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IT'S BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD for the D.C. government's plan to lure Prince George's County-based Radio One into the city now that the D.C. Council has balked at a proposal that's been labeled a land giveaway.
The District government had offered $16 million in public financing and free land near the Shaw-Howard University Metrorail station worth $6 million as an enticement for Radio One, the nation's largest broadcaster catering to African-Americans, to build its $115 million Broadcast Center One on 7th Street NW.
As The Post's Nikita Stewart reports, two council members, Kwame Brown and Jack Evans, told D.C.'s planning and economic development office to revisit the proposed deal.
» "D.C. Council Members Balk At Deal for Radio One Offices" [WaPo]
» EARLIER: "To Lure Radio One to Shaw, D.C. May Grant It Land" [Free Ride/Express]
IT SOUNDS LIKE A PRETTY NICE GIFT: $16 million in public financing and $6 million's worth of land along 7th Street NW in Shaw. That's what Prince George's County-based Radio One would get from the D.C. government if it moves back into the District, where the nation's largest radio station catering to African-Americans got its start years ago.
As The Post's Nikita Stewart reports, the D.C. Council is holding a hearing today on the proposed deal, in which Radio One would move into a $115 million mixed-used project that's been proposed adjacent to the Shaw-Howard University Metrorail station.
The proposed Broadcast Center One would be part of the D.C. government's plan to promote economic development along 7th Street NW in Shaw and the lower Georgia Avenue corridor near Howard University.
» "D.C. Plans Project as Home for Radio One" [WaPo]
ONCE UPON A MICROPHONE, a somewhat shy Marsha Ambrosius dreamed of solo success. Then some personal and Industry obstacles derailed that dream.
"I was like, 'A solo career? Oh, no. That's not for me. ... Let me put all my focus on writing and production for other people,'" said Ambrosius.
While writing and producing, and also singing on the local circuit, she met spoken-word artist Natalie Stewart. That's how Ambrosius became the high-pitched half of soul- and R&B-laced duo Floetry.
"Floetry came about because we were cool. We weren't trying to put a group together; we were just doing poetry gigs together. It so happened that we got a deal out of it when we came over to the States," she explained.
WHILE IT'S NOT EVEN COMPLETE yet, Milt Peterson's National Harbor mega development in Prince George's County, pictured at left, has District business interests quivering in fear.
When completed and open for business, National Harbor is poised to drain a lot of convention business — and the revenue that comes with it — away from the nation's capital. The mammoth Washington Convention Center, the building pictured above, which dominates Mount Vernon Square and Shaw, is already a structure that hasn't lived up to expectations. And while bookings are up for 2008, there are concerns that the convention center's prospects will dim once Peterson's place downriver is up and running. There's some optimism, too — but not much.
Last week came word that all hope is pretty much lost on a deal to construct a convention center "headquarters" hotel, a notion near and dear to the convention industry. In his column, The Post's Steven Pearlstein lambasted the failure of the District government, private developer Kingdon Gould and the convention center authority to make the hotel deal happen.
Can the convention center be saved from turning into a white elephant? Could parts of the city's largest building be put to better use?
If the various public and private convention center interests can't move forward with a plan to increase the Washington Convention Center's competitiveness, perhaps it might be time to look at other options. Perhaps it's time to host one of those buzzworthy design charettes, where the public and local officials meet with architects and design firms, like Torti Gallas and EDAW, to gin up some innovative ideas.
In the meantime, we present a few ideas of our own, most of which we'll readily admit aren't that feasible. But some crazy visionary is bound to run with at least one of two of them. Maybe.
Continue Reading "Ideas to Save D.C.'s New Convention Center" »
AFTER ANOTHER SERIES of smoky eruptions shut down another batch of Metrorail stations during Monday's evening rush, Metro officials are considering the possibility that the incidents could have been caused intentionally.
"This is not normal," Metro General Manager John Catoe said, according to The Post's Lena H. Sun and Martin Weil. "This is highly, highly irregular."
Report Sun and Weil:
Asked whether he thought the incidents might be intentional, [Catoe] said: "Could it be something else [other than an accident]? Everything now is suspicious."Monday's delays began at around 7 p.m. after several trains lost power between the Pentagon City and Braddock Road stations on the Blue and Yellow lines, according to a Metro press statement. A track fire was reported at the Pentagon City station. A fire was also reported at the U Street-Cardozo station, which shut down both that station and the stop at Columbia Heights from 7:20 p.m. to 8:40 p.m., the statement said.A spokesman for the D.C. fire department said that the department was "very concerned" about the large number of incidents in a brief period and that the department would try to assist Metro in determining whether they were more than accidental.
Shuttle buses ferried passengers between L'Enfant Plaza and Huntington and also between the Georgia Avenue-Petworth and Shaw-Howard University stations.
Continue Reading "Smoke, Fire Cause Another Messy Metro Commute" »
CALYPSO WAS ONCE the musical equivalent of a tabloid newspaper in Trinidad and Tobago.
Songs with lilting melodies about politicians and colonialism were mashed up against percussive and ribald sexual and drinking tales, but they all had rich word play and double-entendre-filled lyrics that could make pointed social criticisms just as well as they could make listeners double over in laughter.
Of course, calypso's clever lyrics usually baffled American artists such as The Andrews Sisters, who had a huge hit in 1945 with a cover of the Lord Invader and Lionel Belasco tune "Rum and Coca-Cola."
