Josiah Boyer and Kristin Tomasulo look at a tree that fell Wednesday at 9th and K streets NW. Photo by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post. Below right: Virginia Melanson of Chicago seeks shelter from the storms in Annapolis. Photo by Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post
GOOD MORNING, WASHINGTON. If you haven't seen a downed tree limb, power line or other detritus from yesterday's onslaught of powerful stormy weather, you're one of the few.
The violent storms are blamed for one death, and caused so many power outages that Montgomery County and Prince George's County decided to shutter their public schools for the day today, although scheduled graduation ceremonies will go on as planned.
Here's the latest on power outages from The Post's Maria Glod, Debbi Wilgoren and Tom Jackman:
In Northern Virginia, more than 115,000 customers remained without power as of 7:30 a.m. this morning, Dominion Virginia Power reported. Pepco said there were 72,000 homes and businesses without power in Montgomery County, along with nearly 18,000 homes and businesses in Prince George's County and almost 12,000 customers in the District. Baltimore Gas and Electric reported another 7,000 outages in Prince George's, along with 20,000 outages in Anne Arundel County, 5,500 outages in Howard County. And some 6,400 outages remained in Southern Maryland, according to utility officials there.Area utility companies said last night that they will need until late tomorrow to restore service to all their customers.
WANT TO GET from Metrorail to FedEx Field for a Redskins game? New rules by the Federal Transit Administration will make that task a bit more confusing.
Reports The Post's Lena H. Sun:
Under Federal Transit Administration regulations that became final May 1, public agencies cannot operate charter bus service if private companies are available to provide the service. Last year, Metro chartered nearly 2,500 buses for revenue of $1.6 million.Metro General Manager John Catoe said the move will have little financial impact; Metro's charter service rates allowed for only "a small profit," he said, according to Sun.Without a waiver from the FTA, Metro cannot provide charter service unless it first checks with dozens of charter bus companies in the Washington region, a time-consuming task that would require Metro to send e-mails to every motorcoach company registered in a regional database, officials said.
Continue Reading "Metro Ushered Out of Shuttle Bus Business" »
ALTHOUGH DEVELOPERS and officials still have some details to hammer out, the city of Falls Church's downtown is going to get a major facelift. As The Post's Kristen Mack reports, the city council approved plans for a $317 million mixed-use, four-block development early Thursday morning after eight hours of public comments and two days of deliberations.
While the site at Broad and S. Washington streets is mostly made up of parking lots, four small apartment buildings will have to be condemned. In their place, developers from Atlantic Realty envision an eight-story hotel, a Harris Teeter grocery store, a bowling alley and new residential construction, adding a million square feet to the current site.
Critics of the plan contend that the plan isn't all that different from other mixed-use developments in Northern Virginia and doesn't fit well with Falls Church's small-town feel.
Construction could begin this summer.
» "Council Approves Controversial Downtown Revitalization Project" [WaPo]
IF YOU'VE DRIVEN ON ROUTE 7 through the city of Falls Church, you may have been maddened by its slow speed limit and ever-vigilant police force, which makes the trip between Seven Corners and Tysons Corner stretch on for what seems like eternity. Now, officials and planners in Falls Church are concentrating on getting those low-speed passers by to stop. After two public hearings slated for this week, the city council will vote on a grand plan to remake its downtown.
As The Post's Kristen Mack reports:
If approved, the $317 million project would be the biggest thing to happen to Falls Church since Metro extended the Orange Line there in 1986. In addition to attracting shoppers and diners from across the region, city officials say, they hope the revival of the downtown area will bring young professionals, first-time homeowners and empty nesters to buy condominiums, rent townhouses and establish roots in Falls Church.But the plan is not yet firmed up. No hotel has officially committed to the site and Harris Teeter has signed a letter of intent, but not a contract, to open a store at the proposed four-block site at Broad and S. Washington streets.
» "Falls Church Turns to the Future" [WaPo]
Photo by Tracy A. Woodward/The Washington Post
TRACK WORK and rail car testing will lead to delays on the Red, Orange and Green lines this weekend. Here's what to expect:
» ORANGE LINE: This is where you'll find the heaviest of the weekend's work. From 10 p.m. Friday until midnight Sunday, trains will share the same track between Vienna and West Falls Church. Alternating trains will turn around at West Falls Church rather than proceeding to Vienna, so keep an eye on your train's final destination. Metro warns customers to add 30 minutes to their travel time.
» RED LINE: Track maintenance between Grosvenor and Medical Center could cause delays of up to 15 minutes, with trains in both directions sharing the same track. The work's scheduled to take place between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
» GREEN LINE: New railcar testing between Greenbelt and College Park will force trains in both directions to share one track from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday. Add 10-15 minutes to your travel time.
» "Weekend Track Maintenance and Rail Car Testing to Affect Metro's Red, Orange and Green Lines" [WMATA]
STEP INSIDE the white-pewed hush of The Falls Church, a 1769 red brick building just inside the Beltway in Virginia, and it’s easy to imagine this place’s storied past. Volunteers signed up to fight in the American Revolution here. Injured Union soldiers slept within these walls when the church served as a Civil War hospital. Countless Virginians got married, baptized babies and had their funeral rites read within the Georgian edifice, pictured here.
