Snapshots in Time: Shaw, LeDroit Park, Bloomingdale

Neighborhoods are ever-evolving, and even in a few years’ time you can track how your city is changing. Here are a few photos from this morning around Shaw, LeDroit Park, and Bloomingdale, neighborhoods that are experiencing the growth of new large-scale development alongside smaller residential projects, restaurants, and more.

“Progression Place” is a mixed-use development that is currently going up next to the Shaw-Howard Metro station at 7th and S Street NW. It’ll consist of the United Negro College Fund’s national offices, additional office spaces, (probably higher-end) residences, and retail.

Pictured above is the Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church, which despite its name is located at 2nd and Rhode Island Ave NW in the LeDroit Park neighborhood.

Bistro Bohem is a Czech restaurant in Shaw, close to the edge of the U Street corridor, that opened in March 2012. I haven’t tried it, but they serve pierogies, brats, goulash, and unique cocktails (including one with absinthe). Next door is a condominium.

Still don’t have a proper camera to replace the one that was stolen, so these are just snapshots from my phone. I probably will wait to buy another DSLR, but if anyone has recommendations for a decent point-and-shoot camera that is also lightweight, I’d love to hear them!

Recommended read: “Walkable City” by Jeff Speck

The latest book by renowned city planner Jeff Speck is Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time (2012). This is a follow-up to Suburban Nation, his popular work on sprawl in America’s suburbs.

“It turns out the way we move largely determines the way we live.” (55)

What I really enjoy about Jeff Speck’s writing is that he explains city planning concepts in a way that is universally relatable – to anyone with or without a background in planning, whether a resident of the city or the suburbs. It’s clear his writing is meant to grow mass support for urban living and walkable cities, and though he employs plenty of statistics to make his arguments, he keeps the material from sounding dry or inaccessible.

Speck moved to Washington, DC after leaving his home in South Beach, Miami, and has also lived in the various towns and cities he has helped plan. This means he can draw upon plenty of firsthand experience of what makes a city livable and capable of drawing new residents. (If you live in DC, you’ve likely seen his flatiron-style home at 10th and Florida Avenue NW.) His city planning experience also lends itself to his writing, and he pulls many real-world examples of the advantages of walkability and what makes certain cities so magnetic.

Speck centers the text on his “General Theory of Walkability” which centers on four conditions of what makes a good walk. It must be (1) useful, (2) safe, (3) comfortable, and (4) interesting. From this theory, he then presents ten steps for creating a more walkable city. As a self-proclaimed generalist, he recognizes that to design a city one cannot disregard cars, bicycles, transit, or the other elements at work. Speck makes sure to touch on these points in turn. The result is a book that is tuned into the physical and cultural landscape of cities today, as well as the demographic and geographic shifts currently at play in America. Jeff Speck didn’t write Walkable City for the planners, but for the people who live in these communities.

Jeff Speck’s Twitter feed is @JeffSpeckAICP.

Year 2012 in Cycling

When I first moved to DC, I bought a used Trek mountain bike from a seller on Craigslist for $140. I used it to get from home to school and work and back, riding down from Columbia Heights in the morning and back up through Adams Morgan in the evenings. And knowing nothing of bicycle maintenance at the time, I once let a wheel get so badly out of true that I eventually had to alternate between carrying it and half-lifting, half-rolling it the six blocks to the nearest bike shop.

My housemates and many of my friends also rode to get around – it’s just the most practical mode of transportation within the city – but I can’t recall riding for the pure pleasure of it. Cycling was simply a more reliable option than taking the bus: my commute always took the same time and I didn’t have to wait 40 minutes at night for a bus that never came. (That used to happen pretty often when I worked late shifts at work.) On my mountain bike I was slow, but faster than when I was on foot.

