N Street Block Party
Salem Baptist Church is sponsoring a block party on the 900 block of N Street, NW, on Saturday, June 28, 2008, from 10:00am to 3:00pm. There will be dancing, games, voter registration (absentee reg. forms & poll volunteer info, voter forms in English & Spanish), a Safe House--where children learn how to vacate a burning building--a fire truck on display, and more. It would be helpful if neighbors can bring a covered dish or bring their grills for a big cook out! For more information, contact the church office at (202) 232-4294.
Reminder: Shaw Library Design Meeting, 06/23/08, 6:30 PM
This is a reminder that the fourth of five public meetings to discuss the plans for the new Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Neighborhood Library will be held on Monday, June 23, 2008, at 6:30 PM at the interim library, located at 945 Rhode Island Avenue NW. The meeting is open to the public, and no preregistration is required. While only four meetings were originally contemplated, a fifth meeting will be necessary due to the discovery of significant ground water on the site and the need to raise the basement slightly in order to accommodate that geotechnical consideration. These adjustments will not be presented at the fourth meeting, but the further elaboration of the interior and exterior of the building will be presented. This is an opportunity for residents and other library users who have not registered their input into the design process to date to do so. Earlier versions of the design are on display at the interim branch library and online at www.dclibrary.org. For more information on the meetings, contact DCPL's Archie Williams at archie.williams@dc.gov or 202-727-1437.
Free Food, Beverages, and Prizes at Shaw Open House
Shaw Open House on Lower Ninth Street will be held on Thursday, June 19, 2008, from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM on the 1100 through 1500 blocks of 9th Street, NW, with over one dozen restaurants, bakeries, coffee shops, lounges, liquor stores, art galleries, boutiques, and other businesses participating. Food businesses will offer free samples of their specialties, and other businesses will offer refreshments and special offers. Sponsored by Shaw Main Streets, Shaw Open House is free to all participants, and includes a raffle for prizes donated by businesses taking part in the event. Participating businesses include chef Tom Power's newly relocated Corduroy Restaurant, Chatman's D'vine Bakery & Cafe, Be Bar, Chan's Mongolian Grill and Tokyo Sushi, Vegetate Restaurant and Lounge, Queen of Sheba Restaurant, Old Dominion Brewhouse, Modern Liquors, Long View Gallery, Maruka School for Yoga and Retail Boutique, TG Cigars, Breakwell's Coffee & Tea, The Space, Lumsden Insurance Agency, and Azi's Cafe. Event passports entitling bearers to free food and beverage samples and other benefits will be distributed at TG Cigars, 1118 9th Street, NW, and Queen of Sheba Restaurant, 1503 9th Street, NW beginning at 5:00 PM on the day of the event. For more information, call Shaw Main Streets at 202-265-SHAW or visit www.shawmainstreets.com.
Your Chance to Set Priorities for Neighborhood Investment by DC Government
On Thursday, June 12, 2008, at 6:30 PM at Shaw Middle School, 925 Rhode Island Avenue, NW, The DC Office of Planning will hold a public meeting on priorities for Neighborhood Investment Fund spending in Shaw and Logan Circle. This is the second such meeting. All are welcome to attend, and no preregistration is required. At the meeting, participants will have the opportunity to help select the types of projects that will become the priorities for NIF spending. For your reference, past NIF funded projects in Shaw have included the Shaw Green Team, which trains formerly incarcerated and/or substance addicted men and women to maintain the public space in the neighborhood (picking up trash, removing graffiti, maintaining treeboxes and greenspace); treebox improvements (planting of flowering perennial plants and installation of black steel tree guards) on the 1300, 1400, 1500, and 1900 blocks of 9th Street, NW; and supporting the expansion of the Feast for All Market at Emmaus Services for the Aging, which provides free food to seniors in the neighborhood. The Neighborhood Investment Fund is an annual, non-lapsing fund to finance economic development and neighborhood revitalization in 12 targeted areas of the District, including Shaw. The fund is capitalized by an annual contribution of 15 percent of the personal property tax, not to exceed $10 million. Shaw Main Streets encourages you to attend this meeting to cast your vote for the types of projects that can continue to transform Shaw into a cleaner, safer, more attractive place to live, work, shop, learn, play, and pray. These include: * Continued support for the Green Team. A number of the original team members have moved on to full time employment at the Department of Public Works and other employers. Current team members include former gang members who have left their violent pasts behind. * Completion of the 9th Street Treebox Project, with plantings and tree guards on the 1600-1800 blocks of 9th Street, NW, and other streetscape improvements in the neighborhood. * Support for neighborhood beautification efforts, such as Keep Shaw Beautiful Day. * Storefront improvement projects, which would renovate the facades and display windows of commercial buildings along 7th and 9th Streets, NW, and provide new, attractive signage for businesses in the area. * Neighborhood identity street banners, building community pride, branding the commercial corridors, and visually unifying 7th and 9th Streets, NW. * Public art projects, bringing the same type of sculpture, murals, and other artwork already present in other DC neighborhoods. * Technical and legal assistance for entrepreneurs to open new businesses in the neighborhood. * Business retention services, such as advertising and promotion, and legal and technical assistance to help small,, independent, neighborhood-serving businesses compete and become sustainable despite the severe economic challenges facing such businesses today. * Apprenticeship programs for neighborhood residents to learn job skills while working in neighborhood businesses. * Funding for predevelopment activities related to new development in the neighborhood, but not land acquisition costs. * Training for tenants associations, so that they can be ready to respond to opportunities to buy their apartment buildings if these buildings go on the market, as a means of preserving affordable housing and maintaining neighborhood diversity. The range of grants is from $15,0000 to $200,000, depending on which NIF program is relevant. For more information on the NIF program, visit http://dcbiz.dc.gov/dmped/cwp/view,a,1366,q,604691,dmpedNav,|33026||33028|.asp or call Tarek Bolden at the Office of Planning, 202-442-7619 or tarek.bolden@dc.gov.
Upcoming Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Neighborhood Library Community Design Meeting
The Watha T. Daniel-Shaw Neighborhood Library is being replaced. The old building has been razed and services currently are being provided via an interim library located at 945 Rhode Island Avenue, NW, three blocks West of the old building site. Designs for the new library are nearing completion. The new three-story library will be at least 20,000 square feet and will provide inviting spaces for services to adults, young adults, and children, as well as multiple meeting spaces for community use.
A community planning meeting will take place on Monday, June 23, 2008 6:30 pm, at the Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Interim Library, located at 945 Rhode Island Avenue, NW. If you have any questions or comments, please submit them to the following e-mail address: WathaShawCommunityFeedback@dc.gov.
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