Photo Gallery.  Dunbar 33 Coolidge 21.  Nov. 24th.  © 2011 Matt Dunn

With the first vote on the city’s new redistricted ward map set for Thursday, Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells and his supporters brought bullhorns to Lincoln Park last night to protest the proposed 17th Street dividing line that would send the eastern edge of Capitol Hill into Ward 7.

As Housing Complex's Lydia DePillis has pointed out, the Ward 6 residents up for grabs are tying themselves into knots to keep the current boundaries intact. At last night’s rally, they summoned the specter of Kingman Park—absorbed by Ward 7 during the District's last redistricting a decade ago—to warn that nearby Rosedale could fall into the hands of an unresponsive councilmember, though none of the speakers referred to Ward 7's Yvette Alexander by name.

“It’s not working, because I’m not across the bridge, I’m over here,” said Hannah Lewis, a volunteer at the Rosedale Recreation Center who lives in Kingman Park and wants her neighborhood moved back into Ward 6. She waved a "Save Kingman Park" sign during Wells' speech in front of Eastern High School, following a march along East Capitol Street.

With chants like "don't gerrymand, we're in command," some protesters complained that there's no way Wards 7 and 8 can represent their interests.

"The folks across the river, they have a whole other set of issues and a whole other set of things going on, and we’re going to be such a small percentage of their constituency that they’re really not going to care," said Patrick Crowley, a former board chairman at Congressional Cemetery.

Wells called the proposed dividing line—17th Street SE at Barney Circle to 17th Street NE at Benning Road—"dumb," but all of the territorial goodwill for Kingman Park and Hill East presents a problem: If Ward 6 takes Kingman Park back, the population imbalance across wards will get worse, not better. When pressed for his solution, Wells pointed to his fellow council members for ideas.

“Is Ward 5 part of the solution?” he asked. “Is Ward 2 really part of the solution? There are other wards that border Wards 7 and 8 that are just untouched.”

Some Rosedale residents were convinced that if the council sends the neighborhood to Ward 7, the neighborhood’s black voting base would be left behind.

“My community will lose a voice and will lose resources once we become Ward 7,” said Sondra Phillips-Gilbert. Before the council sets its sights on bigger goals, she complained, the city needs to focus on drawing fair boundaries that won’t split up neighborhoods.

“How can you ask for statehood when you’re busy disenfranchising and gerrymandering communities?” she asked.

Photos by Nick DeSantis

UPDATED 5:55 P.M.

Smoke billowed this afternoon from the roof of Eastern Senior High School, which is nearing the end of a $76 million renovation.

According to D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services, firefighters responded to reports of heavy black smoke coming from the building's roof shortly before 4:30 p.m. By 4:45, a second alarm had been called. East Capitol Street is closed east of Lincoln Park.

By 5:10, the smoke had stopped coming from the roof, and a police officer on the scene reported that the blaze was under control.

The school, built in 1932, has been closed since 2008 for a thorough renovation and had been scheduled to reopen this fall (although D.C. Public Schools officials recently backed off that timeline). Fire department spokesperson Pete Piringer said a "minimal amount of people" were in the building, which was quickly evacuated without incident. It's unclear if construction work was underway at the time.

Earlier today, a fire broke out at the Turner @ Green Elementary School, at 1500 Mississippi Ave. SE, causing damage to the school's playground and the building facade. Congress Heights on the Rise reported from the scene.

Photo, reporting by Arthur Delaney

UPDATE, 5:55 P.M.: The fire is out, Piringer reports from the scene. Construction crews were on the roof at Eastern today, he says, applying a waterproof rubberized membrane when the fire broke out; the roofers all escaped without incident. The blaze was contained to the roof, Piringer says, adding that any smoke or water damage to the rest of the building is "minimal."

The fire is likely accidental, Piringer says, and there looks to be no connection to the fire at Turner @ Green. That fire "totaled" playground equipment, while causing "superficial damage" to the building itself. The cause of that fire is under investigation.

One fascinating (to me) part of the story that I didn't get into for space reasons: While sitting on the Anacostia building over the years, Monk and Mann, joined by Darrell Green, lobbied the residents of Sursum Corda, a low-income housing development off North Capitol Street NW, to turn control of that woeful development over to them. The ex-teammates made their pitch to redevelop the property right after the murder of 14 year-old Jahkema Princess Hansen. They did not get the job.

