photo by cliff1066/Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license

The facebook group's founder – my cousin, Jamie Davis Smith – says that she's considering staging a sit-in for three year olds who don't want the petting zoo to close. Other suggestions on how to save the zoo/register displeasure about the zoo's closure are also welcome.

If Sunday night's home-invasion robbery in Brookland had not come to such a horrific end, it's a good bet D.C. would be spending this week pondering the identity of the city's newest pseudonymous drug-culture celebrity: The Weedman.

The three-man crew who allegedly stormed the group-house home of six Catholic University students at about 10:30 that night apparently thought they knew. Though two of the three were killed during the ensuing shootout, surviving crew member Steffan Fields told cops he and his companions had gone in search of drugs, according to court papers.

Armed and masked, two of the crew entered through the front door and one from the back, according to the filings, which also say there were ten people inside the house during the incident. Some of those people were kicked as the team marauded.

Things went wrong for the crew when cops got word of the robbery in progress. Metropolitan Police Department officers showed up in force, quickly surrounding the two-story brick in the 1000 block of Irving Street NE.

After about 30 minutes, Fields, Akeem Jamaal Cayo and Davon Sealy allegedly tried to shoot their way out. Sealy and Cayo went down in what was likely a hail of bullets. Fields was collared and arrested for first degree burglary while armed. He has a March 3 court hearing.

In court papers, Fields said "he had been at the residence before. Once for a party and a second time to purchase weed." Fields told police they'd been looking for the stash of someone he referred to as the "Weedman," according to the court papers.

A police official speaking on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation says police believe the Weedman is actually a group of pot-dealers-cum-CUA-students. The official says cops found evidence and plan to bring charges against the students.

Asked about the identity and future of the Weedman, MPD spokeswoman Gwen Crump said she wouldn't comment on an ongoing investigation. A CUA spokeswoman also declined comment.

One CUA student who lives in the house at which the robbery took place seems to at least have a passing familiarity with weed. One of his Facebook friends, also a CUA student, posted what appears to be a picture of two intersecting spliffs, put together to form the shape of a cross. "A thing of beauty," wrote the housemate below the pic.

Photo of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, located adjacent to the Catholic University of America, by Gore Fiendus (Jerry Frausto) using an Attribution 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license 

The sale of Love Nightclub won't be going through quite as quickly as the people involved in the transaction were hoping.

Love, on Okie Street NE off New York Avenue, shuttered for three months earlier this year after a non-fatal stabbing inside the club on New Year’s Day. Since reopening, the club has only catered special events. Owner Marc Barnes filed bankruptcy for his club earlier this month. The plan had been to sell to Dean Smothers, owner of The Scene, on Adams Place NE.

But the Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Board refused to allow transfer of the liquor license involved after a hearing on Wednesday.

“Clearly when you acquire arguably the largest nightclub in D.C., that has a history [of] having large events, lots of people, lots of activity, clearly it’s interesting to us who’s going to move in,” said ABC Board Chairman Charles Brodsky at the hearing.

Smothers plans to acquire the 3,500-capacity venue for $7.3 million–encompassing the property, the trade name, Love, and all assets within the property.

A firefighter by day, Smothers does not run The Scene's day-to-day operations. The venue already has a history of at least four appearances before the ABC Board since it’s opening a year and a half ago, said board member Mital Gandhi, who worried about the management of Love. (And who will not be moving on from the ABC Board to the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics.)

Although Smothers has hired Mohmmad Jahan, who’s run various properties for Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club, as the general manager and two assistant managers, to handle Love’s day-to-day activities, alongside 60 security personnel, Gandhi expressed concern.

“I’m trying to figure out [how] you, with the full-time job and a lot going on, how you’re going to be able to run not only The Scene, but also the largest night club in the District,” he said. “And I’m still not comfortable with that, especially given the track record you have with The Scene.”

On questioning, Smothers was asked how Love would differ from The Scene, a live entertainment venue. He said the venue will host patrons 21 and up, adding there'll be live entertainment, but no drum sets or guitars.

