H St. NE May Get New Shuttle Bus by End of Spring

Map It:  Benning Road   Union Station 

SINCE A SLATE OF NEW NIGHTSPOTS opened up on H Street NE in the past year and a half, there's been an important element missing from the neighborhood mix: a dedicated H Street mass-transit link. The heart of Near Northeast's commercial corridor lies more than 10 blocks to the east of the Union Station rail yards and further still from Union Station's Red Line stop. A streetcar line has been proposed, but it'll be many years until it becomes a reality. A new shuttle bus, however, might fill that gap in the interim.

Just as the H Street NE corridor is getting $50 million for a major streetscaping project, which includes laying the groundwork for the future streetcar line, and $25 million in special tax increment financing to help boost commercial and community development, there's also $225,000 in the mix to launch special shuttle bus service linking Union Station with the Blue Line's Benning Road station via H Street.

Continue Reading "H St. NE May Get New Shuttle Bus by End of Spring" »

Around Town: Sex Hugs and Uncle Sam

Map It:  Benning Road   Capitol South   Foggy Bottom   Gallery Pl-Chinatown 

WHEN THE DAILY SHOW recently profiled the sorry story of Arabic cryptolinguist Blue Copas, who was released from the military after he revealed that he was gay, correspondent Jason Jones snagged a singularly bizarre interview with Paul Cameron of the Family Research Institute. (See "Tangled Up in Bleu," parts 1 and 2.) Cameron insisted that homosexual "sex hugs" undermine military morale and combat cohesiveness in battle.

But two students at George Washington University — Alex Douglas-Barrera and Mandy Rae Craig — weren't even afforded that ridiculous explanation when they were shut out of Navy recruiting offices on campus. According to the Daily Colonial, the women staged a sit-in at the recruiters' office at 14th and L streets NW yesterday after being told that, unconditionally, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is still the unofficial law of the land.

GWU students were joined by representatives from the national GLBT organization, Soulforce, which is helping to coordinate protests at campus recruiters' offices across the nation who refuse openly gay student recruits.
» "Tangled Up in Bleu" [Comedy Central]
» "Activists Challenge 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'" [Daily Colonial]

» GALLERY PLACE-CHINATOWN: Gallery Place notable the Exercise Man has been captured on video — for the first time it seems — by the always reliable blogger Gallery Place Living. [You Tube via Gallery Place Living]

» CAPITOL HILL: It wouldn't surprise this writer to find out that a dizzy Exercise Man was the pedestrian who, seemingly looking for a shortcut, wondered into the restricted Capitol Visitor Center construction zone — the same site that, last week, "an armed intruder accessed last week before running loose through the Capitol." Today's Roll Call has the odd news. [Roll Call, subscription req'd]

» WARD 7: The District's teen curfew seems not to have the effect that the Metropolitan Police Department and city officials were hoping for. Yesterday, three teen murders across the District meant that last year's total for teen murders has now been exceeded by three. A 15-year-old and a 16-year-old were found dead just across the dividing line between Northeast and Southeast in Ward 7's Capitol View neighborhood. The Post's Allison Klein, Debbi Wilgoren and Martin Weil have the details.

» CAPITOL SOUTH: It would appear that 1st and F streets SE was once a significant locus of dinosaur activity — at least, that site is where remains of the Capitalsaurus were first discovered. Stuffy hack scientists will tell you that the single vertebra discovered during the sewer excavation does not constitute a new genus, which the name "Capitalsaurus" indicates — but that's merely professional jealousy, as every scientists wishes she'd discovered a monster so ruthlessly efficient, so terrible and dynamic. Don't take our word on the Ward 6 Monster. Read up on the Official Dinosaur Act of 1998.

» BENNING ROAD: Some say that D.C.'s public transportation system is a dinosaur of sorts. Tell Metro why you think so at tonight's town hall meeting St. Luke’s Center on East Capitol Street, near the Benning Road Metrorail station on the Blue Line.

Express contributor Kriston Capps also blogs at the Smithsonian's Eye Level and at Grammar.police.

Around Town: Back and Forward to the Future

Map It:  Benning Road   Foggy Bottom   Silver Spring   Takoma 

Photo courtesy Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority

DULLES AIRPORT is one of those places that will always be stuck in the 1960s in certain ways. The landmark terminal building designed by the noted Finnish architect Eero Saarinen is a reminder that flying was once seen as a glamorous activity, not just a form of transportation. The mobile lounges — or moon rovers, as this writer likes to call them — are another odd fixture of the airport's once cutting-edge style. But their days are numbered.

