Fourteenth Street Meeting Tonight

Tonight is the second public meeting for the Fourteenth Street Transportation and Streetscape meeting. This ongoing study is intended to produce a plan for a long-term plan dramatically affecting the length 14th Street, from Thomas Circle up through Florida Avenue. If you are interested in helping guide the future of our neighborhood, this is an extremely rare chance to make a huge direct impact.

2nd Public Meeting
September 25th, 2007
7:00-9:00 PM
National City Christian Church
5 Thomas Circle NW
Washington, DC 20005

Come on out and have your say!

HGTV Looking to Help You Sell Your House

Did video kill the radio star? Who cares?

I got a note from producer Allison Tom at HGTV that they will be in and around the DC area over the next few weeks, filming a new show about the ever-tricky process of pricing your home for sale. And given what seems to be continually glum news from the DC Home and Condo Prices blog, I'm sure there are more than a few people out there who'd love to get some help - and some airtime to boot!

Now, they're only looking for owners of single-family homes; and while I personally think that's a bit short-sighted, I'm sure there are good television-format-reasons for the limitation. I've reproduced part of the email I received below. Please don't mistake the all-caps for E-D spam.

HGTV is producing A new and exciting real estate reality show that WILL HELP YOU EVALUATE the value of your house BEFORE YOU LIST IT. We are looking for homeowners who currently live in A single family home in the WASHINGTON DC, MD (Montgomery County & Prince George County) & VA (Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun County & Northern VA) area. You must be ready to sell your house but haven't listed it FOR SALE YET.

Similar to HGTV's popular series House Hunters, YOU'LL go on house tours, but this time YOU'LL be looking at how other homes in YOUR AREA compare WITH YOURS. We'll size up closets, granite counter tops, backyards and find out HOW HOME FEATURES AND IMPROVEMENTS CAN IMPACT THE MARKET VALUE OF A HOME. YOU'LL GET TO See firsthand who your competition is and DETERMINE whether you've priced your house right. YOU'LL BE ABLE TO decide whether YOU need to adjust your price ­ and in the end we¹ll see HOW YOUR HOME FARES ON THE MARKET! Please be sure to include your name, phone number, email address, a recent photo of you and your immediate family along with a photo of the front of your house and a few of the main interior rooms to: atom@edelmanproductions.com

U Street Farmers Market

This summer brought a new farmer's market to the area. Instead of trekking over to Eastern Market, or hiking over to Dupont, you can now head up to the 14 & U Farmer's Market, on the sidewalk outside the Reeve's Center.

14 & U Farmer's Market
Saturdays, 9am - 1pm
Reeves Center Sidewalk

Hope to see you there!

Great Meeting Last Night

The Logan Circle Community Association had a great meeting at the Studio Theater last night. The agenda included a crime update, a House Tour update, an update on the 14th Street Transportation & Streetscape Study meetings, a backstage tour of the Studio Theater, and some wine, cheese, and snacky cakes.

It was great to see so many friends, new and old; and I was especially glad to see some of the brand-new-to-the-neighborhood faces.

Classic Lt. Smith

Logan Circle's favorite Lieutenant made some print in the City Paper this past week.

A few minutes later, the officers’ boss pulled up. Lt. Michael Smith ran down into the station and jumped through the closing doors of a car with the suspects inside. During the ensuing melee, Smith injured his right pinkie, and the main suspect punched out a Metro car window.

It's stories like these that remind us how valuable he is, not just to our PSA, but to the entire Metropolitan Police Department. He leads by example, and what an example it is! Consider this our official Get Well! for your pinkie finger, Lt. Smith.

Read the rest of the Candy Slapped story over at the City Desk blog.

Classical Music in the Neighborhood

I received a note from National City Christian Church regarding their classical music agenda coming up for September. The big event is the Second Annual Beethoven Festival and Silent Auction, on September 8.

Washington Sinfonietta Chamber Orchestra
2nd Annual Beethoven Festival Concert/Silent Auction Saturday, Sept.8, 8:00p.m.
Jason Love, conductor.
Beethoven program features Leonore Overture No.3 and Eroica Symphony No.3
Silent Auction review at 7:00pm.
Tickets: $10(available at door). Children 18 & under free.
Parking: Washington Plaza Hotel (Thomas Circle) reduced fee parking ($4) for concert guests.
www.washingtonsinfonietta.com

Other upcoming events include their Music at MidDay Lunchtime Concert Series, featuring the church's 7,592 Moeller pipe organ. (That's a lot of pipes!)

Sept.6 - "Battle of 2 Pipe Organs", Charles Miller, organist
Sept.13 - "The Improviser's Art", Stephen Kalnoske, organist
Sept.20 - "The Majesty of the Trumpet", Mary Mozelle, organist;Chuck Seipp,trumpet
Sept.27 - "Terrifically Tantalizing Trio", Grace Cho, pianist, accompanied by String Trio

Bicycle Thief, Car Thief

Here's a great story posted to the MPD-3D mailing list by Officer Andrew Zabavsky. It highlights the difficultly of prosecuting even a criminal caught red-handed stealing a bicycle chained to a sign, and later items from a car.

Some back-story is in order: The suspect mentioned below was caught by Officer Edwards stealing a bike from a street sign to which it had been locked. He removed the sign face from the post, and then was in the process of lifting the bike and lock over the top of the sign! The man was arrested, but that's not the end of the story. Officer Zabavsky picks it up:

Unfortunately Mr. Teals [sic] case was "No-Papered" by the US Attorneys office the following morning. The US Attorney stated that since there was no complainant for the bicycle theft, they would not go forward on that charge, and as for the Destruction of Property charge, the attorney stated that since Mr. Teal carefully unbolted the signs using a wrench and placed the signs down, that they would not go forward with that charge as well and he was released.

On the bright side, I happened to be traveling in the 1200 block of Massachusetts Ave on Friday night and heard a car horn beep several times. As I looked over at the car, I observed an individual leaning through the right rear passenger window of the vehicle. The individual then looked up and observed my police car, exited the window and walked off. I exited my car and approached the parked vehicles window and observed that the window had been smashed and the vehicle was ransacked. I then got back into my car and stopped the individual around the corner on 13Th Street. The individual that was stopped was no other than Mr.Teal. He had stolen several CD's from the vehicle which had New Jersey license plates. After leaving numerous voice mail messages with his family and friends, using phone numbers that were located in the car, the complainant, who was visiting friends, called me back in the morning as I was heading into court and he wants to go forward with the prosecution. The case was "Papered" with the attorneys and Mr. Teal is being held in jail pending a detention hearing on 8/29/07. I also asked for a stay-away order for most of PSA 307.

Most of the Theft from auto suspects target out of state vehicles because it is very difficult for the police to locate the owner before the case has to be papered. In this case, the owner made himself a very easy target by leaving his I-pod, two large CD cases, 2 suits and other assorted items out in plain view inside his vehicle. Please remind your friends when visiting to make sure all items of value are removed from the vehicle or at least placed out of sight and into the trunk.

Major thanks go out to both Officer Edwards and Officer Zabavsky!