Main Street updates: Small business grants, playground cleanups, Connecticut Avenue plantings and pop-up market preps

Thai Pad and Rosemary Bistro Cafe recently installed new flooring.

Thai Pad before and after. (photos by Van Ness Main Street’s Andrew Shapiro)

Muchas Gracias got a new door.

And they had help paying for these improvements.

In February, Van Ness Main Street gave $20,000 in grants to these and five other businesses. This was in addition to other supports that the organization provides year-round to businesses within its boundaries.

Tikka (owner Rajendra Ghimire and VNMS executive director Gloria Garcia) and Ernesto’s are also recent VNMS grant recipients.

VNMS and other Main Streets provide the assistance with money from donors and from the DC Department of Small and Local Business Development.

VNMS also supports community improvements, and invites the community to get involved.

Good Clean Fun, a program of Van Ness Main Street, led a cleanup at Forest Hills Park on March 8th. Within a few hours, the park, playground, and the 3100 block of Brandywine Street were looking shipshape.

ANC 3F chair Courtney Carlson was one of the volunteers who pitched in on Brandywine.

Additional Forest Hills Park cleanups are scheduled for 9:30 a.m. on May 10th, July 12th, and September 13th. Volunteers can sign up here, and students in need of community service hours are welcome.

You may have seen the daffodils and other perennials beginning to emerge from Connecticut Avenue treeboxes. This, too, is a VNMS program. Many of the bulbs were planted by volunteers last fall, under the guidance of Master Gardener Kathy Sykes. Her spring planting program focuses on native wildflowers that provide sustenance and habit for insects, birds and other pollinators. And it begins soon. The first community planting of the season is March 29th, from 2 to 4 p.m., in front of Franklin Montessori (4473 Connecticut Avenue). Email to Kathy ([email protected]) to reserve a spot and for details of other upcoming plantings on Saturdays through early May. Donations are also welcome.

Also in early May: Van Ness Main Street’s first Second Saturday pop-up market of 2025. VNMS put out a call for vendors earlier this month for the market on May 10th. Local makers will be setting up shop inside and outside the VNMS office at 4340 Connecticut. Stay tuned for hours and vendor details.

Forest Hills Connection is an editorially independent program of Van Ness Main Street.