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.

SW Call Box Update at Next SWNA Meeting

From March's The Southwester, there will be a SWNA meeting this coming Monday at 7:30pm at St. Augustine's, located at 6th Street & Maine Avenue. Special guest will be D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray. Agenda items include an update on the SW Call Box project and announcements about upcoming SWNA elections. If you've noticed, the call boxes around Southwest are painted blue and pink, with the blue representing our proximity to the river & channel, while the pink symbolizes the cherry blossoms that bloom each spring around the Tidal Basin and East Potomac Park. The artwork that has yet to be installed in the call boxes will depict scenes related to cherry blossoms. However, according to an article in Black College View, one of the 32 call boxes will be dedicated to Thurgood Marshall, the first African American Supreme Court justice and former SW resident.

(The above photo is of a painted call box located on M Street across from the View at Waterfront).