H Street CDC Development at 4th and Rhode Island Avenue, NE

On the Bloomingdale Blog, I came across some info on the Truxton Circle site about the H Street CDC's proposed development at 4th and Rhode Island, NE.

I highly recommend the Truxton Circle site, even if you don't live in the immediate neighborhood - it has a great collection of resources, including links, stories and articles, an events calendar, and community resources. For members (you simply need to create a free account) there are discussion boards and a daily e-mail update. I'm sure I'm missing some details, since I've just started navigating the site myself, but what a wonderful community tool!

Brookland Community Garden Meeting Sunday, February 26th

What: Brookland Community Garden Meeting - Learn more about the garden and how you can get involved and experience the joy of community gardening.

When: Sunday, February 26th, 2006 at 2pm

Where: Cafe Sureia, 3629 12th Street, NE

About the Garden: The Brookland Community Garden is currently located at 7th and Monroe Streets, NE - a great, sunny location. Plots are 10' x 20' in size and the garden is ideal for vegetables that need a large growing area and/or for growing vegetables on a large scale. Water is available on-site. Our gardeners are committed to 100% organic practices.

Two Transportation Meetings Saturday (and Some Interesting Links)

There's no minute like the last minute. See this post at Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space for information on two public meetings taking place tomorrow (Saturday, February 25th, 2006). Since I live just steps away from the intersection of my street and South Dakota Avenue, I'm very interested in the first meeting. From a quick check on the internet, it looks like you should be able to e-mail your input (whether or not you are able to attend) to the Ward 5 Transportation Planner, Sharlene Reed. Though I hate to think I need to say it, I've seen what neighbors can do on the listservs in the heat of the moment: Please remember to be courteous.

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While poking around the web for this information, I stumbled across a few interesting links:

• The picture above is a still taken this evening from the traffic camera located at Rhode Island Ave. & South Dakota Ave., NE. You can view the live feed from all the Distict's traffic cams here. (Warning: I imagine the upload time is brutal with a dial-up connection.)
  
• A link to DDOT's "Brookland Transportation and Streetscape Study," as well as the website dedicated to the study, hosted by one of the project's consultants, Michael Baker Corporation.
  
• A link to DDOT's "South Dakota Avenue and Streetscape Study" and the Wilbur Smith Associates website dedicated to the study. (this info added to the post after the meeting)
  
• A list of recent/current DC transportation studies.

Burroughs School's Phone Tower is Opposed

Article in today's Washington Post about the Sprint cell phone tower at John Burroughs Elementary, 1820 Monroe Street, NE.

ANC-5C Monthly Meeting Tuesday, February 21st

What: Advisory Neighborhood Commission 5C Monthly Meeting

When: Tuesday, February 21st, 2006 from 7pm - 9pm

Where: Harry Thomas Recreation Center, 1743 Lincoln Road, NE

Invited guests include representatives from the following: Howard University’s Center for Urban Progress, Reference: Update on CUP's Lead Poisoning Prevention Efforts; H Street Community Development Corporation Proposal, Reference: Update on Consolidated PUD on 4th Street NE Property; Metropolitan Police Department, Reference: Public Safety Report

ANC-5A Monthly Meeting Wednesday, February 22nd

What: Advisory Neighborhood Commission 5A Monthly Meeting

When: Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006 at 7pm

Where: John Burroughs Elementary, 1820 Monroe Street, NE

Agenda: TBA

Greater Brookland Business Association, Inc. Monthly Meeting Wednesday, February 22nd

What: The Greater Brookland Business Association, Inc. (GBBA) Monthly Meeting

When: Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006 at 6:30pm

Where: Ryan's Funeral Home on 12th Street, NE

Agenda: (taken nearly verbatim from a posting on the Brookland Listserv) This meeting is of particular interest for DC businesses as Mid-City Urban Development, the developer of the planned $100 million Rhode Island Metro project, is expected to make a presentation to the group.

From the GBBA:

The position of the GBBA is to impress upon this and other developers that most of the good and services they will need to build the project and to operate it after it is built are available right here from DC businesses. Most often, development projects are built with no DC businesses involved but with plenty of DC tax dollars. We are interested in:

1) making sure developers are aware of good and services available locally,

2) making the DC Council, ANCs, and other approving entities require participation of DC businesses as a condition of their approval, and

3) making it known that DC Residents and Businesses are active in the success or failure of development projects in DC.

Plan to attend and find out what is proposed and how, as a DC based business, you can participate in this and other development projects. You will also meet many of the other business owners in the Greater Brookland Area. A good turnout will also impress on the developers, DC Council Members, and ANC Commissioners that the Brookland area residents and businesses are involved, and care about what projects get approved in our area.

Unfortunately I can't make it to this one - I'll be trying to make it to the ANC-5A meeting the same night. My assumption is that the 5A Commissioners will be at their own meeting, rather than this one. This meeting should also be of great interest to residents of Edgewood, Eckington, Brentwood, and Bloomingdale.

Woodridge Coalition of Concerned Neighbors Meeting Monday, February 13th

What: Woodridge Coalition of Concerned Neighbors Meeting

When: Monday, February 13, 2006 from 6:30pm - 8:30pm

Where: Woodridge Library, 18th and Rhode Island Avenue, NE (202.541.6226)

Special Guests: Vincent B. Orange - Ward 5 Council Member to discuss Ward 5 accomplishments of 2005 and the future plans for 2006; Commander Jennifer Greene - 5D Police Department; Mr. Bruce Marshall, Esq. - Candidate for Ward 5 Council Seat; Bill Rice - Spokesperson for the DC Department of Transportation to provide an update on the community's concerns

Notes: The community has been informed that illegal dumping in the Woodridge area street, sidewalks, and alleys is being investigated. Please keep your eyes open for violators. With unity and determination, we can make this community a better and more suitable place to live. In union, strong success is assured.

Contact: Ms. Lloyd at 202.903.6197 or 202.257.0001, concernneighbors@aol.com

Since we've been in the neighborhood, I've yet to make it to one of these meetings - I typically have class on Mondays when they are held. If any one is attending, or has attended in the past, please leave notes/comments/etc. here.

Programming Update...

I've had an epiphany of sorts. In many ways I've been hoping this blog would organically evolve into "something," but I didn't quite know what that something was. Well, turns out that often the most obvious is the hardest to see clearly. I want this to be a community blog. I've been linking to many of them now for months, reading them for longer: Frozen Tropics, In Shaw, Bloomingdale, and Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space(community from a much more policy oriented point of view). While it would be a lie for me to say that I agreed with everything these bloggers write about, I can honestly say they are all invaluable community resources.

Lately, most of my (infrequent) posts have been focused on my neighborhood and its environs, rather than on the latest national scandal or my own personal drama (though I must argue that the RAC postings were both community oriented and personal drama, and that's just fine here). I've nothing against those kinds of blogs; I read and enjoy those blogs. But that's not the direction SBR (thanks, Jess) is headed. My energy is better spent attempting to positively impact both my community and DC at large rather than trying to outwit Michelle Malkin in a forum that sees less than 1/10,000 of her net traffic.

I admire the bloggers I mentioned above, and I hope they aren't ashamed three months from now when I'm still linking to them; for your sake, let's hope I've learned something from reading their blogs. Please chime in, send me links and news I've missed, and stumble through these growing pains with me.

Thank you. We now return you to your newly scheduled programming....