After an August hiatus, the Buzz is back– although we’re still recovering from last Thursday.
In case you missed it, on Thursday, August 19, Floyd Ray Roseberry told his wife he was going fishing and drove up from North Carolina, arriving in DC around 9:15 a.m., where he was spotted by young people on their way to class. He parked by the Neptune fountain outside the Library of Congress, presumably because he wasn’t sure which building was the United States Capitol. He also was unaware that the U.S. Congress takes August break seriously and no legislators would be around to be affected by his bomb threats. He then filmed himself on Facebook live and tossed dollar bills out the window of his black pick-up truck. After a delayed response, Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police answered the call and investigated Roseberry’s threats. Several hours later, Roseberry was under arrest and many of our neighbors had been evacuated– from the Library of Congress, several House office buildings and from their homes in a four-block radius.
Curiously, a car caught on fire the same afternoon and the event closed streets around 11th and G SE. Hope the tree can be saved:
Neighbors around Potomac Avenue Metro were dismayed to hear about this violent incident. Have you had someone threaten to hurt your dog while on a walk? Send us a message or email info@thehillishome.com
In other news, DCPS starts in six days, and while the Bowser administration refuses to consider a virtual option for younger children, Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen and Ward 6 SBOE representative Jessica Sutter took a tour of our local schools and found that things are not ready:
Some parents are circulating a petition to urge the Mayor to establish a virtual option for this school year. You can find the petition here.
Redistricting– the redrawing of local divisions every ten year as census population is tabulated– is a hot-button issue, especially for our ward. Due to the growth in Navy Yard, Southwest, NoMa, H Street and even parts of Shaw, Ward 6 gained more people than any other ward. The Washington Informer does a good job of breaking down some of the basics of redistricting. At-Large councilmembers Elissa Silverman, Anita Bonds and Christina Henderson will be leading the redistricting effort, which starts in January. If you want a local voice who looks at resident counts and maps in a way that’s easy to follow, make sure you follow ANC commissioner Corey Holman. Here is a sample of one of his tweet threads on the subject. This particular thread focuses on making sure Wards 7 and 8 have activity centers west of the river:
If you’ve been following the C Street NE project to improve the flow and make that part of Hill East calmer and more pedestrian-friendly, you may know that, for some odd reason, North Carolina Avenue was left out of the plans. Neighbors in the area have clashed with ANC and DDOT over proposed plans to incorporate bike infrastructure into Lincoln Park back in July– which desperately needs actual bike infrastructure and a stronger focus on making the area safer for people who are not cars. Capitol Hill Corner reported on the transportation meeting and you can find several iterations of how the street might look once DDOT picks a plan. Bottom line: Parking can turn even the nicest neighbors against one another, and that is no exaggeration. If you are a neighbor in the area or if you transit around North Carolina Avenue and Lincoln Park, make sure you read the DDOT plan and visit the Neighbors for NC Ave. site. But also, you should try riding your bike around the place a couple of times and see how that goes for you. (Spoiler alert: Not so well.)
Andrew Markert and the team at Beuchert’s Saloon are expanding into a beloved property: They’ll be taking over the former Montmartre space and expect to open Newland, so named after the Baltimore street of Markert’s childhood home, sometime in December. Eater
Washington City Paper interviewed Eastern Market artist Rayhart.
Yesterday, we reminisced about the 5.1 magnitude earthquake that rocked the DC region ten years ago. Thank you for sharing your stories on Twitter and Instagram– some of them were scary and some were absolutely chilling and/or hilarious. Click on the post below to go to Twitter and read (make sure you read both the comments and the quote tweets):