“If it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, than it’s a duck...whether he doesn’t have a bongo or a banjo, I personally don’t give a crap,” Brodsky responded.

After a 10-minute recuse with attorney Makan Shirafkan, Smothers clarified, live entertainment of all sorts will happen, but there won’t be any go-go to avoid certain crowds. (Presumably, crowds of young black go-go listeners, who the ABC Board and the Metropolitan Police Department believe attract trouble.)

Brodsky admonished, “We appreciate your representations that you will not produce go-go music in your night club, [but] I think you’re foolish to do that. Go-go brings in money, and it brings in people, and it’s the epicenter of…Washington, D.C.”

The ABC Board also announced they’d received a letter from the Office of Tax and Revenue opposing the sale to Smothers. The letter read, “Based on the research of our tax records, The Scene is not in compliance with the tax laws of the District. As such, we’d currently object with the transfer.”

“[I] didn’t know we had those issues until we got the letter today,” Smothers who'd also just received a copy that morning said. “That issue will be resolved today.”

Smothers didn’t help his case when he noted recently hiring a new accountant, and then couldn’t recall whether the new accountant was hired six months ago or two weeks ago. He also said the tax issues probably had to do with $4,000 worth of tax delinquencies from when The Scene first opened—but he couldn't be sure.

Once Smothers paid his owed taxes and provides the board with a slew of other documents, the ABC Board says they'll take a second look.

Photo by enviziondotnet. Creative Commons Attribution License.

It may not come as a surprise that the 24-year-old District woman who allegedly stabbed 20-year-old NPR intern Annie Ropeik multiple times and for no particular reason Wednesday morning is mentally ill. Recently filed charging documents say Melodie Anne Brevard has been diagnosed as having Bipolar Type II disorder. Brevard was supposed to be on the psychotropic drug Abilify but hadn't taken it for a month, the documents say.

The description documents provide of the 9:30 a.m. attack in Chinatown is chilling: "Without any provocation, the defendant stabbed the complainant with a knife in the left collarbone, upper back, lower back, and right side. The stab wound to the complainant's right collarbone pierced through the complainant's back."

A  witness told police that after the stabbing occurred the witness yelled: "This lady just stabbed someone" and Brevard replied: " Yes, call the police."

One of the wounds damaged Ropeik's spinal cord. She is "currently paralyzed on the left side of her body below the rib cage." A statement from NPR says Ropeik is in stable condition.

Maryland court records say Brevard has been arrested before. She was arrested in Montgomery County for a second degree assault in 2007 for which she pleaded guilty. Then, in 2009, she was picked up by Prince George's cops for an alleged assault on a police officer. The charges were dismissed.

Also interesting:  Brevard appears to be an aspiring model. A profile on the site ModelMayhem.com seems to belong to the assault-with-intent-to-kill suspect.

"I am using this site for networking, exposure and modeling opportunities," the profile says.  Brevard mentions that she is open to fashion shows and print modeling. Under credits, she lists that she appeared in Jet Magazine in October 2005. The site displays a portfolio.

Brevard's aspirations would seem to be at least temporarily derailed. Things could be far worse for her, given what can happen to the District's mentally ill.

Ropeik is a junior at Boston University and is a classics and philosophy major.

WJLA-TV is reporting an "escalated response" to today's suspicious package at 19th and F Streets NW, which had authorities tied up for five hours, sealing off several square blocks surrounding the World Bank and parts of the George Washington University campus.

Some witnesses may have even heard a "small explosion," according the local ABC affiliate's Jennifer Donelan, who describes the overall level of police response as "much greater than normal, especially since the city sees as many as four suspicious-object calls a day."

Police Chief Cathy Lanier is reportedly on the scene, along with U.S. Secret Service. 

The television news report somewhat differs from a more down-played account in the college press. The GW Hatchet quotes MPD spokesperson Gwendolyn Crump describing the package as "not hazardous," adding, however, "They are still in the process of examining it."

UPDATE, 1:20 p.m.-D.C. Fire and EMS confirms via Twitter "no hazard" and "no injuries." MPD is investigating.

