Summary of ANC6D Meeting of July 12 for residents of ANC6D 01
SW Parents and Neighbors for Educational Excellence, a new group, is forming to support our two local schools, Amidon Bowen Elementary and Jefferson Middle. The organizing community meeting will be on Monday, July 26, 6:00 pm to 8:30pm at the SW Libary, 600 Wesley PL SW. All interested community members are invited.
A hearing for historic designation of SW Community House, one of the very few original SW buildings not demolished during the 1960’s Urban Renewal of SW, will be held at 441 4th ST NW in the 2nd floor conference room at 10am on Thursday, July 22. The public is invited.
Telesis Corp., a DC mixed-use affordable housing developer, and the Rubell family, who own the Capital Skyline Hotel, wish to purchase the Randall School at I and Half STs from the Corcoran Gallery. They plan to have a hotel, housing, and a 25,000 sq. ft. museum housing the Rubell’s contemporary art collection. The renovation of Randall School and the new building will be designed by Bing Thom, the Arena Stage architect. For this to move forward, the DC Council must change the covenant they placed on the property requiring an art school to be there. The ANC voted to support changing the covenant as a first step towards this purchase.
There remain a few items yet to be done on the Mayor’s Fix-It list of last fall. DDOT is expected to complete them late this fall as all of their resources are currently engaged in getting ready for school opening.
Representatives of the Board of Elections demonstrated the new touch screen voting machines, which do have a paper trail, as well as the new paper ballot machines. The paper ballot will now be fill in the circle rather than connect the lines. To encourage young people to vote, DC allows 16 year olds to register. They cannot vote until 18, but anyone who will be 18 by General Election day, November 2, can vote in the September 14 primary. Also, this year anyone can ask for a mail-in ballot with no excuse needed. And there will be early primary voting from Aug 30 – Sept 11, 8:30am- 7:00pm at 441 4th ST NW as well as from Sept 4 – Sept 11, 8:30am-7:00pm at Hine Jr High School, at 335 8th ST SE and at three other locations. Residents can register at any time up to and including at the polls. Go to www.dcboee.org for more information.
The ANC voted to support a good-looking new building on Q ST SW which will house a youth hostel and hotel. It will have 489 beds; the hostel bunks are expected to rent for $40 a night. They will provide shuttle bus service from 6:30am – 9:30 pm Sun – Thurs, and until midnight Fri and Sat nights, from both the Waterfront and Navy Yard Metro Stations.
Voluntary Agreements with the Spirit and Odyssey cruise ships were approved. These include clauses which seek to control bus parking and idling.
Jane Jorgensen,
Commissioner, ANC6D 01