13 minute read
our village
Market Row dresses up for the Cherry Blossoms. Photo: A. Lightman
by Elizabeth O’GorekNeighborliness
Maketto's Vina Sananikone delivers replacement pumpkins to a joyful reception. Photo: Marìa Helena Carey, The Hill is Home
As 2021 rolled into 2022, Youngmi Choi was having a terrible time. On Dec. 14, 2021, someone broke the glass plate window on the 11th Street SE side of her family’s business, Capitol Cleaning Emporium (1101 E. Capitol St. SE). Then, a month later, she was robbed at gunpoint at 3:40 in the afternoon as she stood behind the cash register.
When Choi’s neighbors found out about the robbery, they were furious and saddened. They took that horrifying moment and used it to celebrate a woman and a family business that has been on Lincoln Park for 35 years.
Neighbors quickly rallied around the business and around Choi herself. They stopped in to see her, to give her notes, cookies and hugs.
They also started a GoFundMe campaign to support Choi and her family. The goal, however, was not just to help Choi with the financial impact, said organizer Sarah Von Der Lippe. “We are setting up this GoFundMe
Neighbors raised more than $25,000 in two days after Youngmi Choi of Capitol Hill Cleaning Emporium was robbed at gunpoint. Photo: E.O'Gorek
page so that everyone on Lincoln Park, Capitol Hill and beyond can join in and let Youngmi and her family know how much we love and value them,” Von Der Lippe explained on the site.
In comments on the fundraising page, neighbors wrote of Choi’s friendliness and neighborliness. “Young has watched our three children grow up, greets us with a smile,” one woman wrote. “Sad this happened to such a star of our community.”
More than $25,000 was raised in the first two days. By the end of February, nearly $30,000 had been raised.
But the words and community support, Choi said, were as critical to her and her family as the funds.
“I never guessed they loved me that much,” she said.
Neighborliness
Neighborliness. We share after work drinks across fences or sidewalks. We rescue one another’s packages, watch out for each other’s kids and search for one another’s lost pets. We celebrate and we commiserate. When there’s a fight worth fighting – bike lanes, Capitol Hill grounds fencing — we organize and fight together.
That feeling of being part of a community that looks out for one another, in good times and in bad, is part of what makes Capitol Hill the best village in DC. When bad things happen, we try to band together to make it better. And we get together to make good things happen all the time.
Sometime during the 2021 Halloween weekend, someone stole two pumpkins growing in a side yard near Fourth and F Streets. The gardener, a military widow and mother of two, posted a sign on her fence pleading for their return. They were not jack-o-lantern pumpkins, she explained; they were the more expensive organic sweet pumpkins. She was growing her own for the first time to make into Thanksgiving pie, she added.
Popular Hill blogger The Hill is Home posted a photo of the sign on Twitter, eliciting an outpouring of support. Neighbors responded with sympathy and support, including H Street restaurant Maketto (1351 H St. NE). “We have lots,” they replied via twitter. “We’ll drop them off tomorrow.”
The next day the restaurant, already known for their work in the community, delivered —literally. Maketto Social Media Manager Vina Sananikone came to the doorstep with a dozen sweet pumpkins.
Coming Together
Despite the hurdles over the last two years, we’ve still found ways to come together as a community and every event has shown how much we crave opportunities to be together. A record number of people thronged Eighth Street SE for the Capitol Hill July 4th Parade to watch friends and neighbors march down Barracks Row and throw candy at neighborhood children, after missing the opportunity in 2020.
When planning began for the Capitol Hill Literary Bookfest (held every May at Eastern Market to celebrate local authors), the board could not yet meet in person. But that did not stop President Elizabeth Cogan from ensuring those attending the first planning meeting would be able to share a glass of wine. Cogan went all over the Hill, delivering gift bags containing wine, cheese, crackers and homemade cinnamon buns so that board members could gather over shared repast.
“I just thought it would be nice to do something together – even if we couldn’t be together,” she said.
