The NorThwesT CurreNT
Wednesday, July 19, 2017
Council mulls ways to boost retail corridor
Pepco to boost capacity as D.C. population rises
BASTILLE DAY
■ Infrastructure: Project
involves substation overhauls
By CUNEYT DIL
Current Correspondent
Cleveland Park residents, alarmed over the neighborhood’s vitality after the shuttering of two Connecticut Avenue NW restaurants, packed a D.C. Council roundtable last Wednesday to discuss what’s ailing the commercial strip. Planning experts and business owners pushed for greater collaboration to rejuvenate the corridor between Macomb and Porter streets. The idea of a Main Streets group, which has been successful in highlighting Tenleytown and Van Ness, was one of the suggestions floated for the neighborhood. The meeting, jointly chaired by Ward 3 Council member Mary Cheh and Ward 5 Council member Kenyan McDuffie, came amid anxiety over the future of the neighborhood, with businesses there describing a downturn in profits while other corners of Washington boom. Restaurants Nam Viet and Ripple closed in quick succession last month, and shop owner and Cleveland Park Business Association co-chair Susan Lihn recently told The Current that “small businesses are struggling.” On listservs, discussions over development have been reignited, as some argue the area needs more residential density to support its commercial corridor. Despite recent woes, some residents at the roundtable downplayed the restaurant closures, arguing it might just be the natural ebb and flow of consumer tastes. Ellen McCarthy — a Northwest resident who directed the D.C. Office of Planning in the Anthony Williams and Vincent Gray administrations — said the area has a number of assets to build on: a movie theater, a synagogue and a library that is being modernized. “We should be doing a better job taking those assets and translating See Cleveland Park/Page 2
Vol. L, No. 29
Serving Communities in Northwest Washington Since 1967
By MARK LIEBERMAN Current Staff Writer
Brian Kapur/The Current
The annual French Festival at Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens on Saturday celebrated France’s national Bastille Day holiday with games, performances and art projects.
Major changes are coming to the region’s electrical grid over the next decade — and residents in Adams Morgan, Logan Circle and Columbia Heights will be among those on the front lines as construction projects come to their areas. Pepco announced plans in May for a $720 million infrastructure project designed to bolster the city’s power following several years of substantial population growth, particularly in Northwest. The first portion of the project, set to kick off in 2018, involves up to four years of repair and expansion efforts at three existing substations in succession: 6601 New Hampshire Ave. in Takoma Park, Md.; 1001 Harvard St. NW in Columbia Heights; and 2119 Champlain St. NW in Adams Morgan. Part two of the project will bring a new substation near 1st and K streets NW in Mount Vernon Triangle, with construc-
Brian Kapur/The Current
Pepco’s Champlain Street project will reduce the amount of power equipment now visible outdoors.
tion tentatively scheduled between 2019 and 2022. To connect existing and new substations, more than 10 miles of underground transmission lines will be installed in D.C. and Maryland beginning next year via underground trenching. That work is set to begin in March 2018 and last until June 2022. In Northwest, affected streets would include Georgia Avenue from New Hampshire Avenue south to Gresham Place, and the block of Sherman Avenue between Gresham and Harvard Street. “Temporary disturbance and See Pepco/Page 5
City advances interim 2nd District police parking plan ■ Transportation: Constructing new
garage to displace officers to area streets
By ANDRIA MOORE Current Correspondent
The District is moving forward with plans to reserve up to 181 parking spaces for police officers on streets surrounding the 2nd District headquarters, to accommodate patrol cars and personal vehicles displaced by the construction of a parking garage there. At a community meeting last Thursday, the D.C. Department of General Services announced the specific locations where public parking will be temporarily eliminated, likely between October 2017 and May 2018. The police station property, located at 3320 Idaho Ave. NW, is also the future home of a shortterm family shelter; the parking garage plan is
Brian Kapur/Current file photo
The garage will address persistent parking shortages at the station as well as spaces displaced by a planned family shelter.
intended to recover spaces lost to the shelter and also to alleviate existing parking pressures. The General Services Department, which handles the city’s construction projects, has been coordinating the interim parking plan with Metropolitan Police Department officials
and neighborhood representatives — seeking an approach that could best satisfy all parties’ parking needs. The current plans, presented by project manager Agyei Hargrove, spell out various locations where parking would be reserved for the police, including some residential streets. Areas with restrictions would be Wisconsin between Lowell and Rodman streets NW, with 86 spaces on the west side and 52 on the east; Idaho Avenue outside the police station, with 13 spaces on the east side and seven on the west; and the east side of 39th south of Macomb Street, with 15 spaces. Most of those spaces would be reserved at all times for the police, though sections of the Wisconsin Avenue parking lanes would be available at certain hours either for rush-hour traffic or public parking. Meanwhile, 65 off-street private parking spaces would be reserved for police in the See Parking/Page 3
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