Free Yoga and Potluck August 5th

Have you heard about the community yoga classes happening in Eckington?

In partnership with the MBT5K Race Committee, Crystal Moore Yoga is offering a weekly community yoga class outdoors on the Metropolitan Branch Trail.  The last class will be next Tuesday, August 5.  The All Levels class can accommodate any comers, from beginners to the advanced. We begin at 6:30 PM.

Stay after the yoga class to enjoy a community potluck dinner in celebration of National Night Out. We will supply drinks, plates, napkins, and silverware. Please bring a food item to share.

Thanks to the MBT5K Race Committee, which has been sponsoring the weekly community yoga class as well as the potluck. Stay fit this summer by practicing on the MBT! Come prepared for the hot weather!

What to bring:

·      Yoga mat or large towel

·      Food to share

·      Water bottle

·      Hat

·      Sunscreen

The MBT is very accessible.  You can bike, run, walk or drive to the trail.  On-street parking is available.  

All attendees must complete a liability waiver before participating.  More information is available online: http://www.crystalmooreyoga.com/community-yoga.html.

DETAILS
Tuesdays at 6:30 pm (June 3 – August 5)
Metropolitan Branch Trail, S & 4th Streets NE

FREE!

Little Free Library

I wanted to let everyone know that there is a little free library in the neighborhood.  After seeing these all around I decided to add one to our neighborhood for everyone to enjoy and use.  The concept is simple you build a structure to hold books and anyone can come by and borrow a book or return a book.  They are all over the world and a map is available on the website.  I have submitted mine but it takes awhile for them to add them.  So if you have not been down Ascot Place in a while please feel free to stop by and grab a book.  

Let me know if you have any questions!  Also happy to help if any other neighbors want to add another little free library!

http://littlefreelibrary.org

Edgewood Safety Meeting

Good day all;

A rash of robberies; burglaries and shootings have recently hit the Edgewood and surrounding communities hard.

The Edgewood Community has set a meeting date, time and place for dialogue around these public health and safety concerns.

Attendees:

5th District Commander Porter
Lt. Ronald Wright
Representative from CM McDuffie's office
Representative from the Committee of Judiciary - CM Tommy Wells

The meeting will be held on:

Monday-July 28, 2014
From: 06:30 pm - 08:30 pm

The host of the meeting:
The Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church Family Life Center
605 Rhode Island Avenue NE-
Conference Room

All are welcome 

Edgewood Neighborhood Potluck on Saturday

Please join!!!  Look forward to seeing everyone and thankful to those that organized!

http://www.evite.com/l/fYfUwb6Axs?utm_source=EVENT_UPDATE&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=view_invitation2

Bebe, Debbie, Dori & Rob

Join your fellow neighbors in celebrating the 
2nd Annual Edgewood BBQ & Potluck!!  

Once a year we gather as neighbors to invite newbie's and those not so new... to celebrate Edgewood in all its glory...and discuss our community in a friendly & fun environment!

When RSVP'N please state the dish you will be contributing to the Potluck so we get a variety of yumminess!  There is only one grill, if you feel like bringing another one, please do!

**Also, bring your blankets & picnic gearthere are a few benches but not enough for everyone... there is lots of shade in the park so hopefully it won't be a scorcher on Saturday**

Neighborhood Author Book Signing Tonight

Please join if you can or checkout her website to order a copy of our very own Edgewood neighbor's new children's book. I am very excited about having an author up the street and already preordered a copy for my niece. 

The event will be held on Friday, July 11, 2014 at Randle Highlands Elementary School which is located at 1650 30th Street, Southeast in Washington, D.C. 

Www.valmgrant.com

Chez Hareg Catering is OPEN!!!

Great news Chez Hareg is back with a cafe and catering business in the old bakery spot.  The new place is still getting furniture in but don't let that detract you from stopping by and getting some fresh, delicious food!  They are starting with breakfast and lunch this week 10-3 and next week 7-3.  Hours will expand as they see the neighborhood support- so please stop by I promise it is worth it.  Very exciting to have her back with new partners and great food!

Community Meeting at Dance Place

Hello!

I would like to extend an invitation to the community to participate in conversations about our next project -- transforming the asphalt alley next to our building into an Arts Park! It's very important to us to involve the community in these discussions so we can best meet the needs of our developing neighborhood.

If you would like to join us Tuesday, June 15th at 7pm at Dance Place, we'd love to have you! Additionally, I'd really appreciate it if you could send the attached letter around to anyone else you think might be interested.

