V.w.verweij

Photo by David Schwartz

David writes:

“I don’t know who’s behind these #projectscholl flyers up in #petworth but they are effing brilliant”

Helene puts together a compilation:

“Seen across #DC today. #projectscholl”

Photo by Helene Holstein

The Sophie Scholl Project website says:

“A curated collection of resistance art for the modern era.”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Kevin Wolf

From the National Park Service:

“The National Park Service has awarded a contract for the modernization of the Washington Monument elevator and the construction of a permanent screening facility for visitors entering the landmark. The contract, in the amount of $10.785 million, was awarded to Grunley Construction Company, Inc. of Rockville, Md., on Friday, September 1. The two major projects are being completed simultaneously under one contract, creating efficiencies in the work that will expedite the reopening of the monument, planned for spring of 2019.

The Washington Monument has been closed since August 17, 2016, due to the unreliability of the elevator control system, which resulted in numerous service interruptions and visitor evacuations via the structure’s 896 steps.

This contract will repair, upgrade and modernize the elevator, including removal of the out-of-date system components and upgrading and installing a new elevator control system to coordinate all aspects of elevator service such as travel direction, speed and acceleration, leveling, and door opening speed and delay. The contract will also allow remote access to the control system, located at the top of the monument, from the ground level.

Additional components of the contract include upgraded cab door equipment; new compensation and hoist ropes; improved electrical and power wiring and connections; enhanced elevator cab communications; and code compliant access to the elevator machine room. The elevator modernization was funded by a $3 million donation from businessman and philanthropist David M. Rubenstein to the National Park Foundation’s Centennial Campaign for America’s National Parks.

The current security screening building was constructed in 2001 and was only intended to be temporary. This contract includes removal of the temporary facility and construction of an upgraded, permanent building to meet long term security, historic preservation and park operation requirements. The new glass and steel facility will offer full ballistic and blast protection and includes queuing space for 18-20 visitors at a time, screening equipment, an accessible restroom for National Park Service and U.S. Park Police staff and a security office. The screening facility is being built with appropriated funds from the National Park Service’s FY17 budget.

The competitive process for the Washington Monument elevator contract was initiated earlier this year with the release of a solicitation for bids. All offers had to be submitted to the National Park Service by July 31, 2017. An evaluation panel of National Park Service technical experts performed a comprehensive analysis of the proposals and selected the best responsive proposal based on factors identified in the prospectus.”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Beau Finley

From the Mayor’s Office:

“Today, Washington, DC was named the first LEED for Cities Platinum certified city in the world. Mayor Bowser was presented this honor by Mahesh Ramanujam, President and CEO of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), at an event on the steps of Dunbar High School – the highest rated LEED-certified school in the United States. The Mayor and Ramanujam were joined by Mayor Bowser’s Chief Technology Officer, Archana Vemulapalli, the District Department of Energy and Environment’s green building expert, Jay Wilson, and other Administration officials.

“It is in the best interest of Washington, DC’s safety, economy, and future to take sustainability and resiliency seriously, and as the nation’s capital, we have a special obligation to lead the way on environmental issues,” said Mayor Bowser. “We are proud to be recognized as the world’s first LEED Platinum city. Our commitment to these issues will not yield, and we look forward to continuing to build a greener, more resilient, and more sustainable DC.”

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is the most widely used green building rating system in the world and is designed to help buildings achieve high performance in key areas of human and environmental health. LEED for Cities was launched last year and enables cities to measure and communicate performance, focusing on outcomes from ongoing sustainability efforts across an array of metrics, including energy, water, waste, transportation, and human experience (which includes education, prosperity, equity and health & safety). LEED for Cities projects benchmark and track performance using Arc, a state-of-the-art digital platform that uses data to provide greater transparency into sustainability efforts and helps cities make more informed decisions.

Washington, DC’s LEED Platinum certification recognizes the outcomes, rather than intent, of the city’s leadership in creating a sustainable and resilient built environment, which includes: reducing greenhouse gas emissions, supporting clean energy innovation, and focusing on inclusive prosperity and livability in all eight wards.