2012 was the first year I rode for more than pure transportation purposes. I bought my first new road bike with a recommendation from my friend, who’s an avid road cyclist. I led a team of a six to ride in the Bike MS charity ride in June, which meant I had to train for distances I had never even imagined riding before: a total of 100 miles over two days. Besides getting food poisoning a couple weeks before the ride and losing a lot of fitness there, the ride went well and everyone on my team finished the ride happy and exhausted. We polished off a couple pizzas and about half a chocolate cake afterwards. By then I also knew to keep my chain clean and lubed and how to change a flat tire, and the function of most bike parts.

I’ll pull just a few numbers about my first year of getting more into cycling. Most of these stats come from Strava, where I’ve recorded maybe 80-90% of my rides this year.

Most Elevation Gain in One Month: 9,910 feet in August. I did some riding in Maryland, rode the Reston Bike Club (Metric) Century, and part of John’s Hoppy 100 ride, which I hope he makes into an annual event. I know people that climb more than this in a single ride, but I’m happy with my progress.

Most Mileage in One Month: 391.2 miles in October. This includes a weekend ride to Harpers Ferry and back, the Seagull Century, and several commutes. It’s also the month I got my Surly, which replaced my road bike and became my do-everything, pleasure-to-ride bike.

Longest Single Ride: 127.1 miles. This was my first brevet, the Flatbread 200k.

Mileage on Capital Bikeshare: Over 150 miles. This number may even be closer to 200 miles, considering I usually don’t record my short Bikeshare trips. It’s a great service to get around town, and I’d say a year-long membership is essential for anyone living in DC.

Total Mileage for 2012: 2,397.3 miles since mid-March. I’m shooting for at least 3,000 miles next year.

Below is a screencap displaying my local ride map for the year, created with Jonathan O’Keeffe’s multiple ride mapping tool. The line thicknesses represent frequency of riding specific routes. Suggestions for where to ride more in 2013? Arlington streets don’t appear to be represented, though I take the Custis Trail quite often.

I’m sure all this riding balances out the beer.

Year 2012 Recap: The Good, the Bad, and the Goals

2012 has been a memorable year.

I traveled to Boulder in the spring to visit a good friend, took an end-of-summer trip around Iceland, and spent a long weekend in Atlanta with two of my oldest friends. I rode my bike over a hundred miles in a single day (twice), followed ongoing transportation projects in the area, and organized a couple of local rides that turned out to be very popular. I went on a 50km/31mi hike that lasted 12 hours and left me with more memories than blisters (though it gave me plenty of blisters). I spent a lot of time in a tent, though I would have liked to spend more. I read some great books and also started writing more. I made lots of new friends and reconnected with others.

There have also been some bad moments in the year, such as the time my friend got into a bad crash. Or the time our apartment got burglarized. But these have also served as important learning moments, teaching me and those around me that although you have to be careful, you can’t prevent everything.

On another note, Adam and I spent the year tracking our drink consumption and are working now to summarize that information. We’ve got a year’s worth of data. It makes for a good feeling to track an aspect of our lives for an entire year, and in total it comes to something like 16,000 fluid ounces of beverages between the two of us to make sense of – so as you can imagine, this’ll take some time. We’ll find out if the metrics we tracked were the worthwhile ones, and see what else we can cull from the data.

For now, I can easily see that the brewery I most represented this year was New Belgium, a Colorado-based brewery that is well-loved in DC. Their traveling festival, Tour de Fat, even came to Washington, DC for the first time this year. Adam’s most represented brewery was Chocolate City. The Chocolate City brewery is practically next door to us, so we’re lucky to be able to fill up growlers on Saturdays.

We had beers from about 121 distinct breweries this year – and I say “about” because tonight’s drinks are still to be recorded. It’s hard to say whether there’s an observer effect here, whether we’re drinking more or less or opting for more variety because of our decision to record our drinks.

Looking forward, here are my resolutions for 2013. I’m keeping them to the goals I really want to focus on and think are achievable this year. Besides these, I have other projects in the works that will become better realized the new year.

