The NorThwesT CurreNT
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Vol. XLIX, No. 5
Serving Chevy Chase, Colonial Village, Shepherd Park, Brightwood, Crestwood, Petworth & 16th Street Heights
Dems see three-way race for at-large
SHOW CAR
■ Politics: Gray said to plan
bid in Ward 7, not citywide By CUNEYT DIL
Current Correspondent
In a departure from many previous at-large D.C. Council races, this year’s Democratic field has remained narrow, with the two opponents challenging incumbent Vincent Orange promising a com-
petitive contest. David Garber, a former Navy Yard advisory neighborhood commissioner, filed to run in August. Joining the pack in December was 2014 at-large candidate Robert White, who most recently was director of community outreach for D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine. The latest fundraising totals available from the Office of Campaign Finance Monday show Orange with a war chest of
$145,479 on hand, while White and Garber each have roughly $50,000 cash remaining after expenditures. With the March 16 deadline approaching for candidates to file for the primary, the city is also waiting to see what former Mayor Vincent Gray decides to do. After federal investigators dropped the nearly five-year-long investigation into his 2010 mayoral camSee Council/Page 14
Arrests yield call for Wilson safety focus By MARK LIEBERMAN Current Staff Writer
Brian Kapur/The Current
Although last week’s blizzard delayed the start of the annual Washington Auto Show, visitors of all ages were able to get behind the wheel of a slew of vehicles, ranging from sporty Chevrolet Corvettes to off-road rides. The event opened on Jan. 26 and ended Sunday.
Wilson High School students have been generating a lot of headlines lately — but not for the reasons the community might want. Just last week, six Wilson students — five male and one female — were arrested in the Woodley Park Metro station after allegedly punching a fellow rider at the Gallery Place-Chinatown station. Around 30 minors were kicked out of the Metro at Woodley Park, according to media reports. This incident comes a little more than a week after another Metro-related crime on Jan. 20, when a Wilson student was stabbed outside the Tenleytown station shortly after school let out. Wilson also made headlines in December, when a student brought a semiautomatic handgun into the school. The events have inspired a range of responses from community members. Some believe the high
Brian Kapur/Current file photo
Some parents and community leaders say Wilson High’s administrators should do more to address students’ off-campus behavior.
school should be held responsible for its students’ behavior even outside of its halls. Others caution that the incidents represent a small fraction of the Wilson population. See Wilson/Page 15
Chaplain seeks to move chapel at Walter Reed
Van Ness Main Streets head aims to boost arts activities
By MARK LIEBERMAN
■ Business: Director brings
Current Staff Writer
Jeff Clemens spent almost half a year recovering from a life-threatening illness at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He spent much of his free time regaining his physical and emotional strength in the campus’s historic chapel. “It spoke to my heart, it healed my body and answered my spirit,” Clemens said. Now Clemens, a longtime Army chaplain who returned from the war in Afghanistan in 2011, wants to see the 1931 building remain a functioning house of worship for future generations of military members. And now that the Walter Reed campus has been closed and slated for redevelopment — with the area around the chapel being turned over to the State
experience on national level By MARK LIEBERMAN Brian Kapur/The Current
Despite requests to move the 1931 chapel to Virginia, officials say preservation rules mean it will likely stay in place at the former Army campus.
Department for a complex of embassies — Clemens wants the chapel to be relocated. His dream is for it to join the D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Va., in time to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I in November 2018. But he’ll face significant legal hurdles in his purSee Chapel/Page 4
Current Staff Writer
The fledgling Van Ness Main Streets group hired its first executive director last month after an exhaustive search that initially narrowed down 22 candidates. But if the organization’s president, Mary Beth Ray, hadn’t procrastinated, the outcome might have been different. At one point last year Ray, who is also a Forest Hills advisory
neighborhood commissioner, planned to participate in a webinar about cultural development hosted by the national Main Streets organization. But she took her time signing up. “It’s not like they’re going to run out of chairs,” Ray said. They did, though. To catch up on what she missed, Ray decided to reach out to the instructor, whom she assumed would be in a faraway city like New York or Chicago. To her surprise, the response came nearby Silver Spring, Md. After hitting it off on the phone, See Van Ness/Page 15
NEWS
SPORTS
BUSINESS
INDEX
Renovation advances
Sidwell snaps streak
Meat-light Beefsteak
Calendar/20 Classifieds/29 District Digest/5 Exhibits/21 In Your Neighborhood/18 Opinion/8
Contentious overhaul of Friendship Rec Center set for completion this fall / Page 2
Quakers boys basketball defeats local archrival Maret for the first time in three years / Page 11
Veggie-focused eatery set to add Tenley location to join Dupont Circle, Foggy Bottom sites / Page 3
Police Report/6 Real Estate/17 School Dispatches/16 Service Directory/27 Sports/11 Week Ahead/3
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