Thank you very much! Hope to see you soon! 
Amanda

-- 
Amanda Blythe 
Box Office Manager 
Marketing Assistant 
Dance Place 
3225 8th St NE
Washington, DC 20017 

Saturday, 10 AM: Join us for the Playable Art Community Meeting

Saturday: Join us for the Playable Art Community Meeting

 

Washington, D.C., July 9, 2014 – Join your neighbors this Saturday to give feedback on the type of artistic playgrounds you’d like to see in NoMa! An initial community meeting will be held Saturday, July 12 at 10 AM at Flats 130 apartments at 130 M Street, NE. The meeting will be about a new playable art sculpture in the neighborhood along the Metropolitan Branch Trail between L & M Streets, NE. The NoMa neighborhood has been selected for the Playable Arts DC project (playableartdc.co) to receive an art sculpture that will double as children's play equipment, and the DC Office of Planning, NoMa BID, and the ANC are collaborating on the project.

 

An international design competition will take place later this year, with installation in 2016.   The process kicks off with this Saturday’s community workshop to allow neighbors, kids, and parents to provide feedback on what kinds of art & play structures they'd like to see here.

 

Please help spread the word! Coffee and pastries will be provided. Whether you can make it or not, please also participate in the related online survey athttps://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PlayableArtDC.

 

About Playable Art DC

Playable Art DC is a play and place-making initiative of the DC Office of Planning (OP) in partnership with the District Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) to bring innovative art-based play spaces to neighborhoods with underserved park space in the District though an international design competition. Playable Art DC promotes the use of art as a means of creating new types of play spaces in areas that are constrained by space, topography, or other barriers like busy streets. Playable Art DC also seeks to engage the whole community in play as a way to promote fitness and exercise and create community landmarks and neighborhood gathering spots. The initiative is made possible by a grant from ArtPlace America.

 

Playable Art DC builds on Mayor Gray’s playground improvement initiative—a multi-year citywide play space project to evaluate and improve DPR playgrounds—by providing access to play for neighborhoods identified in the Play DC Vision Framework as not well served by traditional parks and open spaces. For more information about Playable Art DC, please visit: http://playableartdc.org

 

About NoMa
NoMa is a vibrant, growing neighborhood nestled among Union Station, the U.S. Capitol, Shaw, and the H Street, NE corridor in Washington, D.C. Over the last several years, private developers have invested more than $5 billion in the 35-block area within the NoMa BID boundary, and have plans to develop more than 16 million square feet of additional office, residential, hotel, and retail space. With a capital investment of $50 million from the District government, NoMa will soon have great new parks and public spaces as well. NoMa is home to more than 3,900 terrific new apartments, and more than 40,000 people work here each day. NoMa is the most connected neighborhood in Washington, D.C.  With unparalleled transportation access on Amtrak, VRE, MARC, two Red Line Metro stops, and vehicular access to Interstate 395, visitors, workers and residents can easily travel throughout the region as well as get to New York or anywhere on the East Coast. NoMa has a WalkScore of 92 and offers great biking facilities, including three free outdoor air pumps, the East Coast’s only Bikestation, the 8-mile Metropolitan Branch Trail, and seven Capital Bikeshare stations. The NoMa BID organizes more than 50 free award-winning community events each year, connecting more than 20,000 friends and neighbors. For more information about NoMa, visitwww.nomabid.org and sign up for our bimonthly newsletter. Follow us on Twitter@NoMaBID and like us on Facebook.

 

###

For immediate release
News media contact:
Rachel Davis
202-997-3846
rdavis@nomabid.org

 

 

Rachel L. Davis

Director of Marketing & Events

NoMa Business Improvement District

1200 First Street NE, Suite 310

Washington, DC 20002

rdavis@nomabid.org

(P): 202-810-0084

 

Free WiFi Up in the Air! 

Follow us on Twitter @NoMaBID

www.nomabid.org

 

Development Update

Just a glance around Edgewood and you can see all the ongoing construction with developments completing and new neighbors and businesses moving into the neighborhood. I feel like a broken record trying to get these developments to acknowledge that they are in Edgewood! So below are the updates of the developments ongoing in the Edgewood neighborhood for your reading pleasure.

Chancellor's Row (3015 4th Street NE) - 10-acre residential development on St. Paul's campus which began construction Fall 2010 as promised and already has residents living there. They only have four houses left to sell and will definitely sell out this year if not this month. It is anticipated that all three phases will be completed ahead of schedule as sales are going so well and prices keep going up. They have already added a ZipCar and a Capital Bikeshare Station to this location. The remodeling of the triangle park at 4th, Franklin and Lincoln NE has been completed from the community benefits of this project.

Monroe Street Market (7th Street and Michigan Ave NE) - mixed use development will include approximately 720 housing units, 45 townhouses, and a public square with a college main street with 83,000 square feet of street-level retail, 15,000 square feet of artists' studio space and 850 below-grade parking spaces. They started demolition on the CUA buildings in 2010 and broke ground on November 9, 2011. Right now they are getting close to completion with their 3 buildings renting and the Arts Walk full.  They have retail open- &Pizza, Potbelly and more is coming.  Brookland Pint and Barnes & Noble are scheduled to open Summer 2014.  Filter Coffeehouse and The Bike Rack scheduled to open Fall 2014. Busboys and Poets is scheduled to open Winter 2014/2015.  They have a future phase that is still to be planned and developed and they will neither confirm nor deny that it could hold a Whole Foods in the future when it is developed.

