Van Ness is changing, and it seems to be happening all at once.
Chick-fil-A plans to move into the space at 4422 Connecticut Avenue now occupied by Burger King. Meanwhile, the DC Office of Planning (OP) has released its Van Ness Commercial Strategic Action Plan focusing on Connecticut Avenue from Albemarle to Van Ness Street. And in the middle of all this is Van Ness Main Streets, Inc., which seeks to encourage developers to keep the public’s needs and interests in mind.
Chick-fil-A’s plans, as they are now, seem at odds with the vision OP and Van Mess Main Streets have for the area. Chick-fil-A wants to continue its car-focused suburban model with a drive-thru. OP and Van Ness Main Streets want to develop Van Ness into a pedestrian-friendly, vibrant neighborhood hub.
Chick-fil-A’s arrival will be only one of many changes in the neighborhood. Saul Center’s mixed-use Park Van Ness and UDC’s new student union will open soon. Roadside Development, a developer known for its mixed residential and commercial projects, recently purchased the buildings housing Potbelly, Wells Fargo, and Parklane Cleaners. The Calvert Woodley building’s recent sale to Arnold Polinger’s Polinger Shannon Luchs Co. makes Polinger the owner of the entire block at 4301 Connecticut Avenue. Across the street, Fannie Mae has put its building up for sale. And the new owner of the former Intelsat headquarters is grappling with what to do with the building.
Through it all, Van Ness Main Streets, the evolution of ANC 3F’s Van Ness Vision Committee, has worked in concert with the Office of Planning to lay out a community-led vision for Van Ness.
OP’s action plan states: “The Van Ness Commercial District will be defined by attractive activated and landscaped streets with spaces for retail, interaction and gathering for residents, students and workers.” Likewise, Van Ness Main Streets has positioned itself to work with developers and property owners in evolving Van Ness into a cultural and commercial district that is a draw for its residents.
OP’s plan was developed over past year with the Van Ness Vision Committee, as well as other stakeholders. It gathered community feedback during four office hour sessions in the neighborhood and a community workshop. We were asked to weigh in on four elements – public space, retail, sustainability and commercial opportunities – with a focus on how to improve the pedestrian experience and make Van Ness a place where visitors want to shop, dine and linger.
OP’s plan uses landscaping to soften the Connecticut Avenue streetscape. It creates areas to sit and gather; more outdoor café areas, public art, and shielding from the street. This dovetails with the design that evolved from community brainstorming sessions hosted last year by the Van Ness Vision Committee. Guided by noted architect Travis Price, for a Van Ness hub at Windom Place. Using the community feedback, Price drew up a plan to make a community center out of the area and visually connect the UDC Performing Arts Theater and green spaces at UDC on the west side of Connecticut to the Windom parklet and Soapstone Valley Park on the east.
Although these plans are not legislated or official policy, Ryan Hand, the Ward 3 planner, said they will carry much influence when developers ask OP’s public space committee to sign off on their permit requests.
So will Chick-fil-A play ball with Van Ness Main Streets, and become a partner in moving OP’s plan forward?
On Friday, November 13th, members of Van Ness Main Streets met with John Martinez, development manager of Chick-fil-A. Mary Beth Ray, the president of the Van Ness Main Street’s board came away from the meeting with hope the community and Chick-fil-A can work something out.
“Chick-fil-A seems eager to work with the community and they have expressed a willingness to meet with us to discuss design alternatives,” she told us in an email. “We appreciate Chick-fil-A’s desire to make a large, long-term commitment to Van Ness, and hopefully they will share our vision for a beautiful, walkable, sustainable and safe neighborhood. With a new store in Columbia Heights, and even Manhattan, clearly Chick-fil-A has the flexibility and resources to adapt to an urban setting.”
Here’s hoping, then, that Chick-fil-A revisits its plans for a suburban-style drive-thru, recognizing that Van Ness is not the same place it was when Burger King arrived in the neighborhood. We are an evolving urban community, one that values the pedestrian experience and wants to make the neighborhood more than a place to simply… drive through.
Katie Benton-Cohen says
My comment here is not about the merits or demerits of Chick-Fil-A in particular, but I actually find it really annoying that we do not have a single drive-thru establishment in all of Van Ness or Tenleytown besides Burger King. I like to walk as much as the next person but I also have an infant in a carseat and a ten year old and it is very difficult to simply get a snack or a drink while running necessary errands by car; just to pick up a beverage requires parking the car, lugging the carseat unfolding the stroller, waiting in line and then undoing the whole procedure.. Even the McDonald’s on Wisconsin lacks a drive-thru. It is not the end of the world to have a drive thru where pedestrians carefully cross the street.
