Bloomingdale (for now) reports on the rumors that the Rhode Island Avenue NE Safeway is getting skipped over for renovations in favor of Northwest stores.

Frozen Tropics believes that H Street/Trinidad just might be safer than Columbia Heights and Adams Morgan:

“I feel safer living here than in Columbia Heights. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like I know too many people who have been robbed in Columbia Heights. And when I say robbed, I mean pistol whipped, punched, or hit in the head with a brick. None of these people were resisting. By contrast, I only know (personally) one guy who was ever violently attacked during a robbery in this area. That was when he resisted (rightly, because the bastards tried to force him into an alley, and you should resist at that point)….”

JDLand has a review (with photos) of the new beer garden (called I believe the “Bullpen”). She is very kind. That place feels like walking through something Clear Channel barfed: bad cover band, dudes, and the smell of stale beer all in a fenced-in slab of asphalt. On second thought, it’s not something that Clear Channel barfed. It feels like a prison yard sponsored by Clear Channel. Awesome redevelopment!

Anyway, JDLand writes: “When I arrived around 6 pm, there was a healthy crowd, and the spirits (emotional and liquid) seemed to be flowing well.” How….polite.

And Now, Anacostia profiles a historic piece of Good Hope Road property that’s set to be auctioned off on Wednesday.

Penn Quarter Living wonders if work has been completed at 901 E Street NW.

In addition to the new Safeway coming to Georgetown, the go-to D.C. grocery chain is planning similar overhauls at the Southwest Waterfront and Petworth.

At the Waterfront, preliminary work is under way for the new store, which will go up behind the current building near the Metro. When completed in 2011, the old store will be demolished. And, much to the delight of the lunch-starved masses, it will have an enhanced deli with sandwiches made to order.

Petworth’s store on Georgia Avenue NW will follow a model similar to what’s going on in Georgetown—a new, expanded store will go up where the existing store stands. That means the old store will close at some point. Also, parking will be moved below ground. The space occupied by the current parking lot will be added to the footprint of the new store, taking it from about 20,000 square feet to about 55,000 square feet. Safeway spokesman Craig Muckle says Petworth’s plans are not as far along as the Waterfront’s and hesitated to give a projected completion date. “I don’t have a good sense right now, but I’d say ballpark will be sometime in 2011. It won’t be next year, I can tell you that,” he says.

Read More “Safeway Update: New Stores Coming to Southwest Waterfront, Petworth in 2011″ »

Good morning, City Desk readers, and welcome to another installment of Freedom Friday. Before we get started, I’d like to throw something out there: GeoPet. Can y’all feel that contraction bustle off your palate, like so many Metro riders leaving the Georgia Avenue-Petworth station? I can. Petworth needs this, folks. Why should AdMo, CoHi, and BloMi have all the fun? It would be so much easier to give directions, too: “The Looking Glass Lounge? Oh, it’s one block south of GeoPet”; “I’m going to grab some groceries at the GeoPet Safeway“; “Hey, let’s meet for lunch at Sweet Mango–it’s across the street from GeoPet.” Gah, so cool! Hey, Prince of Petworth, what do you say? Gonna throw your blog behind this one?

The American Enterprise Institute’s financial woes, Campus Progress‘ smear campaign, and creationists at the Smithsonian below the jump.

Read More “Our Morning Roundup: The GeoPet Proposal” »

Penn Quarter Living reports on another inauguration-themed store opening downtown. Ugh. More inauguration crap!

Life In Mount Vernon Square has troubles with the new Safeway. The complaints concern the lack of circulars and the feeling that they’ve been overcharged:

“The store hasn’t had circulars one time that I went in during the past 5-6 weeks.  Annoying yes, but it wouldn’t be such a big issue if the store actually labeled the sale items correctly.  I’ve been caught at the register overcharged, but unable to reference the flyer.  This past week, they didn’t even have circulars at the register and the one check out lady who had a flyer indicated that she had to buy the newspaper to get it (she kept it safely tucked in her back pocket).  When I’ve brought this up to Customer Service, they’ve given nothing but attitude or acted like they just ran out that morning.  That excuse doesn’t work for weeks on end.”

New Columbia Heights spots the craziest staircase at 13th and Otis NW.

And Now, Anacostia analyzes the situation at 1918 13th Street SE. The building’s zoning has been changed to allow the residential property to be turned into office space. The blogger wonders whether this is a good idea considering the low-density neighborhood. It also sparks a more intense discussion of 13th Street.

The Georgetown Metropolitan notes that the D.C. Police Department has dropped its daily crime summaries from at least one listserv: “Members of the MPD2d listserv may have noticed that they haven’t received a daily summary of crimes for the last two weeks. For those not receiving this listserv, the daily update of crimes provides a listing and description of each crime that occurred in the Second District separated into each PSA (Georgetown’s is 206).” Actually it’s for all listservs. The blog quotes a statement from Asst. Chief Diane Groomes as to why the summaries have stopped:

“In the past citizens did receive information via the listserv that was posted by a sworn member of the Department but we have found that the information was not uniform in nature and that some of the information revealed facts that were not for public information and jeopardized our investigatory process.”

Maybe this new policy has something to do with a certain officer named Delgado and the incident involving the alleged teenage robber.

Upset the Setup has some brand new DJ Eurok exclusive jams. We really dig “Arizona Cream” for bringing back a classic Public Enemy hook.  And “Crooklyn Klemer” deserves heavy rotation in every U Street club!

*photo courtesy of 7194KK found in our Neighborhood Flickr Pool.