According to The Post's Nick Miroff, the airport's new AeroTrain system is about half-done and today, the public will be able to get an advance look at the train system that will eventually link the Saarinen terminal to concourses currently accessible via the moon rovers, where you could once smoke cigarettes and drink cocktails in "lumbering vehicles that looked like something out of a Buck Rogers serial." The AeroTrain system is scheduled for a 2009 opening. More info here.

» "Airport's Future Is on Rails" [WaPo]
» "AeroTrain Exhibit at Dulles Now Open to the Public" [MWAA]

» ADAMS MORGAN: Earlier this week, we told you about the District's surprising quick fix of a crosswalk signal that had been improperly turned the wrong direction, sending pedestrians into harm's way. But not every dealing with the District bureaucracy has such a happy ending. The Post's Paul Schwartzman tells the story of one advisory neighborhood commissioner and her trek through D.C.'s bureaucracy to get a gate fixed at an Adams Morgan playground.

In other Adams Morgan news, if you've noticed tidier streets in the neighborhood, there's a reason: trash collection has been a priority for Adams Morgan's new business improvement district. (One of its workers' toughest jobs, in this writer's opinion, is cleaning up the remains of weekend jumbo-slice pizza consumption). But not all business owners are pleased that the business improvement district exists in the first place, The Post's Lyndsey Layton reports. Says Bill Duggan, owner of Madam's Organ: "It's insulting to the community to have to pay for security or trash removal. It's a testament to the inefficiency of the government." [WaPo]

» BENNING ROAD: An arrest has been made in the brutal shooting death of a 17-year-old woman on Benning Road in Southeast who shielded her godson as she was being gunned down. On Tuesday, D.C. police arrested 20-year-old Cordel Lesene, who had just served time in prison for an armed robbery in Prince George's County in which two people were killed, The Post's Alison Klein reported on Wednesday. In that Prince George's County case, it was determined that Lesene was not the shooter, so he pleaded guilty to a lesser robbery charge, his attorney told The Post. [WaPo]

» SILVER SPRING/TAKOMA PARK: In Maryland's 20th state Senate district, the incumbent, Ida Ruben lost to Jamie Raskin in the Democratic primary. Blogger Silver Spring Singular has a theory as to why Ruben failed to retain her seat:

With all due respect to Mrs. Rubin [sic] and her thirty-one years of service, you can't go around using a black and white photo of yourself that looks like it was taken in the 1960s on your campaign signs and appeal to younger voters. In fact, it may well have been taken in the 60s....

» FOGGY BOTTOM: The platform elevator at the Foggy Bottom Metrorail station will be out of service for renovations over the next 10 weeks. Free shuttle bus service is being provided from the Farragut West station. [WMATA]

Track Work to Hobble Blue, Orange Lines

Map It:  Benning Road   Minnesota Ave   Stadium-Armory 

IT'S FRIDAY, so that means it's time to preview this weekend's D.C. Metrorail track work. There's only one project scheduled, but it's a big one, involving the partial closure of the Blue and Orange lines.

Be aware that your journey from the Stadium-Armory station to points east of the Anacostia River and in Prince George's County will be significantly impacted. Because crews will be replacing 900 feet of rail, cross ties, traction power cables and other important items for operating a railroad, trains cannot go from Stadium-Armory to the Benning Road station on the Blue Line nor the Minnesota Avenue station on the Orange Line. Free shuttle bus service will ferry passengers between the stations. So if you're planning on driving to an outlying Metrorail station in Prince George's County to head downtown or elsewhere, you might consider parking at a Green Line station like Greenbelt or Branch Avenue.

» TALK TO TANGHERLINI: In taped public address announcements, Metro's interim general manager, Dan Tangherlini, says that he has a one-point plan for Metro service: making customers his No. 1 priority. So if you have a question to ask, he'll be online today starting at noon to talk about Metrorail, Metrobus and MetroAccess. Log in here to ask Tangherlini a question.

» "Weekend Track Work to Cause Blue and Orange Line Delays" [WMATA]
» "Online Chats with Metro Guests" [WMATA]