Matt B says
Waiting in line is not solved by having a drive-thru. You still have to wait in line…
Contrary to you, I’m delighted that we only have one drive-thru and wish that we had one fewer. But, then again, I find that there are no errands that necessarily require me to drive my car with my infant in it. Certainly not any that are so long and arduous that I require a snack or a beverage while doing them.
Dee Foscherari says
I fully object to Chick-Fil-A coming into the DC area including Van Ness because of it’s religious affiliations and it’s objection to providing birth control and abortion services to its female employees and associates. as part of the requirement of the ACA. Organizations such as this should NOT be encouraged to locate in an area that is progressive and does not require ‘a religious test’ in order to be contributing to the well being of our environment and or its people.
Jackie Dobranski says
Hi Dee,
This was my first thought when I read this – this is the first I’ve heard of Chick-Fil-A coming here. I personally would boycott this place and encourage others to do so as well. I’m so personally offended by them coming to my neighborhood it makes me feel sick. What’s next – Hobby Lobby? I’m embarrassed to think of living so close to one, based on ethical grounds. I hope if they come, they will find the business to be much less than expected, as this is indeed a progressive area and in no way a welcoming climate for a business such as this one. Not to mention we don’t need junk food replacing junk food. How about a quality family food establishment?
MS says
Do you have any PROOF that Chick-Fil-A is not in compliance with the ACA or are you just repeating stuff you saw on the Internet?
Green Eyeshades says
Here is some “stuff” I “found on the Internet,” which was published by the New York Times on July 26, 2012 on page A13 of the New York print edition under the headline “Chick-fil-A Thrust Back Into Spotlight On Gay Rights.”
See link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/us/gay-rights-uproar-over-chick-fil-a-widens.html
The following is the full text of that link above with internal links included in the article created by the New York Times to other publications added in brackets:
Chick-fil-A Thrust Back Into Spotlight on Gay Rights
By KIM SEVERSON
JULY 25, 2012
ATLANTA — A Southern-fried chicken sandwich on a soft white bun with a couple of pickle slices is fast becoming the culinary symbol of one of the country’s major social issues.
The Baptist family that owns Chick-fil-A, a fast-food chain based in Atlanta, has for years given millions of dollars to organizations fighting same-sex marriage [http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/same_sex_marriage/index.html] and supporting heterosexual ones.
Small protests against its position have swelled and receded over the past couple of years, but recently the battle has spilled into the halls of city governments and the presidential campaign. Even the Muppets are involved.
The latest uproar began this month when Dan T. Cathy, whose deeply religious father, S. Truett Cathy, started the company in 1967, told a Christian news organization that Chick-fil-A supported “the biblical definition of the family unit.” [http://www.brnow.org/News/July-2012/%E2%80%98Guilty-as-charged,%E2%80%99-Dan-Cathy-says-of-Chick-fil-A]
Mr. Cathy, the company’s president and chief operating officer, said later in a radio interview [http://www.kencolemanshow.com/], “As it relates to society in general, I think we are inviting God’s judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say, ‘We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage.’ “
The statements, which prompted groups like the National Organization for Marriage [http://www.nationformarriage.org/site/c.omL2KeN0LzH/b.7980587/k.BF50/Home.htm] to call Mr. Cathy a corporate hero, echo an ethos the company has never hidden.
In early 2011, a Chick-fil-A restaurant in Pennsylvania donated food to a marriage seminar [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/us/30chick.html?_r=2&scp=9&sq=gay%20marriage&st=cse] conducted by one of that state’s most outspoken groups against homosexuality. Advocates on both sides weighed in, and students at some universities began trying to get the chain removed from campuses.
Equality Matters [http://equalitymatters.org/] , an online investigative organization dedicated to gay and lesbian issues, last year obtained tax records that showed that the company’s operators, its WinShape Foundation [http://winshape.com/] and the Cathy family had given millions of dollars to groups whose work includes defeating same-sex marriage initiatives and providing therapy intended to change people’s sexual orientation.
So Mr. Cathy’s statements might have passed without much notice except that Carly McGehee, a New Yorker, decided to stage a same-sex kiss-in on Aug. 3, urging gays and lesbians to show up at the company’s 1,600 restaurants around the country in protest.
That moved Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, to declare Aug. 1 as Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day. His call to action, which he posted on Facebook last week, garnered such a response that it tripped the site’s spam filters, and the page was taken down briefly on Tuesday.
Rick Santorum, the former Republican presidential candidate, has now jumped in. On Wednesday, he rallied his 200,000 Twitter followers [https://twitter.com/RickSantorum] : “With two of my boys, Enjoying chick-in-strips and an awesome peach shake at Chick-fil-A. See you here next Wednesday!”
This week, Alderman Proco Moreno of Chicago said he would not move forward on land-use legislation that the company needs to open a second restaurant in that city, and on Friday, Mayor Thomas M. Menino [http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/thomas_m_menino/index.html?inline=nyt-per] of Boston sent a letter telling Mr. Cathy that his company was not welcome there.
