Oh this is just so dopey. I love it (scenes from yesterday’s ribbon-cutting for the contra-flow bike lane, featuring Mayor Adrian Fenty, District Department of Transportation head Gabe Klein, and Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans, courtesy of NBC 4):

Mayor Adrian Fenty by 15th Street’s contra-flow bike lane yesterday—no police escort in sight!

Yesterday, I did a little reporting on D.C.’s brand new, contra-flow bike lane, which is protected by a lane for parked cars (look closely above.) It’s a pilot project on 15th Street NW, and the District Department of Transportation plans to carefully study how riders are responding.

“We want to see how it works. We know it’s not perfect. There are things we can probably tweak,” says John Lisle, spokesperson for DDOT.

Read More “You Don’t Need to Ride “Contra-Flow” on the New Bike Lane” »

If you haven’t gotten a chance to see D.C.’s first contra-flow bike lane, well it should look a little something like this:

The lane has been installed on 15th Street between U St. and Massachusetts Ave. in Northwest. The southward bike lane is separated from traffic by an 8-foot parking lane.

Read More “Check Out the New 15th Street Bike Lane” »

Yeah—I think so!

That little downtown building up there is causing a lot of trouble.

Here is a brief history:

• When the legendary Stevens Elementary School closed down, nine companies from around the country bid to take over its West End campus. (That was the greatest number of offers generated from any other school redevelopment opportunity in recent history, except for Hine Junior High School.)

• Then the city selected a developer, but didn’t publicly announce its pick because the choice caused such an uproar.

• Then, locals started speaking out, even asking the chosen developer to abandon its plan, and just go away.

• Then—and here’s the big news of the day, courtesy of the Washington Business Journal—one thwarted developer, a finalist for the project, announced he was so fed up with the current Adrian Fenty-run administration, he may just run for mayor himself! That man is Don Peebles. Here’s some information on this potential challenger! (from the WBJ.)

A graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School who grew up in parts of Northwest and Southeast D.C., Peebles resides in Florida but has a home off of Massachusetts Avenue NW in Ward 3. Although he spent much of the real estate boom doing projects in the South, he has been more visible in D.C. in the last year or two. In town Oct. 17 for the annual gala of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, he said if he were to run for mayor he would not spend his time in Florida. “If I was going to run for mayor of Washington, D.C., that would not be a question,” he said.

Peebles has built a number of multimillion dollar luxury hotels and resorts in Miami Beach, as well as office properties such as 10 G St. NE, making him one of the country’s richest African-Americans.

Image by APK, Wikimedia Commons

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Park Morton is generally defined as Georgia Avenue on the west, Warder Street on the east, Lamont Street on the south, and Park Road on the north.

Well, here’s a bit of news that’s a long time coming.

More than a year ago, in September 2008, the city first began looking for developers to rebuild the Park Morton area into one of four glistening New Communities—the “New Communities” initiative will transform some of D.C.’s most notorious public housing projects into new mixed-use, mixed income areas.

Read More “Fenty Picks Developer for Park Morton” »

In Columbia Heights, a bench is not just a bench.

For more explanation, see this week’s cover story on the triangular park at 14th and Ogden Streets NW. Artist Sarah Tooley installed a temporary art installation of fully functional benches that helped reveal the history the park, and why benches were previously removed.

Tooley never expected her benches to stay forever–she just thinks the plan for the park’s upcoming renovation is ridiculous: It includes stone stools placed at a liberal distance from each other because benches apparently facilitate drug dealing and people ominously hanging out together.

Read More “Stools: The Most Loathsome Park Seating of All?” »

It’s been nearly five years in the making, but construction of Tenleytown’s new library is finally underway. The mayor kicked off the project with an official groundbreaking this morning.

As I wrote this spring, the city once planned to build a more ambitious mixed-use development with housing at the site. A public/private partnership could have funneled money to nearby Janney Elementary School.

Read More “Finally, City Breaks Ground on Tenleytown Library” »

Here’s an image from the Stanton/Eastbanc plan posted online after the group’s presentation in early summer.

Mayor Adrian Fenty announced this morning that a group of developers led by Stanton Development Corp. and EastBanc Inc. will usher in a new era in Eastern Market: The group will be taking over the former Hine Junior High School site, which sits between the market and Pennsylvania Avenue SE.

It will be transformed it into a mixed-use complex with retail, restaurants, and space for the consolidation of the Shakespeare Theatre Company’s operations:

Read More “Stanton-EastBanc Will Develop Former Hine School Site” »

Last week, Blue Skye Development kicked off its city-orchestrated renovation of a 26-unit building in Deanwood.

This week, it’s more of the same!

This morning, Mayor Adrian Fenty announced plans to build 56 new affordable townhomes on a city-controlled parcel by Dix Street and Eastern Avenue in Ward 7.
Read More “Another Affordable Community Planned for Deanwood” »

Recession be damned, D.C.’s  getting a convention center hotel.

Yesterday, Mayor Adrian Fenty signed the authorizing bill, which was approved by the DC Council last month. The legislation will set in place a plan to finance construction using public and private funds.

In a hearing about the convention center hotel earlier this summer, job creation came up repeatedly (as it usually does—with people wondering how much work will be promised to District residents).

Here’s a snippet from yesterday’s press release:

Read More “Convention Center Hotel Brings 2,000+ Jobs” »