• New Year’s Resolution #1: Read all of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. I’m going to begin by rereading Swann’s Way (the first volume of seven volumes total), since I last read that four years ago. Just some 3,000 pages to go.
• New Year’s Resolution #2: Learn to enjoy running. I try this every year, but I think having a dedicated running buddy will help this time around. Our goal is to run a 5K in the spring, maybe work up to a 10K later in the year.
• New Year’s Resolution #3: More civic participation! Volunteer with local organizations and give back to the community. What’s your favorite local cause?
• New Year’s Resolution #4: Ride more brevets than I did last year. Hopefully that’s easy because I rode only one brevet – my first – in 2012.
• New Year’s Resolution #5 is another bike-related one: Ride 3,000 miles in 2013. Evenly distributed that’d be 250 miles/month – doable! In 2012, I rode about 2,400 miles from April to December.

Happy New Year!

Hains Point 100 for Women and Bikes

What a successful event! The Hains Point 100, a century ridden entirely as loops around Hains Point, was an idea by Megan Jones sprouted a few weeks ago. She decided to make it a fundraising ride for WABA’s Women & Bicycles advocacy program, which will work to support women’s cycling in the DC area.

The Census Bureau reports that women make up only 2,985 of the 9,300 DC residents who commute by bicycle. To put it another way, there are more than twice as many male cyclists than female cyclists. WABA’s new program intends to address this gender gap in cycling and get more women on bikes. Megan noted this morning that the ratio of women to men at the Hains Point 100 ride was very similar, but that it was important for everyone to help in this effort.

Lots of great local sponsors – and one not-so-local sponsor, New Belgium Brewing – pitched in to provide snacks, prizes for riders, and donations. Plenty of people brought food   (especially baked goods) to keep the picnic table full as well. Hains Point worked as a great location for this kind of ride since it’s a short 3-mile loop and riders could take a break or grab snacks when they came back to the meeting point.

I rode a few laps and got to see lots of DC area cycling folks out today on a beautiful winter day. Megan (and others) successfully rode over 100 miles each, and raised a lot of money to support the cause by putting on this event.

You can donate here: WABA’s Women & Bikes Program.

Mapping DC with OpenStreetMap

Mapping DC is the local group of OpenStreetMap users who’s back in action after a few months lull (various folks leaving DC to work on projects around the world). There have been “mapping parties” to work on filling out areas of the map around Washington, DC that are lacking or inaccurate – recent ones having taken place in Hyattsville, MD and at the Congressional Cemetery in DC.

Even if you’ve never mapped with OpenStreetMap before, I encourage you to get involved if you have an interest in improving the map. OSM grows in importance and reach daily, and is becoming more widely used in applications and services such as Wikipedia and Foursquare. Whether it’s small changes in your neighborhood or participating in mapping parties, the community is open to having your help.

Check out the Mapping DC group to learn more about upcoming events. Map locally, think globally.

Washington DC to Baltimore ride

This Saturday, I rode to Baltimore from DC with Adam using a route sourced from the Bike Washington website and the Google Maps bicycling directions. Bike Washington is great resource for local trails, and for this ride I only diverged from their route in a few places; in hindsight, I should also have used their directions for entering the city of Baltimore instead of the Google directions which involved a few dicey maneuvers. But that’s to be expected when Google’s routing is fairly automated while Bike Washington route is written by people who’ve ridden the route. Tried and tested.

We had a nice time in Baltimore, walking through a holiday bazaar in Fells Point, eating a huge lunch among the throngs drinking nog, and snapping a few photos. By the time we started to head back, our daylight hours were numbered so we grabbed the B30 bus back to Greenbelt Metro station. Good to always know your bail out options!

For those interested, here’s the cue sheet I wrote, as well as some commentary, after the cut. Directions begin from the Metropolitan Branch Trail.

Wrap-up of DC Breweries Tour

What a day.