“Washington, DC is setting the bar for smart cities all around the world by leveraging technology and data to achieve sustainability and resiliency goals, creating healthy and safe communities where citizens can thrive,” said Mahesh Ramanujam, President and CEO at USGBC and GBCI. “Mayor Bowser and the city are once again showing that our nation’s capital is performing at the highest levels and that its buildings, neighborhoods and communities are as sustainable as possible.”

As the District looks to achieve the goals of the Sustainable DC Plan and the targets of the Paris Climate Accord, tracking and improving upon the city’s progress is essential. As part of achieving these goals, under Smarter DC, the Office of the Chief Technology Officer works to develop more open access to data and LEED for Cities will be a valuable tool in these efforts.

“Smarter DC is fundamentally about leveraging technology strategically to deliver a more sustainable, resilient, equitable, and healthy city transparently,” said Chief Technology Officer Vemulapalli. “This recognition was only attainable by working together to deliver real outcomes for the District.”

Today, the Bowser Administration also announced that Brookland Middle School has achieved LEED Platinum certification by the USGBC. The school was awarded 85 out of a possible 109 points, making Brookland Middle School the third DC Public Schools (DCPS) project to achieve Platinum certification and the 19th LEED certified DCPS facility.

Throughout the Bowser Administration, Washington, DC has served as a leading city on issues of sustainability. Over the past two and a half years, the Administration has released Climate Ready DC, entered into one of the largest municipal onsite solar projects in the U.S., completed the largest wind power purchase agreement deal of its kind ever entered into by an American city, launched Sustainable DC 2.0, and, most recently, signed a Mayor’s order pledging to uphold the commitments in the Paris Climate Accord. Today, 65 percent of DC neighborhoods are walkable, 58 percent of commuter trips are by bike, walking, or public transit, and the DC Government is 100 percent powered by renewable energy and DC is on track to derive at least one-half of the entire city’s electricity from renewable resources by 2032.”

Today, Friday the 4th of August, Bandcamp is donating the entirety of their 15% share of all sales on their website to the Transgender Law Center. The benefit runs until midnight Pacific time, which is 3am for us on Eastern time. You can get more info on Bandcamp’s benefit here. If the benefit is over when you read this but you’d still like to donate, or you’d just like to donate directly to TLC, you can do that here.

This means anything you buy on Bandcamp will help support TLC as well as the bands you buy from. Because of this I thought I’d throw together a list of some of the best local metal I’ve found on Bandcamp this year, as well as a few other metal bands outside of the area that are actively participating in today’s benefit here. If you’d like the full list of the 200+ bands and labels that are participating, metal and non-metal alike, you can see that here.

First up it should be noted that locals A Sound Of Thunder are actively participating in the benefit and for today only they are selling a “trans pink smoke” double vinyl variant (limited to 100 copies) of their covers album Who Do You Think We Are? for $25. The album will also be available on CD ($18) and digital formats ($8) for the first time. They have previously only been available to those who participated in the crowd funding campaign, however the CDs and digital downloads of the cover album will only be available publicly today. You can find all formats on Bandcamp here.

Chicago based Immortal Bird isn’t really a local band, though their vocalist, Rae Amitay, did go to high school in Fairfax, Virginia. Today they are also donating $1 of any Bandcamp sales to TLC, in addition to Bandcamp’s donation. I highly recommend their 2015 album Empress/Abscess which is just $7 digitally on their Bandcamp here.

Some other non-local metal bands that are participating include Ghoul who are donating all sales Friday and Saturday to TLC. You can download their latest album Dungeon Bastards for $7 here.

Massachusetts based thrashers Lich King put out a killer album this year in The Omniclasm and you can download it from Bandcamp for $10 here. Lich King is donating all of their proceeds from Bandcamp today to the benefit.

The Brazilian/Italian operatic metal band Ruins of Elysium has made a point of standing up for LGBT rights (just check the lyrics to their song “The Birth Of A Goddess” for starters) so it makes perfect sense that they’ll be donating their share of all Bandcamp sales today. Check out their latest album Seeds Of Chaos And Serenity which is available for download for $11.88 on Bandcamp here.

If none of that stuff floats your boat feel free to scour the list I’ve made below of some of my favorite local metal albums on Bandcamp of 2017. You can help support a local band and the Transgender Law Center when you buy any of these today!

