Sabrina and Idris Elba. Do you recognize the staircase? (screenshot of an Ebony video about the photo shoot at Hillwood)
Idris Elba was here. We repeat: IDRIS ELBA WAS HERE. The actor wasn’t in the neighborhood to perform on a TV show (though Elvis Presley once was). Or to support a spouse on trial for contempt of Congress (though Marilyn Monroe once was). He and wife Sabrina Dhowre Elba were in DC in December for the U.S. Africa Leaders Summit downtown. And while they were here, they did a photo shoot for Ebony magazine at the Hillwood Museum (4155 Linnean Avenue).
We were honored and excited to welcome @EBONY, @idriselba, and @Sabrinadhowre last month for the January 2023 cover shoot. Take a look! https://t.co/w4CBJ7SFQq
— Hillwood Museum DC (@HillwoodMuseum) January 11, 2023
(Read about Elvis and Marilyn’s time in Forest Hills.)
Ebony shot a behind-the-scenes video of the cover shoot. And you can read more about the Elbas’ familial, cultural and business ties to Africa, as well as their advocacy work on the continent.
If you’d like to walk in their DC footsteps and visit Hillwood, just keep in mind that the museum is closed for its annual deep cleaning through February 3rd.
One down, 20+ to go. One of the creditors left hanging by the closure of Whittle School and Studios (4000 Connecticut Avenue) in DC was its landlord, 601W Cos. Whittle had stopped paying its rent two months prior to the July 2022 shutdown. Last October, 601W got a court to order Whittle School to pay $35 million dollars in overdue rent and taxes. But the company was less successful in its suit against CBRE, the commercial real estate firm that brokered the school’s lease. Lawyers for 601W argued that CBRE would have been aware of Whittle’s financial difficulties while brokering the deal, as it accused CBRE of representing both parties in the transaction. On January 19th, a judge disagreed with the dual representation accusation and dismissed the case. (Washington Business Journal, Bisnow)
That doesn’t mean an end to the Whittle-related litigation. WBJ reports that nearly two dozen lawsuits are pending in Greater Washington and elsewhere.
The Post backs Connecticut Avenue bike lanes. “For sheer terror… hop on your bike and ride up Connecticut Avenue NW,” wrote The Washington Post editorial board in a piece published online on December 30th. It makes a case for more bike lanes, more quickly. And not just on Connecticut.
Social media mentions
Throwback to when @ANC3F's southernmost boundary was the zoo. https://t.co/pi9HNwaSKO
— Forest Hills Connection (@foresthillsnews) January 4, 2023
Some quick mock-ups of ways to preserve their iconic decor without leaving the neighborhood (I’m only half joking) pic.twitter.com/UCpb7nSmd1
— Alex Marshall (@a_r_marshall) January 1, 2023
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Barbara Kraft says
Re Whittle School litigation, how about a multi-public purpose development on the Intelsat campus that includes programs of the UDC College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability & Environmental Science programs that UDC, DCPS students and residents could participate in? The campus could also include housing for UDC faculty, DCPS and private school teachers, and UDC students, and affordable units for middle-income earners in law enforcement and other DC agencies. DC and the feds could jointly owns the property and hire an experienced management team to run it, sort of like firms that run the AU, GW and Georgetown campuses.
Edward Levin says
The City shoud acquire the site for all kinds of uses like Walter Reed site. Affordable and market housing, UDC, a startup business / research incubator facility, public recreation etc. Its a huge site and much better suited for affordable housing than Chevy Chase with access to two Metro stations and the larger scale of surrounding building. This is the time when the current owners are likely motivated to be rid of it. But the Council probably won’t want to invest in Ward Three for reasons we all know.
Green Eyeshades says
This is my favorite paragraph in WaPo’s editorial endorsement of bike lanes:
“Apocalyptic warnings about the impacts of bike-lane construction are common to roadway-rehab debates across the country and the Washington region. Residents of the city of Alexandria three years ago raised heated traffic-congestion objections to a plan to modify Seminary Road. The city plowed ahead with the project, which converted a four-lane roadway into a three-lane configuration with a center turn lane, bike lanes and other improvements. A recent evaluation of the project found that crashes have plummeted; ‘extreme speeding’ has been reduced; traffic volumes have trended downward, except for eastbound during morning peak times; diversion to nearby streets doesn’t appear to have occurred, and though pedestrian volumes dropped by 22 percent, bike ridership jumped 75 percent during peak.”
“[C]rashes have plummeted.” “[B]ike ridership jumped 75 percent during peak.”