But outside, the views from the church’s bucolic graveyard suggest that the 21st century (and development) has finally zoomed into Falls Church City, the once-sleepy town that surrounds the church. A mammoth steel crane, now a common sight in these parts, marks the construction site where the 230-unit, six-story Pearson Square condo development is taking shape. One- to three-bedroom units priced from the low $300s to the mid $700s should start delivering this fall.
Also expected to debut in 2007: the still-under-construction Spectrum on West Broad Street. The building will feature an earth-friendly "green roof" and 189 one- and two-bedroom units ($400,000-$850,000) outfitted with equally green bamboo or cork floors and 9-foot ceilings.
These and a clutch of other, already occupied new condos, combined with new restaurants and an uptick in commercial projects, are helping to turn this small, incorporated city known for its top-notch schools and village-like feel into a far more urbanized place. Sidewalks seem more crowded, cafes seem more plentiful (and populated) and the area has the buzz — and the buzz-saw noise — of a neighborhood on its way up.
Continue Reading "In Falls Church, a Little City With a Big Boom" »
Around Town: Not Grandpa's Police Cruiser
Map It:
Dupont Circle Georgia Ave-Petworth Rockville West Falls Church
FOR THE MOST PART, law enforcement departments everywhere have pretty ugly police cruisers. You're likely to see those Ford Crown Victorias and Chevrolet Impalas out cruising the streets of Leisure World in Montgomery County or at a golf course in Boca Raton. But Rockville's a little more slick than that.
The city's police department has brand new sportier-looking Dodge Chargers. Police officer Patrick Mancuso tells The Post's Aruna Jain that "one guy said the front looks like a Mako shark." Also in Rockville's arsenal of law enforcement: two new Segways, digital cameras and 15 hand-held language translation devices.
Photo courtesy city of Rockville
» "Technology Beefs Up Police and Parking" [WaPo]
» DUPONT CIRCLE: Over on the 17th Street NW strip, Casa Pena, a little hole-in-the-wall bodega — which sports a spotty selection of goods including cheap black beans and an extensive Goya juice products, one Express correspondent tells us — has closed its doors after six decades. It's a sad development for the neighborhood, and for those who would just stop in to enjoy the randomness. But it could be a blessing for a strip generally devoid of good restaurants and other amenities. [Hear and Now]
» GEORGIA AVE.-PARK VIEW: Housing officials with the District went into the Park Morton, one of the city's most crime-plagued apartment complexes and essentially threw out everyone who wasn't on a lease, The Post's Robert E. Pierre reports this morning — including boyfriends, husbands and children. Residents at the complex, located at Georgia Avenue and Morton Street NW, are now required to carry identification cards. [WaPo]
» WEST FALLS CHURCH: Need a job? Think you can you handle driving a big Metrobus? Metro is looking for a few good drivers and will be hosting an open training session Saturday at 7:30 a.m. at Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School at 7130 Leesburg Pike in Falls Church. Shuttle service will be provided from the West Falls Church station, since parking will be tight at the school. Pre-registration and qualification details can be found here. [WMATA]
Notes From Around Town: Crowded Ward 5 Race
Map It: East Falls Church Gallery Pl-Chinatown West Falls Church
OPEN SEATS often attract myriad contenders, but the Ward 5 D.C. Council seat is especially popular: There are 15 people running to take Vincent Orange's place. In a race that seemingly anyone could win, the City Paper's James Jones explores the factors that could set the candidates apart: For some, graduating from Eckington's McKinley High School could bring alumni to the polls; candidate Kathy Henderson's torched car might give her an edge (her 1991 Capri convertible was set ablaze last month; she blames local thugs). When we drove around Ward 5 on Sunday, we didn't see as many signs on two major thoroughfares — South Dakota Avenue and Bladensburg Road, pictured here — as we might have anticipated for such a crowded race. For that matter, we also saw far fewer signs touting Orange's mayoral bid than we would have expected.
» "Slate Is Enough" [City Paper]
» FALLS CHURCH: The city of Falls Church is known for at least two things: the State Theatre and the high number of traffic tickets the city's police department hands out. But as The Post's Tom Jackman reports this morning, police Chief Robert Murray is under fire for firing the officer who heads up Falls Church's police union and "suspended the union's vice president after they publicly discussed problems with their department's ticket quotas and guns." According to the report, morale is low in the department following the firings and after the union issued a vote of no confidence in Murray. [WaPo]
» CHINATOWN: 3rd Street NW has never been known as a beautiful street, especially after it became part of an onramp for the I-395/Center Leg Freeway across the street. But that isn't stopping Abdo Development from building a 13-story condo tower just south of Massachusetts Avenue. [GP Living]
» GEORGETOWN: If you haven't had a chance yet, be sure to read Andrew Stephen's piece in The Post's Outlook section from Sunday. In it, Stephen writes about how he and his son explored Georgetown's African-American past, which is deeply embedded in the neighborhood, but unknown to many of its current residents. [WaPo]
Addison Road