(Photo by Darrow Montgomery)

H.D. Woodson Senior High School, a.k.a. the nine-floor “Tower of Power,” is set to be demolished this summer. But when and how exactly?

Yesterday, Woodson’s alumni association (and surely a multitude of other D.C. listservs) received word that the groundbreaking would occur Monday July 7 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Yet, less than two weeks ago, the school was still loaded with furniture, books, equipment, trophies, and with no clear leadership in the building (Principal Gwendolyn Jones was fired by Chancellor Michelle Rhee), many staff seemed confused about deadlines and moving dates.

So, what does this little event really kick-off? Well, not much, says Tony Robinson, spokesperson for the Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization Projects. Groundbreakings are the most ceremonial of ceremonies, and this one is no exception.

Immediately after the event, “We’ll start some excavation out on the football field. Then, after that, they’ll start doing asbestos abatement in the school,” says Robinson, a 1980 Woodson alumnus.

The school demolition won’t occur until at least a few weeks after July 7, and will likely last until September. And don’t expect some wild explosion to rock the calm streets of Deanwood.

“No, No,” says Robinson. “Everyone wants to see [Woodson] implode,” but the building will brought down by a plain jane wrecking ball.

The new Woodson building will cover the old school site, as well as part of the current space of the football field. One thing’s for sure: it will not be a highrise, like its innovative and extraordinarily dysfunctional predecessor. Construction won’t begin until the old building is fully demolished.

Building plans were shown at Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander’s “State of the Ward” meeting late May, says her Chief of Staff J.R. Meyers, adding that the new Woodson was designed for 1,300 students. (As of last fall, the enrollment was just over 750.)

Woodson first opened in 1972. According to a February Washington City Paper article, “Neighborhood residents fought the tower on the grounds of its imposing height, but it got rave reviews from architectural types. Charles Atherton, secretary of the federal Commission of Fine Arts, said the school would “be a good symbol and an excellent landmark.”

The new school is slated to open in 2010.

“As a Woodson graduate, I can honestly say this building is going to be the crown jewel of the District’s new school inventory,” says Robinson. “It’s going to be a very contemporary building.”

Hmmm, sounds familiar.

The Benning Neighborhood Library has been closed since December 2004, leaving lots of Ward 7 residents wondering when their community will be served by something more than occasional bookmobiles and a tiny kiosk in nearby Deanwood.

At a mid-February meeting of the Ward 7 Leadership Council, they thought they finally had an answer: D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray, attendees say, proposed rebuilding the Benning branch at the District Office of Employment Services (OES) site, currently under construction next to the Minnesota Avenue Metro station.

Whether it was a plan or just a remark, residents and community leaders have seized on his proposal, and Gray seems to have unwittingly stepped into a hornet’s nest.

“The library going there would be a great addition to the community,” says Villareal Johnson, an advisory neighborhood commissioner who was at the meeting. He cites the poor location of the original library as a reason to support the move. “But they need to put a library up as soon as possible because [the OES] project is still two years away.”

Others are not so amenable to the prospects of relocation. “It’s a big no-no,” says Juanita Montague, president of the Friends of Benning Library. “What we really want is our library reopened or rebuilt. We are not interested in relocating.”

Gray did not return several calls for comment. Monica Lewis, a spokesperson for the D.C. Public Library, says, “We are aware of this matter but we have had no formal discussion with Chairman Gray or any other city official.”

“It does seem that this was an off-the-cuff remark,” says Robin Diener, project coordinator for the D.C. Library Renaissance Project, a nonprofit that deals with library issues. “Quite a number of people heard this information and thought it was a plan,” she says.

The whispers began as soon as Ward 7 D.C. Council candidate Victor Vandell’s yard signs started going up. Opponents had obtained information that Vandell, running as a Democrat, was actually a registered Republican until just before he moved to his Deanwood home in May 2006.

Technically, Vandell’s opponents are correct. An inquiry to the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics reveals that Vandell was recorded as a Republican until May 2006.

But Vandell says the whole thing is a big mix-up. “It was a clerical error” by the elections office, the candidate says. “I didn’t even realize I was registered as a Republican until I voted in 2004,” he says.

Vandell, who was not contemplating a run for office at the time, figured he’d clear things up before the next election. He took care of the “mistake” when he registered after his move.

“Check the records in the other places I have lived. Wilmington, Del., Baton Rouge, La., Rochester, N.Y., and Chicago before that,” says Vandell. “I am a lifelong Democrat.”

LL’s initial attempts to verify Vandell’s story came up dry. It turns out a lot of places aren’t as free with voter information as the District. The Delaware voter registration office told LL he’d have to appear in person to get the information. Next stop, Chicago.

“We have some momentum going,” says Vandell. “So [my opponents] are trying to exploit a mistake made by the elections board.”

When the D.C. Public Library announced the arrival of wireless Internet at DCPL locations across the city in September, only a single neighborhood branch out of more than 20 found itself uninvited to the hip Wi-Fi party: the Deanwood Kiosk.

The hot-spot snub shouldn’t have surprised anyone who’s visited the diminutive, 150-square-foot hexagonal outpost on Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue NE—it looks more like an Italian-ice stand than a city library. Yet despite the fact that the branch claims just one table and a couple of chairs for patrons, DCPL spokesperson Monica Lewis says wireless Internet could reach the kiosk within a few months.

“A broadband line is what’s needed,” says Lewis. “We’ll probably do it sometime in 2007, and probably in the earlier part of the year.”

For now, the kiosk gets by with just a single computer helmed by branch manager Lisa Hook. “There’s no card catalog, but they [DCPL] provide me with the laptop to look up things that visitors need,” Hook says. “It’s pretty good. I do have Internet.”

Artist’s rendering of the proposed Fatdog’s

Fatdog’s at present

Deanwood resident Catherine Woods is used to eyesores in the neighborhood. “Just look at this,” she says, pointing out piles of refuse, baggies from drug deals, and the stashed belongings of homeless residents in a winding, overgrown alley behind her home. But this alley has something that other neglected corners of D.C. do not: an abandoned, boarded-up diner.

It’s sat there since late last summer, which is when Keanne Henry moved the 16-seat, 1939-vintage structure from Pennsylvania to its current resting spot on the 4900 block of Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue NE. Henry and a partner plan to open a hot-dog eatery there and thought it best to store the diner on-site while seeking building permits. “We could have cut corners, but were mindful not to,” she says.

Deanwood residents, however, aren’t necessarily enthusiastic about franks in neighborhood. “No. 1: It is an awful eyesore,” says Woods, an advisory neighborhood commissioner. “No. 2: It abuts an alley that lends to dumping of trash and garbage…and people prostituting and using drugs.” Though the diner is boarded up, she says, “people find a way in.”

Despite the diner’s current clientele, Henry has a distinctly upscale vision. Fatdog’s Hot Dog Bistro will offer gourmet toppings, hand-cut Belgian fries, and a soy-dog option when it opens sometime in mid-2007. “It’s not a trailer, it is a diner,” she says. “[A] lot of people have nostalgic memories for a diner—ice cream and good American food.”

Woods remains concerned about the “class of people” the diner will attract. “No one is coming in there with a three-piece suit on,” she says.