Sometimes, you realize that neighbors you haven’t met in person yet are just your best friends waiting to be called on. I learned this last year, when I was invited to a formal gala. I have no need for a formal evening gown regularly in my life, much less a desire to spend money on one, so I turned to our neighborhood social media groups.
The ladies of Facebook group “Take
Writer Elizabeth O'Gorek was dressed by neighbors from head to toe for a formal event last fall. Courtesy R. Buhr
My Shit” dressed me in a floorlength gold sequined dress, matching shoes (they gave me two pairs to choose from!) as well as a clutch.
“I love this!” a neighbor commented on one of my many outfit-assembling posts. “It reminds me of getting ready to go out in college.” The similarities are indeed there: one person also offered to do my hair and, after the experience (nay, the result) of doing it myself, next time, I’ll take her up on it.
There are a wide variety of neighbors on the Hill, people who spend their workdays running the government or challenging it, teaching our children and caring for them, working at our small businesses, libraries, hospitals — folks born right here and those that have arrived from the four corners of America and the world.
But while so many homes on the Hill are tiny houses with yards that are small and neat or non-existent, they have benefits. By necessity, we cross paths regularly. We become intimately familiar with one another and our routines. We are drawn closer together at the same time as we enlarge our concept of family.
Choi knows those feelings. At Capitol Hill Cleaning Emporium, she works 12-hourdays at the family business. She said that sometimes, it feels like when she immigrated from Korea 28 years ago, “I didn’t come to the U.S.A. —I immigrated to a dry cleaners.”
That’s why the outpouring of love and support was so significant to her. The people she sees every day, with whom she has shared the ups and downs of small business ownership for most of the past three decades, have grown in significance with time. These people started as her customers, she said. But now they are so much more.
“It seems like I won the lottery jackpot with my neighbors,” Choi said. It’s clear that we all have. u
2021 year book
Mayor Muriel Bowser, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton and members of the Douglass family were some of the dignitaries that cut the ribbon on the New Frederick Douglass Bridge Sept. 7. Photo: E. O’Gorek
L-R/ Eastern Market Main Street Director Charles McCaffrey, CHCF President Nicky Cymrot, Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen and Barracks Row Main Street Exec.Director Martin Smith July 4 community ribbon cutting EMMP. Photo: E. O’Gorek
developments
Mayor Muriel Bowser is joined by students to cut the ribbon on the newly modernized Eliot-Hine Middle School (1830 Constitution Ave. NE). 157,000 square feet were renovated, with the 1950s addition fully rebuilt. Photo: E. O’Gorek
The brand-new Southwest Library reopened May 15, 2021. The $18 million project includes 20,000 sq ft of public space. Photo: DCPL
ABOVE: A sparkling new addition to the food scene is The Point, at Buzzard’s Point on the Anacostia River.
LEFT: The Easter Bunny is spotted outside The Roost (1401 Pennsylvania Ave. SE). The food hall houses a coffee shop, beer hall and multiple restaurants. It opened in late 2021. Photo: E. O’Gorek
Capitol Hill Community Foundation Award Winners
Each spring, the Capitol Hill Community Foundation recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to our neighborhood in a wide variety of ways, honoring them with Community Achievement Awards. This year (from left) Sah Brown, principal at Eastern High School; Joan and Michael Kim, owners of Grubbs Pharmacy; and Kirsten Oldenburg, longtime ANC 6B commissioner were honored at a festive garden party at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. The annual event is a fundraiser for the Foundation which, since its founding in 1989, has given more than $10 million to support activities and organizations that benefit life on Capitol Hill.
Also presented at that event were the annual Arnold F. Keller Award of $25,000 to the Story of Our Schools for a display at Eastern High School on the occasion of its centennial in 2023 and the first annual John Franzén Award for the Arts to the Chiarina Chamber Players in support of a series of educational concerts this fall by the Attacca Quartet, a New York-based chamber Group.
