The Issue: First picnic tables, now a spray-painted mural of a giant dog and children blowin’ bubbles is causin' a ruckus in Walter Pierce Park. Not so much the mural, per se, but the process it took to get there. Ward 1 residents were given a 10-day notice, posted on a neighborhood Listserv, that a mural would be painted along both sides of a wall in Walter Pierce Park last October. Don’t know what a Listserv is? Too bad.

As discussions took place between Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham's office, which commissioned the artwork through his MuralsDC initiative, and  the D.C. Department of Public Works (DPW), residents and the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) were seemingly left out of the decision process. “It was only after the site was selected and announced that the ANC met with members of MuralsDC,”  says local ANC commissioner Bryan Weaver (who, perhaps not incidentally, is opposing Graham in the upcoming council election). Only after that process were residents informed, says Weaver.

The Clock Was Tickin’: “Weather was an issue,” says DPW spokesperson Nancee Lyons. Instead of starting in the summer, the program didn’t get rollin’ until last fall, so certain aspects were rushed in order for the art to be completed by winter, Lyons says. “Should there have been some signage posted at the park? Probably,” says Mindy Moretti, the local ANC commissioner and president on the board of Friends of Walter Pierce Park. But MuralsDC was heading the project, so that would’ve been their responsibility, Moretti says. “The process was obviously flawed…but this project was dealing with a short budget and timeline, and a push was made to make the project happen,” Weaver says. In the month between the Listserv announcement, and the start of the artwork, residents were mum with their opinions, he adds.

Sketches of the mural were presented at a local ANC meeting, counters Dominic Painter, executive director of the Midnight Forum, a managing agent for MuralsDC. “No one had concerns, so we went with the positive feedback. It’s a ridiculous notion to think we’re going to reach every single person that lives in the neighborhood,” he says.

Adds Graham, writing on the Listserv, “I have every reason to believe that the process was followed in this case."

What’s in a Listserv?: A single message on an email discussion group is appalling, says resident Gretchen Cook. “It assumes everyone worth consulting has a computer, knows about the Listserv and has the time to check it regularly,” she says.  There should have been a sign at the park and an open forum, she adds. Says neighbor Glenn Hennessey, “I consider the park a place to escape the city, not a place to be reminded of it….any type of artwork is wrong.” Hennessy adds that the Listserv failed to mention exactly which wall the mural would be painted upon.

What’s Next: There are no plans to do away with the mural. Instead, local artist and mural creator Aniekan Udofia is currently working on renewing one of the other three murals in the park that is deteriorating.

Photo by Glenn Hennessey.

The Issue: Neighbors expressed frustration and concern over Georgetown University’s 2010 Campus Plan at a meeting last night. “It’s possible there’ll be changes as a result of tonight­–but some of the big issues–on-campus housing–I don’t expect change,” says Linda Greenan, assistant vice president for external relations at Georgetown. Noisy, late-night partyin’ students already plague life in Burleith and West Georgetown. And with an expected enrollment increase of 2,475 over the next decade, a 10 percent growth in staff and faculty, and 8,500 square feet of retail planned, residents may never sleep.

Stop, Drop and Enroll: Although the 2010 plan intends on boosting graduate enrollment, a majority of those will be “continuing studies” students, many of whom already reside in the District, says GU Provost James O’Donnell. The majority of students residing in Burleith and West Georgetown are undergraduates­–where enrollment will be capped at the current 6,016.

In response to on-campus growth, parking will increase from 700 to 1,000 new spots and there’ll be an additional 120 beds. Off-campus, GU expects to ramp up SNAP to two cars to cover the community, with an additional third on patrol in the summer. In May, a detail of off-duty MPD officers will also be on patrol in response to student safety and noise issues.

In response to resident concerns, the original 26,000 square feet of retail planned for the so-called 1789 Block was reduced to 8,500. “I’m a neighbor, and I think that retail would be great–it gives people a place to walk, they don’t have to drive, and it gives students a place to get their things without cars,” one resident in the audience chimes in. “There may be things that change in that process [Zoning Commission], so the community will have lots of time…this doesn’t close out the process,” says Alan Brangman, university architect at GU. Greenan adds, “This whole plan is a concept. Every single thing that’s proposed in here, we’ll have to go through another process of zoning…we’re nowhere ready to do this. When we are ready, we’ll come back to the community and talk about it.”

A Cap On Gowns!: Some residents say it's a myth that graduate students don’t live in Burleith and West Georgetown. An increase of over 1,300 students, whether they reside in the area or not, still means “we’re going to have that many people coming in and out of the neighborhood–in addition to the traffic problems,” chirps one neighbor. An increase in graduate students in Burleith “threatens the diversity of the community,” says Lenore Rubino, president of the Burleith Citizens Association.

