A Look Back at 3407 Connecticut Avenue

The storefront that is now Pulpo Restaurant has a long history, including a short time as Tackle Box, a period of vacant years before that, and a long time as a McDonald's before that. Now let's jump right back to its initial incarnation as the ultra-modern  art deco-style showroom of the Thomas E Clark Plumbing Company (there was no "Air Conditioning" in its name at the start of its business life). Pretty snazzy!

Thanks to Michael Hartman, Thomas E Clark company president, for sending in these historic photos.

WAMU 88.5 Is Moving to Now-Vacant Building Opposite UDC, Across from Calvert Woodley

We are so used to thinking of WAMU 88.5, the DC home of NPR, as "coming to you from American University" that it's sometimes hard to remember that the station's offices are not actually on campus but are located about a mile away, at 4400 Brandywine Street NW, and have been since 1993.

Now American University has announced that the station, which it has operated since 1961, will move to 4401 Connecticut Avenue, across the street from the University of the District of Columbia. The building is largely vacant; after a redesign, occupancy is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2013, with WAMU taking up about half of the 96,102 square footage available . The station is currently using about 23,00 square feet in its Brandywine Street location.

Ward 3 Council Member Mary Cheh hailed the move, saying, "I'm delighted that WAMU is to fill that space and bring the station to Connecticut Avenue—a vibrant Ward 3 corridor. I trust the station will become even more involved with the community and provide opportunities to see and experience radio operations close up."

The new location allows WAMU to have a first-floor, street level visibility, as well as expand to meet its current and future needs.

The Connecticut Avenue Boulevard

The service lane on Connecticut Avenue between Macomb and Ordway Streets should be replaced with a wide, pedestrian-friendly sidewalk.

Connecticut Avenue's west side is a pleasure to walk along, and has inviting outdoor cafés. The east side is crowded, cramped and pedestrian-unfriendly. Two people can barely walk abreast on the narrow sidewalk. The service lane is confusing and dangerous: The two intersections at Macomb and Ordway have some of the highest accident rates in the city. All because misguided urban planners decided in the 1960s to destroy a sidewalk to make a parking lot.

Fortunately, this is a mistake that can be fixed. Imagine what a beautiful and vibrant public space this could be, with room for walking, sidewalk cafés, shade trees, flowers, and benches.

Sign the petition now to ask our elected representatives to restore this vital piece of the Connecticut Avenue boulevard to its original state.

Restore the Connecticut Avenue Boulevard

Service lane (to the left) photo by Bill Adler. The service lane is
is one long, ugly parking lot.

by Bill Adler

The hot issue on our companion email list, the Cleveland Park Listserv, has been whether to turn the service lane into a pedestrian-friendly sidewalk.

The service lane between Macomb and Ordway Streets should be replaced with a wide, pedestrian-friendly boulevard.

Connecticut Avenue's west side is a pleasure to walk along, and has inviting outdoor cafes. The east side of Connecticut Avenue is crowded, cramped and pedestrian-unfriendly. The service lane, especially where cars turn at Connecticut and Ordway, is dangerous. A fix is needed and that fix is to to return the block to the way it was originally, before the sidewalk was narrowed to make room for parking.

The service lane is an anomaly; there isn't another service lane along Connecticut Avenue between Calvert Street and Chevy Chase. It doesn't belong.

If the service lane is made back into a sidewalk, that part of Connecticut Avenue will lose between 25 - 30 parking spaces. With the Metro half a block away, Cleveland Park can thrive and prosper with less parking. In fact, there's often a surplus of parking during the day: Park 'n' Shop's paid lot has open spaces during the work day, and some stores on the Connecticut Avenue strip have unused parking behind them.

Some people are fearful that a wider Connecticut Avenue will encourage visitors to use the Cleveland Park Metro when going to the Zoo, turning Cleveland Park into a busier place. A boulevard style sidewalk might indeed do that, but pedestrians, Zoo visitors, and people sitting at outdoor cafes will make Cleveland Park, especially during the warmer months, into a more pleasant place. More walkers translates into more shoppers and that helps our neighborhood businesses.