This is a tough one to write, because most of the ride went well but a friend in pain overwhelms other emotions. I’m still a little shaken by what happened towards the end of the ride but I’ll get to that.

A couple of weeks ago, I met a small group of friends outside of the DC Brau brewery who announced that it was their last stop on a ride to all three of the city’s breweries. I sent a message to a couple fellow riders on Twitter suggesting that we do the same sometime. They were interested enough, so I decided to pick a date and make it happen. After putting the word out to friends via email and sharing the plan on Twitter and Facebook, I put together a route that made a counter-clockwise 15-mile loop from Chocolate City to DC Brau to 3 Stars Brewing. I attempted to take quieter streets where it didn’t bring us off course, but inevitably there were a couple dicey roads with faster traffic.

Around seven this morning, I rode through the route to check it against what I had mapped out in Google Maps. (Geographers might refer to this as ground truthing.) I’m glad I did, because I was expecting to have at least 15 people on the ride and didn’t want to get lost leading the group, but also because, for instance, you don’t always realize which streets suddenly turn into one-ways. So, on this run I familiarized myself with the route and marked some changes to the cue sheet before heading back.

For the ride, we gathered for a 12:15 start at Big Bear Cafe. Adam, Brian, Veronica, and I were the earliest ones there, making time to grab bagels or coffee before the “official” meeting time of noon. I say “official” because this was the first ride I put together that reached outside my immediate circle of friends, and really the first time leading more than eight people on a bike ride. It was nice to see familiar faces from around town, including Kevin, Ted, Michael, and Ed and Mary (who unfortunately could only join for the coffee part). As we chatted and folks began arriving, I realized I had underestimated the attraction of riding to three breweries on a beautiful autumn day. People had brought friends, told others, heard the word and bravely decided to join without knowing what to expect, even sent people in place of themselves if they couldn’t make it. The sidewalk outside Big Bear quickly became crowded – must have been at least 30 riders there, ready to try some local brews.

Photo by Ted Nigrelli

We hit the road at 12:15, which gave us time to get to Chocolate City brewery at the start of their growler hours (12:30-4:30pm every Saturday). Chocolate City is the closest to my house of the local breweries, so we come often to fill our growlers. It’s a short ride up the Metropolitan Branch Trail, which I like for its street art and totem poles. As we arrived, we spotted John and Kate, who were there to join for awhile. I think Chocolate City’s setup lends itself well to a group visit – it’s a small building with one open wall that makes it easy to drift around and socialize. They had a food truck stationed outside, but their offerings looked a little too heavy for a bike ride bite. I took this time to try to meet everyone on the ride, a challenge in itself!

Got the group back on the road promptly since we had two more breweries to visit in a short time window. The next stop, DC Brau, always seems to have a crowd inside, redeeming their generous number of free tasting tickets or walking around touring the facilities. I sat in the sun chatting to friends awhile before going inside to get a sample of DC Brau’s Ghoul’s Night Out (a Belgian-style Quadrupel; like a Tripel but stronger). I’ve had it before, though, so guess it can’t be considered a sample. We arrived at the brewery right when they started a tour, so a large part of our group joined that. Leaving the brewery, we tried to sweep everyone out but accidentally left a friend behind. Realized our mistake ten minutes later, so waited a bit while she caught up with us on the Anacostia/NW Branch Trail.

Though we were able to take to the trails for part of this stretch, we had to take some bigger roads with faster traffic closer to 3 Stars Brewing. Managed that without too much of a hitch, then we started up one of the last hills towards the brewery.

That’s when I heard someone call out “man down” and realized people were stopped at the base of the hill. I rode back down and saw a friend lying in the street, his face bloody -and others had already lept into action, holding cloths to his forehead and nose to stop the bleeding, another rider on the phone with 911. We arranged for a friend of a friend to have his bike taken back while we waited for the ambulance to arrive. His scarf had gotten caught in his front wheel and the bike threw him over the handlebars onto the ground headfirst. A woman who didn’t know him was holding his hand, another trying to talk him through his shock. Neighbors even came out to see if we needed help. It was a moment that made me realize that people do come together most strongly in times of need. A mutual friend ended up riding with him to the hospital once the ambulance arrived, and I led people back to our starting point, too shaken by it all to feel like going to another brewery.

