The Foggy Bottom Current
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Vol. XII, No. 3
Serving Foggy Bottom & the West End
Selected market brings new Ladybird criticism
STICKS ON THE ICE
Zoning: Project wins nod as ANC 3D reverses course
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By KIRK KRAMER Current Staff Writer
The Balducci’s chain of premium grocery stores will open its only D.C. location at the Ladybird, a mixed-use development proposed for the Spring Valley Superfresh site, the project team announced last week. The news attracted fresh criticism about the Ladybird plans, which many neighbors argue are out of scale with the single-family homes abutting the project site. Valor Development hopes to construct 219 residential units atop 16,000 square feet of retail space at 48th and Yuma streets NW, and one of the two planned buildings would stand up to seven stories tall. The earliest project plans had
Hannah Lynn Wagner/The Current
Wilson High School’s nascent ice hockey team scored a 6-5 victory over the DC Stars last Friday in a match at the Fort Dupont Ice Arena. The Stars had gone into the third period up 4-3, but the Tigers scored two quick goals to take the lead. Several Wilson players were members of the DC Stars prior to the Tenleytown school fielding a team of its own this season.
Courtesy of Valor Development
The former Superfresh site is slated for a mixed-use project.
called for a full-size grocery store, which some community members had applauded — in particular given the closure of the Superfresh; its successor on the site, Fresh & Greens; and the nearest Safeway. Valor said in July that large-format supermarkets were no longer looking to add locations and revised its proposal to accommodate a much smaller grocer. News that this store would be a See Ladybird/Page 14
Georgetown hotel’s plan to convert row houses prompts mixed reviews
Student’s toy drive helps Puerto Rico
“We would be opposed to setting a precedent of large landowners buying up private houses and turning them into short-term The Rosewood Hotel at 1050 31st St. rentals,” Santoyo said. “We want to ensure NW, overlooking the C&O Canal, is that the individuation does not disappear.” expanding around the corner and down the Michael Winstanley, the architect for the hotel’s project, disstreet. The Georgecussed the plans at town hotel will soon this month’s meetoperate six historic ing of Advisory row houses in the Neighborhood same block of 31st Commission 2E Street and nearby on (Georgetown, BurSouth Street as luxleith). Among the ury short-term rentalterations he outal properties. lined were the It’s a move that of Photo courtesy of Rosewood Hotels & Resorts installation makes Elsa Santoyo and of the Citizens The Rosewood Hotel plans to offer lodging awnings repainting all six Association of in six nearby 19th-century row houses. houses the same Georgetown feel a trifle apprehensive. She praised the Rose- color, plans that commissioners opposed. wood as a classy addition to the neighbor- Lisa Palmer, whose single-member dishood since its 2013 opening, but expressed trict includes the hotel and row houses, also concern about the character of the neighbor- wants to ensure that the buildings each See Hotel/Page 5 hood changing.
By KIRK KRAMER
By ZOE MORGAN
Current Staff Writer
Current Staff Writer
After seeing the devastation of Hurricane Maria, local sixth-grader Javier LlanoCruz wanted to help. And with the assistance of his family, his Oyster-Adams Bilingual School classmates, private donations and even the toy industry, Llano-Cruz got to help make Christmas better for thousands of children in Puerto Rico. With his mother, Llano-Cruz traveled to the beleaguered island from Dec. 15 through 19 to help sort and deliver 36,000 donated toys that he helped collect. The toy drive was run by Friends of Puerto Rico, a nonprofit that his father Javier Llano co-founded. “What made me do it is that I wanted to give back to the world in a positive way,” Llano-Cruz, a Columbia Heights resident, told The Current. “My family is from Puerto Rico and after Maria it was bad, so it was a way to give back.” After the hurricane struck the island on Sept. 20, Llano-Cruz’s mother Ruth Cruz
Photo by Kat Vazquez Studio
Javier Llano-Cruz and his mother delivered 36,000 toys to children in Puerto Rico.
said that she realized parents on the ground wouldn’t necessarily have the resources to buy their children toys for Christmas. Starting in late October, the toy drive began. “As a Puerto Rican mother of two, it’s overwhelming because Puerto Rico is home for us,” Cruz said. “Javier and his brother were born here in the States, but we go to See Toys/Page 10
NEWS
HOLIDAYS
HOLIDAY SCHEDULE
INDEX
Censure draws flak
‘Seasonal Disorder’
The Current will resume its regular publication schedule on Jan. 10 after the holidays. In the meantime, updates and calendar listings will be available at currentnewspapers.com.
Calendar/15 Classifieds/19 District Digest/2 Foggy Bottom News/9 In Your Neighborhood/14
Dupont ANC doesn’t alter earlier action despite criticism from attorney general’s office / Page 3
Washington Improv Theater finds fodder for spur-of-the-moment comedy from audiences / Page 11
Opinion/6 Police Report/4 Real Estate/13 School Dispatches/8 Service Directory/18
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