Category Archives: The District

Entertainment, Essential DC, Food and Drink, Life in the Capital, Music, Night Life, Special Events, The Daily Feed, The District
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Saturday Memorial Concert for Adam Hosinski and Rory Weichbrod

On October 9th, 2010, Adam Hosinski and Rory Weichbrod, were crossing Rockville Pike in North Bethesda, when they were struck and killed by a driver who was later arrested on DUI charges and convicted of manslaughter.

This Saturday, from 2-7pm, friends and family will gather at The Bullpen, across from Nationals Stadium, to celebrate the lives of these two men, with a memorial concert and fundraiser for two charities (The Special Olympics and Operation Once in a Lifetime) the two were closely involved with. The event was conceived and planned by several of Adam and Rory’s closest friends, specifically the band members of Midnight Spin, close childhood friends and classmates of Hosinski and Weichbrod. According to the victims’ close friend, Kevin Boyle, “The concert is a memorial, a charity fund raiser, and most of all a celebration of the lives of two of the best guys I was lucky enough to have as a part of my life.”

The weather for tomorrow will provide the perfect day to head over to The Bullpen for tons of fun, live music, cornhole, a fast pitch baseball machine, food and drink, but most importantly to remember two DCers taken far too soon.

The event will not require a cover charge.

History, The District
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A Look at Saint Elizabeths West Campus


‘Saint Elizabeths – Central Building – 05-21-11’
courtesy of ‘mosley.brian’

About two weeks ago, I got the chance to go on a DC Preservation League tour of Saint Elizabeths West Campus. It was the second time I’d been able to go on the tour, the first time being in December of 2008. I was looking forward to seeing how things had changed in two and a half years.

But first, a note on this post: it’s going to be fairly bare bones on information. That’s because there is literally 150+ years of history in this location! Sorting through it all and writing a truly thorough post would be the length of a small book. There is a huge amount of research on the property because of the Department of Homeland Security moving onto the historic West Campus, and a lot of effort is being made to preserve as much as possible. I encourage you to dig deeper by reading the GSA’s website on the redevelopment, along with a short but detailed history of St. Es, and their extremely detailed Historic Landscape Survey. Also, we’ve talked about St. Es before, and it is worth rereading Tiffany’s article. And, of course, there’s Wikipedia.

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Life in the Capital, News, Special Events, The District
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Legal Analysis on the Jefferson Dance Restrictions

Photo courtesy of
‘Jefferson Memorial’
courtesy of ‘qr7d88 (Alex) *mending*’

Summer is a time for re-runs and apparently that goes for protest events too. Adam Kokesh and others have indicated their intention to show up at the Jefferson Memorial this Saturday at Noon for a repeat performance of last Saturday’s civil disobedience. There’s over 2500 folks RSVPed on Facebook, though that seems to include folks who are going to boogie remotely in solidarity.

I already weighed in with my opinion on how I thought the protesters should have responded during their arrest and a number of you weighed in with your position on me getting stuffed. I thought a more useful follow-up would be from someone with actual law knowledge so I reached out to Kevin M. Goldberg who has helped us out with speech law before.

Kevin is Special Counsel at Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth where his area of expertise is First Amendment, FOIA and IP issues, making him a good person to turn to about this. Plus he still takes my calls. He’s also a regular contributor to their CommLawBlog where you can find items like his recent piece about “copyright trolls” and the BitTorrenters who don’t so much love them. If you’re getting your Gaga or Hangover 2 fix via less-than-legit channels this might be the kind of thing you’re interested in reading about.

For the moment, though, let’s talk about doing the monument boogie. Take it away, Kevin.

Don first contacted me Sunday evening with the idea of a guest piece about the Oberwetter decision. That’s Oberwetter v. Hilliard, the case that Adam Kokesh and the other protestors were responding to when they had their Jefferson dance-in this weekend. His suggestion for a primary focus was the subject of that case’s odd-sounding finding: That the inside of the Jefferson Monument is not a public forum.

This isn’t a the first time Don and I have discussed this subject. I teach Journalism Law at George Mason University and talking about when, where, and how the government can and cannot legitimately restrict your speech gets sizable attention in my lesson plan. Not that long ago Don audited my class to make sure We Love DC can try to enjoy a long and lawsuit free existence. Ever since he’s been contacting me as his “expert” on speech law. (Note to self: update email filters)

This event was no exception and we exchanged a few emails about the details of the Oberwetter case and this more recent event. While I can assure you that nothing would make me happier than to show Mr. Whiteside up both publicly and violently, I have to say that I can’t. We’re in total agreement here on two counts: (a) it’s unfortunate that (b) the Court of Appeals probably got this right.

How can that be when anyone’s free to walk into the memorial any time of night or day? How do two people slightly left of Marx on speech rights come to a conclusion like that one? Well, let’s discuss.

