4th & I Street Signal Timing Fixed?

I got an email from DDOT saying it has been fixed, but I won't know until I get home tonight. If any of you notice this afternoon whether the intersection timing has been fixed, let us know!

Wells to Hold Campaign Event on Sunday

Ward 6 Council member Tommy Wells will start his re-election campaign this weekend with a Southwest Campaign Kick-Off Cookout at Waterfront Station on Sunday from 1pm - 3pm. There will be hot dogs, hamburgers, and entertainment for the family.

Speaking of Waterfront Station, more street furniture has been installed recently - four tables were placed in front of Safeway a couple weeks ago and at least one of them already has graffiti on it. Also, several benches were installed in the Metro plaza last week (photos to come). Straw has been put down on both vacant parcels to the north of the office buildings (ANC 6D unanimously passed a resolution last week to urge the DC government and the developers of Waterfront Station to allow community uses on those parcels).

Update: Below are some updated photos of Waterfront Station.

Here are three of the four tables installed in front of Safeway.

Benches have been installed around several of the trees planted in the Metro plaza.

Straw has been placed in the northwest parcel owned by Waterfront Associates, eventually slated for either a residential tower or an office building.

Marquee signage is being installed in three retail spots under construction at 1101 4th Street.

Upcoming Events in Southwest

- Tomorrow, Ward 6 Council member Tommy Wells will be holding his monthly Southwest community office hours from 8am - 9:30am at the Channel Inn, located at 650 Water Street.

Related to Council member Wells, but not necessarily to Southwest specifically, Wells was interviewed on the Kojo Nnamdi Show's Politics Hour last Friday about juvenile justice.

- On Friday, May 21, two new SW Call Boxes will be dedicated - one honoring Dr. Dorothy Height and another honoring four civil rights & women's rights leaders (Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman, Representative Patsy Mink, National Association of Women (NOW) President Molly Yard, and Representative Barbara Jordan. The event will take place at Jefferson Middle School, located at 801 7th Street, just across from the actual call boxes in front of the 700 7th Street condo building from 2pm - 3pm, followed by a reception.

Please RSVP by Friday, May 14th, as seating in the Jefferson Middle School auditorium with the students is limited. It's preferable to RSVP by email to pk@ieee.org but you can also call (202) 554-5674 and record your name and e-mail address, or fax a note to (202) 479-4396. The school will be furnished with a guest list and they will ask you to show an ID.

Last April, 14 call boxes were revealed with cherry blossom art during the National Cherry Blossom Festival and a call box honoring Thurgood Marshall was unveiled the following month.

- There will be a meeting on Tuesday, May 25th from 6pm - 8pm to discuss the 14th Street Bridge Corridor Environmental Impact Statement, which is in the process of being completed for when the span and its approaches are eventually replaced.

- A second TOPP (Traffic Operations and Parking Plan) meeting for Nationals Park will be held on Tuesday, May 25th (tentatively scheduled for 6:30pm) at 2nd Baptist Church, located at 1200 Canal Street. This meeting was scheduled, since several participants didn't show up at the April 27th meeting.

- The Susan G. Komen Global Race for the Cure will be taking place on Saturday, June 5th at the National Mall. Last year, the race raised $4.7 million for local education and community outreach programs that work tirelessly to assist vulnerable populations. Anyone can sign up for the race online.

- The 1st Annual Washington DC Triathlon will be held on Sunday, June 20th from 5:30am - 11:30am. Street closures in Southwest will involve parts of Independence Avenue, 12th Street, 15th Street, and Memorial Bridge.

Update on King Memorial

DCMud gives a good description of the history of the Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial, as well as what visitors will expect to see once the memorial is complete next summer. The memorial is located on the northwest corner of the Tidal Basin - about midway between the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial. This follows a WaPo article from February that describes the process of how components of the memorial will be shipped to Washington from China.

Truck Crashes into Hirshhorn

According to The Washington Post, a UPS truck traveling on Independence Avenue crashed through a concrete barrier and into the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden at approximately 8:30 pm last night. From the article:

Outside the building, according to officials' accounts, the truck ran through the low concrete structures that serve as flower pots and provide protection. Linda St. Thomas, spokeswoman for the Smithsonian Institution, of which the circular-shaped museum is part, said the truck came about one foot into the building...The museum, described as a low cylinder perched on legs, exhibits art on the two floors above the ground level. No art was affected by the crash, officials said.

Since no art was damaged in the crash, the museum is expected to reopen today.

The Hirshhorn has plans to create a temporary inflatable structure in the courtyard twice a year, starting in May 2011, and is in the process of receiving approvals.

Update: The Washington Post has another article about the crash, this time describing why the UPS truck didn't cause more damage to the building - the concrete planters in front of the museum.

