We periodically share updates from your ANC commissioners, edited for brevity and clarity. Although these are most pertinent to particular single member districts (SMDs), we feel the information shared can be of interest to the whole Capitol Hill community. Are you an ANC commissioner who shares regular updates? Add thehillishome@gmail.com to your distribution list, please! –María Helena Carey
From Kirsten Oldenburg, ANC 6B04
SNOW THREAT ADJUSTS 6B JANUARY AGENDA
The threat of snow on 1/7/20 caused our Planning & Zoning Committee meeting to be cancelled. The Commission has referred some of the 1/7 agenda items to the Tuesday 1/14 Monthly Meeting. Others have been delayed until February.
Here’s what’s newly on the 1/14 agenda: Historic Preservation cases for 716 L Street SE and 530 11th Street SE. The former was voted on in December but the HPRB rejected aspects of the 4-story addition and sent the designers back to the drawing board. So, revised plans will be reviewed in January. The 3-story rear addition to 530 11th SE has also been reviewed previously. This time the plans do not trigger a zoning case so they will be judged purely on their HP merits.
Other changes; other reasons. The ANC not will take up the Public Space application for Parcel 1 of the Eastern Market Metro Park Project nor the 6B submissions to the Comprehensive Plan until February. Both items will be reviewed/discussed at the 2/4 Planning & Zoning agenda with ANC6B votes at its 2/11 meeting.
ANC6B Agendas and the 2020 Meeting Schedule are here.
29 TREES ADDED TO VIRGINIA AVENUE PARK
A week before Christmas, Casey Trees and a large group of its hardy volunteers spent a rainy morning planting 29 shade trees. Some photos of the event are here. This was finally a sign of renewal for this Park at 9th and Potomac Avenue SE. Ever since the CSX tunnel that disrupted the Park was completed, it has been a slog to get the Park put back together.
Now, the chain link fence that has separated the CSX tunnel portion of the Park from the rest of it has been removed. And, according to the Department of Parks and Recreation, some of the renovations of southern portion of the Park will go forward in early Spring 2020, and the kids playground funded by the National Community Church will be installed. Hopefully, by summer 2020 we will have a fully functional Park. It won’t be until 2023 or so when the bike/pedestrian path along the northern edge will be done and we can plant trees to create a buffer between the Park and the freeway.
BEWARE OF VEHICLES TURNING LEFT ONTO PA AVE
On January 9, there were two eerily similar accidents on Pennsylvania Avenue SE. Here are details from Captain Michael Pulliam:
“Today we had two accidents involving vehicles and pedestrians along the Pennsylvania Ave corridor, under quite similar circumstances. I have some preliminary information that I can share with you, but it is still preliminary at this time and may be subject to change.
“At approximately 0830 hours a vehicle was travelling south on 10th St SE when it attempted to make a left hand turn onto eastbound Pennsylvania Ave SE. In the process, the vehicle struck a pedestrian who was walking north in the crosswalk crossing over Pennsylvania Ave SE. The pedestrian sustained non-life threatening injuries and was taken to a local hospital. The case is under investigation by members of the First District under CCN# 20004912.
“At approximately 1100 hours it appears a vehicle was travelling south on 13th St SE when it attempted to make a left hand turn onto eastbound Pennsylvania Ave SE. In the process, the vehicle struck a pedestrian who was walking north in the crosswalk crossing over Pennsylvania Ave SE.
“The pedestrain sustained serious injuries and was transported to a local hospital and admitted. This case is under investigation by members of the Major Crash Unit under CCN# 20004993. Any further information releases about this case will likely have to come from that unit.”
CRIME NUMBERS: DECEMBER & 2019
Monthly, the numbers go down and then up. While November was a “down” month, most numbers rose in December. But over time averages wash out the gyrations as shown in a comparison of the 2018 and 2019 crime report totals for the areas I cover. The monthly average for the ANC6B area, for instance, in 2018 was 112 reports and in 2019, 111. Numbers of course do not tell the whole story. More important is the “quality” or impact of the crimes that occur in our neighborhoods.
In December 2019, most of the increases in numbers of reports pertain to thefts and thefts from auto; both crimes related to the holidays (package deliveries and shoplifting, for instance). But, in December, there were no homicides within PSAs 106, 107, 108 among the 11 that occurred District-wide. As the 2019 CH VCs data and graph shows, violent crimes within ANC6B averaged 10.8 per month with two outlier months of July and October with 18 and 20 such reports, respectively.
Below is a brief summary by area. All the details are on my December excel file posted here. This month it includes a recap of total 2019 numbers by crime type for PSAs 106 and 107. The chart shows unfortunate increases comparing 2019 to 2018 in violent crimes in PSA 106 and a more mixed result in PSA 107.
PSA 106—Reports totaled 113 in December vs 74 in November; an increase of 41. The change was driven primarily by increases in property crimes: burglaries (6 vs 0), thefts (49 vs 40), and thefts from autos (48 vs 22). Violent crime reports, though, dropped (4 vs 7). PSA 106 is led by Capt. Michael Pulliam and the next date for the bimonthly meeting would be January 28 (4th Tuesday).
PSA 107—After several months of declines, the total number of reported crimes rose in December to 61 compared with 41 in November. December’s increase occurred primarily as a result of thefts, thefts from autos, and stolen autos. Violent crimes were about the same in December (5) as in November (4). Among the 4 robberies in December, one involved a gun. Lt. Damion Taylor is in charge of PSA 107 (and 108).
PSA 108—Total reports rose from 33 in November to 40 in December. The number of violent crimes remained the same each month with none of the 2 robberies involving a gun. Thus, the overall increase in December mainly occurred because of upticks in thefts and thefts from auto.
(Note: If you are unclear on which Police Service Area serves you, click on this map here. –MHC)
ANC6B—There were 38 more crime reports in December (129) vs November (91). Violent crimes remained at 7 incidents. Once again, the increase over November is attributed to thefts (72 vs 52) and thefts from auto (41 vs 25). Among the 7 robberies in December, 2 involved guns.
Access to Daily Reports and Arrests
MPD has set up new groups for all of its Districts via Google. So, for MPD’s First District, daily crime information is at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/official-mpd-1d You need to join the Google Group to post but can read what’s posted without joining. Info on this change and links to other MPD District groups are at https://mpdc.dc.gov/node/211702
ARIOSO CHORALE CONCERT: January 16 and 18, 8pm
“Verdi: Messa Da Requiem”
Lutheran Church of the Reformation, 212 East Capitol St NE
Both concerts are free. Details are here and here.