Petworth News

NY Times article 1/13

Chefs Settle Down in ‘the Real D.C.’

In Petworth, Columbia Heights, the U Street district and even the dicier parts of North Capitol Hill, a little restaurant revival is under way. Washington neighborhoods that for years were considered too dangerous or too poor for a viable sit-down restaurant are suddenly entertaining quite a few.

Some places, like Ms. Clark’s ode to Southern food in Petworth and the pan-Latin Rumberos in Columbia Heights, reflect the flavor of their neighborhoods. Others could open just about anywhere, but they all are part of a renewed excitement among the segment of this city that doesn’t wash in and out with each new administration.

full article

Financial Times article 11/8

A Capitol Investment

Sitting in a quiet pizza place about four miles north of the White House on a sunny Sunday afternoon, Angela Vassallo can’t seem to put down the sales brochure for a house she’s just seen a few blocks away.

For city living, it’s hard to beat: an updated 1926 brick townhouse with hardwood floors, a smart new kitchen, walk-in wardrobes, skylights, a yard and a parking space in the back – all listed at $379,000.

full text (free registration required)

Post article 9/20

Preserving Petworth's Porch Culture

It seems everyone in Petworth agrees that the neighborhood is changing rapidly. But what that means for the Northwest Washington community depends on your perspective.

full text

Urban Turf article 7/7

Petworth: Home to DC's Best Porches (and Some of the Best Bargains)

Post article 5/10

[from Arlus S.]

Carrying on a Message Of Mercy and Rescue
After 75 Years, Catholic Workers True to Dorothy Day
by Colman McCarthy

On the back patio of the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House at 503 Rock Creek Church Rd. in the District's Petworth neighborhood, sacks of potatoes and onions lay next to crates of tomatoes, green beans, cabbage, lettuce and broccoli. Further down, tables brimmed with bread.

full text

Loftstel article

[from Kevin M.]

Petworth hostel in today's WP District Weekly:

Guests Are Far From Home but Close to Amenities

Most guests at the Loftstel, a youth hostel that just opened in a renovated rowhouse in Petworth, are not hitchhiking anywhere. They're reporting to jobs as interns at government agencies and international organizations.

full text

Modest Proposal

A Modest, if Exasperated, Proposal on the NotionsCapital blog.

Express article 1/17

Check out today's Post Express article featuring the Prince of Petworth's guide to the best in local eating and drinking:

Petworth's Blog 'Prince' Offers a Filling Tour

Examiner article 12/26

Principal shows way to success
by Dena Levitz, The Examiner, 12/26/07

Shirley Hopkinson, though a DC public school principal, can’t be called anything but a teacher. To try to catch her in her office at Barnard Elementary School would be pointless, as the longtime educator spends her hours instructing her staff in an unusual, hands-on style.

read full article

Barnard ES

Barnard Elementary (at 4th and Decatur) was one of three schools whose staff got hefty bonuses from the city for student improvement. Here's a WTOP piece about it. Barnard apparently had terrible problems with their new facility when it was opened just a few years ago. Good to see things are looking up there. With Clark ES slated to be closed under Fenty's plan, Barnard will be among the schools receiving extra students.

Post Express article

This was on the front of the Post Express Home Buyer's Guide:

The Hot Zones
Up-and-coming 'hoods offer affordable homes, cool cafes and arty shops

Click here for yesterday's Prince of Petworth post, which has the cover image of Petworth porches.

PoP in Post

Blogger of the Month: Prince of Petworth
by Marc Fisher, 10/19/07

Dan Silverman is a food explorer, a neighborhood busy body, a one-man Crime Watch brigade, a curious guy with a camera and a blog. Silverman, a 32-year-old homeland security consultant who has lived in the fast-changing Northwest Washington neighborhood of Petworth since 2003, is the Prince of Petworth. And now he's our Blogger of the Month (first in a series).

Click here for full text.

NY Times on Lincoln Cottage

[from Arlus Stephens]

Opens this coming Presidents Day --

Lincoln Slept (and Wrote) Here: A Hideaway Restored

Washingtonian interview

[from Alejandro Salinas]

I'm a reporter for Washingtonian magazine who just recently moved into the Petworth neighborhood (Quincy and 13th St). Temperance Hall was one of the treasures I recently stumbled upon - what a great place and people! I got the chance to sit down with the bar's manager, Dan Searing, for a feature piece up on our website and thought you might be interested in checking it out:

Belly Up: Dan Searing of Temperance Hall

Examiner article 8/30

[from Heather Schneider]

Interesting article about subprime lending that mentions Petworth at the end:

City commissions $235,000 analysis of local subprime lending
The impact is considerable for future homeowners and developers looking to fill new residential complexes in up-and-coming areas such as Petworth...