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The District
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Media fails Law 201, PR Spin 101

YouTube Preview Image

DC’s public intoxication statute doesn’t set hard blood alcohol content (BAC) numbers the way driving under the influence laws do – in fact DC ST § 24-601* opens with a statement that the law is about minimizing harm.

In order to accomplish this purpose and alleviate intoxication  and chronic alcoholism, all public officials in the District of Columbia shall take cognizance of the fact that public intoxication  shall be handled as a public health problem rather than as a criminal offense, and that a chronic alcoholic is a sick person who needs, is entitled to, and shall be provided appropriate medical, psychiatric, institutional, advisory, and rehabilitative treatment services of the highest caliber for his illness.

This matters because we’re seeing a video blaze around the Internet today of a police encounter with a man in a motorized wheelchair-type device (often called by a trade name, Rascal). I’d be somewhat surprised if you haven’t seen it already, but it’s at the top of this article. We’re also seeing some poorly chosen words in describing the incident.

I don’t mean talking about the use of force. The question of how this really played out is now certain to become a subject of interest and we can be sure that review boards will be involved. I’d contend that’s how it should be in any case where the amount of violence used by law enforcement seems at all excessive.

The problem I’m talking about is that we’re seeing a description of how inebriated the man was by talking about “the legal limit.” but there’s the thing: In a case like this there is no legal limit.

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The District
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St. Albans Wins Stotesbury Cup

Photo courtesy Julien Blarel

The St. Albans’ crew team’s men’s first varsity eight brought home the prestigious Edward T. Stotesbury Cup from their trip to Philadelphia over the weekend for the 2011 Stotesbury Cup Regatta, one of the largest and oldest high school crew events in the country.
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The Daily Feed, The District
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Your Wegmans, Bring it to us.

Photo courtesy of
”
courtesy of ‘Make Lemons’

With the Walter Reed Army Medical Center slated to be realigned as part of BRAC, the expansive campus is ripe for redevelopment. This weekend, DC got a peek at what could be coming to that site, and it thrills me to my toes to think that DC might get a Wegmans on that site. The Examiner’s Freeman Klopott and Liz Farmer are reporting that Wegmans and the Mayor and Council are meeting at a retail development conference in Vegas this week.

The idea of continuing to shop at Wegmans, and the District getting my sales tax revenue instead of Prince George’s County is pretty exciting to me.

Adventures, Essential DC, Life in the Capital, News, People, The Daily Feed, The District
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Help Dog Find Its Owners

This little cutie was found Sunday afternoon in an alley near 16th NE. His rescuers describe him as “ridiculously sweet, trusting, quiet, and well-behaved” and as much as they’re enjoying his companionship, they’re hoping to reunite the pup with his family ASAP. If you recognize him, please email founddogdc@gmail.com.

Adventures, All Politics is Local, Essential DC, Life in the Capital, News, People, The Daily Feed, The District
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Help Find Lost Dog Sassafras

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It’s been 6 weeks since beagle-jack russell mix and kill shelter rescue, Sassafras, escaped from her daytime caretaker in the AdMo area. Since then, her family and dedicated volunteers have hung 2000+ posters, received 4500 phone calls, created a “Find Lost Beagle Sassafras” blog, posted numerous tweets, facebook entries and listserv entries, brought in two professional trackers, and united the DC dog community to help find Sassafras. As a result, there have been numerous reported sightings of Sass with the latest at Rock Creek Cemetery on May 11, but she has yet to be reunited with her family.

In their search to find Sass, the owners have uncovered both the positive and negative facts of recovering their dog, including the need of having the pet doors locked at night.

1) The city department charged with disposing of dead animals, does not notify pet owners even if the dead animal has tags and other easy identification.

2) While many area shelters post pictures of animals brought to their shelters online, the DC shelter does not, even though they have the capability. Continue reading →

Crime & Punishment, History, Life in the Capital, The District, We Love Drinks
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Breakin’ the Law: Prohibition in DC

Garrett Peck
Garret Peck (photos by the author)

Wednesday night I attended a talk on Prohibition in DC by local author Garrett Peck. He’s got a new book on the subject, developed as a result of his research for his first book, along with the knowledge he’s amassed leading the Temperance Tour. Much as it is now, DC was a playground for politicians who wanted to try out new rules. Prohibition was thus imposed on the District in 1917 by politicians who, privately (and sometimes publicly) didn’t themselves care much for or about the law.

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All Politics is Local, The District, The Features
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A Conversation with Eleanor Holmes Norton

Photo courtesy of
‘EHN @ Artomatic’
courtesy of ‘tbridge’

Last weekend Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) sat down with We Love DC for conversation over a number of topics particularly  focusing on the recent federal budget negotiations and the resulting protests.

