City Paper Widget

Showing posts with label 5th Street. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 5th Street. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

1532-34 5th Street: "It Looks Like They're Planning to Do Something Illegal"

The request for a curb cut at 1532-34 5th Street NW, mid-block between P and Q Streets, was on the agenda for the July 1 meeting of Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 6E/Shaw, and it was taken off. But the matter was discussed at the meeting anyway.
The property at the end of June

Commissioner Kevin Chapple (district 02) told the audience that developer, who is building a new house on the empty lot at that address, realized he would not get ANC support for the curb cut.

"He asked for a postponement to talk to the neighbors to try to convince them or to garner some support for the project before he came to the ANC," Chapple said.
The property on July 14

The audience was skeptical. A neighbor said that the developer was already building a driveway on the property, curb cut or no.

"Why are they spending all this money to do construction? If they know they don't have support but they're building a driveway, I think to me it looks like they're planning to do something illegal," the neighbor said.

Chappel told the neighbor the ANC could weigh in on the curb cut, which is on public land, but not on what an owner constructs, by right, on his or her own property.

"If someone wants to put a driveway on their property, we can't stop them," Chappel said.

The neighbor said the contractor had visited him to disclose plans to start construction. Since then, though, there had been problems when excavation of the property caused the neighbor's fence to fall into the excavated space. The neighbor wanted his property restored to its original condition.

There were promises made to contact the DC building inspector's office to see if anything could be done. Getting a stop work order was mentioned. But construction appears to be continuing (see photos).

The matter of the curb cut will be considered by an ANC6E committee. ANC6E has not, until now, published on its web site the times and places of their committee meetings.

After that, ANC6E is tentatively scheduled to be on the agenda of the next meeting in September. The ANC's recommendation will then go to the District Department of Transportation (DDOT), which has final authority.

Online records indicate the empty lot was sold for $375,000 in October 2013.

ANC6E posts its meeting in their entirety on its YouTube channel. This meeting is posted in five parts.  The discussion mentioned above can be viewed by following this link to part four. The discussion starts at time 29:20, and continues on through the beginning of part five.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

New Freshfarm Market to Open Saturday -- If the Paperwork Comes Through

Freshfarm Markets is set to open up this Saturday, June 6, in Mount Vernon Triangle, if it can get a public space permit in time.

At its regular monthly meeting last night (June 3), Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 6E/Shaw heard the testimony of Reg Godin, Director for Markets and Programs at Freshfarm. He explained Freshfarm Markets had to request last-minute inclusion on the meeting's agenda after it was determined the proposed site of the farmers market was on public land.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia/AgnosticPreachersKid)
The management of the adjoining City Vista building (K and 5th Streets NW) had believed that the land in question was City Vista's property, and therefore the farmers market required no special permit to operate there. After a surveyor corrected the mistaken impression, Freshfarm Markets has had to scramble to get the necessary public space use permits.

"No one knew who was responsible," Godin said.

The market will cover about 2000 square feet and have five tents. It will take place under and around the yellow sculpture (see bottom center of photo above). There will be activities for children and unamplied music.

The ANC voted unanimously to endorse the request for a public space use permit and promised to produce a letter of support promptly. Public space use permits are obtained from the District Department of Transportation (DDOT).

"All of your constituents are looking forward to this," said ANC6E Chair Alexander Padro (Commissioner for district 01)

"Yes, they are," said Commissioner Marge Maceda (district 05)

Once open, the market will be open on Saturday from 10am to 1pm until October 25. According to their website, Freshfarms has ten other farmers markets operating inside the Beltway.

The new market has been developed in cooperation with the Mount Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District.

Friday, March 21, 2014

March 7 Shooting in Shaw: MPD Youtube Video of Persons of Interest

D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) has released a video on Youtube showing two persons of interest possibly connected with a March 7 shooting at Fifth and Q Streets NW. At a community meeting last night (March 20) at KIPP DC Public Charter School (421 P Street) in Shaw, the MPD shared information about the case and urged members of the public to come forward to aid the investigation, particularly people who were walking around the neighborhood at the time immediate prior to the shooting at 8:45pm.

The video, from the night of the shooting, is below. If you have trouble viewing it, find it in the MPD Youtube channel here.


Detective Scott Guthrie of the MPD reviewed the public facts of the case. Two 22-year-old men were shot at the intersection of Fifth and Q Streets. The victims survived and were released. The victims did not reveal the identity of the shooters. Guthrie said the two victims do not reside in the area but "have ties". Police are looking for a slim African-American, between 6 feet and 6 feet 2 inches tall, who was seen fleeing the scene, in connection with the case.

There have been no related incidents since then, Guthrie said. As a result of increased police presence in the area in the days following the shooting, a man was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon, but there is no evidence this arrest has any connection to the shooting.

The police took questions from the roughly 30 members of the audience. There were many details the police said they could not reveal, for example, placement of video cameras, number of shell casings found, and possible criminal backgrounds of the victims.

Someone asked if the shooting was gang-related.

"Everybody jumps to that conclusion," Detective Kenneth Arrington said. "But we haven't established any connection."

Some people complained about local policing. One person said police can be "very disrespectful".

"The residents here do not trust the police," said another.

Toward the end of the meeting, mayoral candidate and D.C. City Councilmember Tommy Wells (Ward Six) appeared. Wells did not comment or ask the police any questions. 

Anyone with information about the incident is encouraged to contact the MPD at 202-727-9099 or via the MPD text tip line 50411.