‘CHALK4PEACE @ Artomatic’
courtesy of ‘spiggycat’

From the pages of the ANC 6B agenda, set for Wednesday night, comes a potential location for this year’s 10th anniversary Artomatic: Hine Junior High School near Eastern Market. On the corner of 7th & Pennsylvania Ave SE, right opposite from Peregrine Espresso. The property is no longer a part of DCPS, and will be developed by Stanton-EastBanc next year as some office for the Shakespeare Theatre Company. The development will eventually be 510,000 sqft of mixed use office/apartment/retail/restaurant space. This summer fall, though, it will hopefully play host to a collection of amazing artist projects.

Ryan Jensen from Peregrine gives us some detail in the comments: If Hine is selected as the site, Artomatic would likely be from Mid October to Mid November, with an epic Halloween party.

An update from Artomatic’s Rebecca Gordon: “Veronica is just doing a presentation about our history. At this time there’s no agreement or schedule.”

‘Strasburg’
courtesy of ‘Max Cook’

The media saturation regarding Stephen Strasburg, as anyone living in D.C. or elsewhere can tell you, has maintained a heavy and steady flow since he signed on as the first round draft pick last year by the Nationals.

He’s been immortalized by newspapers, magazines, and by Major League baseball itself. As if that wasn’t enough for a young man of just 21 years in age, he can now add a song to that belt with so many notches tacked on to it in only six starts (his seventh comes tonight against the San Francisco Giants in Washington).

Singer and guitarist Steve Wynn penned the song “Phenom” with the mindset of an imagined perspective straight from the head of Strasburg. Continue reading →

‘Street Sense, Washington DC’
courtesy of ‘Photos by Chip Py’

If you work downtown, you know what Street Sense is. You know their vendors well, they are DC’s homeless, who publish, print and sell a weekly newspaper as a way of making a living. Street Sense is looking for your help to take part in a Chase grant. If you want to give them a hand, use your facebook account to help them get to 1,000 signatures, they would receive $25,000 in funding from the Chase Community Giving group. That would be a significant boost in their bottom line. It doesn’t take much, just a click or two. Give it a click, would you?

‘Meridian Hill Park’
courtesy of ‘ Jomo’

The National Park Service announced today that construction work will begin July 12 on the western retaining wall of Meridian Hill Park. The work will impact both vehicular and pedestrian traffic along 16th Street for roughly three months. From the NPS press release:

Beginning the week of Monday, July 12th, the National Park Service’s (NPS) Rock Creek Park and its contractor, The Christman Company of Alexandria, VA, will begin performing necessary stabilization work on the historic 35-foot- high retaining wall at Meridian Hill Park that borders northbound 16th Street, N.W. This historic wall is located on the west side of Meridian Hill Park near the intersection of 16th Street N.W. and Crescent Place Drive, N.W. Work on this project is expected to be completed in approximately three months.

To ensure pedestrian and vehicular safety, the work will require closure of a portion of the northbound lanes of 16th Street, N.W. beginning the week of July 12, 2010. The work area will start near the bus stop on the northbound side of 16th Street, N.W., and continue approximately 600-feet northward. The resulting traffic shift will provide two lanes in both directions at all times. Parking along southbound 16th Street, N.W. will be eliminated adjacent to the work area.

Also note:

Pedestrian traffic on the east side of 16th Street, N.W. will be restricted during the working hours of Monday through Friday, 6:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. This sidewalk will be open every afternoon after working hours and will remain open all weekend. During working hours, pedestrian traffic will then be redirected to the west side of 16th Street, N.W. at W and Euclid Streets, N.W.

DC Water is also doing some pipe replacement work between Euclid and Fuller Streets, NW. If you use 16th Street as part of your daily commute, beware, it’s likely traffic will be heavy between Florida Avenue and Columbia Road. The S1, S2, S4 and S9 bus routes may also experience delays due to this work.

Bad accident in the HOV lanes of I-395 between King Street and Seminary Road. A car has flipped over. Emergency crews are on the scene and may well have it cleared before your commute this evening, but you should consider an alternate route, or perhaps dinner in the city. Traffic cam embedded after the jump. Continue reading →

It’s Friday afternoon. I know perfectly well you’re not working. So here’s some video of the National Zoo’s clouded leopard cubs engaging in some kitten-like activity for you to procrastinate with.

The two male cubs in the video will soon be sent to other zoos to be paired with females so that this endangered species can continue to be preserved. There, now you have learned something and can go back to the squeeing over the OMG ADBORBS KITTEHS.

”Western’ Washington, D.C.(1)’
courtesy of ‘cizauskas’

I couldn’t quite decide what today’s greeting should be. The retrocession of the area of the federal district south of the Potomac River is a bit of a mixed bag, like most of American history. Ostensibly, it was done to pump capital into the neglected port of Alexandria, but it was also done to preserve the slave port at Alexandria, in an effort to preserve the union. As no federal buildings could be constructed west of the Potomac, none of the existing government structures were in the area, and it made for an easy give back to Virginia. Continue reading →