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton is still angry.  After weeks of negotiations between the White House and both Congressional Republicans and Democrats over the federal government budget narrowly averted a shutdown, Norton believes the District became a pawn in the negotiations with the inclusion of two policy riders in the budget agreement.  These riders banned the District from using local funds to provide abortions primarily for low-income residents and authorized the continuation of the school voucher program which helps pay for private school tuition.  “Congress is too busy messing with the DC code,” said Norton.

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Adams Morgan, Essential DC, Fun & Games, Interviews, Night Life, People, The District
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He Loves DC: A Q&A with Christian Hunt

Photo courtesy of Christian Hunt

Once a month, on Saturday nights, Christian Hunt can’t be missed. He’s the guy in the bright red suit hosting the Capital City Showcase at the DC Arts Center in Adams Morgan. Hunt is a District native. He was born at Georgetown Hospital and raised in Glover Park.

“It’s funny because there are so many transients here that I’m like a white squirrel, because I was born and raised in DC, still live in DC, and root for all the DC sports teams, though I pretend the Redskins don’t exist. As cheesy as it sounds, DC is my home and it always will be,” Hunt said.

Hunt took a few minutes to give We Love DC the low-down on why he thinks his hometown is “the most beautiful city in the world.” He might have lived in Boston during his college years but according to Hunt, the District is far from being a tourist trap.

Rachel: So tell me about this Capital City Showcase. It’s an evening that showcases a variety of local performance artists. How did the project get started?

Christian: I’ve been performing since I was 10 years old. Whether it was doing plays, playing piano, or singing in chorus, I was always on stage. At the end of college, I started dabbling in stand-up comedy, but when I started working I put it all on the shelf. So after years of not performing at all, I started to get the itch again. I remember being up late and watching infomercials for The Midnight Special, which was a variety show from the 1970’s that featured the best acts of the time. And I thought to myself “Why doesn’t something like this exist anymore?”

I also grew up watching the old DC20 channel, which featured local programming, like all of the kids shows hosted by Captain 20 (if you grew up here you know what I’m talking about). And again I thought “Why is there no real local programming anymore?” So I figured it would be really cool to fill both of those voids with a live variety show that featured all of talent that DC has to offer. And The Capital City Showcase was born.

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Essential DC, Life in the Capital, The District, Tourism
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It’s Tourist Season: Share the Love

Silhouettes
All photos by the author

A couple years ago the Social Chair and I were sitting at a bar when the couple next to us asked us a question. They said they’d overheard our conversation with the bartender and were looking for a restaurant recommendation, since they were visiting from out of town and wanted to try something other than their usual haunts. We got to talking about where they were from (“Outside Toronto”), and we mentioned that we were leaving in a week to go visit family and friends both in and outside Toronto. It was at this point in a conversation with a Canadian that I would usually get to play my trump card, since my sister lives in a town even most Ontario natives haven’t heard of. But when we told them the name of the town (West Montrose), they got a little wide-eyed. And then they asked, “which house?”

It turned out that these strangers, from “Outside Toronto,” had almost bought that very house, and after they didn’t buy it their friends did. Their friends, in fact, were the couple who sold the house to my sister and brother-in-law (and since my sister’s family is moving to The Hague, it’s for sale again). In this city you never know who you might meet.

Judging by what I’ve seen on Twitter, and a stale rant that has been making the rounds again (which I won’t dignify by linking here), tourist season has fallen hard on some of you (the fact that it arrives at the same time as allergy season also doesn’t help, I’m sure). But I ask your patience as I make this heartfelt plea: please be nice to tourists.

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Adventures, All Politics is Local, Essential DC, Life in the Capital, News, The Daily Feed, The District
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Georgetown Waterfront Update

Photo courtesy of
‘Video: Scenes from around flooded Georgetown waterfront’
courtesy of ‘brownpau’

Despite yesterday’s fears, the 9pm high tide came and went without the Georgetown waterfront breach reaching K Street. As of 8:30am this morning, the Georgetown Waterfront is still completely shutdown with very, very limited access. The K Street side of the Waterfront is filled with emergency flood repair vehicles, workmen, Pepco vans, etc., all awaiting instructions from site surveyors. Local buildings continue to monitor their basements and lower level garages for flooding and seepage.

I managed to gain access to the 31st Street walkway that leads to the waterfront, and saw a heavily pumping Potomac river and the front side flooding. While the flood barricades along 31st street were all in tact, I could see where the waterfront walls leading into the fountain area had been breached. At that time the river was below fountain area level, and I could see some evidence of water being pumped out of the fountain pool back into the river.

