Forest Hills Connection || News and Life in Our DC Neighborhood
Covering Forest Hills, Van Ness, North Cleveland Park and Wakefield
by Marlene Berlin A few blocks to the west of the popular – and often crowded -Smithsonian museums, there’s a little-known gem of an art museum at Constitution Avenue and 18th Street. It is across the street from the headquarters of the Organization of American States. And it is an extension of the OAS’s work […]
Uptown Market faced a friendly crowd at the June 18th ANC 3F meeting as it made its case for the licenses it will need to sell and serve alcohol. Its settlement agreement with ANC 3F is on the consent agenda for the July 23rd meeting. The other major agenda item follows up on the June […]
by Marlene Berlin We’ve been warned in the past that the Soapstone Valley Trail is endangered due to steady erosion of the stream banks. The erosion accelerates whenever we have a major storm event, and the storms have not decreased in frequency or impact since that warning in 2014. Take last Tuesday’s powerful deluge, so […]
by Marlene Berlin At the June 26th public meeting on a project that would address the century-old sewer system running through the Soapstone Valley, no one challenged the need for relining the pipes and repairing manholes. DC Water’s presentation made it clear that the pipes and manhole covers, now more than 110 years old, have […]
by Marlene Berlin Two DC Council committees will hold a joint hearing this Thursday on a bill that would require housing providers to also provide on-site services to residents receiving housing assistance. The “On-Site Services Act of 2019” (B23-0180) would also provide for funding. Affected buildings would have at least 20 apartments, and at least […]
by Katherine Saltzman and Forest Hills Connection Closed – but not forever Within days of the fire that gutted St. Arnold’s and The Abbey (3433 Connecticut Avenue) in late June, its owners said they had already started the process of rebuilding. And they are approaching the ordeal with grace and humor. (“The kitchen is ‘toast,’” […]
by Forest Hills Connection Alice Rivlin, 1931-2019: The headline of her Washington Post obituary refers to her as a “budget maestro.” And indeed, Alice Rivlin was the first director of the Congressional Budget Office. She had been the vice chair of the Federal Reserve and President Clinton’s budget director. She headed the DC Financial Control […]
Who was Fred Rhodes? A federal worker whose long and varied resumé included the Manhattan Project and the Nixon administration, and later in life, a Baptist minister. But a century ago, he was just a kid in Forest Hills, and the Soapstone Valley was his playground. Thanks to the Historical Society of Washington and Ann Kessler, […]
by Marlene Berlin If you’ve come across volunteers working on the Soapstone Valley Trail in the past year, you’ve run into JoAnn Shaner’s crew. Shaner has been the Soapstone Trail supervisor for the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club since mid-2018. (PATC maintains many of our trails and is currently rebuilding a footbridge on the Melvin Hazen […]
Van Ness will be welcoming Eaton Elementary kids this fall while their school at 34th and Lowell Streets NW undergoes a two-year renovation and modernization. They will move into the trailers on the UDC campus that had been Murch Elementary’s swing space from 2016 to 2018. But first, the trailer complex at Van Ness Street […]