UPDATE, 1:40p.m.-Bomb squad units have "'disrupted' the object," WJLA reports, which authorities now describe as harmless:

George Washington University students, who had a clear view of the object, described it as a pipe wrapped in black tape, apparently to simulate the appearance of a pipe bomb.

The FBI has taken over the investigation of the incident, setting up a tent on 19th Street.

UPDATE, 2:14 p.m.-CNN reports that a "terrorism task force" will now study today's incident as a sort of object lesson in suspicious objects: "The focus of police attention appeared to be a hoax device that looked like a long microphone with tape on it, a law enforcement source said. It also could have looked like a pipe, the source said."

UPDATE, 2:18 p.m.-"19th Street mostly reopen," WaPo's Dr. Gridlock reports, "Authorities report the item was in a suitcase and a portion of the street will remain closed for about another 30 minutes."

UPDATE, 2:20 p.m.-The FBI tells WaPo the suspicious package at 19th and F streets NW contained "what looked like a pipe bomb, but it was not a bomb."

UPDATE, 3 p.m.-Not to be outdone, WTOP now reports on another suspicious package across town in Columbia Heights, where the local Metro station is closed on account of the curious object: "D.C. Police say the package is a silver and black briefcase at the corner of 14th and Irving streets in Northwest. Part of 14th Street is also closed in the area."

UPDATE, 3:31 p.m.- WaPo's Rick Rojas reports from the scene that the suspicious package turns out to be "a suitcase full of tools," screwdrivers and such. It looked like "old-school luggage," Rojas notes. The Columbia Heights Metro station is now back open.

UPDATE, 3:58 p.m.-"Fans gather around 'suspicious package' outside Nationals Park," according to a Mediabistro report. Turns out to be the name of a rock band performing at the 49th annual Roll Call Congressional Baseball Game.

The lone surviving piece of political propaganda after the first Capitol Lounge fire, circa 2005

Popular H Street NE hangout The Argonaut is closed following an apparent kitchen fire on Sunday morning. Photos of the extensive damage have been posted on the place's own web site, which also dishes up some details on the Argo's post-blaze hangover:  

Most of you may not know this, but our kitchen used to be an alley. Which means that the wall separating the kitchen and the bar is an "outside wall" and is several layers of brick. We are very thankful for that brick wall – it helped contain the fire.

Prolific tavern operator Joe Englert, who owns the Argonaut, is no stranger to the inherent fire hazards of the bar and restaurant business. His lawyers just settled a lawsuit with the Hartford Casual Insurance Company over damages associated with a 2007 blaze at one of Englert's other locations, Capitol Lounge on Pennsylvania Avenue SE, according to court records. That fire also damaged the neighboring Trover Shops, which Hartford had insured.

I'm referring to the second Capitol Lounge fire, of course, not the first. Both were reportedly started by errant cigarettes. The first fire, in 2005, radically altered this reformed nightlife reporter's position on D.C.'s smoking ban (although the link to that old City Paper article is, apparently and rather regretably, no longer available).

Argonaut management is organizing a benefit at the neighboring Englert-owned Rock and Rock Hotel on June 30, with proceeds going to help repair the fire damage.

Photo by DCist/Creative Commons Attribution License

It's a story the young and nervy Weaver likes to tell as proof that the incumbent is a "dinosaur" who still plays old-style politics. Weaver most recently told a version of the story at the D.C. Democratic State Convention: In 2006, Graham investigated the questionable dealings of a particular developer, Perseus Realty, only to accept campaign donations from the very same developer years later. Graham also acquired a 20-year tax abatement for the company, Weaver says.

That particular narrative could frustrate Graham, who's still seeking to get out from beneath the shadow cast over his office by the arrest of his former chief of staff, Ted Loza, on bribery charges. But the incumbent councilmember isn't shrinking from the insinuation.

"There ain't no corruption in me," Graham tells City Desk. "I'm very sorry about what happened to one of my staff members, but I don't do that stuff."

Graham says Weaver's version of what happened between him and Perseus Realty is all mixed up. He's the hero of the story, not the bad guy: "I'm not the villain, nor was I associating with the villains," Graham claims.

