Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Serving Burleith, Foxhall, Georgetown, Georgetown Reservoir & Glover Park
Inside :
Vol. XXV, No. 6
The Georgetown Current CO
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Shorts festival showcases local artists
BID pilots crime alerts using smartphone app
safet y scr u tin y
■ Georgetown: Effort aims
to connect police, community
By MARK LIEBERMAN Current Staff Writer
Cory Wilson’s D.C.-based production company, the Collaborative, was looking to tackle a fun project separate from its business goals of advocacy and advertising. On a whim, the Eastern Market resident asked his friend Frankie Abralind — a writer who spends some afternoons sitting on the National Mall crafting poems for anyone who passes by and talks to him — if he’d be interested in being the subject of a short documentary. One day of shooting later, the short film “Sitting on the Mall” was born. Some films that classify as “shorts” take even less time to create, with their brief shoots and tight editing sessions. Aaron Fisher shot his short documentary “Christylez Bacon” in under two hours. It was conceived as a promotional video featuring the D.C.-based rapper of the film’s title, who was in the process of collaborating on a stage project at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. Later, Fisher See Films/Page 3
By MARK LIEBERMAN Current Staff Writer
When every second counts after a 911 call, waiting for an emergency response can prompt an anxious period of waiting and wondering. But in the age of the Internet, Georgetown Business Improvement District leaders felt the situation could be improved. The group sat down with the Metropolitan Police Department, and their collaboration over the last year and a half has led
Brian Kapur/The Current
Ward 3 D.C. Council member Mary Cheh, who heads the panel overseeing transportation issues, arranged a visit Friday to Wisconsin Avenue and M Street NW, classified by the D.C. Department of Transportation as one of the city’s 10 most dangerous intersections. Cheh, agency officials and advisory neighborhood commissioners discussed possible solutions, including a red-light camera long sought by the community.
Current Staff Writer
When Gerald Anderson first met Susan Orlins in October 2013, he was working as a Street Sense vendor selling newspapers next to the Gallery Place Metro station. A year and a half later, you’ll still find Anderson selling papers outside the station, but now he’s a different man. Back then, he was homeless and addicted to cocaine. Now he’s a local celebrity who hasn’t touched drugs in more than a year and just published his first book, “Still Standing: How an Ex-Con Found Salvation in the Floodwaters of Katrina.” The transformation occurred as a result of Anderson’s friendship with
SPOR TS
Photo courtesy of Susan Orlins
Susan Orlins and Gerald Anderson near the Gallery Place Metro stop Wesley Heights resident Orlins, a published author and former journalist who had just started working at the Street Sense nonprofit as a volunteer editor when Anderson came into her life.
general negotiates agreement By DEIRDRE BANNON Current Correspondent
Anderson, now 48, grew up in poverty in New Orleans. He dropped out of seventh grade and landed in juvenile detention for stealing small items with his brother by the age of 15. He spent almost all of the next two decades bouncing from prison to prison, even overlapping with his imprisoned father when he was 25. When he finally emerged from prison for good three weeks before Hurricane Katrina laid waste to his hometown, Anderson had nowhere but there to settle. As devastating as the storm was, it provided him with a new sense of purpose. He spent much of the hurricane and its aftermath in rescue mode, focusing on the most helpless individuals: a See Homeless/Page 5
COMMUNITY GUIDE
National Cathedral graduate stars for Terps volleyball — Page 9
Exorcist Steps just one of several D.C. landmarks in films — Page CG4
Synthetic drug bust brings Petworth store’s departure ■ Public safety: Attorney
Katrina survivor shares his story in new book By MARK LIEBERMAN
to a pilot program that uses texting to alert community members to crimes. The GroupMe smartphone app allows an unlimited number of users to participate in a single text conversation, and now more than 200 Georgetown residents and businesses have been added to this constant dialogue with police. Many community members feel safer knowing they have a direct line of communication with the police and their neighbors. And according to 2nd District Cmdr. Melvin Gresham, in several cases the technology has facilitated arrests and other proSee GroupMe/Page 35
Riyad Market in Petworth will vacate its storefront by Nov. 13, after reaching an agreement with the D.C. Office of the Attorney General in the wake of a synthetic drug bust last fall in which police seized 500 packets of the illegal substance. The agreement to vacate avoided an eviction trial that had been scheduled for Aug. 28 for the 800 Upshur St. market. “This is a big victory especially for this neighborhood and the 800 block of Upshur Street,” said assistant attorney general Michael Aniton, who’s been heading up the office’s efforts to crack down on synthetic drug sales. “It’s really been developing recently, and Riyad Market was hindering that progress because of certain activities taking place there — it was a negative mark on the block.” The eviction case was set to go before a judge, but ongoing negotiations among the Attorney General’s
SHERWOOD
Holiday weekend brings new visibility to ‘security theater’ — Page 4
Brian Kapur/The Current
Riyard Market will vacate its storefront by mid-November under the terms of an agreement to end eviction proceedings.
Office, the property owner’s attorney who initiated the eviction notice, and the business owners were successful in coming to an agreement to vacate. If Riyad Market fails to leave the property by Nov. 13, the property owner could file to force an eviction and a judge could notify the U.S. Marshal’s Office to remove the business. The District has seen a spike in synthetic drug use recently that the mayor and police chief have called an epidemic. In June, there were 439 See Market/Page 35
INDEX Calendar/6 Classifieds/38 District Digest/2 Exhibits/7 In Your Neighborhood/34
Opinion/4 Real Estate/33 Service Directory/36 Sports/9 Week Ahead/3
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