Alluvion – Psyche/Stoner from Fredericksburg, VA. $5 gets you their 9 track album .​.​.​Of the One Consciousness that released in May here.

Ashes of Mankind – Death/thrash metal from Baltimore, MD. $6.66 gets you their 8 track album A Scene in Hell that was released in May here.

At The Graves – Doom/sludge from Annapolis, MD. Just $1 gets you a download of their 8 track album Wrecked that was released in late July. You can also get it on CD or cassette for $6 each. Digital and physical versions are all available here.

Blood Mist – Sludge/stoner metal from Baltimore, MD. $5 gets you a download of their 5 track self titled album that was released in February. You can also get it on CD for $7. Digital and physical versions are both available here.

Cab Ride Home – Thrash metal from Northern Virginia. $10 gets you a download or the CD version of their 11 track album Crash The Gate. Released in April, this is the band’s final album since their vocalist, Danica Roem, is now running for a delegate seat in Virginia. Digital and physical versions are both available here.

Earthling – Thrash metal from Harrisonburg, VA. $7 gets you a download of their 6 track album Spinning in the Void that was released in July here. This album shreds guys, highly recommended! Features Alan Fary who also plays in Valkyrie.

Full Of Hell – Death/noise from Annapolis, MD. $6.35 gets you a download of their 11 track album Trumpeting Ecstasy that was released in May. You can also get it on CD for $8.74. Digital and physical versions are both available here. This has been one of the most talked about albums from our area this year and it lives up to the hype!

Inhumation – Death metal from Frederick, MD. $6 gets you a download of their 6 track EP Ontogenesis that was released in April. You can also get it on CD for $8. Digital and physical versions are both available here.

Lord – Sludge/stoner from Fredericksburg, VA. $7 gets you a download of their 6 track album Blacklisted that was released in May. You can also get it on CD for $10. Digital and physical versions are both available here and they also have some packages that include tshirts with Mark Riddick art.

One Slack Mind – Stoner/groove metal from Washington, DC. $8 gets you a download of their 10 track album Both Sides Against the Middle that was released in July. You can also get it on CD for $10. Digital and physical versions are both available here.

Pain Tank – Grind/death metal from Northern Virginia. $8 gets you a download or the CD version of their 13 track album 97​,​901​,​726 Confirmed Kills. Released in March, the album’s name is meant to be the total number of fatalities in all wars that the USA has been involved in. Digital and physical versions are both available here.

Sickdeer – Black metal from Washington, DC. $7 gets you a download of their 7 track album The Wretched of the Earth that was released in March. You can also get it on CD for $10. Digital and physical versions are both available here and you can read the review of this album on DC Heavy Metal right here.

Sloth Herder – Grind/black metal from Frederick, MD. $5 gets you a download of their 14 track album No Pity, No Sunrise that was released in March. You can also get it on CD for $7 or cassette for $6. Digital and physical versions are all available here.

Virginia Creep – Stoner/Indie from Washington, DC. OK so this one actually came out in October of last year but it didn’t show up on my radar until this year. It features JR Hayes of Pig Destroyer as you’ve never heard him before, so that alone makes it worth listing here. $2.99 gets you a download of their 3 track self titled EP, just go here.

Beautiful. Thanks to Kyra for sending.

4th and P St, SW

Health benefits of trees

Recent studies have shown that sometimes, going to a park, or even looking a single tree can significantly improve a person’s health and stress levels. Some doctors have started prescribing parks as a remedy to patients’ health issues, and our tree values have been expanded to include mental and physical health benefits. While this is intuitive to tree lovers, seeing these studies can help us communicate the value of trees more.

Air quality and climate mitigation

Our trees are critical in filtering our air, removing harmful pollutants, such as Carbon Monoxide (toxic at high levels), particulate matter (causes asthma), and Ground-level Ozone (various respiratory impacts). See the image on the right.

Trees Improve Air Quality (Source: Nature Conservancy)

Water quality

As previously discussed in our stormwater post, trees filter drinking water for us and the creatures with which we share the world.