In a February article, the Washington Business Journal attributed Graham's success at campaign fund-raising to two things: His cozy relationship with powerful developers and the ability of corporations to side-step the District's $500 political contribution cap:

"The good news for Graham and other city politicos, is that LLCs – limited liability corporations – each have their own contribution limits. So what do some developers do? Contribute the max for each one of their companies."

Though donating at $500 a pop won't amount to millions, it doesn't take a lot of green to have an impact on cash-strapped local races.

2010 fund-raising records appears to show Perseus Realty, responsible for various projects around the District, as one of the companies willing to ante up. City Desk came across contributions to Graham from Perseus Realty Investments, LLC; Perseus Stillman, LLC; Perseus Realty, LLC; 1110 Vermont Renaissance Assoc,VII/SCH-Perseus M Street; LLC and 14W Member, LLC. All have names that appear to be related to either Perseus Realty or a Perseus Realty project. Each LLC gave the maximum contribution of 500 bucks, save VII/SCH-Perseus M Street, LLC, which contributed only $250.

Perhaps Perseus has good feelings toward Graham because of the 14th and W project, a $97 million mixed-use Perseus development that Graham backed and which he readily acknowledges began a "new acquaintanceship" between the politician and the company.

Some five years ago, the acquaintanceship between Graham and Perseus was close to that of the hunter and the hunted. Back then, Graham was handing out subpoenas to Perseus leadership and employees. "Nobody hit them harder than I did," Graham says of that time. Graham was then chair of the Committee on Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, which oversees the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA). DCRA, in turn, regulates District housing.

Graham was after the company because he suspected them of strong-arming renters and misusing a district law, one the City Paper wrote a cover story about in 2006. The law –501(f)–allows landlords who need to make major repairs to an occupied building to vacate the building of tenants while the repairs are made. Though such evacuations are supposed to be temporary, most tenants opt to move on rather than wait the length of time it would take for the landlord to invite them back. After that, the owners are free to develop or sell the property sans pesky tenant rights.

“It’s a sham process,” Jim McGrath of the DC Tenants Advocacy Coalition then told City Paper. “There’s nothing more permanent than temporary removal.”

That's perhaps how it might have gone for Perseus at 1846 Vernon Street NW in 2005: But the tenants of the building wanted to stay and fought the so-called temporary removal. That's when Perseus, a co-owner of the building, allegedly got rough.

According to a final report issued as a result of Graham's investigative hearing on the matter, bad stuff started happening to the tenants in fall of 2006:

In October and November 2006, the tenants of 1846 Vernon Street, NW stated to the Committee that since September 2006, they had observed an increasing number of incidents of violence seemingly directed against tenants and/or the building.  On October 16, 2006, vandals smashed glass panels on the doors of several apartments, and, the Committee was told, selectively cut electrical cables so that only occupied units were affected.

The report reveals that in that same year, tenant Latif Sarkar, who lived Apartment 23, "reported having received threats within the building from strangers, who told him to move out within 48 hours or else." The report also offers an account of the most dramatic moment in the battle, a late night arson:

Even more seriously, on November 5, 2006 between 10:00 and 10:30 p.m., a fire broke out at 1846 Vernon Street, NW.  Chairperson Graham and Committee staffers inspected the premises the next morning and discussed the incident with tenants, who reported the following. Three tenants of unit #28, Mahmuduel Hoque, Nasimuel Hoque and Rabia Begum, stated they were watching television with relatives when they heard two loud bangs in rapid succession, the second of which was far louder and shook their apartment "like an earthquake," according to Ms. Begum.

The bangs turned out to have a source, a blaze outside their apartment.

No one was severely injured in the fire. But tenants nevertheless slowly gave up and left.  Probably because they felt their lives were in danger. According to the report:

A fire investigator from the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department stated that the remnants of an exploded gas can was found in front of #28, and indicated his belief that the cause of the fire was arson. Tenants generally were of the opinion that whoever set the fire did so at the direction of the owner and/or the management company.

