Dp 01 27 16

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The Dupont Current

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Hours in flux for permit at old Post site

Bus-only lanes expected for 16th Street by 2020

cleanup

■ Transit: Project will also

include off-board payment

By MARK LIEBERMAN Current Staff Writer

Residents who live near the former Washington Post complex got a brief promise of respite last week from the planned 24-hour demolition of the buildings — only to have it ripped away a day later, as the Office of Administrative Hearings reversed course and allowed the work permit to continue. A final ruling on the case will come from the office after a Friday hearing. For now, the latest decision allows around-the-clock construction to proceed at the complex at 15th and L streets NW, after the office ultimately reversed a decision to grant a motion to suspend the work permit. Arguing his case at Friday’s hearing will be Mike Fasano, who lives nearby in the Presidential Cooperative. He believes the permit for overnight work was issued illegally and that the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs should have sought feedback from the community before See Demolition/Page 5

By MARK LIEBERMAN Current Staff Writer

After years of consideration, a stretch of 16th Street NW will receive dedicated bus lanes by 2020, the D.C. Department of Transportation announced last Thursday. The changes, designed to address overcrowding along the busy corridor, will also include off-board fare payment, bus stop consolidation and more frequent

bus arrivals. They primarily affect 16th Street between H Street NW and Arkansas Avenue NW. The bus lanes will be the most obvious change to 16th Street, and will likely open in two to four years, transportation officials said at Thursday’s public meeting on the proposal. They will be restricted to buses weekdays from 7 a.m. to noon heading south, and 4 to 7:30 p.m. northbound, and parking will be prohibited on both sides of the street during those peak hours. Automated enforcement similar to red-light cameras will take pictures of cars that try to use the See Buses/Page 13

Local businesses brush off blizzard to serve neighbors By MARK LIEBERMAN Current Staff Writer

Brian Kapur/The Current

After more than a foot of snow blanketed the District, the workweek kicked off with cleanup efforts throughout the city, such as this plow at 22nd and H streets NW.

Tenley ANC seeks traffic safety upgrades By CUNEYT DIL

Current Correspondent

Tenleytown community leaders are calling on the city to make a number of traffic safety improvements along Wisconsin Avenue NW and in the area near Deal Middle School and Wilson High School. On a stretch of Chesapeake Street NW where students from both schools regularly cross, Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3E (Tenleytown, Friendship Heights) wants the city to consider creating a three-way stop at the intersection of 40th Street. The commission is also requesting a stop sign at 41st and Chesapeake streets going northbound and a

Vol. XIV, No. 35

Serving Dupont Circle, Kalorama, Adams Morgan & Logan Circle

Brian Kapur/The Current

The commission is worried about pedestrian safety at several sites near Deal Middle School.

raised crosswalk at Chesapeake Street and Belt Road, among other tweaks. Meanwhile, ANC 3E also passed a lengthy list of recommen-

dations targeting curb cuts and other issues along Wisconsin Avenue, from Van Ness Street NW north to the Maryland line. The commission’s resolution, directed at the D.C. Department of Transportation, lists dozens of addresses that have curb cuts or driveways that either don’t comply with city regulations or often draw cars to park on public space. The city’s practice has been to grandfather existing curb cuts that are too close to an intersection or to each other, as well as parking spaces that are on the public space between the street and property line, even though these practices are no longer allowed. Commissioners said the addresses they See Safety/Page 13

Justin Anderson’s tiny basement apartment in Tenleytown was filled with four of his colleagues on Friday night. One person slept on a futon, another on a couch. Two more rested on air mattresses. “It’s not the biggest in the world, but we make it work,” ■ SERVING said Anderson, THE NEEDY: manager of Nonprofits gave Osman & Joe’s out extra food, Steak ’n Egg clothes before Kitchen at 4700 storm. Page 2. Wisconsin Ave. NW, which promises 24-hour service in all kinds of weather. Steak ’n Egg was one of numerous local businesses that kept their doors open during the weekend blizzard that blanketed the city under 18 to 24 inches of snow. Anderson’s colleagues stayed with him overnight so they could make the mile trek to the restaurant for work. The tight squeeze paid off, Anderson said — as of early Saturday afternoon, during the height of the snowfall, between 40 and

Brian Kapur/The Current

Georgetown’s Via Umbria stayed open during the blizzard, with several employees staying at the nearby Georgetown Inn.

80 paying customers had already come in, ranging from snowplow operators to the usual types of passerby. Even the looming threat of a power outage (which never materialized) didn’t faze Anderson, who noted that the grill and other appliances don’t require electricity. The restaurant has built a reputation in the community for reliable, consistent service, and Anderson wasn’t willing to let a snowstorm ruin that. “As long as we can see, we can work,” Anderson said. The story was similar at Glen’s Garden Market at 2001 S St. NW See Storm/Page 5

BUSINESS

EVENTS

SHERWOOD

INDEX

Nutritional treatment

‘Salon Style’ debuts

Weather-weary

Calendar/14 Classifieds/21 District Digest/4 Dupont Circle Citizen/9 Exhibits/15 In Your Neighborhood/12

New Friendship Heights clinic looks to plant-based diet as part of path to recovery / Page 3

National Museum of Women in the Arts highlights female artists who faced gender barriers / Page 15

Spring is in sight, but still far from today’s streets as cleanup efforts drag on / Page 6

Opinion/6 Police Report/8 Real Estate/11 School Dispatches/18 Service Directory/19 Week Ahead/3

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