Top 5 Things to Do on Columbia Heights Day

You know the details: Saturday, 10 to 6 pm, Tubman Field. Now here are some things to do.

1. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. The food rules at this year's festival. Not only are many Columbia Heights restaurants and bars offering all day specials, but some of your favorite food trucks will be parked on Kenyon Street.

2. Strike up the band. After grabbing some food, stop by the Main Stage for live music all day.

3. Cheer for the future Queen (at 11:45 am) or King (at 1:00 pm) of Columbia Heights Day. The competition will take place on the Second Stage at the festival and I am happily serving as one of the judges.

4. Cute overload. Bring your pup to the Dog Show (at 10:30 am) or be a kid again by stopping by the petting zoo but watch out of for the sheep.

5. Show your neighborhood pride with a Columbia Heights t-shirt. Two different styles will be on sale for $10 - $12.

Countdown to Columbia Heights Day

Next Saturday, August 28 is the 4th Annual Columbia Heights Day festival. Want to what's happening at Tubman Field and around the neighborhood, check out the schedule and map below. (Ed note: I am part of the Columbia Heights Day planning team)

4TH ANNUAL COLUMBIA HEIGHTS DAY

SATURDAY, AUGUST 28

10 am - 6 pm

Tubman Field - 11th & Kenyon St. NW

www.columbiaheightsday.org

SCHEDULE:

10:00 am Columbia Heights bike tour and scavenger hunt--starts at Tubman Field

10:00 am Morning yoga from Quiet Mind Yoga--Tubman Field

10:30 am Dog Show--Tubman Field

11:00 am Electric 11s (rock)--Main Stage

11:45 am Queen of Columbia Heights competition--Second Stage

12:15 pm Czars of Leisure (rock)--Main Stage

1:00 pm King of Columbia Heights competition--Second Stage

1:30 pm The Chariots (reggae)--Main Stage

2:15 pm Batala (percussion group)--Second Stage

2:45 pm La Unica Irish Band--Main Stage

3:30 pm Sticky Fingers Cupcake Eating Contest--Second Stage

4:15 pm Armchairs (rock)--Main Stage

5:15 pm Belladonna (belly dancing) --Second Stage

5:45 pm Flex Matthews (hip hop)--Main Stage

View Columbia Heights Day 2010 in a larger map

Room 11 turns the big "1" today

Sometimes it's difficult to remember way back when there was no friendly, neighborhood wine bar at 11th and Lamont streets. All of 13 months ago. Tonight Room 11 is celebrating its 1-year anniversary with some special treats:

- Complimentary sparkling wine with a purchase. 

- Drink specials on wine and cocktails.

- There will be punch.

As it has been written here numerous times, I am a big fan of Room 11. Every visit I know I can get something good to drink, a nice bite to eat, and a wonderful dessert. Now if they could just get some citronella candles on the patio...

CH Neighborhood Tees

Columbia Heights Day is now less than three weeks away: Saturday, August 28 (mark your calendars!).  And while there'll be bands and food and a petting zoo, there will also be opportunities to increase your Columbia Heights t-shirt collection.

The list so far includes:

1. Columbia Heights Day - official 2010 festival shirts, plus DC flag shirts ($10 to $12)

2. North Columbia Heights Civic Association - see image

3. Chocolate City Beer

What other local shirts have you seen around? I know Pleasant Pops and the Columbia Heights Community Marketplace sell them. My personal favorite is my Wonderland's 5th Anniversary Sundress Party tee.

DC National Night Out is tonight

You may have seen the signs around DCUSA, but tonight is National Night Out. Target is sponsoring a Community Block Party at the Columbia Heights Education Center Soccer Field (on Hiatt Pl by the DCUSA parking lot entrance). From 5-8 pm there will be There will be food and refreshments. Also presentations will be made by the Washington Area Bicyclists Association on securing your bicycle and by the Home Depot on securing your home.

For more info, visit MPD's listing of all DC events.

Transportation Briefs

Just a quick look at some transportation news affecting the neighborhood.

1. BeyondDC shares a great photo from DCDDOT of the finished (?) streetscape project. I still see orange cones and concrete barriers in my sleep, though.

2. The Coalition for Smarter Growth will lead a Columbia Heights walking tour on August 7. It features reps from the architects who were commissioned for the public realm improvements in the neighborhood.