Pizza Mart Development (4th Street and Adams Street NE) - recently the building that houses the Pizza Mart has sold and it will be demolished.  It has already been closed and emptied.  They have applied for permits and the realtor stated that it will be condos with ground floor retail.

H Street Development Corporation (2313-2331 4th Street NE) - this development has been long stalled but is supposed to be affordable housing apartments with ground floor retail.  They have done the soil testing but it has been otherwise quiet.  It has been noted that the liquor store next door to it has closed and its space may now be included in this project.

Chez Hareg Catering (2314 4th Street NE) - the pastry shop is getting ready to reopen as a cafe serving breakfast and lunch.  They have a menu posted on their window that looks delicious and affordable.

Developments Surrounding Edgewood

Rhode Island Row (919 Rhode Island Ave NE) - This project is well underway and already has residents moving in as the apartments are completed. They have posted the rents and they range from $1740 for a 1 bed/bath to $3465 for a 3 bed/bath. This place has already rented out over 95% of their apartments. The reatil is starting to fill in and as of now the following are open: CVS, Chipotle, Sprint, T-Mobile, DC Dept. of Motor Vehicles, Carolina Kitchen, TK Burger, D’Arte Nail & Spa Salon, Jersey Mike's, Bergami's Pizza, and Sala Thai. Phenix Hair Salon Suites is set to open this fall.  They still have open spaces left and I am hoping that they will fill them soon!!

Mint Condos (329 Rhode Island Ave NE) - This project is completed and is across the street from Edgewood in Eckington. The burnt out shell of a building was converted into 21 luxury condos priced between mid $250,000 and mid $300,000s and  sold out. The building also has 3000 square feet of retail space which is now Mint Dental- a great neighborhood amenity to walk to a dental office.

901 Monroe Street NE - This project was approved by the zoning commission across the street in Brookland and looks promising. The plans are after demolishing the current buildings to build 212 Apartments, 16 units at below market rents, and 13,000 sq. ft. of neighborhood-serving retail including a restaurant. Groundbreaking occurred the end of 2012, but there have not been many updates since then. It was supposed to be done by Fall of 2013, so seems to be a bit behind schedule.

Washington Gateway (Intersection of New York Ave and Florida Ave NE) - This project which has been recently revived and modified to include more residential instead of a hotel will connect NoMa with the Eckington neighborhood. The groundbreaking happened the end of last year for Phase One which is a building with 400 residential units and 5,200 sq. ft. of retail and is well on its way to being completed with a restaurant taking the retail space.  The next two phases of this project will be office buildings. This project will also connect to the Met Branch Trail which will be great.

McMillan Sand Filtration (North Capitol Street, Michigan Ave, 1 Street NW) - This huge 25 acre site has been the focus of many meetings and plans over the years and I'll put its timeline as I'll believe it when I see it. The site is now being used to storm excess storm water to help reduce flooding in the area. There are many sites and posts about this development as everyone seems to have an opinion as to what should happen with this piece of land. They have recently had meetings with the zoning board and historic preservation and there have been more meetings so I am sticking to my last update that I will believe it when I see it. 

Huge Party In Edgewood Update

As promised an update after talking to MPD, DPR and CM McDuffie and his office sorry it is a bit delayed.

There has been a lot of progress and meetings including with Howard University to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again in DC.  The meeting with HU officials, MPD and DPR resulted in more collaboration to ensure something like this is not repeated.  HU has also created a community liaison position.

See this note from MPD after the meeting I attended.  

Dear Edgewood Community,

Last night, I attended the Edgewood Civic Association Meeting to address the response of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to a large gathering at the Edgewood Recreation Center located at 3^rd and Evarts Streets, NE, on April 12, 2014.

The large gathering was first brought to the attention of MPD by one of our members patrolling in the area.  MPD requested and the Department of Parks and Recreation and Howard University sent representatives to consult with MPD.   Once MPD determined that the gathering was not permitted, we took the necessary steps to shut down the event and allow for a safe and orderly egress of the attendees out of the Edgewood Community.    

I can definitively relay that the large gathering wasnot sanctioned or approved by MPD.  Moreover, after personally speaking with representatives of both the Department of Parks and Recreation and Howard University, it is my understanding that the large gathering was not sanctioned or approved by the aforementioned entities.  

As a result of this unplanned and disruptive event to the community, there has been more collaboration between MPD, Department of Parks and Recreation and Howard University to ensure that such incidents do not occur in our community. 

Respectfully, Commander Dierdre Porter

Fifth District