For both the Anacostia and Sursum Corda projects, Monk and Mann used the Bennett Group, a DC-based development firm headed by LuAnn Bennett, wife of a longtime Congressman, Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.).

Congress gave the Good Samaritan Foundation at least $775,000 in grants for the training center project.

The Bennett Group's slogan, which pops up every now and then on the firm's web site: "The bottom line for Bennett Group is value. For us, that means delivering projects on time and on budget, without compromising on quality."

That adage doesn't really jibe with what went on at the Carver Theatre site.

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(AFTER THE JUMP: Capitals announcer blows off Falls Church High School Reunion for Fan Fest? Anacostia High has chance at Worst Season in DC High School History? Will Eastern and Spingarn keep Anacostia from their date with destiny? The Nats no longer need to consult Mapquest on the Road to 100 Losses?)

There are two big get-togethers in the area this weekend: The reunion of the Falls Church High School Class of 1979, and the Washington Capitals Fan Convention.

Because of the latter, Wes Johnson won't be able to attend the former.

Johnson is the Caps longtime P.A. announcer, and far as I can tell the only guy from Falls Church (full disclosure: my alma mater, same class as Johnson) to ever make anything of himself. The only other alum from FCHS to get the spotlight was a Pizza Hut delivery man who jumped the White House fence and got shot in 1995.

Johnson, a professional voice-over artist when not riling up the home fans from his perch in the penalty box, has been working the microphone at Verizon Center since 2000.

He says he favored an understated delivery when he first got the Caps job, but turned into the over-the-top bellower fans now know and love after a gig for a video-game producer in which he had to play an arena announcer... for gladiators.

"For that job, I put my regular voice 'on steroids,'" says Johnson, speaking figuratively in case it's illegal for P.A. guys to be juiced, "and it carried over to what I do with the Caps. And, I've found the arena-announcer-for-gladiators voice works pretty well with hockey, too."

Johnson will spend all Saturday at the Caps event, to be held at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Oxon Hill. Other scheduled special guests include NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, owner Ted Leonsis, general manager George McPhee, head coach Bruce Boudreau and former fan favorites including Rod Langway, Al Iafrate, and the long-absent Dennis Maruk.

Tickets for the Caps event are sold out. If you want to go to the Falls Church High reunion, however, call 703-471-6700.

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Anacostia has a fighting chance of posting an 0-11 season. That might well have never happened in DC high school football history. Some DCIAA teams this year have added a game to the traditional 10-game maximum slate that has long been in place for prep football.

DC football has long been a game of haves and have nots, and Anacostia is the only one of the have-nots in the public school league to throw in the extra game on this year's schedule.

Anacostia has gotten off to the kind of start that makes the winless, record-breaking season seem very possible:  The Indians are already 0-4 and have suffered some major blowouts, including a 60-0 pounding from Dunbar last week.

But ignominy isn't going to come so easily:  Anacostia has games at the end of the season against Spingarn and Eastern, the reigning kings of DC's Have-Nots.

So far in 2009, Spingarn and Eastern have a combined record of 0-4, and have been outscored 168-12. Both schools will take big time beatings today. Spingarn faces Dunbar, and Eastern, which didn't even field a football team last year, will get grounded and pounded by charter school powerhouse Friendship Collegiate.

But, Eastern has only eight games listed on its schedule this year, and Spingarn nine. So neither has the chance for Historical Badness that Anacostia does.

Cheap Seats Daily will keep an eye on Anacostia as it makes its way along the historic Road to 11 Losses!

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Speaking of historic losers: Nats lose! Nats lose!

The 7-6 loss to the Dodgers at home gives the their 100th defeat of 2K9.

The Road to 100 Losses is the The Road Traveled for this bunch — three years in a row they've got triple digit defeats. So now the franchise has the same number of 100 loss seasons in Washington as it had in all its years in Montreal! (Anybody who says DC isn't a cursed baseball town hasn't seen "Damn Yankees"!)

One of Riggleman's postgame quotes, meant to praise his boys for not getting blown out like they got blown out on Tuesday, is an unintentional thigh-slapper: "That team's going to be popping champagne any day," Riggleman said, "and we're right there with 'em."

Well, if by "right there with 'em" Riggleman means his Nats, running away with worst-team-in-the-majors honors, are within just 39 1/2 games of the Dodgers, who've won a major-league best 92 games this year, then...OK, Coach, you ARE right there with 'em!

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