An accident like this is a reminder that even on a quiet road with no cars, things can happen. Going quickly or slowly, things can happen. I’m relieved to say that he’s okay and recovering, and glad it wasn’t worse.

Thank you to everyone for coming, for your patience, and for demonstrating that community really is defined by the great people that make it.

Bike Tour of DC’s Breweries – Saturday, November 17, 2012

I’m posting this as an open invite to join me on a bicycle tour of all three breweries in Washington, DC:

• Chocolate City Beer
• DC Brau Brewing Company
• Three Stars Brewery

This ride will take place on Saturday, November 17th. We’ll meet at noon at Big Bear Cafe, located at R and 1st St NW – or likely the park in front of it as the group grows.

Tentative route can be found here on Google Maps. I’ll be checking out the route beforehand. Please be comfortable with city riding and hand signals. And I know it’s DC, but there are a few hills along the way.

No one will be left behind unless you beg us to leave you with your beer. Estimated to get back to Big Bear around 5pm. Let me know the morning of if you’ll need to drop off earlier than that.

Your reward is good company, and of course free beer tasting! There’s no obligation to buy anything at these breweries (and the sample pours tend to be generous), though tipping is always appreciated. Bring a water bottle for that between-brewery hydration.

Hope to see you there!

Directions – though not a proper cue sheet with mileage – follow the cut.

Autumn Coffeeneuring in DC

What is “coffeeneuring”? It’s an act of combining two great loves of many Washington, DC residents: coffee and bicycling. Mary has a write-up of the official rules here: 2nd Annual Coffeeneuring Challenge. Essentially you write up your weekend coffee bike ride experiences to share with the community. The true reward is exploration and caffeine! Last year, twelve people completed the challenge of 7 different coffee shops in 6 weekends, and I’m willing to bet that even more people participate this year. It’s a creative, seasonal idea. Excuse the poor photos – most were taken on my phone.

Here’s my entry in this year’s coffeeneuring challenge:

1. SOVA Espresso & Wine at 1359 H St NE on October 8th

Took a Capital Bikeshare bike from Eastern Market to SOVA on H Street. The ride was brisk and fast, waking me up from my commuting haze even before ordering a coffee. It sure gets dark early on these fall nights. SOVA is a combination coffee bar and wine bar that I had only ever been to for live music before. The downstairs cafe area is cute, with good service, good tunes, and (huge mugs of) good coffee. Stopped by in the evening and got a cup of their drip coffee (Intelligentsia), but would like to try their espresso drinks soon. Bike ride home was uneventful – took Florida Ave as I often do, but being on a Bikeshare made it harder to keep up with traffic.

Distance: 3.3 miles
Drink: Medium-roast drip coffee, black

2. Kafe Bohem at 600 Florida Ave NW on October 13th

Rode to Kafe Bohem, the cafe connected to Bistro Bohem, early on a Saturday morning to get the day started before heading over to the unveiling of the St. Elizabeth’s East Gateway Pavilion. The staff was pulling shots of espresso for customers and baking strudels in the back. Kafe Bohem is only a short ride from our place, yet this was our first visit to this new coffeehouse in Shaw. I ordered a cappuccino, Adam had an Americano, and we split a tasty onion, cheese, and tomato strudel. The interior is cozy, with European touches here and there, and drink presentation is refined. One of these Bohemian spa wafers are included with your drink, and are available to purchase if one isn’t enough. Staff was very welcoming – joked around with us and even brought glasses of water over to our table without being asked for any. Other customers seemed as comfortable there as the staff: some reading, others settling in to work on their laptops. Kafe Bohem is a much-needed neighborhood spot, helping to revitalize this little corner of Shaw.

