Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Serving Chevy Chase, Colonial Village, Shepherd Park, Brightwood, Crestwood, Petworth & 16th Street Heights
Vol. XLVIII, No. 47
The Northwest Current
Noisy dispute on leaf blowers reaches council
Aspects of GDS project prompt ANC concerns
s u ited u p to play
■ Development: Amenities,
By BRADY HOLT
traffic management at issue
Current Staff Writer
As autumn ramps up the use of leaf blowers on D.C. yards, the Palisades/Wesley Heights/Spring Valley advisory neighborhood commission is also making some noise — asking for a ban on versions of the machines with two-stroke gasoline engines. At their Nov. 4 meeting, commissioners said these leaf blowers are not only too loud but also emit disproportionate amounts of pollution and send unhealthy dust and small debris flying into the air. By an 8-1 vote, they asked Ward 3 D.C. Council member Mary Cheh to introduce legislation prohibiting them. “We all get complaints from time to time about leaf blowers and we just throw up our hands — ‘What can we do?’” said commission chair Tom Smith. But this month, commissioners were armed with research by a group of Wesley Heights residents, who attended the meeting with leaves pinned to their chests as they discussed their review of health effects and alternatives to two-stroke engines. In pressing Cheh, the commission and community members are presenting these leaf blowers not as a trivial annoyance to well-heeled silence-seekers, but as a hazard to both the environment and the lowpaid landscaping crews that handle them. “Whenever I discuss this issue, the phrase ‘first-world problems’ comes up: ‘Those people in Wesley Heights are just sissies,’” said Dexter Street resident James Fallows. “Actually, the first-world attitude is, ‘We don’t care about these leaf blower people.’ … I think it actually is part of a correct consciousness of the social contract to think about the people who are doing this work.” The risks crews face include hearing loss and inhalation of exhaust fumes and debris kicked up by the leaf blowers, the residents said. Switching to electric, battery or more advanced four-stroke gas See Leaf Blowers/Page 12
NEWS
By BRADY HOLT Current Staff Writer
Brian Kapur/The Current
Local nonprofit Becky’s Fund hosted its seventh annual “Walk This Way” charity fashion show Thursday at the Embassy of Italy. Washington Wizards star Bradley Beal, shown, was among the athletes with area teams to strut on the runway in support of efforts to break the cycle of domestic violence.
— Page 3
Courtesy of Georgetown Day School
A rendering depicts the proposed Davenport Steps between two planned buildings, as seen from Wisconsin Avenue.
tial character. Meanwhile, Palisades neighbors are becoming increasingly curious about the future of the school’s MacArthur Boulevard NW campus, where school officials say possibilities include selling or leasing the property to an institution or a developer. For its Tenleytown project, Georgetown Day filed a plannedunit development application on Nov. 4, meaning that it’s asking the city’s Zoning Commission to allow greater height and density for the mixed-use projects than normally allowed, in exchange for providing benefits to the community. Project See GDS/Page 14
Lafayette students turn out in droves to help foster children By KELSEY KNORP Current Correspondent
A Sunday afternoon function at Lafayette Elementary inviting students to assemble cases of essential items for foster children — in collaboration with local charity Comfort Cases — received such an enthusiastic response that organizers had to turn away some would-be volunteers. Over 100 of the elementary and middle school students who made the cut crowded into the large white tent that serves as the Chevy Chase school’s multipurpose room while its campus undergoes renovation. To fill their cases for foster kids, students and family members made their way around tables containing various donated items on the Comfort Cases checklist, including pajamas, toiletries, stuffed animals and school supplies. “I think it will help them, that it will put a smile on their face so they will not be sad,” said 6-year-
SPOR TS
Activists fight to improve downtown restroom access
Georgetown Day School’s redevelopment plans in Tenleytown faced further criticism from the area’s advisory neighborhood commission this month, as commissioners generally supported the concept behind the large-scale project but said mitigation proposals aren’t yet adequate. Georgetown Day is planning to relocate its lower/middle school from the Palisades to the site of the Safeway at 42nd and Davenport streets NW, to be adjacent to its high school. The school will also construct two high-rise mixed-use buildings as an investment project across 42nd Street along Wisconsin Avenue. The plans have been hotly debated in the community since their inception, with smart-growth advocates welcoming investment and new residents to an underused block, and many other neighbors saying the school’s plans threaten to overwhelm the area’s peaceful residen-
Junior quarterback leads Tigers’ return to the Turkey Bowl — Page 11
Photo by Stacy Beck
Lafayette Elementary School alums Charlotte “Carly” Nusbaum, left, and Daisy Blumenthal helped at Sunday’s community service event.
old Katie Finck-Boyle, a first-grader at Lafayette who assembled a case for a girl of her age. Local freelance writer and Lafayette mom Kitson Jazynka came up with the idea for the
HOLIDAYS
Tree lighting events in D.C. mark arrival of holiday season — Page 15
Comfort Cases “packing party” back in September. She thought it made sense for Lafayette Gives Back, a new initiative from the Lafayette Home and School Association that aims to provide hands-on community service opportunities to students. Jazynka had been working on a piece featuring the 11-year-old daughter of Comfort Cases founder Rob Scheer, which was printed in the November/December issue of popular youth magazine American Girl. Scheer and his husband Reece Chasteen adopted Amaya Chasteen-Scheer and her younger brother Makai from the D.C. foster care system at ages 4 and 2. Brothers from another family, 2-year-old Greyson and 6-month-old Tristan, were not far behind. The feature story on Amaya’s transition from foster care to a permanent home and her subseSee Lafayette/Page 5
INDEX Calendar/16 Classifieds/22 District Digest/2 Exhibits/17 In Your Neighborhood/4 Opinion/8
Police Report/6 Real Estate/13 School Dispatches/10 Service Directory/20 Sports/11 Week Ahead/3
Tips? Contact us at newsdesk@currentnewspapers.com