Though the arson prompted no criminal case against Perseus, Graham says he went after them "hammer and tong" and would have kept going except for having switched committees. He says Councilmember Marion Barry then took over the Committee for Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. When that happened, the investigation screeched to a halt. Graham says he asked Barry to continue pursuing Perseus, but got no response from the Ward 8 councilmember.

In any event, when the YMCA selected Perseus for the 14th and W Project, Graham put all that business behind him. Graham says that when the YMCA told him about its decision, it brought up the bad blood: "We know you've had some bad experiences with Perseus," Graham recalls YMCA officials saying. The organization explained that there was little chance for the kind of trouble that emerged on Vernon Street as there were no tenants to evict as far as their project went, Graham says.

Asking Graham about the Perseus campaign contributions seems to elicit an answer that's tantamount to "Hey, that's politics."

"Am I happy with this? No," Graham tells City Desk. "Am I a pragmatist? I have to be." Graham says he would prefer it if corporations weren't allowed to donate. Still, City Desk notices from recent records that Graham  hasn't sent back any of the money.

Weaver, meanwhile, considers Perseus too tainted to deal with.  He says an associate recently offered to introduce him to someone from the development firm. Weaver says he didn't mind the intro as long as it was understood that he would never take money from the company. Weaver says Graham losing the committee that was investigating Perseus was no excuse for no longer fighting the company. "He didn't lose the Ward," says Weaver. Weaver asserts that Graham lost interest in pursuing Perseus when the media stopped paying attention. "While the Washington Post and everyone was focused on it, he was great," says Weaver.

What happened on Vernon, Weaver says, was extremely upsetting. "It was almost old-school gangster," he says.

Graham shoots back that Weaver is just electioneering: "For Bryan, this is just simply trying to get some votes."

Photo by dbking/Creative Commons Attribution License

Haydee Vanegas

The co-owner of Haydee's, a Salvadorean restaurant at 3102 Mt. Pleasant Street NW, sparked a neighborhood fight earlier this year when she decided to apply for a CN-class nightclub license, a move that would unburden her eatery from the city's stringent food-sales requirements and allow her to expand its hours of operation.

After months of arguing the issue on neighborhood Listservs and meetings of the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission, Vanegas and her detractors finally got to duke it out in front of the Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Board on May 26.

At the hearing, though, Haydee's opponents were thrown for something of a loop. A group of five nearby residents who had formed to protest the nightclub license were not allowed to testify because they had not filed the proper paperwork.  While the Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance's Sam Broeksmit was permitted to testify, the topics that he was allowed to discuss were more limited than he had anticipated.

Broeksmit had planned to argue that a tavern license would meet Haydee's needs, that many of the signatures on the petition in support of Haydee's application were not from Mount Pleasant residents, and that Haydee's food sales are consistently above the 45 percent threshold it needs to meet as a restaurant. The ABC Board, however, only allowed him to speak to issues of peace and quiet, property values, and parking.

"They basically instructed Sam saying, 'You've got to defend the assertion that the conversion to a nightclub will cause problems under one or all of those categories,'" says ANC Commissioner Jack McKay, a supporter of Haydee's application. "He really wasn't prepared to do that."

"I definitely had to change on the fly," Broeksmit admits. "I guess I would say it was uneven. There was a very narrow box being put around what we could say and then a broad box around what Haydee's could testify to and what the Board to ask questions to."

The limited scope of what he was allowed to testify about was just the latest hurdle in what has been a "frustrating" process for Broeksmit.

His neighborhood association has pushed without success for Haydee's to instead apply for a tavern license with an entertainment endorsement, a compromise Broeksmit says would let Haydee's achieve its desired goals of longer hours for dancing, greater capacity, and a lower food-sales requirement but without near-total lack of restrictions that comes with a nightclub license.

"We support almost everything she wants, yet she wants it within a nightclub for no clearly articulated reason," Broeksmit says.

Given the bad blood between Broeksmit and Haydee's, though—the two were foes in the 2008 battle over the ban on dancing and live music at Mt. Pleasant Street restaurants—it's perhaps unsurprising that Haydee's is resistant to the tavern compromise. Haydee's owner Vanegas says she feels Broeksmit's group is "anti-business" and that the tavern license would come with "too many restrictions."

