Results tagged “mountvernonsquare”

The National Transportation Safety Board released its findings this afternoon from an investigation into the January derailment of a Green line train near the Mt. Vernon Square/Convention Center stop. The accident, in which the fifth car of a six-car train jumped the rails and hit a wall in the tunnel, injured 20 people and left around 60 passengers stranded in the tunnel for nearly 45 minutes. The Associated Press has the first word on the...

Good morning, Washington. For the first time in almost 30 years, the Senate will take up a measure considering D.C. voting rights this afternoon, though as we explained yesterday, today's action is really just a vote to consider giving us the vote in the House, not the actual vote to give us the vote. Mayor Adrian Fenty, who will take public transportation all day today in honor of Car Free D.C. Day, announced he will...

Anyone wishing to pay their respects to former D.C. First Lady Effi Barry, who died from complications related to leukemia last week, can stop by the Wilson Building today, where her body is lying in repose. Viewing began at 10 a.m. and goes until midnight tonight, and will also occur on Friday morning from 6 a.m. until 9 a.m. If you plan to go late tonight, remember that Metro will be running until 2 a.m....

Samuel Gompers is one of those names you vaguely remember from AP U.S. History, along with The Grange and the Know-Nothings. They fit in somehow, but you don't exactly remember why. While he may not be on the tips of people's tongues, he does have a rather large monument on Massachusetts Avenue NW near Mount Vernon Square. Gompers, born in London in 1850, was a major figure in the American labor movement, organizing and...

The Examiner reports that renovations are underway at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, the central branch of the D.C. Public Public system. The improvements come after former Mayor Anthony Williams' proposal to replace the building with a new flagship library two blocks away on the site of the old convention center was first tabled by the D.C. Council and then shelved by the Fenty administration. Improvements to the outdated and long-neglected MLK Library...

Okay, okay — we know, this is a Nats town now. But it'd be churlish not to congratulate Cal Ripken Jr. on his election to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Many Washingtonians regularly made the trek to Camden Yards during his streak, and to them Cal felt as much like a hometown hero as any athlete. So it's good (if unsurprising) to see Ripken receive the nod. And he did it in style: Ripken's name...

Good morning D.C. We hope you enjoy today's slightly more seasonal high of 46 before we return to 70 by the weekend. Channel 9 is also warning that a few (gasp) flurries may make an appearance this evening. Metro Safety Under Scrutiny: Investigators are looking into several aspects of Sunday's Metro train derailment near the Mount Vernon Square station. D.C. Fire officials say they didn't receive information about the accident fast enough, leading to a...

The Washington Post reports what some of you who've been out using Metro today may have already heard: six-car train on the Green Line derailed just before 4 p.m. this afternoon near the Mt. Vernon Square/Convention Center stop, injuring 20 people, one of those seriously. The Associated Press has more, describing the 45-minute wait approximately 60 people had before being reached by fire crews and helped out of the tunnel. This from AP:The accident happened...

Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the city, not a lot of authors are stirring. Give them a break! They have family and friends to see at this time of year, too!

>>A CNN/Gallup Poll released today reports that "100% of D.C.-Metro area residents" agree that they "like things that are great." Okay. There's no such poll. We're just giddy that after two-plus years of trying, we finally uncovered a local issue that we all agree on: following Vincent Orange into a redevelopment abyss over the Capital City Market is a bad idea. Further developments on the story shall be noted. >> Imminent show cancellation alert!...

The National Harbor, a perplexing development scheme rising from the Prince George's County river flats just outside the Capital Beltway, has attracted additional hotel investments, giving the complex a planned total of 3,000 available rooms.

Hi there, Washington. Check out this lovely photo from Flickr user LaTur. It looks like we're in for more of that kind of sunny weather — today's going to be clear, windy and cold. Kaine Aide's Remarks Draw Republican Ire: William Leighty, Governor Tim Kaine's Chief of Staff has gotten his boss in trouble with Virginia Republicans after implying that the governor would discriminate against legislation drafted by lawmakers hostile to his transportation agenda. Leighty...

Despite our lack of a W, D.C. sure has its share of fancy-shmancy boutique hotels. And that's predominantly because of the Kimpton Group, who operate six hotels in D.C. -- their second largest metropolitan hub after their headquarters in San Francisco. As Metrocurean says, the Kimpton Group has done a great job taking ugly D.C. buildings and transforming them not only into swank hotels, but also spaces with fun bars/lounges and fine dining. And now the Washington Business Journal reports that the Kimpton Group are renovating another spot in D.C. at 2121 P St. NW, not far from the Hotel Monaco.

WTOP is reporting that President Bush plans to send legislation to Congress today that would cede parcels of federal land to the District, a plan he first proposed in early February. The lands slated to be turned over include parts of Reservation 13 alongside RFK Stadium and pictured at right, Poplar Point along the Anacostia River, the old naval hospital located on Capitol Hill, and Mount Vernon Square. Meanwhile, the federal government will assume full control of the western half of St. Elizabeths Hospital in Southeast, which has been eyed as a potential site for a new Coast Guard headquarters.