The Jim Henson Company, which created toys for the chain, will not offer any more Muppets. On Friday, it said Lisa Henson, the chief executive officer, supported same-sex marriage and would donate money that the company had received from Chick-fil-A to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation [http://www.glaad.org/] .
About the same time, Chick-fil-A posted signs announcing a “voluntary recall” of all Jim Henson’s Creature Shop Puppet Kids Meal toys, citing reports that some children’s fingers had gotten stuck in the holes of the puppets. Last week, Mr. Cathy said in a statement that his company would “leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena.”
People aligned with the Cathy family’s position have said they have visited the chain more frequently since its involvement in the issue became more widely known last year. Others, like Jeff Graham, the executive director of the gay rights group Georgia Equality [http://www.georgiaequality.org/] , say they are not sure this protest will be any more successful than previous efforts, which fizzled.
Mr. Graham said he was more interested in encouraging the company to write a corporate anti-discrimination policy that includes gays and lesbians.
And he does not know, he said, if he will show up for the kiss-in. If he does, he certainly will not order a sandwich.
“Frankly, I’m a vegetarian [http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/v/vegetarianism/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier] , and it’s been 20 years since I ate there,” he said.
A version of this article appears in print on July 26, 2012, on page A13 of the New York edition with the headline: Chick-fil-A Thrust Back Into Spotlight On Gay Rights.
MS says
You obviously didn’t read my question. I asked if the poster had proof that Chick-Fil-A was NOT in compliance with the ACA. Nothing you posted is related to that question. I did not ask about gay rights. In any event, AFAIK, Chick-Fil-A has never been accused of flaunting the requirements of the ACA nor has it been accused of discrimination against gay employees, customers, or suppliers. Nothing in the articles you posted indicate otherwise. The president of the company is as entitled to his beliefs as you are to yours.
BTW, just so you understand the law, the District cannot under the First Amendment deny any construction or occupancy permits (or any other kind of permit or license) to Chick-Fil-A based on the conservative political or religious beliefs of its president, just as it cannot deny a permit because the owner of a business is a Muslim, a Black, a Korean (a point which Marion Barry seemed not to understand) or an atheist. Don’t even bother trying to make that argument.
Matt B says
Of course the President of the company is entitled to his beliefs. Similarly, the beliefs being expressed here seem-in general- to be that ChickFilA is not welcome in our ‘nabe.
Michael Chorost says
I completely agree with Dee and Jackie. A company that spouts regressive social values has no place in northwest DC. I would not only boycott it, I would consider picketing it to make the neighborhood aware of its troglodyte origins. There is no need to support that kind of thinking in this neighborhood.
MS says
Do you vote the religious and political beliefs of the owners of all businesses that you frequent? I mean, it sounds like you would be horrified to find out that a business owner might disagree with any of your own beliefs.
Matt B says
We all have limited amounts of money to spend. Where you spend your dollars matters…
Green Eyeshades says
One Chick-fil-A franchise was sued for employment discrimination by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) at the following location on the following approximate date based on the following alleged unlawful conduct:
Concord, North Carolina, July 2013, pregnancy discrimination: http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/6-2-13a.cfm
Roughly one year later, that North Carolina franchise settled, paid $10,000, and submitted to extensive injunctive relief: “In addition to providing monetary relief to Morrison, the company entered into a two-year consent decree requiring it to develop and implement a policy that prohibits pregnancy-based discrimination. The decree further requires the company to conduct preventive annual training on pregnancy discrimination for employees, supervisors and managers. Finally, the company will report to the EEOC all job openings it has over the next two years, as well as its hiring decisions on any pregnant applicants.” http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/6-5-14.cfm
To put that one case against Chick-fil-A in context, there is an epidemic of pregnancy discrimination in the United States, judging from the litigation docket of the EEOC: http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/pregnancy_fact_sheet_litigation.cfm
I was surprised from other “stuff” I “found on the Internet” that the EEOC had not expressly ruled that workplace discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) persons based on their sexual orientation was illegal until July of this year! http://time.com/3962469/lgbt-discrimination-eeoc/ The PDF file of the official EEOC decision, dated July 15, 2015, published by the Washington Blade, is at this link (PDF Warning, 867 KB): http://www.washingtonblade.com/content/files/2015/07/EEOC-gay-Title-VII-decision.pdf
Whatever Chick-fil-A thinks it may have been allowed to get away with in the past, it will run into a relentless buzz-saw of opposition and protest if it tries to open a franchise on Connecticut Avenue in Ward Three.
MS says
Both Giant Food and Safeway have been the subject of multiple sexual and gay discrimination lawsuits, as have Harris-Teeter, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s. Do you patronize any of them?
