered brief remarks. “It will be tough because people think they don’t want nightlife in their areas. But the definition of nightlife today is different. We have to explain to people what it means,” stressing that it can be both vibrant and safe.

Hosted by the D.C. BID Council, the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington, the Washington, D.C., Economic Partnership, and the D.C. Nightlife Association, the summit attracted more than 75 participants, including business organizations, city officials and business owners, who recognize that D.C.’s economy is diversifying rapidly. While they discussed growing the evening economy, which includes restaurants, bars, theaters, and sports and entertainment venues, they also identified key issues of concern and sought to get a comprehensive understanding of what a nighttime economy entails.

Shop Local This Season
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The 2012 Downtown Holiday Market returns for its eighth year Nov. 30 and runs for 24 days through Dec. 23, from noon to 8:00 pm. Located on F Street between 7th and 9th streets in front of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery, the market features clothing, accessories, domestic and imported crafts, soaps, candles, jewelry, paintings and food from 180 businesses.

Restaurants Downtown Go Through Changes
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Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken, will open a block from Metro Center in January, in time for Inauguration Day. The carryout res- taurant will offer about a dozen donut flavors, ranging from peanut butter and jelly to crème brulee, and fried chicken served either with but- termilk, a rub of dry spices or a sriracha glaze. Jose Andres is planning to reopen his acclaimed Minibar restaurant this month at 505 9th St., NW, the former home of Zola Wine & Kitchen. With the expanded space come expanded prices: the tasting menus will be $225 per person, up from $150. Andres and his company, Think Food Group, sold the building at 405 8th St., NW that once housed the restaurant and two others—the unique, pop-up restaurant America Eats Tavern and Café Atlantico. Belgian chef Frederik De Pue and his backers purchased the building and may open another restaurant this year. Also coming: Chix DC (1121 14th Street), the green restaurant with a Latin flair, will offer healthy fare in 2,200 square feet of space. Taylor Gourmet, the Italian deli and market specializ- ing in authentic hoagies and market goods, will replace Meatballs, the short-lived casual eatery, at 624 E Street.

Point Chaud Café & Crepes’s second Downtown location opened for business last month at 1100 New York Avenue. The open kitchen offers sweet and savory French pan- cakes, Illy—the authentic Italian espresso cof- fee—fresh gelato, smoothies and other fare. Embers Grill (80 F Street), serving up kabob, burgers, and side dishes such as chickpeas and hummus, also opened last month and is located near New Jersey Avenue.

Chinatown Park Reopens
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The Chinatown Park has reopened to the public after undergoing a six-month refurbishment. DowntownDC BID partnered with the National Park Service to replace and realign the park’s interior sidewalks, expand and upgrade the irrigation system, and install new sod, trash-cans, and plenty of benches. In addition, NPS will plant several new trees in the park later this fall. The lawn will remain fenced off for a short time to allow the new sod to establish.

Hoyas Rebuff: ‘We’ve Been Here Since 1789. How About You?’
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Declaring that parties are not a crime, Georgetown University students have counterpunched with StopCrimeNotParties.com. The website “will give students the opportunity to report encounters with local residents, the Metropolitan Police Department, the Department of Public Safety, and the Student Neighbor Assistance Program,” according to the Georgetown Voice news blog. The new website will document any instances of “questionable behavior” observed by students during those encounters—especially in the wake of an amended disorderly conduct law that outlaws any loud noise between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. that could be considered “likely to disturb one or more persons in their residence.”

The noise law prompted the students’ creation of the website, which distributes a Hoya blue lawn sign—in contrast to the residents’ red signs—for students or student sympathizers to post.

Q Street Gas Station Fire Destroys Garage, Snarls Traffic
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The service garage of the gas station on Q Street—known both as the Washingtonian Auto Shop and Georgetown Auto Service—went up in flames March 15. The fire started around 8 a.m. DC Fire & EMS spokesman Pete Piringer said it took firefighters 15 to 20 minutes to extinguish the fire at the corner of Wisconsin Ave. and Q St., NW. An Exxon gas and service station sits across the avenue.

