ON WEDNESDAY, a man walked into the Wilson Building downtown, threw a white substance at a security guard, and then ran off. The seat of the District's government was evacuated for about two hours. Authorities determined the substance was probably just harmless table salt. It was the kind of incident that has cropped up now and again after the anthrax attacks of 2001 made mysterious substances in office buildings something to fear.
But what if someone throws a suspicious bright blue material, like the stuff pictured above, on the ground? Would that spark the same kind of reaction from authorities?
That depends on where you are.
While running along Rock Creek between Woodley Park and Georgetown's Montrose Park two Saturdays back, a jogger carrying a canvas bag tossed an azure-colored granular material in a splattered pile on the ground next to a tree. He sped past an older man and this writer, then, moments later, tossed another batch of the blue stuff on a log.
His splotchy calling cards were part of a trail of markings, complete with "X" and circle designs (see map, No. 1), that wound its way through the park.
Continue Reading "Mysterious Substances, Different Reactions" »
THERE ALWAYS SEEMS to be an odor coming from Rock Creek at the point where it meets a stream coming down from Dumbarton Oaks Park on the edge of Georgetown. A nearby sign warns of a sewage overflow discharge point. But pet owners nonetheless let their dogs run into the creek, seemingly without much worry.
There are a number of sewage overflow discharge points along Rock Creek and four of them, according to this week's Current newspapers, have been selected for major fixes by the D.C Water and Sewer Authority. The work, which is to begin in 2009, is court-mandated after a lawsuit brought by the Friends of the Earth against the Environmental Protection Agency over the amount of sewage that can be legally discharged into area waterways.
According to the Current, which, sadly, is not online, one-third of the District's sewage system is combined with its storm water system, and the new work will separate the two at the four points along or near Rock Creek — at Pennsylvania Avenue, Q Street NW, Kalorama Road and Connecticut Avenue.
The four points where work will get underway, of course, represent only a small fraction of the overall challenge D.C. officials face in adapting and upgrading the District's aging sewage and storm water systems. In the meantime, dogs will continue to frolic in Rock Creek as their owners try not to notice the stench.
BACK IN 2004, it took Ronald Reagan's death to get Waterside Drive, a bumpy approach road to Rock Creek Parkway repaved. After all, it would have reflected poorly on the U.S. Park Service, which maintains the parkway, if the late president's hearse was jostled about while it was on the move.
What about Rock Creek Parkway itself? Work is underway, but it's going to take a while.
Regular commuters who drive the road between Upper Northwest and Virginia Avenue know that the southbound curb lane near Georgetown has been closed for re-construction, a move that's caused big traffic backups. And as WTOP reports, relief won't be in sight until spring — after each of the parkway's four lanes is repaved.
» "Reagan Funeral Prompts Repairs; Potholes Fixed for Motorcade" [WT]
» "Rock Creek Parkway Road Work to Continue Until Spring" [WTOP]
IN RECENT WEEKS, we've seen headlines about black bears in Montgomery County, most recently a sighting yesterday that "really freaked" out a 10-year-old girl playing video games inside her North Bethesda home. It's another reminder that, yes, humans and wildlife co-exist — even in urban areas.
There's also word of a recent wild animal sighting inside the District lines: a coyote spotted near the National Cathedral.
Coyote sightings in Rock Creek Park aren't all that uncommon. But here's how a neighborhood message board posting described this encounter near Woodley Road and 34th Street NW:
At the far edge of the lawn he paused and then jumped onto some small animal in the area along the driveway of the Lowell Street house next to the church. He shook his head back and forth to dispatch his prey, and then I lost sight of him.It's reasonable to assume that the coyote came up from Rock Creek Park via Klingle Valley, home to the abandoned, mudslide-damaged Klingle Road. Might this provide more fodder for those living in Ward 3 to keep Klingle Valley walled off? (First, keep out cars from Ward 1; now, ward off coyotes looking for food.)
Continue Reading "Wildlife in the City: A Coyote Near Nat'l Cathedral" »
IN THE ON AGAIN, OFF AGAIN saga over whether to re-open Klingle Road across Rock Creek Park between Mount Pleasant and Woodley Park, advocates of rebuilding the long-deteriorating roadway have said that traffic on Porter Street NW heading across the park has grown to become a congested quagmire over the years.
Through mid-summer, expect the number of cars on Porter Street to increase, as the nearest cross-park alternative, Park Road, is closed between Mount Pleasant and Beach Drive in Rock Creek Park. Earlier this week, District construction crews began work to mill and resurface the roadway. The project is scheduled to wrap up by mid-July.
» "Repair Klingle Road" [Official Site]
» "Resurfacing and Road Construction Work Begin on Park Road, NW" [DDOT]
Addison Road