Distance: 11.0 miles
Drink: Cappuccino

3. Baked and Wired at 1052 Thomas Jefferson Street NW on October 20th

Located in Georgetown near K Street, Baked and Wired is a great place to meet up with friends before any ride that starts off on the Capital Crescent Trail or the C & O Canal Towpath. John chose this as the launch point for his Hoppy 100 ride, and then three of us decided to meet here before getting onto the C & O. I tried the “dirty chai” which adds espresso to a chai latte (effectively both coffee and tea?) and had a slice of spinach and feta quiche to fuel the ride. Friends had coffee, a slice of ham quiche, and a scone. They only have two outdoor tables, but we snagged one of them by getting there early.

Distance: 63.2 miles
Drink: Dirty chai

4. Big Bear Cafe at 1700 1st Street NW on October 21st

Big Bear is also in my neighborhood, but I don’t spend a lot of time here. It’s usually just a quick stop when I’m at the Bloomingdale Farmers Market. I like the interior because it’s cozy and welcoming, and the exterior is cute with the bear painted on the side and the vines crawling over the building. We stopped by on our ride home from Harper’s Ferry – one metric century from there to here – and grabbed some hot chocolate and coffee. Nice to take a moment to relax after spending a whole day riding.

Distance: 65.1 miles
Drink: Hot chocolate

5. Pound the Hill at 621 Pennsylvania Ave SE on October 28th

Everyone is preparing for Hurricane Sandy! After going to the Farmers Market, where all vendors had signs saying something to the effect of “Stock up for Sandy!” I rode over to Pound the Hill – appropriately named for its location on Capitol Hill. It was quite a windy ride. More seats than I expected at the cafe, with ample room to find a place to plug in the laptop and work for a little while. The drinks are good and the food looks good, but I wish the music was a bit less ‘smooth jazz’. Missed John who stopped by, but he did recognize my bike outside. Coffeeneuring takes the city by storm!

Distance: 5.3 miles
Drink: Soy chai latte

6. Qualia Coffee at 3917 Georgia Avenue NW on November 3rd

A very cozy coffeehouse with friendly, talkative staff. This is the kind of place you go to meet up with friends or read a book or magazine. They discourage laptop-sitting, which is refreshing since there are already so many other cafes in DC overrun with people soaking up wifi. Qualia is the sort of place where you’re probably a local, and if not, you happily share that it’s your first time stopping in. They seem to know their coffee and also offer pastries and bagels. We grabbed mugs of drip coffee, a salted caramel bar, and a honey sticky bun, and read a few magazines. It was a welcome reprieve from the chill outside.

Distance: 16.3 miles
Drink: Drip coffee, black

7. Lot 38 Espresso Bar at 1001 2nd Street SE on November 4th

Lot 38 has a pretty simple design – downstairs is a narrow espresso bar where they take drink and food orders, upstairs is a single room with tables and chairs. The tables near the windows are the best, because you can overlook the street below. The clientele included families with young children, couples reading the paper together, and a few people working on laptops. I noticed that everyone in the vicinity seemed to have the dog. Perhaps it’s just the demographic that’s moving into the Navy Yard area. Navy Yard (maybe it has a hip new neighborhood name I’m not aware of) seems to be developing rapidly. It already looks completely different from a couple years ago, and from Lot 38 you can look out onto the construction across the street. The cafe serves up illy coffee, breakfast and lunch sandwiches, smoothies, and pastries. This would be a good place to work because it’s pretty quiet. Lot 38 definitely looks like it serves a need where there is growing demand – and it’s a better option than the Starbucks down the street.

Distance: 25.1 miles
Drink: Chai latte

That’s it for this year’s run at the Coffeeneuring Challenge. It was a tasty way to explore more of DC’s coffee options and discover some neat new places. Out of these 7 coffeehouses, only 2 were ones I had been to before.