Mental health

A less-reported value of trees are their mental health benefits, but these can outweigh many of the others, shown through many studies (links below):

• Improved memory
• Reduced hospital time and improved recovery, from a view of green or treed space
• Increased attention level in children
• Increase social cohesion of communities

Trees and health (Source: ACTrees)

Shade

Heat is one of the greatest impact on urban health, and trees, through shade and transpiration, can greatly reduce heat-related illness and comfort. Trees can reduce ambient heat by up to 9 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to exposed areas.

Crime

The folklore of trees providing hiding spots for crime is largely negated by modern research, which shows trees can greatly improve crime statistics in neighborhoods. Controlled for social background, areas with vegetation and healthy trees performed much better than unvegetated areas. In one study, vegetated areas had 7 to 8 percent less gun-related incidents than the control area. This most likely links with the mental health benefits of trees, but is good to take into account when planning a city.

Our community’s trees overall health benefits

Our i-Tree study provides us with actual number values of some of these benefits, and in Arlington, our trees provide us with the following health benefits:

• Number of trees: 755,400 (45 trees/acre, a healthy natural forest has 40-60 trees/acre)
• Pollution removal: 235 tons/year ($3.59 million/year)
• Carbon storage: 204,000 tons ($27.1 million)
• Carbon sequestration: 9,630 tons/year ($1.28 million/year)
• Avoided stormwater runoff: 10,730,168 cubic feet/year ($717 thousand/year)
• Building energy savings: $1,020,000/year
• Avoided carbon emissions: 2,210 tons/year ( $294,000/year)

These numbers take into account avoided hospital visits, illness, and death, and show how trees can really improve ourselves and our community!

Links

• Prescribing a trip to the park instead of the pharmacy (Washington Post Article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/why-one-dc-doctor-is-prescribing-walks-in-the-park-instead-of-pills/2015/05/28/03a54004-fb45-11e4-9ef4-1bb7ce3b3fb7_story.html
• Trees are good for your health (Washington Post Article): https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/07/09/scientists-have-discovered-that-living-near-trees-is-good-for-your-health/
• Scientific American report on trees and mental health: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-being-around-trees-help-people-feel-good/
• EPA guidance on reducing heat island effect in urban areas with trees: https://www.epa.gov/heat-islands/using-trees-and-vegetation-reduce-heat-islands 
• Forest Service research on trees and air quality: https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/units/urban/local-resources/downloads/Tree_Air_Qual.pdf
• Yale study on crime reduction and trees: http://environment.yale.edu/envy/stories/trees-shed-bad-wrap-as-accessories-to-crime

Editor’s Note: This biweekly column is sponsored by Dominion Wine and Beer (107 Rowell Court, Falls Church). It is written by Garrett Cruce, a Cicerone Program Certified Beer Server.

Two local stories are part of Dominion Wine & Beers expansion of non-beer or wine fermentables: Baltimore’s Charm City Mead Works and Upstate New York’s Graft Cider (more about their local bona fides later).

I thought I would take a break from writing about fermented water, grain and hops to shed some light on recently or soon-to-be available fermented water and honey and water and apple cider. The fact that neither of these companies makes their beverage in the way that I think is typical or expected makes them compelling.

Charm City Mead Works — Baltimore

Fellow mead lovers, James Boicourt and Andrew Geffken, founded Charm City Mead Works in 2014 after meeting at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum where they both worked. Very much like their brothers and sisters in beer, the pair parlayed home brewing enthusiasm and skill into a full-time business.

Mead has a rich history in nearly all ancient and many contemporary cultures. Found in Chinese vessels that date back as far as 7000 BCE, residue of honey and evidence of fermentation show that the fermentable sugar in honey has been known for a very long time.

More recently, sort of, the Norse — Vikings — wrote elaborate stories about the divine properties of mead. Notable is the story of how Odin stole the Mead of Poetry, a tale of murder and deception and a divinely sourced mead that gave the drinker great powers of poetry.

It has been an alternative to foul and filthy water, the drink of gods, the drink of Renaissance Fairs, but Charm City just wants you to enjoy the labor of their love. They offer 12 oz. cans of carbonated meads — albeit lightly carbonated — and larger bottles of still mead. They recommend either enjoying them on their own or as mixers in cocktails.

I tried a few of their offerings.

Wildflower Mead (6.9% ABV)

I’m going to be honest, my experience with mead prior to writing this article was with the treacly sort that purports to be the official drink of the Ren Fair. I was not prepared for the white wine-like experience that I had.