Don't get us wrong, we like public art initiatives. But this DCist (and we know many others) have grown somewhat tired of the animal-themed public art/charity fundraiser displays. We think they may have run their course. Sure, Pandamania and the Party Animals were great ways to showcase the talents of local artists, but in a city that also serves as a world capital, we would hope that there would be a little more investment in...

You all certainly know about Georgetown's Blue buses. Now add another color to the mix: the Red buses. Officially known as the Downtown Circulator buses, we might as well get the unofficial ball rolling and start calling them the Red buses, since inevitably, people in D.C. and tourists alike prefer their transportation options color-coded. Pity the colorblind in our civic ranks. (And should we assume that the July introduction of the Red buses is supposed to be a ploy to get more transit dollars from Red State lawmakers still hammering out the final details on the transportation reauthorization bill on Capitol Hill as they're staring down a potential veto threat from President Bush? We kid, of course.)

This photo was posted to DCist photos on Flickr by Justin Johnson of digital obscura. It will be clear becoming cloudy with highs in the low 70s today.

(Editor's Note: Earlier reports of this DCist's loss of an arm are unfounded. It was actually our big toe.) DCist loves Fun Street. You ask: "Where might that be?" In what seems to be an aborted late 1990s marketing rebranding attempt, F Street near the MCI Center was given a Botox injection in the form of "Fun" Street to place emphasis on the strip's funness quotient. It never caught on, but the signs remain....

The District Office of Planning released its final draft of its Convention Center Area Strategic Development Plan, its blueprint for the future of development in the neighborhoods surrounding the Washington Convention Center.

If you haven't gotten a chance to pick up the most recent City Paper, be sure to take a peek at "Lost in Space," a look by David Morton (with photos by Darrow Montgomery) of some of the city's awkward, neglected and forgotten public spaces. One of the spaces featured is Champlain Street where it evaporates inside the Marie Reed Community Center, just a hop, skip and a jump from the City Paper's offices just up the street.

Watchout Foggy Bottom: Inspections of student off-campus housing are moving in the direction of George Washington University. The Post reports that the District is also asking students who fear that they are living in unsafe housing to let them know. Transportation News: The Post has a lot of WMATA-related news this morning. First, WMATA's police agency is looking to incorporate Eastern-style philosopical training with Aristotlean rhetorical principles into its tactics to calm down unruly passengers....

The Mount Vernon Square-7th St. Convention Center metrorail station was flooding for good part of the overnight hours yesterday, but WMATA didn't realize what was going on, despite an alarm that went off at central operations control. WMATA is now investigating. According to the AP, via WJLA/NewsChannel 8, Pepco had somehow set off sprinklers in the station, which automatically triggered an alarm at 1 a.m. Wednesday. But there wasn't an immediate follow-up by WMATA and...

Transportation News: -- Flooding had closed the Mount Vernon Square-7th St. Convention Center station on the Green and Yellow lines. Shuttle bus service had been provided from Gallery Place-Chinatown. This morning, a WMATA alert referred to the station by its old name, Mount Vernon Square-UDC, which the wires and the Post picked up as well. As of 7:55 a.m., the station had reopened, though escalators were not working. -- WMATA's police chief, Polly Hanson, has...

Bigger retail could be coming to the District's downtown area adding to the robust resurgence in shopping along some of the central city's main corridors. With Seventh and H streets the new epicenter for downtown shopping (the newly opened Benetton, Urban Outfitters, Ann Taylor Loft, et al) and Hechts and H&M over toward Metro Center, the Post took a look at the status of the rebirth of downtown Washington's shopping. Some critics might say that the shopping options aren't all that varied, but it's a start.

Is the golden age of Woodley Park's anchor as a convention and meeting site coming to a close? The Post reports that the Marriott Wardman Park hotel may be sold for $200 million and a new developer, Chevy Chase's JBG, hopes to convert part of its complex into condominums, similar to Monument Realty's plans to convert the Watergate's hotel into condos. The Wardman Park, the city's largest hotel, and the Omni Shoreham have brought countless...

With so many historic structures, neighborhoods, and an elaborate transit infrastructure, D.C. is a prime location to engage in a little urban exploring. Urban exploring, which some refer to as infiltrating, is the practice of entering, exploring, and usually photographing places closed to the public.

The Post warns us that traffic around the Washington Convention Center could be clogged all week ... not because of a GOP fundraising dinner or a huge AIPAC conference ... but because of "American Idol." Thousands of would be American Idols will be auditioning this week which means that countless stage mothers in minivans will be driving around Mount Vernon Square getting confused by all the one-way streets and no left turn regulations. (Watch out for congestion on Seventh and Ninth streets.)

National Public Radio's beloved deposed elder statesman, Bob Edwards, has a new assignment. Edwards will leave NPR to compete against his old radio show, "Morning Edition" on XM Satellite Radio starting in October. Edwards tells the Post the he will "be a pioneer again," much like when he joined NPR in 1974 when the radio network was just three years old. Edwards has always seemed to be at the forefront of D.C. commercial development. For...