Representin' the 2 triple zero 9

And I continue at my poor attempts to make ANC meeting notes humorous . . .

The meeting that night was amazingly short due, in part, to few items on the business meeting agenda. Dyer, running the meeting in Reed's absence, was also adept at keeping the meeting moving.

The P Street bus stop issue is still coming up. The P Street resident who remains very concerned has asked for the assistance of the Mayor's office and DDOT.

The review of ABRA matters was really fast. Though there were 15 restaurants/bars/clubs up for renewal, only two will be protested — Vegas Lounge and Be Bar. Both have created noise issue for their neighbors. In particular Be Bar seems to be a nuisance on Sunday nights at closing time.

The ANC will be reviewing its ABRA policy, which can be seen here. In short, the document outlines what our ANC will and will not support when an establishment seeks a new ABC license or modifies an existing license. The document also contains sample voluntary agreements that the ANC enters into with almost all alcohol serving businesses. For the most part, the policies totally make sense — we try to prevent liquor and convenience stores from selling rolling papers and other potential paraphernalia, we seek to limit the sale of single beverages, we ask that businesses keep their properties tidy. Other stock elements of the voluntary agreements can be seen as overly restrictive. For example, the ANC seeks to dictate the hours when garbage should be picked up. The ANC also wants to make voluntary agreements enforceable for new owners who may take over an existing business, a move that could affect the value of a business for sale. Anyways . . . if you feel that the ABRA policies are not restrictive enough or too restrictive you have an opportunity to sit on the committee that will make recommendations for revising the ABC Guidelines. If you're interested contact the ANC.

In other news, the CDC has recommended that the ANC support down-zoning in order to prevent one and two-story "pop-up" additions to townhomes and rowhouses in our neck of the woods. You can see my thoughts on the matter here.

The US District Attorney's office has begun sending a representative, Roger Kemp, to the ANC meetings, as was promised a few months ago. He reported that Gregory Teal, the bicycle thief who was caught red-handed but initially was not prosecuted, is now awaiting trial. Two of the guys who were perpetrating home invasions in our area our now awaiting sentencing. Lt. Smith also reported that overall crime was down in our neighborhood. So, overall, good news from the law enforcement side.

The bus shelter at the Southwest corner of P Street — the one near the entrance to Transformer — will be removed and not replaced.