In a recent survey conducted on the Cleveland Park Listserv, people want to do away with the service lane by an overwhelming two-to-one margin (65% to 31%). You can sign a petition to restore the original boulevard here.

The west, service lane-free side of Connecticut Avenue.
Photo by Bill Adler

In a post, a Cleveland Park Listserv member wrote: "I have been frustrated by the inability to walk along the strip doing errands or getting to the Metro because the sidewalk is so narrow at places....I have seen dangerous situations where people step off (or are forced off) the sidewalk -- sometimes into the path of oncoming traffic on the service lane. This is a particular problem for older or mobility-impaired persons....The aesthetics are also lacking -- all the trees are on the other side of the service lane, leaving our commercial strip bare and without shade or shelter."

The real question is this: That service lane and those parking spaces occupy some of the most valuable real estate in Washington DC and therefore on the planet. Is subsidized car storage really the very best use of that space?The answer is no. Those 25 or so parking spots are not worth sacrificing the beauty of the neighborhood. Ask yourself: If parking is so important, should we dig up the nice broad sidewalk just across the street in front of the Uptown movie theater, and replace it with a service lane and 20 more parking spots? I think we'd all agree that that would be a terrible thing to do,  so why shouldn't we correct the blunder that city planners made a few decades ago when they destroyed the sidewalk on this side?

Let's make all of Connecticut Avenue a place to walk, sit, and enjoy.

DDoT Holds Open House on Conn Ave Streetscape Design Project on March 31

The District Department of Transportation (DDoT) will be presenting the preliminary construction drawings for the next phase of the Connecticut Avenue Streetscape Project at an Open House on Thursday, March 31.

DDoT says that the project will bring major enhancements to the public space along on Connecticut Avenue from H Street, NW to Dupont Circle, including 17th Street along Farragut Park, and will include a landscaped median from K Street to Jefferson Place.

The Connecticut Avenue streetscape project was developed by DDoT in partnership with the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District (BID) board of directors and community stakeholders in 2007 to enhance the public space along Connecticut Avenue from Lafayette Park to Dupont Circle in support of economic development throughout the area.

Members of the business community, residents and other interested stakeholders are invited to attend this Open House to view the preliminary construction drawings, talk to DDoT officials and provide input on the drawings. Attendees are welcome to stop by any time during the Open House hours.

What: Open House for the Connecticut Avenue Streetscape Project

When: Thursday, March 31, 2011 from 3 pm to 5 pm

Where: Golden Triangle Business Improvement District (BID) office, 1120 Connecticut Ave., NW, Suite 260

The BID office is near the Dupont Circle and Farragut North Metro Stations on the Red Line and the Farragut West Metro Station on the Blue/Orange Lines. It’s also accessible from several bus lines.

Please RSVP to David Suls at dsuls @ goldentriangledc.com or 202-463-3400 by Monday, March 28.

For more information about this project please contact Gholam Ali Agahi, DDOT Project Manager, at 202-438-8928 or gholam.agahi @ dc.gov.

Pro-Democracy for Egypt Demonstration on Connecticut Avenue

If you were driving on Connecticut Avenue yesterday and you were anywhere near the intersection of Van Ness Street, then you weren't actually driving. You were parked, waiting for the large crowd of pro-democracy demonstrators to complete their march in the southbound lanes of Connecticut Avenue.  Police had closed off those lanes to car traffic to accommodate the impromptu crowd of several hundred, who were holding signs saying "Free Egypt" and chanting, "What do we want? Democracy! When do we want it? Now."

Adding to the bottleneck on Connecticut, the right lane in the block just south of Van Ness Street was blocked by street repairs.  When the marchers had moved on, allowing police to reopen the southbound lanes, the bottleneck did not clear up immediately, due to the construction.

Drivers who attempted to use Reno Road as a detour soon found that Reno Road was bumper-to-bumper as well.

Police, on hand in large numbers, were managing traffic as well as possible under the circumstances.  The demonstration was orderly and the crowd young and enthusiastic.