Barbara Riehle
Judy Wood Donna Scheeder
Margot Kelly
Passages
Larry Quillian
Robert Louis Staples
1 At the Capitol
4
1) A man holds a sign at the Sept. 18 2021 “Justice for J6” rally, in support of the Insurrectionists jailed for invading the US Capitol Building. The sign says, "Trump lost, idiots.”. Photo: E. O’Gorek
2) A woman holds a sign as she listens to speakers at the Jan. 6, 2022 candlelight vigil. Photo: E. O’Gorek
3) Hill resident Nicky Sundt speaks to a reporter at the Jan. 6 Candlelight Vigil. Photo: E. O’Gorek
4) Members of the U.S. Secret Service speak with kids in Lincoln Park after school Sept. 20, 2021. Officers from DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and the FBI were also out that day, handing out ice cream, coloring books and stickers. Photo: E. O’Gorek
5) The fence around the US Capitol Grounds is removed as a USCP officers looks on, July 10, 2021. The grounds were fenced in for 184 days. The fence was put up for a few days in September during the “Justice for J6”. Photo: E. O’Gorek
6) US Capitol Police officers guard the U.S. Capitol from the west lawn during the “Justice for J6” rally, Sept. 18, 2021. Photo: E. O’Gorek
5 6 2
3
Revolutionary War reenactors march in the July 4th Parade. Photo: A. Lightman
Councilmember at Large Elissa Silverman. Photo: A. Lightman Payne Elementary School marches at the July 4th Parade. Photo: A. Lightman
All smiles at the July 4 parade. Photo: E. O’Gorek
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) poses with a family. Photo: E. O’Gorek A marcher sports a Payne Elementary Wild Cats shirt. Photo: A. Lightman
Brent Elementary marches at Parade. Photo: A. Lightman Mayor Bowser's Green Team. Photo: A. Lightman
A boy waves the US flag from the sidelines. Thousands thronged the street for the first parade since 2019. Photo: E. O’Gorek
“Kody the Sheriff” with Deputies Rick and Debra Liebling and their outlaw granddaughter at Howloween. Photo: Melissa Liebling
A little sheep holds her treat bag during the Hilloween festivities at Eastern Market. Photo: E. O’Gorek
Halloween
Jess and Jordan Mitchell with Eddie and Maia, the Hungry Caterpillar. Photo: J. Mitchell
A genius Bob Ross costume at Hilloween at Eastern Market. Photo: E. O’Gorek "Anne of Green Gables", an entry in the Capitol Hill Community Foundation's Literary Pumpkin Walk, The fun, spooky tour raises funds for Hill schools. Courtesy: CHCF
Children head past Wine and Butter on their way to Trick or Treat. Photo: E. O’Gorek
The Didden Family. The Hill Holiday Tree was planted in honor of former Capitol Hill BID President George Didden III. His wife, Kathy (far L), flips the switch each year. Photo: E.O’Gorek
Every year Capitol Hill residents gather at the Eastern Market Metro Plaza to enjoy holiday caroling around a majestic 30-foot evergreen tree. The tree was planted in spring of 2007 to honor the late George Didden III for his many contributions to Capitol Hill. Didden was a member of the founding family of National Capital Bank, and a founder of the Capitol Hill Community Foundation, Barracks Row Main Street and the Capitol Hill BID. The tree is beautifully decorated before the Christmas season by the BID’s “men in blue.” This year over 300 residents turned out on the newly renovated plaza for the event to enjoy hot chocolate, coffee and doughnuts as local musical groups Washington Youth Choir, Joyous Voices, Adalia Jimenez and Capitol Hill Arts Workshop’s (CHAW) Suzuki Strings performed traditional holiday carols.
Little George Tree Lighting
For the first time, there was seating under the new Pavillion, part of the refurbishment of the Eastern Market Metro Plaza. Photo: E.O’Gorek
Carollers from 'Joyous Voices' performed as part of the tree-lighting program, Nov. 20. 2021. Photo: E.O’Gorek A little girl reaches for lights under" the Hill Holiday Tree. Photo: E.O’Gorek