"They would still be at the mercy of the MPNA, and that's basically what Haydee objected to," McKay says. "I think largely because they have such a long history of conflict with the MPNA, they don't want anything to do with the MPNA."

The ABC Board has 90 days after the hearing to review and decide the case.

Photo by CarrieA, Creative Commons Attribution License

Washington Harbour

The Issue: Six Georgetown restaurants, including four along Washington Harbour, are trying to back out of their voluntary agreements with neighbors. The VAs, as they're often called in NIMBY circles, legally bind the operators to certain hours and methods of operation as a condition of their licenses to sell alcohol. Violations of these agreements tend to draw the ire of the District's Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA). Buzzkill!

It's About Flexibility: On Tuesday, the Georgetown eateries (Cabanas, Los Cuates, Mate, Riverside Grille, Neyla, Tony & Joe's Seafood) formally asked local Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 2E to let them back out of their existing VAs. "We need more flexibility to extend a little more hours and also expand," says Luis Merchan, co-owner of Los Cuates at 1564 Wisconsin Avenue NW.  "When we got this place, we got it empty. After six or seven months, this place started picking up and crowding. We see that it needs to be upgraded and expanded."

It's About Decibels: Condo owners at Washington Harbour, at least, are none too pleased at the prospect of restaurants reneging, particularly when it comes to restrictions on amplified music. "As soon as you've got amplified music, then you've got people who speak at a higher voice level because they have to speak above the amplified music," says ANC commissioner Tom Birch. "I would like us not to permit any kind of amplified music. It just deteriorates the scene, aesthetically, socially and civilly."

What's Next? Certainly not cranking the volume. The ANC unanimously rejected the restaurants' request to terminate their voluntary agreements.

Photo by Alex Burchfield

Sometime after the dramatic conclusion to Game 5 of the NBA semifinals between the Phoenix Suns and the L.A. Lakers, Hagos, 40, asked the restaurant's proprietor, Terfneh Kahsay, if he could go upstairs, where a card game was underway.

When police arrived on the scene at approximately 2:19 a.m., Hagos was lying on the sidewalk outside the establishment, suffering from stab wounds. He later died.

Kahsay told D.C.'s Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Board on Wednesday that people often come over to his private second-floor residence above the restaurant for card games. The residential entrance sits outside, through a separate door from the restaurant.

It was simply a friendly card game–no money, no booze–Kahsay said. The owner was closing shop with a waitress when someone knocked on the door of his restaurant and informed him that Hagos and Samson Alemayhu, 48, were fighting outside.

“I don’t know what happened upstairs. I didn’t know until after I closed,” he said. The altercation took place outside the establishment after it had closed for the night, he noted. The restaurant does not employ a security guard, nor does it have surveillance cameras. By the time Kahsay got outside, Alemayhu had left, only to return shortly with a knife, he testified.

Hagos and Alemayhu had known each other since residing in Athens, Greece, years ago. “They argued in the past, but I never seen any weapons coming out,” Kahsay said.

Hagos was transported to Howard University Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at approximately 3:04 a.m. Alemayhu was arrested late Sunday and charged with first-degree murder.

ABC Board Chairman Charles Brodsky advised Kahsay to install surveillance cameras.

Emergency legislation passed by D.C. Council yesterday allowing D.C. bars to open as early as 7 a.m. during the World Cup soccer tournament in South Africa would seem to suggest the presence of a few footy fans in the upper eschelons of city government, right?

Well, sort of. "Soccer has enormous interest everywhere, from what I can gather," Councilmember Jim Graham, who sponsored the legislation, was quoted as saying in the Examiner.

Area boozehounds will still have to wait until the 30th minute of action or so during early morning games to legally order a frothy pint or few. A law prohibiting alcohol sales before 8 a.m. remains in place, while "[s]ome of the games will start when it's only 7:30 a.m. in D.C.," meaning futbol aficionados "won't be able to order anything stronger than coffee for the first part of the match," the Examiner notes.