Green Eyeshades says
Giant Foods is owned by a gigantic multinational conglomerate headquartered in the Netherlands (Ahold) and is unionized in the United States. Safeway is now part of a similar large conglomerate controlled by Cerberus Capital Management, according to the Seattle Times ( http://www.seattletimes.com/business/safeway-albertsons-announce-merger/ ). Safeway is also unionized. Workers at Safeway and Giant have much better protections against workplace exploitation and discrimination than workers at Chick-Fil-A.
Harris Teeter is also part of a conglomerate; The Kroger Co. bought Harris Teeter. Even though Kroger’s is unionized, Harris Teeter claimed it would continue to fight workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively, according to an NBC news affiliate in North Carolina ( http://www.wcnc.com/story/money/business/2014/07/02/11015612/ ). I do not buy anything from Harris Teeter.
Whole Foods is a notorious union-buster and that is a major source of irritation for me, because I do buy food from Whole Foods. But Whole Foods was not founded, and is not currently owned or controlled, by a person or a family that is blatantly homophobic and uses their personal religion as an excuse for violating federal law. Chick-Fil-A was founded by and is currently controlled by a person and a family that is blatantly homophobic and uses their personal religion as an excuse for violating federal law.
Whole Foods has its own problems with mistreatment of workers that goes far beyond mere homophobia ( http://gawker.com/5825451/the-whole-foods-experience-part-two-the-writer-speaks ) so in some ways Whole Foods might be an even bigger insult to DC residents than Chick-Fil-A. But Chick-Fil-A sells breaded, processed, deep-fried meat, PLUS it is obnoxious and offensive about its religious beliefs. And Chick-Fil-A is asking for our ANC’s and our DC govt’s acceptance of their design which includes a stupid drive-through.
Chick-Fil-A loses in any comparison to our biggest local grocery chains (Safeway & Giant) and is at least tied with Whole Foods for obnoxious mistreatment of its workers. Chick-Fil-A is a loser company and they should stay out of our neighborhood.
Freda3000 says
I can’t wait for Chick -fil-A to open! Best fast food experience I ever had was at one in NoVA. They are entitled to their religious beliefs as I am to mine. Contrary to popular myth, not everyone along Connecticut Ave is a wealthy lawyer or government retiree who can afford high end outings.
Isabelle Daverne says
Chick Fil A is not consistent with the vision we have for the community. The drive through is a problem for several reasons: physical danger for the pedestrians. Sidewalks should be for pedestrians only- no cars. (the car wash does not fit either in our plans). Exhausts from the cars contribute to the pollution. The drive through does not correspond to the ambiance we would like to create. Imagine the lunch or dining experience on a sidewalk terrace next to those cars. It is bad for the business of the existing restaurants/ cafes and will deter new ones from joining us. Moreover, we need a place that is open on Sundays when we are off from work.
There are many options for a reasonably priced restaurant/ cafe:Mediterranean like Cava, Moby Dick, Mexican like Guapo’s, La Cantina, Faux French like La Madeleine, Chez Paul, Au Pain Quotidien, Au Bon Pain, Panera etc We need a place where our diverse neighbourhood can mix: students, young adults, seniors and in betweens.
MS says
Would you have an objection to a restaurant run by Orthodox Jews which closed on Jewish holidays and Saturdays?
As for diversity, go to any existing Chick-Fil-A franchise in this area, including the one at Westfield Montgomery Mall, and you’ll see how popular the food is with everyone, regardless of age, color, or racial and ethnic background.
Green Eyeshades says
You unwittingly exposed the revolting truth — Chick-Fil-A is food-court food that belongs in a mall. We don’t want mall food-court food on our neighborhood streets.
Your crack about Orthodox Jews is just ridiculous. You must be getting paid for posting your non-sequitur red-herring questions. We are going to keep Chick-Fil-A out of this neighborhood, get used to it.
MS says
Looks to me like Washingtonians really, really love Chick-Fil-A:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dc-sports-bog/wp/2015/12/09/dwight-howard-hands-out-free-chikin-to-the-verizon-center-faithful/
Green Eyeshades says
So, because Chick-Fil-A is able to buy free media coverage from the Washington Post by giving away its garbage mall food at a Wizards game, we are obligated to let Chick-Fil-A run a massive drive-through operation on our neighborhood streets? Or is it because Chick-Fil-A has lots of people mentioning its name on Twitter, as the Post article reported?
Our neighborhood can organize a much better and more sustained Twitter attack than anything Chick-Fil-A can compete with. Is that how you want to resolve this — with a flame war on Twitter?
Mark says
This is an utter disaster. The traffic patterns, combined with the car wash, will simply be miserable. It needs to be opposed vigorously. I love chic-fil-a but it’s really wrong for this position.