“The fire caused significant damage to the building, a car inside the building and one car outside the building,” DC Fire said. Nearby restaurant Los Cuates also suffered damage from the fire. Piringer reported that fire investigators believe it was an accident: mechanics were working on a gas tank in a car with a space heater nearby and the fumes from the space heater ignited gasoline fumes. Three workers were examined, one for smoke inhalation, but all three refused transport to a hospital.

Wisconsin Avenue was blocked from Reservoir Road to P Street with about 11 fire vehicles—even a Navy foam unit had been called because of concern about a possible explosion, though it was not used. Damage is being assessed by the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.

Bobby Gonzalez, owner of Georgetown Auto Service, owns another repair shop in Alexandria and is offering to drive to his Georgetown clients, pick up their car and return it when work is complete.

It Takes 39th Street Resident Tom Strike to Catch a Thief
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Driving near his home on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, Thomas Strike observed a suspicious character on 37th Street, who then walked up to a house and took a delivered package off its porch. Strike got out of his car and shouted at the man: “Sir, is this your box?” The suspect threw the parcel at Strike and ran. Strike then tackled the perpetrator, who had other stolen items on his person, and held him until Metropolitan Police arrived. Strike lives on 39th Street with his wife Sarah and their three children. The neighbor got his package back, and residents are calling Strike a neighborhood hero. “The suspect is going to be charged with assault (on me), theft and trespassing,” Strike said. Yes, we’d call that the Luck o’ the Irish and a Lucky Strike, too.

Lululemon Murder Suspect Worked at M Street Store
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Brittany Norwood, alleged murderer of fellow Bethesda Luluemon Athletica employee Jayna Murray, was held without bond by Montgomery County, March 21. WTOP reports that it “has learned police were told that Norwood was transferred from the Georgetown Lululemon store to the Bethesda location because of concerns she was stealing merchandise. The company is not commenting, and it is not clear when the transfer happened or if it was proven Norwood had taken anything.” WTOP added that Montgomery County Police were investigating whether Norwood had been accused of stealing merchandise from the store before she allegedly killed Murray on March 11. (There was no other independent source for WTOP’s report at press time.)
Norwood’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for April. Norwood had also worked at the Willard International, according to WUSA.

Kennedy Center River Stairs Design Fails to Impress
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After decades in limbo, the river stairway design for The Kennedy Center is again in play, and major city players are not impressed.

The Potomac River Pedestrian Access Improvement Project plans a direct connection to be built between the Kennedy Center terrace and the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway trail at the river’s edge. “Physical barriers and safety concerns currently discourage pedestrian traffic between these two resources,” according to the National Park Service, Federal Highway Administration and the DC Department of Transportation.

First seen as a grand staircase—as are the real Watergate Steps near the Lincoln Memorial—the latest design displays two glass ramps turned right and left and two elevators. Nearby Watergate resident Arthur Cotton Moore, architect of Washington Harbour, submitted a more monumental design in 1987. (It is important to note that Moore’s Georgetown work brought the Potomac River back to the people as a real waterfront to be enjoyed.) Moore has said he supported a more dignified stairway design for the Kennedy Center, as envisioned by its architect Edward Durrell Stone.

Expressing skepticism is Jonda McFarlane, a leader in the creation of Francis Scott Key Park and the Georgetown Waterfront Park. “When did this firm get asked to do a new design?” McFarlane said. “We need something that will be appropriate both in design and history (honoring the memory of John F. Kennedy). This latest design does neither. We don’t need a little tacked-on thing.”

“We should take our time with it,” neighborhood commissioner Bill Starrels cautioned about the proposed design. “We have waited long enough, and we need to make it worthy of the Kennedy Center, the Nation’s Capital and Georgetown.”

“I would love a beautiful gateway to and from Georgetown,” said Jennifer Altemus, president of the Citizens Association of Georgetown. “But I do not like the fire escape design.”