Petworth News

Family Reading Night

[from Lisa Jackson, President, West's Parent, Staff & Community Org]

UPDATE

Because of the impending snowstorm, we have made the decision to postpone Monday's Family Reading Night and Pajama Party activities to Thursday, March 5th. We hope you can still come out to join us.

*****

I would like to invite you to join us at West School's Family Reading Night on Monday, March 2nd, in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday! Even if you don't already have a student at West, this is a good opportunity to come see what the school is all about. We will be having story-times, giveaways, a book raffle, a silent auction to raise money for our annual Spring Fling, and more! Oh, and did I mention it's a Pajama Party? 

So bring the kids and come on by for a fun evening. The event runs from 5:30-7pm in the West cafeteria. More details can be found on our website here.

Hope to see you there, and if you have questions, don't hesitate to drop me a note! West is at 1338 Farragut Street NW.

Yoga House

[from Elizabeth G.]

This year Yoga House Studio has been nominated in the Washington City Paper's BEST OF DC yoga studio category!

Please take just a second and cast your vote here.

Thank you for making YOGA HOUSE part of the fabric of PETWORTH and COLUMBIA HEIGHTS on Georgia Avenue, and indeed Washington DC. Together we have created this wonderful community and I am honored to be a part of it.

Appreciation to City Paper for this contest and thanks to that certain someone for nominating us. I appreciate the many ways that each of you looks out for Yoga House. 

Many of you have said that what you love about Yoga House is that all feel welcome. You are! 

Sat Nam, Namaste, Elizabeth

Grant Circle car crashes

[from Wayan V.]

Schools mtg for parents

[from Reyn A.]

School options, Pre-K and beyond

Tuesday, March 3, 7:15pm

All Souls Church (16th & Harvard) - Tupper room

Informal presentation by parents, followed by Q&A. Discussion will address the following: what school our kids are going to this year; why we chose it, what we like about it, what we don't like about it, and what are plans are for the future (or, at least next year).

Invited guests include: Ward 1 rep Dotti Love-Wade, someone from Michelle Rhee's office, the director of communications from the DC public charter schools school board, and a representative from FOCUS - Friends of Choice in Urban School.

Feel free to bring refreshments (including beer & wine) for informal reception afterwards. Please RSVP by email so we can have an idea about numbers.

Soldiers Home update 2/18

Looks like the Soldiers Home development is on hold due to market conditions.

Veterans Home Puts Brakes on Expansion

Washington Post, 2/17/09, page B02

*****

And, in the Washington Business Journal:

Armed Forces Retirement Home redo falls through

York Theater

Prince of Petworth has a cool post about a local building with an interesting past and a somewhat shabby present:

The Church at Georgia and Quebec Used To Be a Theater!

Nothing against a church, but it sure would be great to see such a large and unique building re-imagined. With a little work it could be great for an Eastern Market-style space, for example.

DC wi-fi

In case some people weren't aware, the DC government offers free wi-fi hotspots all over the city. In Petworth the locations are:

Petworth Rec Center, 801 Taylor Street

Petworth Library, 4200 Kansas Avenue

Raymond Rec Center, 915 Spring Road

Parkview Community Center, 693 Otis Place

Rudolph Rec Center, 5200 2nd Street

Emery Rec Center, 5801 Georgia Avenue

The full map is here. Domku and Sweet Mango Cafe also offer free wi-fi. Any other local hotspots out there?

Petworth poop

[from Wayan V.]

A call for a pooch poop-free Grant Circle: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw6yOz6z0nE

5th and Shepherd store

[from Bill C.]

This morning I was talking with Tegest, who with her husband Malessa owns the corner store at 5th and Shepherd. Their business has been hurting during this downturn and she asked what she could do to encourage more customers. I was telling her that if they carried organic milk, for example, I'd buy it there all the time if the price was reasonable.

I went back and found a previous post about this. There were many good comments and suggestions for improvements. The city program mentioned in the post (reStoreDC) didn't pan out in terms of funds for the store, but I just printed out the comments and will drop them off there (better late than never), to make sure they saw them.

It seems like the property owner doesn't want to spend money on the building itself. But it's clear there are plenty of upgrades that can be done by the business owners themselves. I'll discuss the comments with them and see what they want to do.

One idea - maybe if residents were willing to join a one-off volunteer crew, we could help them do a quick makeover. Any takers?

Tegest also said people could email her directly with requests to carry specific items.

Barnard ES open house

[from Emilie S.]

I'm very excited to let you know that Barnard Elementary will be hosting an open house for families interested in the school on Feb 19th at 5pm. Principals Dr. Hopkinson and Mr. Precious will share information on the school and be there to answer questions.  

Barnard is a preschool-5th grade DCPS school located at 4th and Decatur in Petworth.

ANC 4C February agenda

[from Joseph Martin, ANC 4C Chair]

ANC 4C's agenda tonight will include the following [Petworth-related] items:

- Response to BZA pertaining to proposed circular stairwell in rear of 4114 New Hampshire Avenue NW

- Letter to DDOT about parking issue at Allison Street NW and 3rd Street NW

- Letter pertaining to traffic-calming on New Hampshire Avenue NW at Grant Circle

ANC 4C meets the second Tuesdays of most months at 801 Shepherd Street NW, Community Room, from 6:30pm to 8:45pm.

For more information, call Deborah Parker at the ANC 4C office at 202-723-6670.

Petworth Seen

 © Bill Crandall

Warm Sunday afternoon at the Petworth Rec Center.

Upshur dog park

[from Cassandra M., via the Petworth listserv]

Petworth is close to having an official dog park! Check out the article on page 3 of the Northwest Current. Many, many thanks to Jean Badalamenti, President of the Friends of the 16th Street Heights Parks, for making this possible.

Library schedule

Be sure to check out the Petworth Library event schedule, now posted (and updated weekly) in the left sidebar. Who knew they have so much going on: films, workshops, kids' storytimes, English classes...

Of course, along with all the free books and DVDs. Who needs Borders? I also just read about DC Public Library system's iPhone app, the first of its kind in the nation. Click here for the City Paper blog post about it.