“Whatever the reasons for not putting a cap down, I think we should look now to putting an overall cap on the student community,” says Ron Lewis, chair of the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission. Some suggest a cap simply on undergraduates is inadequate in controlling the overall growth problem at hand. “I remember, it was a modest [population] increase of 15 percent," recalls one resident, citing the 2000 Campus Plan, "while we actually saw an increase of more like 75 percent. How can we put any faith in these projects if the last projects were so dramatically wrong?”

Some residents argued additional retail was unnecessary when neighboring Georgetown Park is mired in turmoil. Others add that SNAP was useless in combating profanity: “…college renters…are always saying, ‘fuck this,’ and ‘fuck that.’ I don’t want that to be my kids’ first words.”

“If the students were under control, I don’t think we would be here…I don’t know when a toga party is going to erupt on my block,” says nearby resident Ann Kenkel. "I feel like you're just here to check off a box for the city, to say that you had a community meeting and nothing else," adds another neighbor.

What’s Next: Georgetown University expects to file its 2010 Campus Plan with the Zoning Commission in May or June. After, the commision will schedule a series of hearings–expected in the fall–when student leaders, members of the community, witnesses and university officials are able to voice their concerns. The current campus plan expires on Dec. 31.

Additional reporting by Chris Heller.

Photo by rachaelvoorhees. Creative Commons Attribution License.

And another point of consensus: The M Street Safeway is better than no grocery at all, which is what Southwesterners are bracing for this spring. During about two weeks in April, the company plans to close down the existing store while it puts the finishing touches on a brand new Safeway, set to open April 16 as part of a redevelopment of the same parcel.

A two-week closure might not be a big deal in neighborhoods with abundant shopping options, but it’s going to be a hardship for waterfront residents, says David C. Sobelsohn, secretary of the 6D Advisory Neighborhood Commission.

“This Safeway is not only the largest retailer in Southwest; it’s our only source of food. For many people without cars, there is really no other option,” Sobelsohn says. “We are looking for assurances that Safeway will do what it takes to make sure people in this neighborhood have access to food.”

The old store is slated to close on April 4. The new one will open on April 16, according to Craig M. Muckle, spokesman for Safeway’s Eastern Division.

Among those concerned is Tserha Gebreamlak, 41, who moved into the neighborhood a decade ago, partly because of the supermarket a few blocks from her apartment. She suffers from a chronic syndrome that often leaves her exhausted, so she tends to shop two or three times a week to cut down on number of items she has to lug at any one time.

“I moved here depending on Safeway,” she says. “Now I may have to take a train to Harris Teeter,” on Capitol Hill, near the Potomac Ave. Metro station.

Safeway also has another store near Kentucky Avenue SE. But both of those supermarkets are located on the other side of the Southeast Freeway, more than a mile away. That leaves a 7-Eleven, a few variety stores, and not much else by way of shopping options.

Sobelsohn and other residents would like the store to remain open and wonder whether Safeway executives are just trying to save a few bucks with the temporary shutdown.

But Muckle says the company needs the time to move existing equipment into the new store located directly behind the old store and demolish the old building. Besides, Muckle says, Safeway has already gone out of its way to keep its doors open during construction.

“This isn’t about creating a hardship. We want to do what’s right for the community,” says Muckle, pointing out that things could be much worse: Safeway’s Georgetown store has been closed for renovations for about a year now.

But those two neighborhoods make for a lopsided comparison. For starters, Georgetown is one of the city’s wealthier neighborhoods, while the area around the Safeway is still one of the District’s poorer sections despite new construction in recent years. Not only is there a Whole Foods Market a few blocks from the closed Safeway on Wisconsin Avenue NW, Georgetown residents are more mobile. According to 2000 Census figures, the most recent available, 83 percent of households in the Georgetown, Burleith, Hilldale area of the city owned cars, compared to 60 percent of households in the Southwest-Waterfront section of Ward 6.

“Southwest is an older, established neighborhood. It’s mostly seniors and may don’t drive,” says Clarence Brown, executive director of the District’s Office on Aging, who also happens to live next door to the Safeway. “Ten days, I can live with that. I go to Harris Teeter,” he says, “but it will be a concern for a lot of people.” (Safeway originally estimated a 10-day closure but revised that yesterday to12 days.)

“I’m still driving,” says Sandra Butler-Truesdale, 70, the secretary of the residents’ association of St. James Mutual coop building, on O Street SW. “I’m just concerned to know what those seniors will do and what plans are being made” to help them get to the supermarket during the closure.

