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.

Planning Commission Seeking Ideas for L'Enfant Promenade in Southwest DC

The National Capital Planning Commission, in coordination with other federal agencies and the District of Columbia, is inviting the public to attend a meeting on the Southwest Ecodistrict Initiative, focused on the 10th Street (L'Enfant Promenade) and Maryland Avenue corridors in Southwest Washington.

You can view the 90-second video giving an overview of the Southwest Ecodistrict Initiative:

This joint effort aims to advance the vision set forth in the Monumental Core Framework Plan by fostering an inviting, lively, mixed-use community, while accommodating the future needs of the federal and local governments. The initiative also supports President Obama’s Executive Order 13514 that calls on federal agencies to be leaders in environmental, energy, and economic performance.

Join the Conversation. Help shape this important area into a physical showcase of sustainable practices.
Come prepared to share your input. Project handouts will be available on NCPC’s website on February 10, 2011.

What: Southwest Ecodistrict Public Meeting (focused on area surrounding the 10th Street and Maryland Avenue corridors in Southwest Washington, DC)

When: Thursday, February 17, 2011 from 6:00pm – 8:00pm

Where: USDA Headquarters, Whitten Building, Interior Courtyard, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW

RSVP preferred: swecodistrict @ ncpc.gov.  Walk-ins are welcome. ADA/disability accommodations available upon request.

Grocery Heaven Is Here

I have been to the new Georgetown Safeway
and I am here to sing its praises. After closing for a year-long renovation/total rebuilding, the new store is now open for business, and boy has it won my business! It's everything I want from a grocery store, except Costco prices. (But then, that really would be asking the impossible, wouldn't it?) It's big, but not overwhelmingly so. It's got everything I put on my shopping list -- even some obscure items I would have bet I'd never find. And it's good looking -- by which I mean it's not the ugly concrete box we've all come to expect a large store to be. From the street it appears appropriately sized for the neighborhood and inviting to pedestrians as well as drivers. The two-level parking lot is nicely tucked around the back and underneath the building. Inside, it's clean and logically laid out. I had no trouble finding things, but even if I had, during this first week, there are greeters and guides standing by the front door, ready to take you around and personally escort you down the aisles until you arrive at your destination. (Well, I'm sure that won't last, but in the meantime, it gives a certain Japanese Zen-like quality to the shopping experience. Enjoy it while you can.)

Actually, I didn't require a guide. I was happy to wander around, making each new discovery on my own. There's the bakery with a bay of lovely loaves, enticingly arranged. Next, the patisserie, where I was encouraged to sample the cakes and confections. The young man behind the counter earnestly assured me that there was a chocolatier on site at all times checking the equipment so that the temperature of the chocolate remains constant. I tried a dark chocolate pretzel that came from some famous chocolate pretzel maker in Pennsylvania. (I pretended to have heard of it, because I didn't want to disappoint him.) I wandered past the sushi bar and was tempted for a minute to take a seat at the counter and have a California roll, but I couldn't spare the time, not if I wanted to tour the aisles and aisles of wine offerings. Nor did I have time to enter the separate, climate controlled, ultra-high-end wine shop, where the hundred-dollar-a-bottle-and-up wines are stored with special care. Next time, perhaps. Same for the sit-down Starbucks cafe. I finished up my tour with a dash through the frozen foods section, but soon realized there was no need to move so fast; for the first time in a grocery history, I felt no need to rush through the chill-zone. With these new energy-saving freezer cases, there's not even a nip of frost leaking out into the air. No wishing for a sweater for this part of the trip. Though I didn't have to rush to stay warm, let hastily finish off my virtual tour with a quick mention of the full-service pharmacy, the florist shop, the deli counter, the cheese offerings, the produce departments (organically grown and not) and the multiple places to buy different kinds of prepared dinners (I may never cook again!).

And now to the checkout. In this first week, when it's bumper-to-bumper shopping carts all up and down the aisles, I assumed that the checkout couldn't help but be slow. Pleasant surprise: It was actually pretty zippy. They've got all cashiers working, with ushers to steer you to the shortest line. There are self-checkout cashiers for those adept at doing their own scanning and bagging. (One day I'll get the hang of that!) I'm definitely going back soon.

I expect to be a weekly customer, until such time as Cleveland Park gets its own upgraded, new and improved supermarket. (Why don't we have such a thing already? Hmmm....I don't think I'll get into that, lest I be accused of sneaking an editorial into what's supposed to be my quirky-cute column on life in the city. But I do need to toss out this observation: That a store of this size and scope can be designed to fit in comfortably, even charmingly, into a low-scale historic neighborhood, without causing traffic backups or any other widely-feared effects. Go take a look and see the example in action yourself.) I digress. I didn't mean to talk about anything but this Safeway. There's one thing I'm sure my single readers will want to know: Is it still the "Social Safeway"? Yes, and now more than ever, it lives up to its reputation. You can linger over the melons just as you did in the past, waiting for that someone of your dreams to seek your counsel on the question of firmness and ripeness. But now you have other choices as well: Looking to meet a hiker? Hang out at the trail mix bins. Or find a fellow caffeine addict at the Starbucks. Wait for a wasabi lover at the sushi bar. You get the idea. (And if you do find your soulmate while shopping at the Social Safeway or in any other consumer-related excursion, I'd be interested to hear your story, perhaps for a future column. Bill and I met at a Safeway -- in a manner of speaking. But that's a story I'm saving for another column, perhaps sometime in October, around our 22nd anniversary.

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Published on the Cleveland Park Listserv, May 7, 2010.