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The Northwest Current

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Vol. L, No. 45

Serving Communities in Northwest Washington Since 1967

Safety fixes eyed for Massachusetts

FIRES IN THE MIRROR

■ Transportation: Dupont,

Embassy Row under review

By ZOE MORGAN Current Correspondent

The city’s transportation planners are proposing substantial changes to Massachusetts Avenue NW from Waterside Drive south to 20th Street in response to poor pavement conditions and high

crash volumes. The D.C. Department of Transportation intends to narrow travel lanes to make room for a pedestrian refuge; alter three intersections; and replace damaged sections of sidewalk and roadway. The department recently released an initial proposal and is in the process of obtaining community feedback. “Going forward, once we collect all the review comments from

our stakeholders and the public, we are advancing our design to the intermediate design phase,” the agency’s Huntae Kim told The Current. The current proposal involves reducing the roadway’s four existing lanes from 12.5 feet to 11 feet, which creates room for a 6-footwide pedestrian refuge in the middle. This design is based on a review of 2013-2015 crash data, See Mass Ave/Page 14

ANC opposes substation’s designation By GRACE BIRD Current Staff Writer

Brian Kapur/The Current

Edmund Burke School staged Anna Deavere Smith’s “Fires in the Mirror” over the weekend. The Pulitzer-nominated 1992 drama explores the plight of black and Jewish communities in New York during a time of civil unrest.

A request to designate Pepco’s Friendship Heights substation as a historic landmark is facing opposition from the local advisory neighborhood commission, which says the designation is unnecessary and would endanger ongoing renovations. The Tenleytown Historical Society and the Art Deco Society of Washington jointly argue that the 5210 Wisconsin Ave. NW building, constructed in 1940, has architectural and historical significance. Designed in the art moderne style, the building is constructed of red brick “laid in American bond fashion,” the application states. Its Wisconsin Avenue fronting is decorated with limestone panels, while the base of the building and entrance door are trimmed in black glazed ceramic tiles. The substation was erected as part of an expansion See Substation/Page 15

Photo by Kent Boese

Critics say the 5210 Wisconsin Ave. NW substation — shown with temporary artwork in this photo from the landmark application — lacks historic value.

Keeping things Current: Newspaper hits 50 years

Lab School still planning to close its pool despite outcry

By GRACE BIRD

■ Recreation: Public has

Current Staff Writer

Fifty years ago this Thursday, the first edition of The Current arrived at some 10,000 homes across a section of Northwest D.C. The paper was called The Potomac Current back then, and it was centered around the MacArthur Boulevard corridor — Foxhall Village, Berkley, Kent, the Palisades and what was then known as Potomac Heights. Mainly distributed by schoolchildren, it came out every other week and sold for 10 cents an issue or $3 for a yearly subscription. In that first edition on Nov. 16, 1967, Potomac Current writers touched on a swath of local issues: a new post office at 5136 MacArthur Blvd. NW, still in operation today; the latest plans for the Three Sisters Bridge, a proposed highway connection from George-

enjoyed access to facility

By GRACE BIRD Current Staff Writer

Brian Kapur/The Current

The Current first hit the streets on Nov. 16, 1967. Today, the paper has five print editions serving large areas of Northwest D.C.

town to Virginia; and a 9-year-old who had been bitten by a dog near MacArthur and Elliott Place NW. Early advertisers included National Permanent Savings & Loan; the Burdette Key Shop on Dorsett Place NW off Arizona Avenue; and Ted Lingo Inc., a MacArthur Boulevard Realtor. See Current/Page 5

After months of debate, The Lab School has decided to replace its campus pool with a theater, as part of an institutional goal to provide an improved arts education for its students. A larger performing arts theater will replace the existing 25-yard, six-lane indoor pool on the private school’s main campus at 4759 Reservoir Road NW, with the pool

scheduled to close at the end of next summer. The school announced the decision to parents and community members in late October. The surrounding community had been fighting to retain the pool, which Lab had been making available to the public and two local swim teams — the Dolphins and the Sea Devils — outside of school hours. “The pool is less than 20 years old and was built specifically because many kids with learning disabilities have problems participating in traditional team sports,” See Pool/Page 15

NEWS

SPORTS

CURRENTNEWSPAPERS.COM

INDEX

Tenleytown project

State champs

Check out our new website, where you’ll find more of the communityoriented news, features and sports you read weekly in The Current.

Calendar/18 Classifieds/22 District Digest/2 In Your Neighborhood/14 Opinion/6

Developer eyes Dancing Crab site for seven-story mixed-use apartment building / Page 3

St. John’s captures DCSAA titles for volleyball, girls soccer in recent tournaments / Page 9

Police Report/4 Real Estate/13 School Dispatches/8 Service Directory/21 Sports/9

Tips? Contact us at newsdesk@currentnewspapers.com


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