Neighborhood residents have been pushing Safeway officials to discuss their plans to make sure no one goes hungry during to the 12-day closure. Shuttle bus service to another grocery store, moving a small retail operation into a temporary trailer on the property, or offering free delivery service are among the ideas buzzing around the neighborhood.

Muckle says Safeway officials are working on alternative "shopping opportunities” but declined to go into detail about what they might be.

“We are working on those and will have something in place by the ANC meeting in March,” Muckle says.

That’s not much comfort for Gebreamlak, who says she could probably cope for a couple of weeks but “it would be nice if I knew in advance, so I can make a plan.”

Anger over the closure just adds to resentment Southwest residents feel about the way they say the store has been run over the years, concerns that prompted the ANC to launch a special task force to work with store management to improve cleanliness, security and a litany of other issues.

“Items advertised on sale are so often out of stock that I have begun to think ‘on sale’ is a euphemism for ‘out of stock’ at that store,” Sobelsohn says.

Anger boiled last September at a community meeting to discuss Safeway’s application to sell beer and wine at the new store. Hundreds of residents packed the meeting and bombarded Safeway district managers with complaints, recalls Robert Sockwell, chair of the SW Safeway Taskforce. [CLARIFICATION:  Sockwell emailed to say the meeting was called to discuss the problems at the store but the liquor license was also discussed.]

“The meeting probably never would have ended if we hadn’t cut off the questions,” says Sockwell, who also chaired the September meeting.

Susan Henriques-Payne has lived across the street from the store for 31 years but, like Brown, hasn’t shopped there in ages. only shops there on "an as needed basis." Instead, she makes road trips to Virginia to buy her groceries. She’s looking forward to the prospect of shopping closer to home once the new store opens, but her expectations are low.

“It’s a culture of mediocrity,” she says. “They really aren’t customer focused.”

“I know we have to regain some credibility with the community,” Muckle says. “But this is in no way an attempt to place some hardship on them. We see the new store as an opportunity to turn the page completely.”

City Desk did a survey of ANC commissioners this morning to find out: What does your street look like? Have you seen a plow? Are you snowed in?

William Schultheiss, of ANC 6A, who lives on F Street NE near 12th: His street is not clear. "They haven't done the side streets," he says. "They never had it cleared from the first storm." He's been able to make it out with his four-wheel drive, but he has a Golf that's staying put. "The Golf is trapped, at least until June." He reports that Maryland Avenue has two of four lanes open and passable.

Faith Wheeler, of ANC 4B, who lives in the 800 block of Whittier Place NW: Her street hadn't been plowed as of 10 a.m. today, but she's not surprised. "It shouldn't be," she says. The order should be "major arterials, minor arterials, then collector roads and then local roads." The neighborhood took to shoveling the alley itself after the first storm—"We shoveled the whole freaking thing, so anybody who wanted to get out could get out," she says—finally getting it clear on...Tuesday night. She has heard of uneven plow service, with folks east of Piney Branch Road generally happy with the attention they got and residents west wondering where the plows are.

Ben Thomas, of ANC 7E, who lives in the 1100 block of Chaplin Street SE: A plow came by sometime last night, he reports (the second of two times a plow has made an appearance during D.C.'s three snowstorms this season). "They don't really do anything but pile the snow against peoples' cars," he says. But the street is at least passable. "I saw a car go by a little while ago," he says. He can't get out of the house himself; the snow drifts are three feet. "We can't even get off the porch, because the snow has drifted up on the porch."

Raphael Marshall, of ANC 6A, who lives in the 800 block of 10th Street NE: He's still snowed in. Asked how much snow is on the street, he reports, "Quite a bit." But he's not really stuck per se. He doesn't drive. "I've tried to lower my footprint on the planet."

Mary Wright, of ANC 6B, who lives in the 600 block of C Street SE: On her way to an appointment this morning, Wright reports that the road is at least "passable." "I think it's difficult all over the city," she adds. "It took a while, but, yes, we did" see a plow.

Mindy Moretti, of ANC 1C, who lives in the 2600 block of Adams Mill Road NW: A plow had been by "at some point in time" during the storms, "but it's not been great since Sunday night." Her bigger concern has been Columbia Road. "Columbia Road, until the other day, was a mess." The email listserv was flooded with complaints, and finally it got some attention. "I think people's expectations were low to begin with," she says. "I lived here in 1996 so I didn't expect anything." Still, conditions for pedestrians are treacherous, she says. She has a special complaint about the Exxon station near the corner of 18th and Columbia, which she says "never, ever, ever shovels." The station finally plowed its lot—then dumped all the stuff on the sidewalk. "They erected this three-foot tall, four-foot wide snow wall. Unless somebody gets a pickaxe..."