ANC Votes to Urge Community Uses at Vacant Parcels at Waterfront Station

At tonight's ANC 6D meeting, the Commissioners voted unanimously in a resolution to urge the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) to allow community use of the vacant NE parcel at Waterfront Station on a temporary basis until the site is ready to be redeveloped as a mixed-use residential development with ground floor retail. In addition, the ANC urges Waterfront Associates, the developer of Waterfront Station, to allow community use of their vacant NW parcel on a temporary basis. Below is the resolution that passed:

Whereas, Waterfront Station is now open and after nearly fifty years Fourth Street, SW is again the primary commercial corridor in the dynamic urban center of our neighborhood connecting both sides of Southwest and generating renewed pedestrian, bicycle and automobile traffic to and from the site and points north toward Pennsylvania Avenue, and

Whereas, the large parcel of vacant land located on the northeastern most section of Waterfront Station is currently in the real estate portfolio of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) and is slated to be built upon with residential housing and community serving retail in the Waterfront Station Second Stage PUD, and

Whereas, the Zoning Commission has already agreed to delay the completion of the First Stage Waterfront Station PUD for another two years, and Whereas, a Second Stage Waterfront Station PUD is unlikely to be actively developed until such time as the First Stage Waterfront Station PUD is completed and until the climate for residential real estate construction significantly improves, and

Whereas, the Southwest Community, although undergoing significant revitalization with the construction of the first stage of Waterfront Station containing three District agencies, a brand new Safeway, and 35,000 sq/ft of additional retail, the architecturally significant Arena Stage project and hundreds of units of both redeveloped and new housing stock, still lacks centrally located communal open space for our residents to meet, gather and recreate,

Therefore, be it resolved that ANC-6D, on May 10, 2010 at a regularly scheduled meeting by a vote of 7-0, supported the adaptive temporary re-use of the northeastern most parcel of land at Waterfront Station by the Southwest Community until such time as DMPED is ready to build the residential housing and community serving retail upon that parcel, as has been previously approved, and do hereby encourage DMPED to engage in discussions with the ANC in conjunction with Council member Wells’ office to ensure that the parcel may be productively utilized for, among other potential uses, a children's playground, a dog park and a community garden.

Be it further resolved that ANC-6D will request of the owners of Waterfront Station that the parcel of land that they control on the northwestern portion of that property, also slated to be developed as residential housing in the Second Stage PUD, be left as open space for picnicking and occasionally programmed for community special events until such time as it is built upon.

Submitted, Commissioner Andy Litsky, May 10, 2010

ANC 6D Meeting Tonight

The agenda for tonight's ANC 6D meeting has been posted online. There are several SW-related items, including an upcoming Near SW/SE Candidate Forum, the new FRESHFARM farmers market at the Department of Health & Human Services, the South Washington Collaborative Health Fair in August, a resolution on the District-owned northeast parcel at Waterfront Station, a triathlon, a new TOPP meeting, the pump for the pond at Town Center Park, 14th Street Bridge Environmental Impact Statement, and summer school programs at Amidon-Bowen Elementary. The meeting will be held at St. Augustine's Episcopal Church located at 600 M Street, starting at 7pm.

DC Sail Open House

To help celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the National Maritime Heritage Foundation, DC Sail will be hosting a free open house event this evening from 5-8pm at the Gangplank Marina on the Southwest Waterfront. Some of DC Sail's programs include sailing lessons, boat rentals, schooner cruises and youth programs. The open house is next door to Cantina Marina (which was super crowded last night btw).

Northeast Parcel Flattened

Over the weekend, workers flattened the mini hill located on the northeast parcel of Waterfront Station, owned by the District government, which some would like turned into a playground and community garden. In last month's poll, most readers either wanted the parcel to be developed as originally planned as residential (including an affordable component) with ground floor retail or as a residential building with ground floor retail and a new (free) library. Above is a photo of the flattened parcel, with the Southwest library in the background.

Should an Iconic Ferry Terminal be Built on the Southwest Waterfront?

With news of a water taxi company beginning operations on the Southwest Waterfront, the question comes to mind how we as a city and region should treat water transit? In recent years, the idea of having water taxi service along the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers has been studied and regular service is now available between Alexandria and National Harbor. If more stops are added and different water taxi companies begin offering reliable service at affordable prices, could water taxi commuting catch on in DC? American River Transit is a new company that will offer water taxi service to the Southwest Waterfront, Georgetown, Diamond Teague Park, and Alexandria, with future stops at Poplar Point and National Airport. They will join Potomac Riverboat Company as those who will have regular ferry service in the region. If water taxis do catch on in DC like they have in other cities, then the most logical place for a regional water transit hub would be the Southwest Waterfront. Can you imagine a multimodal transit facility along the Washington Channel (like Hoboken Terminal), with ferry docks, light rail station, and easy access to L’Enfant Plaza – the most connected Metro station in the system – and its revitalized 10th Street corridor? Water taxis could dock at the ferry terminal, as well as cruise ships like Spirit Cruises and the Odyssey. The current terminal for Spirit Cruises is pictured at top right and the Odyssey terminal is on the left. The new ferry terminal could become an iconic structure on the waterfront, similar to Union Station, National Airport, and Dulles Airport terminals. Heck, memorialize the building and name it after a former president, or connect it to a National Naval Museum.

Construction of a new ferry terminal building could coincide with the redevelopment of the Southwest Waterfront, which should get underway by 2012. There’s a longer-term plan by the National Capital Planning Commission to redesign East Potomac Park and build a canal through there, which would improve boat access to the Southwest Waterfront from the Potomac River. Is a new, iconic ferry terminal building as a part of the redevelopment of the Southwest Waterfront a worthy endeavor? Vote in May’s poll at the top left corner of the blog and/or feel free to make a comment.