3. The expanded Capital Bikeshare program will indeed have a few Columbia Heights locations: 14th & Irving, 11th & Lamont, 16th & Harvard, and 14th & Spring, among them.

View Capital Bikeshare in a larger map

A look inside 826DC's new HQ

826DC will soon be moving into the old Scores test prep space in the Park Triangle. The creative writing nonprofit's DC office will be housed at "the Museum of Unnatural History, a monument to the long-forgotten 'Unnaturalist Society'—a group of bizarre, outcast scientists who believed that “the path to truth often leads through the absurd.'"

Here's a look at their new space.

Gin Happy Hour tonight at Room 11

There is a happy hour tonight at Room from 6-7:30 pm with free
Hendrick's gin samples and drink specials.

The 11th Street spot is also debuting tonight its Sexy St Germain
Summer Strawberry Sangria. (That's a lot of S's!)

DDOT to party when the streetscape project ends

I'll miss getting this e-mails every day, but at least there will be a party.

From: "Kovaleski, Kevin (DDOT)"

Date: July 12, 2010 4:37:08 PM EDT

Subject: Columbia Heights Update

Dear Columbia Heights,

Today, crews began the final paving of the Columbia Heights Streetscape project. Crews are scheduled to return on-site tomorrow to finish the paving, weather permitting. As described in my updates last week, along with completing the final street paving, crews are scheduled to install a new sidewalk along the west side of 14th Street from Park Road to Newton Street this week. Additionally, some smaller punch-list items will be underway.

This will be my last official project update that will go out to the community. However, feel free to contact me directly if you have any remaining questions or concerns that might come up in the next weeks and I'll be more than happy to address them. I will send you all an email with details of an event that DDOT will schedule to celebrate the end of construction.

Thanks again for your patience and flexibility throughout the project.

Best,


Kevin

Kevin Kovaleski


Capital City Fellow

District Department of Transportation

Columbia Heights Media Project Starts Tonight

BloomBars, the community arts space on 11th Street, is kicking off a new program tonight with the Columbia Heights Media Project. You can learn about the project tonight at BloomBars from 6 - 8 pm.

Writes the organizer, Julie Espinosa:

The Columbia Heights Media Project is the vision for a participatory documentary and interactive media project with the potential to help us move past helplessness to a place of love—a place of awareness, care and understanding. Audio/visual media and the camera can be powerful tools. I invite you to join me in using those tools to document the stories of our neighborhood and transform the ways that we interact with one another.

For more information, visit http://columbiaheightsmediaproject.org/.

The website currently has a nice selection of neighborhood videos and vignettes that you may have seen elsewhere but now it's all in one place. It's a cool concept.

Target to get fruits and veggies

Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham had a surprise on the Columbia Heights listserv today -- the DCUSA Target is getting a produce section. He writes:

We have also been informed that Target will open some 100 positions in the near future. Target is opening a full grocery store in July and extra staff is required.

It's actually opening in the fall reports the Washington City Paper:

… Target is planning to expand its current dry goods section to include more grocery-type items, including produce–a critical factor making it a viable alternative to Giant's weekend lines. The remodeling will start any day now and finish sometime in October, taking out some abutting retail sections.

So with the expanding groceries selection at Target, the CH Farmers' Market, and the eventual opening of Ellwood Thompson's, maybe now we can stop complaining about Giant?

Meridian Pint Opens Thursday!

Long awaited and table tap enabled Meridian Pint is set to open
Thursday.

It's looking great and has an awesome vegetarian and vegan friendly
menu.

Movie Nights in the Heights Premiers Tonight

So it's really hot out. But you know what? You chose to live in DC. So
get over it and get on over to Movie Nights in the Heights!

The Columbia Heights Day Initiative will be showing Men in Black at
8:30PM at Tubman Field on 11th and Kenyon. Starting at 8PM there will
be DJ entertainment.

You know what else? Men in Black was good. The sequel was not, but
that's why they aren't showing the sequel. So THL suggest you check it
out.

Columbia Heights Day June Events

The Columbia Heights Day Initiative has a lot more going on this summer than the awesome festival with the camel and cupcakes.

Coming up this month...

Thursday, June 17 - Fundraiser at the Wonderland. Drink specials with the purchase of an awesome Columbia Heights Day cup.
Thursday, June 24 - Movie Nights in the Heights premiers at Tubman field with a Men in Black showing.