Single-sale beer ban

[from Heather Schneider]

Single-sale ban of beer, ale now affects DC Ward 4

Most Ward 4 alcoholic beverage retailers were told last week to stop selling individual containers of beer, malt liquor or ale. A three-year-old District law, its implementation held up due to court action [Ed. note - by Decatur Liquors in Petworth], is “now in effect” but will not be enforced until Aug. 1.

Click here for full article in The Examiner.

Temperance Hall reviews

[from Bill Crandall]

As reported on the Prince of Petworth blog, Temperance Hall has had two good write-ups recently, on DCist and in the Washington City Paper. Noteworthy is how both articles (like some others I've seen) give a good amount of context in terms of neighborhood history and changes. Seems with Temperance Hall you often get a side of social commentary with your restaurant review.

Firefighter heroism awards

[from Heather Schneider]

Here’s a nice story which highlights two Petworth firefighters, Kelly Byrne and Timothy Dowd, who won heroism awards for their bravery.

Heroism Awards Include Three DC Firefighters

Promise fulfilled?

[from Robb LaKritz]

We've come a long way in the last decade:

Under Barry, Promise Unfulfilled

Fox News report 3/18

[from Brian Kampel]

There was a great report on Fox News on Sunday (3/18) showcasing Temperance Hall and the surrounding neighborhood. My fiancé and I who moved to Petworth 2.5 years ago and live on the 400 block of Randolph St were interviewed for it. We are the couple sitting in the booth.

Click here to view the video.

Post article 2/21

New Restaurants Help Revitalize Petworth Neighborhood

Post article 2/4

Georgia Avenue Has Already Awakened
Businesses, Residents and the DC Government Have Joined Forces to Fight the Blight

Post article 1/14

[from Susan Minnemeyer]

Georgia Ave. Awakening
Outdoor plazas. Affordable housing. A revamped Metro station. An infamous nightclub turned into luxury lofts.

"One of the biggest projects, the one District officials hope will be the catalyst, has been started: Park Place, a $60 million development of 156 condominiums and townhouses at the Georgia Avenue-Petworth Metro stop, near the midpoint of the four-mile road. A Mocha Hut and a sit-down restaurant will top the station, catty-corner from a check-cashing store. One Metro entrance closed Dec. 11 for the construction, which should be completed in two years.

As the shovels go into the ground, residents and merchants have a range of emotions. Excitement and anxiety pierce the blended scent of Jamaican beef patties, Chinese takeout and fried fish. Careful what you wish for."

Also see the interactive multimedia here (there's a panorama shot taken at the Petworth metro).

Post article 11/20

Retirement Home Site Tempts Developers

WBJ article

[from Tania Jackson, The Jair Lynch Companies]

This article was in the Washington Business Journal on Friday. I was called for comment and tried to emphasize the community input process to the reporter.

Jair Lynch & the Georgia Commons Project in Petworth
Jair Lynch Plans $30 Million Mixed-Use Complex in Petworth

By Prabha Natarajan, Staff Reporter

The Jair Lynch Cos. plans to build a $30 million residential project in DC's Petworth neighborhood.

The development, called Georgia Commons, will have 110 mixed-income apartments, 19,500 square feet of retail space including a cafe and a 14,500-square-foot Results the Gym.

In March 2006, the National Capital Revitalization Corp. selected Jair Lynch and AHD as the preferred developers of 3910-12 Georgia Avenue NW, a project that is part of NCRC's revitalization of Petworth.

Other properties include 4100 Georgia Avenue NW, 3800 Georgia Avenue NW, 3700 Georgia Avenue NW and the block near the Petworth Metro station.

District-based Jair Lynch is putting together an "interactive" development process that will enable residents to give their views during a series of community meetings, says Tania Jackson, director of community policy for the real estate company.

"It's what we promised the community when we bid on the project," she says. The neighborhood would get to have input on design and retail."

Residents created the Petworth Action Committee to act as a community partner for the project.

The neighborhood and Jair Lynch want to incorporate 'green' elements into the design of the new buildings. Those features will include a green roof and a separate water source.

Envision Design Group has hired to help with the design of the apartment and retail complex.

"We are trying to figure out to what extent to make it a green building and still keep it within budget," Jackson says.

Potential renters at Georgia Commons include people who already call Petworth home. Rents for the 110 units would be determined by a family's annual income, although the final pricing hasn't been determined.