The U.S. had set up military bases in Trinidad during World War II, and Lord Invader's lyrics speak to the way women were becoming prostitutes "working for the Yankee dollar."
Meanwhile, The Andrews Singers plowed through "Rum and Coca-Cola's" words in perfect harmony and made the angry tune sound like a happy-go-lucky party jam.
That is one of the better known tales in calypso lore, as is the controversy surrounding Harry Belafonte's massively successful 1956 LP, "Calypso." Both of these stories are recounted in the documentary "Calypso Dreams," but the film also digs deep into the history and artistry of this distinctly Trini roots music.
Trinidad and Tobago will celebrate its 45th year of independence from Great Britain on Aug. 31, and the T&T embassy in Washington, D.C., has prepared a weeklong celebration, which kicks off Friday with a free screening of "Calypso Dreams" at Howard University's Armour J. Blackburn University Center.
BYSTANDERS at Saturday's terrible fire at an apartment building at Rhode Island Avenue and 9th Street NW in Shaw were witness to a chilling sight: a badly burned man hanging out of an upper-level window as flames ravaged the apartment he was in.
The D.C. Fire Department is not releasing the identity of the man, 38, who's in critical condition at the Washington Hospital Center with burns over 75 percent of his body. As The Post's Jenna Johnson reports this morning, rumors as to who he is and what exactly happened at the Foster House Apartments are swirling about. The building manager tells The Post that the man was living with an unidentified woman who rented the now-destroyed apartment.
The fire was contained to that one apartment, and residents who were relocated Saturday night are being allowed back inside.
» "Questions and Rumors Swirl as Residents Return to Homes" [WaPo]
» EARLIER: "Man Is Critical After NW Blaze" [WaPo]
Photo by Andrea Bruce/The Washington Post
IN HEBREW, the word "Shiloh" means "place of peace." But in Shaw, there's been discord at the historic Shiloh Baptist Church, pictured at right.
Neighborhood grumbling about the church's protests of new businesses in the revitalizing 9th Street NW corridor and the dilapidated properties it owns have been going on for months. But now, internal dissent over church leadership has spilled out onto the church's front lawn, literally.
As The Post's Jacqueline L. Salmon and Hamil R. Harris write this morning, a weekend no-confidence vote was taken by members of the church on a small patch of grass outside the church at 9th and P streets NW. In a vote of 138-6, church members voted to oust its pastor, but as Shiloh officials point out, such a vote is unauthorized under the church's constitution. A church spokeswoman tells The Post that the dissident group "has given the media an inaccurate picture that suggests the church is in turmoil."
Continue Reading "In Shaw, Shiloh Spat Is Front and Center" »
IF ONLY CRIME, like the weather, could be predicted ...
Last July, the District sprang into action after a young British political activist was brutally murdered on Q Street NW outside the Georgetown mansion at right, which was then owned by developer Herb Miller. While the number of muggings and other street attacks had been increasing across the District — and in concentrations in areas of the city — it was the Georgetown attack, the attention it elicited and the spike in crime that July that brought about a declared crime emergency. (The two charged in that Georgetown death, Christopher Piper, 26, and Jeffrey Rice, 23, pleaded guilty on Monday and face up to 100 years in prison each for that death and three other robberies in Georgetown and Adams Morgan.)
But will the summer of 2007 be much like the summer of 2006? Will warmer temperatures bring criminal elements out in full force? According to an analysis of crime data from last year by The Post, the city's "robbery core" is centered in Ward 1, which includes neighborhoods like Columbia Heights, Adams Morgan, Mount Pleasant, Dupont Circle and Logan Circle, which are under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Police Department's 3rd Police District.
As The Post's Allison Klein and Dan Keating wrote at the time:
... [R]obbers are traveling farther from home to strike, according to police officials. During the first six months of [2006], about 40 percent of juveniles arrested in robberies and other crimes in neighborhoods just north of downtown did not live there, police said.In particular, Friday and Saturday nights see an uptick in crime.
So far, at least on Capitol Hill, the spring has sparked its own crime spike, with 19 robberies logged from Friday night through Monday. As Klein reports this morning:
No one was seriously hurt, police said, although some victims were knocked to the ground. In some cases, assailants brandished knives. Other robberies were purse-snatchings, including one at 3 p.m. Sunday about two blocks from Eastern Market.And police don't know why criminals are targeting the Hill, making the art of predicting what could happen as summer approaches anyone's guess.
» "Guilty Pleas in British Activist's Death" [WaPo]
» "Liveliest D.C. Neighborhoods Also Jumping With Robberies" [WaPo]
» "Robberies Shake Up Residents, D.C. Police" [WaPo]
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
VISITORS, STUDENTS AND RESIDENTS alike, be advised that the District Department of Transportation has restricted parking in numerous areas around Howard University, in preparation for guest speaker Oprah Winfrey's arrival.
"Emergency No Parking" signs will be in effect from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 12. In addition, the following streets will be closed altogether for graduation ceremonies: the 2100-2700 blocks of 6th St. NW, the 600 block of Howard St. NW, the 300-600 blocks of Fairmont St. NW and the 600 block of Girard St. NW.
» "Howard University Commencement" [Howard.edu]
» "Coup That Is Oprah Has Howard Gushing" [WaPo]
Addison Road