Some local suds-slingers are less than thrilled with the council's fancy legislative footwork. "What is the point of me opening a bar at seven o'clock in the morning for a soccer game if I can't sell liquor?" a manager at Circa at Dupont asks local Fox affiliate WTTG-TV.

Try food, maybe? The last time the quadrennial sporting event prompted local venues to adopt quirky hours of operation (and the city similarly stymied efforts to serve alcohol before 8 a.m.) some bar owners got creative. In 2002, when the games took place in far-flung South Korea, for instance, Capitol Lounge proprietor Joe Englert unveiled a newfangled homemade donut machine for the festivities. (This reporter packed on an additional ten pounds as a result.)

For a full list of venues to catch every kickoff, consult City Paper's handy World Cup watching guide.

Video courtesy of WTTG-TV

“We have people who are elected as ANC commissioners to represent us in our neighborhood, but then my ANC commissioner refused to even put me on the schedule to be heard, because it’s either ‘You do it my way, or it’s going to be no way at all,'" says Morgan, proprietor of the longstanding Morgan's Seafood eatery in Parkview. (City Paper alum Annys Shin previously profiled the Morgan family business and its repeated struggles with cars crashing into the restaurant in 2002.)

For weeks, the charismatic Rastafarian restaurateur has been engaged in a war of words with local ANC 1A commissioner Cliff Valenti, who points to several reasons why Morgan shouldn't acquire a license – including Morgan's allegedly leaving "junk" in the alley and the supposed correlation between liquor licenses and violent crime on Georgia Avenue NW.

On Wednesday, City Desk asked Morgan about his relationship with Valenti and why their differences seemed so irreconcilable. Morgan said some not-so-nice things about Valenti’s character, and claimed that Valenti had insulted his family business at a previous ANC meeting, allegedly telling fellow commissioner William Jordan that Morgan’s Seafood is “atrocious.” Valenti vehemently denies this statement.

The friction between the two seemed to come to a head at an ANC meeting two weeks ago, which got so out of hand during a discussion about Morgan's liquor plan that Valenti subsequently stepped down as committee chair, citing certain “personalities that I can’t manage." He meant Morgan. When City Desk asked Valenti why he resigned, he replied, "I was called something I'm not willing to repeat."

So, when the community members and ANC commissioners agreed to convene again to discuss Morgan’s case, in a more hospitable environment, they met at the restaurant. Attendants pulled stools out onto the sidewalk, arranging them in a semi-circle next to a white fold-out sign that said “BAR B QUE,” stenciled in red paint. Commissioner Jordan prefaced the discussion by saying this was an informal way of hearing community feedback. The issue at hand was whether a tavern license would be a nuisance to neighbors, increasing the number of drunks wandering the streets, pissing in alleys, and bringing the noise to an unacceptable level.

Morgan, who is wont to emotional outbursts, fervently answered these concerns. He cited his loyalty to the community, his former career as a Marine and his affable character. A pair of George Washington University graduates who live in the area dropped by to voice their opinion, one of them said, “No one has made me feel as comfortable as Romeo after moving in.”

Morgan used this support to bolster his point, “Eighty percent of my customers would like to be able to sit out, eat crabs, eat a fish sandwich, or whatever is in season, and have drink. If you want a crab cake sandwich, a cold beer goes directly with it.”

But underneath these comments, and Morgan’s frustration with other local restaurants receiving approval for a license in as little as thirty days, the simmering tension between Valenti and Morgan burst out intermittently throughout the debate. Morgan made it very clear that Valenti’s alleged remark about the restaurant had crossed the line. “I live and die by my family’s name,” said Morgan.

Then, a heated back and forth ensued: "Let me ask you something," said Romeo. "Did you want a back porch on your house?"

"Yeah," Valenti answered hesitantly.

"Ok, so why is it that you choose to have a back porch?" Morgan asked.

"Because zoning code allows me to have a back porch," Valenti said.

"And zoning code allows me to have a tavern license," Morgan replied.

"And by right I can have a back porch," Valenti said.

"And by right I can have a tavern license," Morgan responded.

"No," Valenti countered. "It’s a privilege, not a right."