Stephen Slaughter, of ANC 8E, who lives in the 800 block of Barnaby Street SE: "Barnaby Street is plowed all the way down to the pavement," he reports. "I guess it's one advantage of living on the main roads." The street is a bus route for the M8, M9, and the A2, and he suspects that's why it got attention—for when the buses start running again.

Gladys Mack, of ANC 6A, who lives in the 700 block of 18th Street NE: She says 18th "could be a little bit better," but that it had in fact been cleared from the last storm. "I haven't had any problems in past storms," she says. "They always come through at least twice." She has a conspiracy theory about it, though: "Don't they usually hit in front of the ANC houses because of surveys like this?"

Charles Reed, of ANC 2F, who lives on Q Street NW near 13th: He reports that cars are using the street, though it doesn't look like it's seen a plow. "Cars are just beating it down," he says. It took him and his neighbors half a day to shovel out an alley, which allowed him to get out in his car, but that alley is now covered again. He thinks he pinched a nerve and hasn't been out shoveling today. "Someone has shoveled all the way up to my doorstep," he says.

Gary Thompson, of ANC 3G, who lives in the 2800 block of Northampton Street NW: "My own street's been plowed very well," he says. "They've done an excellent job plowing, especially under the circumstances. There have been a few forgotten streets here or there, like a dead end culdesac," but the city is catching up. "People are very quick to complain," he says. "But Mother Nature is what it is. It's a pretty powerful storm."

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

The Issue: The owner of the Takoma Theatre is planning a five-story apartment building for the historic spot. The theater has occupied the corner of Fourth and Butternut Streets NW since 1923; Milton McGinty bought the building in 1983. But the low-density neighborhood of Takoma has not been kind to a privately owned arts building that puts on plays, and McGinty wants to head to a greener pasture—real estate. In 2007, he petitioned to turn the theater into an office building, catalyzing the formation of Takoma Theatre Conservancy, a nonprofit that wants to purchase the property; he was ultimately denied by the Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB). But now McGinty proposes razing the theater and replacing it with an apartment building—with a tiny theater on the ground floor. With the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) and the Conservancy up in arms, will HPRB still pull an Atropos?

Save the Theater: According to the ANC 4B resolution against the demolition passed Oct. 15, “there is strong and active support among people in the community to keep the Theatre, with the prospect of at last having an active cultural arts and education center.” The resolution notes there are no other theaters in Ward 4, and only one in Ward 5—at Catholic University. Ward 4B Commissioner Faith Wheeler told City Desk, “The Conservancy has had engineers look at the building, surveys and analysis done, and interviews with people from various walks of life to determine the viability of a cultural arts center. We’ve had a an extremely positive result.” The Conservancy would like to host everything from film showings and theater performances to educational lectures.

Time is Up: According to Capital Community News, the empty lot is worth $2 milion more if the floundering theater is demolished. McGinty told the paper, “I threw caution to the wind, and I didn’t consider location and all the financial issues that could apply.” A commenter on the blog DC Mud points out, “What is the purpose of saving something that has no viable economic alternative? We cannot have these museums of public space. It is time to move on.”

Next Step: At an Oct. 22 meeting, HPRB unanimously voted against the demolition, a step that Wheeler says “they were bound to do anyway by regulation.” McGinty has appealed to the preservation board. In the meantime, nail-biting theatre-nostalgics can contribute to the Takoma Theatre Conservancy. If the building is demolished and rebuilt, McGinty promises at least to keep the theater's sign and facade, for posterity.

Photo by Mr. T, Creative Commons Attribution License

Speed Up: ANC Commissioner David Engel says, "The humps are massive, and a huge traffic diversion. You can't go more than five miles an hour." He is also irked that an invited DDOT official shunned a recent ANC meeting at which the issue came up. He maintains that it's mainly the "rich and powerful on the block" that want the speed bumps, rather than the whole community. "Certain people want their own urban village," he says.

Slow Down: John Lisle, spokesman for DDOT, says that speed humps must be approved by 75 percent of the block—and that happened—but the process has been streamlined and no longer requires a traffic report. In terms of construction, he said, "ANC approval is not required." Also, it is unclear whether the ANC provided opposition early enough in the process.

Next Step: In that recent meeting, the ANC requested the speed humps be removed pending the collection of data; it also wants an oversight hearing on the entire process.