All Politics is Local, Essential DC, History, Life in the Capital, News, The Daily Feed, The District
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Union Station Birds Target New York

I was in Union Station this morning, waiting for a train and zoning off, when I noticed a striking difference between the Acela’s DC, Philly, NYC and Boston overhead posters. While all the posters feature a stylized Acela train speeding through each city’s unique skyline and all hang from the rafters in very similar positions, the New York City poster was the only one covered in bird poop, especially towards the bottom of the poster.

Upon noticing this difference, I began looking for some simple explanation for this avian vandalism. Perhaps the NYC poster was simply, and unfortunately, hanging in an already popular bird hang out? No. No birds insight. Perhaps the NYC poster featured some sort of bird attracting color? Nope. Posters were all fairly similar in color scheme.

After surveying the poster scene, I could come to no other conclusion then that the Union station pigeons, sparrows and starling clearly dislike Amtrak’s NYC Acela poster, and NY by association, and they have decided to express their 2nd amendment rights by strategically bombarding it with their poop. Case solved.

Food and Drink, The Daily Feed, The District
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DC Is a (Self-Imported) Beer Town


‘Den mörke härskaren’
courtesy of ‘awtyeah’

We’ve covered this ground before: DC makes it pretty easy to import alcoholic beverages legally. Tom (with my help) looked at how the law applies to individuals, and now the City Paper’s Young & Hungry blog has covered the commercial side of things. The short version of the rules as they apply to business: pay a reasonable fee, register the purchase, pay the taxes, and you’re good to go. The question is, with rules that lax, why would anybody break them?

How did this come to be? I’ve long suspected that the rules were first engineered by congressmen who wanted to be able to support the distillers, brewers, and vintners in their jurisdictions (although they’re not known for having much trouble breaking their own rules). I think since then the incentives have become all too clear. DC is a small enough market that distributors don’t have enough economy of scale to operate profitably, and the perpetually short-staffed DC government would rather make it easy to comply and pay taxes, instead of having to fund enforcement. Their budget constraints are our gain. Prosit!

Adventures, Essential DC, Life in the Capital, Special Events, The Daily Feed, The District
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WeLove BabyLove DC

Photo courtesy of
‘Pink Knit Baby Booties’
courtesy of ‘[F]oxymoron’

Based on a successful charitable model, BabyLove DC provides clothing, products, gear and other necessities to pregnant mothers and their children in DC’s inner city. The group hosts monthly drives to collect new and gently used items, such as baby monitors, crib bedding, bottles, clothing, toys, diaper carriers, etc. All donations must have been purchased within the last 3 years, with certain items (diapers, breast pumps, bottles, cribs and feeding supplies) accepted as new only.

BabyLove’s next drive takes place this Saturday, April 9th from 9am-1pm at Hardy Middle School (34th Street and Wisconsin Avenue, NW) just across from the Social Safeway.

In addition to donations, BabyLove needs volunteers to help sort and repair clothing, and help coordinate and run their drives and charity events. If you’re interested in volunteering or donating, you can contact BabyLove DC at info@babylovedc.org

Education, Essential DC, Life in the Capital, News, The Daily Feed, The District
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Where Do Those Darn Potholes Come From?

Last week, Mayor Gray and DDOT kicked off Potholepalooza 2011, our city’s intensified efforts to fill those tire-busting, shock killing road hazards. In an effort to let our powers combine, DDOT is asking DC residents to tell them about neighborhood potholes that need fixing. You can target these car nightmares and curse inducing potholes by phoning in (311), going online, tweeting or emailing DDOT.

According to VDOT’s Pothole Hunter Phil Itwick, these little f*ckers are caused by water that gets into the pavement and expands and contracts with the changing temperatures. Mr. Itwick gives a fantastic, and entertaining, explanation on how potholes are fixed on both a temporary and permanent basis. Definitely worth the watch.

Adventures, Entertainment, Essential DC, Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, News, Special Events, The Daily Feed, The District
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Blossom Kite Festival Rescheduled to Sunday, April 10

Photo courtesy of
’44th annual Smithsonian Kite Festival’
courtesy of ‘cruffo’

Last weekend’s postponed kite festival has been rescheduled for Sunday, April 10th from 10am until 4pm. Check the event’s official website for updates on the day’s  activities. If you’re looking for a kite, Sullivan’s Toy Store and Art Supplies (3412 Wisconsin Avenue NW) store has plenty in stock.

Essential DC, Life in the Capital, The District, Weekend Flashback
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Weekend Flashback 3/25-03/27/11

Photo courtesy of
‘Cherry Blossoms in the Dark’
courtesy of ‘kimberlyfaye’

Despite chilly temperatures, spring has sprung in our lovely Capitol City. The trees, and not just the cherry trees, are abloom; DC denizens are fully emerging from their winter comas; runners, outdoor enthusiasts and sports teams seem to taken up every nook and cranny of green space or path. The photogs were also out in full force this weekend, and have captured the essence of spring in DC. Continue reading →