Valenti insisted his criticism was "not about Romeo’s personality," adding, "and I happen to like him very much. I have never called your business atrocious. Never, never, never. Here’s the problem of why I get more and more suspicious and afraid of you getting a liquor license in this neighborhood. There are regulations that you’re supposed to abide by in order to get a liquor license. You’re supposed to have a wall up, blocking your garbage cans. I don’t see a wall there. You’re not supposed to have all that junk in the back. If you’re not allowed to have that now, and you’re seeking a liquor license, there are other violations we could go over.How are we supposed to trust you when the liquor license allows you play music as loud as you want until 2 a.m.?”

A few other neighbors agreed with Valenti’s concerns. Lisa Eady, a woman who lives a couple houses down from the restaurant, was one of them:

“We have more than enough liquor establishments in this neighborhood. The people hanging out, urination and defecation in the alleys, it wouldn’t be a good thing.”

At one point, between the shouting and the circular argumentation, a voice of reason came from the corner of the semi-circle. An old man named Jonathan Mundwa, a native Ugandan, summed up the central concerns. For the first time, everyone at the meeting was silent.

“This is my community. The only thing I’m trying to understand is that this man is asking for a license to do his business so he can help us when we need help. I live here and I die here, but before I die, I want where I live to be very peaceful and nice. If you put clear what you plan to do, we in community don’t care how much money you make out of it, we are after peace and security.”

When the meeting concluded, and the commissioners had agreed on the next meeting time, City Desk helped Morgan put the stools back inside. His frustration was still inflamed. As we chatted for a little longer while he cooked me a crab cake to take home, a man walked in with a bicycle to buy some chicken. Morgan had already cooked it, explaining in detail the correct procedure to make the chicken fall of the bone when you eat it. After reheating it, and draining the chicken fat into a steel pan, he brought the pan over to show me. “See,” he said. “I make sure my customers don’t eat that. That’s how much I care about them.”

The violence erupted when one male club-goer bumped into another. There was some shoving, a head butt and two punches before one of the men, the smaller of the two, pulled out a box cutter.

According to an investigative report by the District's Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA), the blade wielder twice slashed the left side of his victim's face, leaving behind deep gashes. The man with the box cutter was arrested by police. The victim was taken to the hospital. In a letter to the ABRA, Lanier called Muse's security the night of the slicing "inadequate," and asked for a revocation of the club's license.

Reviewing the incident at a fact-finding hearing on Wednesday, the city's Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Board wanted to know why the assailant wasn't searched for weapons as he entered the club. They figured Muse regularly frisked its patrons. Steven O'Brien, a lawyer for the nightspot explained that club security didn't pat down the crowd that evening because it was Sunday. He says security staffers only frisk patrons on Thursdays. O'Brien says the reason why is that on Sundays, the club attracts a mature, "well-dressed"crowd for a Latin-themed night while "On Thursday, it's a younger crowd...I'm trying to think of a way to say it, a less sophisticated crowd."

Speaking at the hearing on behalf of concerned community members, Terry Carter, who lives in a condo located next door to the hang-out, had a number of complaints about Muse, one was that, in informing the board that its Thursday night clientele was being inspected for weapons because it's a "younger" crowd, Muse was using "code speak": "Thursday night is hip-hop night," he said. "They are patting down the hip-hoppers."

Carter says that neighbors were particularly not amused about the slashing. "We even had to clean the blood up in front of our building that morning," he says.

O'Brien says the club knows it made a mistake not searching the "mature" crowd for weapons: "We now know that it can happen, because it has happened." He says that when the club reopens, all its customers will be searched.

But that's not all. Piringer says there's also a gas leak in the area. Streets are cordoned off. Canine units have been dispatched to sniff out the leak. Updates as available.

UPDATE, 12:46 p.m.: Five contractors working inside the red brick rowhouse were not injured when the second floor collapsed, Piringer says. The second floor of an adjacent yellow brick rowhouse at 218 Morgan Street NW also collapsed but no one was home at the time, he adds. The gas at both properties has been turned off to prevent further leakage.

Photo by Rend Smith