Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Mendelson Hosting Public Safety Town Hall

Perhaps taking a cue from the LCCA Public Safety Forum held earlier this year, Councilmember Mendelson has announced a city-wide town hall meeting on crime and public safety. From the press release anouncing the event:
Councilmember Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large) will host a city-wide Town Hall meeting on public safety on March 9, 2006. The Town Hall meeting -- "From Criminal Investigation to Incarceration and Beyond"- will bring together the District's most important public safety officials to listen and respond to resident concerns.
The list of invitees includes Police Chief Ramsey, U.S. Attorney Ken Wainstein, Chief Judge Rufus King, Department of Corrections Director Devon Brown, DC Attorney General Robert Spagnoletti and Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA) Director Paul Quander.

The meeting will begin at 6:30 PM at Savoy Elementary School, 2400 Shannon Place SE, across from the Anacostia Metro station.

3rd District Leading in Car Thefts?

The Washington Post's write-up on the efforts of the MPD to curb auto theft in the 6th District has an interesting tidbit on page two.
This year, though, the [6th] district is no longer leading the city in stolen cars, the first time officials can remember that happening in years. It has about 50 fewer thefts than the 3rd District, which covers a smaller area north of downtown in Northwest Washington.

So does that give us the dubious distinction of highest auto-theft rate in the city? I wonder if our theft rate has generally increased, or has it basically remained constant? I know that theft-from-auto is way up, but I haven't heard anything about actual auto theft. In general, though, there seems to be a feeling that crime is generally on the rise across the District. I'm looking forward to the crime report at the next ANC 2F meeting.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Spat of Robberies

Some residents of The Iowa are reporting two muggings that have occurred in the past week. From an email forwarded to us:
This robbery occurred 02/10/06
I wanted to let you know and maybe you can make sure that folks know. I friend of mine was mugged on O street this past weekend on Friday night. He was walking around 11o'clock PM on O street, between 11th and 12th. Two black men pushed him down and took his cash and wallet.
And another:
This one on 02/16/06
I hope this isn't becoming a habit, but just to keep everyone updated. Another friend of mine was mugged last night around 10th and P at 9:30. They hit him 3 times in the face and took his money, Ipod [sic] and cell phone.
If you have any information about these incidents, please contact MPD and/or post to our comments.

And as always, please be careful out there and turn off your iPod when you're walking. While the latest Guster might make for better listening than trucks, sirens, and horns, you don't want to make yourself a target. Even the Metro Police is joining in this crusade: via DCist, WTOP is reporting that they are warning gadget enthusiasts to take extra precautions, even going so far as to hand out stickers to SuffBak.

Sounds like a good idea to me.

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Music Videos From LCCA Diversity Meeting

The LCCA's Februrary meeting featured speakers and performers as a way to help celebrate the vast diversity that is one of Logan Circle's hallmarks. Included in this was music by Shane Wallis. It just so happens that I took some videos of the three songs he performed.

  1. Video 1
  2. Video 2
  3. Video 3

Yeah, I know it's a little late, but cut me some slack. We were on hiatus, after all.

Friday, February 17, 2006

Mayor Urging Action on Crime Bill

The Examiner reported (in brief) on Wednesday that the Mayor is pushing the council to act on his crime bill. Currently, it is scheduled for markup by the judiciary committee on March 14th.

This bill contains some anti-prostitution provisions that should be quite interesting to those of us here in Logan Circle. It's good to finally see it get some legislative action.

On a related note, Councilman Mendelson spoke at the last ANC 2F meeting (although the minutes do not yet appear to be online). He talked about the upcoming mark-up, as well as Councilman Evans' anti-prostitution act that is not part of the Mayor's omnibus bill. Hopefully we can see the important provisions of the latter worked into the former.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Logan Circle Wins Cherry Trees

Thanks to the hard work of Chasta Piatakovas and Chris Kohatsu, the Logan Circle Community Association has been selected by the National Cherry Blossom Festival® to receive a gift of three cherry trees to plant in the neighborhood as part of this spring's cherry blossom celebration from March 25 to April 9!

In January, LCCA submitted a grant application, proposing three sites to plant the trio - the competition was stiff, and we are delighted and honored to have been selected as one of this year's awardees. We're still not sure of the location that was chosen, but we believe that the site selected is Luther Place Memorial Church. However, the date for the cherry blossom tree planting workshop will be April 8th at 2:00 PM.

And once the hard work of our planting is complete, it'll be time to party! The LCCA will hold a sushi and sake reception at the Washington Plaza Hotel on April 12th at 7:00 PM, in connection with the regular membership meeting on the environment that has already been scheduled. We will celebrate the planting of the trio of cherry trees with Japanese cuisine, dancers, puppeteers, sword makers, and other performers and artists. As our neighborhood is home to many different art galleries and studios, we're going to try to partner with these talented individuals and organizations to display oriental artwork, poetry (haiku), and posters advertising this event.

A very special thanks to Chasta Piatakovas and Chris Kohatsu for putting together our application, and to each of our LCCA board members who personally pledged to care for our newest neighborhood treasures.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

And. . .We're Back!

Welcome back to the Logan Circle News blog. We're returning after a long winter break with some changes to announce.

First, Logan Circle News will now be maintained by the Logan Circle Community Association (LCCA). We hope to eventually roll it over to our primary website ( http://www.logancircle.org/) so we can take advantage of more functionality and features.

Second, we'd like to thank Chris Kohatsu for her tireless efforts, energy and enthusiasm in inspiring, monitoring, and maintaining the blog since its inception last year. Chris has turned over the reins to us, and we hope to continue in her footsteps by using the blog as an informal way for us all to stay connected. So please keep your thoughts and posts coming - we encourage you to contact us with any important information for the community.