Jackson says the developer will encourage young families, new entrants to the work force and older people in the neighborhood to rent in the complex.

Construction of the apartments is expected to start sometime next year. Jair Lynch is still in the midst of negotiations with NCRC.

Post article 9/20

Hopefuls Begin Staking Out Fenty's and Gray's Seats

City Paper article

[excerpt from 9/15 City Paper cover article]

George Pelecanos has set his gritty tales of murder and mayhem in neighborhoods across the city. But there's no area Pelecanos has shown himself to be more fond of than the middle-class Northwest neighborhoods east of the park. Places like Brightwood, Park View, Petworth, Manor Park - it's in these spots, up and down Georgia Avenue NW, that Pelecanos' DC is most real, a place with tight families and tidy houses alongside dingy bars and the occasional pit-bull fight.

It's home to decent yet flawed characters like Derek Strange, the black, Ennio Morricone–lovin', one-time cop who grew up in Petworth and stayed there, opening a private-eye business on 9th between Kansas and Upshur. He coaches his stepson's pee-wee football team on the field behind Roosevelt Senior High, and he's not above the occasional trip to a neighborhood massage parlor for a happy ending. In Pelecanos' latest, The Night Gardener, upstanding homicide detective Gus Ramone makes his home in a yellow colonial on Rittenhouse Street NW. He does his best to raise his son right, though he makes sure young Diego's well-versed in the code of the streets, growing up half-white in tough Manor Park.

Pelecanos' fictional turf is also where Adrian Fenty built his political career, in no small part by promising to rid Georgia Avenue of its liquor stores, massage parlors, and all the other gritty details Pelecanos so treasures. And, yes, the novelist has noticed - as one junkie informant muses in The Night Gardener, "Now you had politicians, like that ambitious light-skinned dude, councilman for that area up top of Georgia, trying to make laws about loitering and stopping cats from buying single cans of beer… The light-skinned dude, he didn't really care about folks hanging out, and he didn't care if a man wanted to enjoy himself one beer on a summer night. But he was running for mayor, so there it was."

And now he will be mayor, so there it is. You can bet Fenty will make redeveloping Georgia Avenue one of the cornerstones of his mayoral legacy. Condos are already going up next to the Petworth Metro, complete with a Mocha Hut below. It's only a matter of time before Ward 4 goes the Starbucks-infested way of "Silver Sprung," a development Silver Spring resident Pelecanos has long hated. And once that happens, it won't be too long before the Ennio Morricone–lovin' private dicks get priced right out of the neighborhood.

Full article

DC Examiner 8/18

[from the Editor]

Great Neighborhoods
10 Best Things - Petworth

I don't have the link, but click here for a scan of the article and photo (you may have to size it up or down to fit your screen for reading). Thanks to new neighbor to-be Lucas for sending it in.

DC Examiner 8/21

Planned homeless shelter to move next to school

Post article 8/22

Jim Graham for Ward 1
If any member of the D.C. Council deserves renomination, he does

DC North articles

Click here for the August DC North, which has three Petworth items in its Ward 4 report.

City Paper blog 7/11

A Petworth Lullaby

Resident Dave McKenna's audio recording of 4th of July fireworks on his block.

Post article 6/12

Just added to In the Media:

Breathing New Rhythm Into Tired Streets

DC North article

[from Andrew McGilvray]

Georgia-Petworth Farmer’s Market In Limbo

Note the contact e-mail -- [email protected] -- for anyone interested in restarting the market.

Post article 3/3

In Petworth, the Jazz Age Returns

Third Street Village

There was a great article about Petworth called Love Letter to the Third Street Village in yesterday's Post. I also put a link to it in the In the Media section (left sidebar).

Torta Bakery articles

Here's a link to Marc Fisher's Post column this week, about Torta Bakery. Bravo to all those who rallied to help owner Ken Rubotzky by hammering the city with calls and emails. Thanks to your efforts Ken may actually be able to open soon.

Also, click here for a related Common Denominator piece.

Bill Crandall.

Kennedy St documentary

Here is a link to Ingrid Drake and Desmond Leary's audio documentary about Kennedy Street, which aired recently on WPFW radio:

http://dc.indymedia.org/feature/display/129274/index.php

You can listen or download the MP3 file.

Article

[from Kevin Morton]

Did you know that Maryland Lt. Gov. Steele grew up in Petworth? This article about him gives some interesting neighborhood history.

Petworth on WTOP

Here are two WTOP radio reports from today about the Domku opening and Petworth development in general, with sound bites from Adrian Fenty.

Report #1
Report #2