When Charm City claims that this is the Champagne of meads, they’re not far off. I almost couldn’t believe my nose at first, I tried to paint a picture that was not white wine until I had to admit that what I was experiencing was, in fact, very much like wine. It’s even fruity and lightly sweet, but you won’t be disappointed as the finish leaves a distinct honey flavor lingering in your mouth.

At 6.9% ABV, this is certainly not wine and it went down very smoothly. I enjoyed mine chilled and maybe even a tad too quickly. It’s that drinkable.

Mango Comapeño Mead (6.9% ABV)

Billed as “Not too much heat, not too much sweet,” this mead is a limited Summer release that celebrates warm sunshine. Inhaling, I got more white grape mingled with clear mango and red pepper flakes — an intriguing mix to be sure.

I’ll admit that I didn’t know what the Comapeño pepper was — I still don’t know actually. Is it going to be unbearably hot like the habanero Sculpin? The reassuring answer is, no. I found just enough heat to get my attention that started mid sip and continued through the finish. This is a fruity mead that doesn’t necessarily convey the aroma of mango into the flavor, but still manages to create a summery experience in the glass.

Rosemary Mead (12% ABV)

Though Charm City makes a carbonated mead with hops, this still mead uses rosemary as a bittering flavor. They even claim that rosemary works better with mead than do hops. Since I was not able to try the carbonated hopped mead, I can only speak to the experience of drinking their rosemary mead.

White wine in the aroma shouldn’t surprise anyone by now, but I also got a distinctly sweet clove spiciness. In the mouth, the rosemary mead was lightly sweet — like a Riesling — and slightly tart, again avoiding the syrupy sweetness I kept expecting. What rosemary flavor I got came through as a clean, almost pine flavor that stayed in the background.

You’ll notice that this still mead is almost twice as strong as the canned meads above. I’ll confess that it did not seem so strong to me, it was so drinkable. As for how to drink it, I enjoyed mine on its own. But, Charm City reached out to me to recommend using this mead as mixer. I’ll definitely try that next time I get this.

Graft Cider — Newburgh, N.Y.

Opening its doors in November of 2016, Graft Cider was started by former Baltimore-area resident and cider maker Kyle Sherrer. He and his father founded the high-end cider maker, MillStone Cellars in Monkton, Md. north of Baltimore. Knowing that the product at Millstone was not know for blurring the boundaries and flavors between beer and cider the way he wanted, Sherrer went North.

Upstate New York is to apples as Florida is to oranges — it’s apparent in the geographical names: Cortland and Empire take their names from places and names associated with New York. There are numerous varieties that can be acquired at relatively low cost to make good cider. So Graft became a New York cidery and not a Maryland one.

I mentioned that Kyle was interested in blurring the boundaries between beer and cider, particularly sours. According to the Federal Alcohol Administration Act, “Cider must be derived wholly (except for sugar, water, or added alcohol) from apples.”

What is allowed are non-grain adjuncts that alter the mouthfeel or flavor like lactose (sugar derived from milk), hops or other fruit. Graft’s focus is on mostly wild fermented ciders that they feel both fit right in with today’s tastes for the sour and link historically to mainland European farmhouse ciders.

For the uninitiated, these are challenging ciders. For one thing the taste noting like Strongbow or Angry Orchard or most of the other ciders on the market. For another, they don’t look like them either. I’m giving you a sneak peek into what they offer as they have not officially launched at Dominion Wine and Beer yet. They are definitely coming soon.

Farm Flor Cider (6.9% ABV)

I was given fair warning. That’s not exactly right. I was told by a friend that Graft made cider their own way. That it was not typically crystal clear cider. Or sweet. But that it was sour and probably cloudy — different. All those reasons are exactly why I’d buy a four-pack of Graft and stick in the box with the latest IPA or sour or stout.

This cider — I almost wrote “beer” — has an intoxicating aroma of homemade volcano — vinegar and baking soda — with an earthy wet bark lurking in the background. The initial sip was slightly shocking with vinegar — if you’ve ever had a “shrub” that contains vinegar as a main ingredient, you’ll understand. A clear apple flavor begins mid-sip and lingers on the tongue after you swallow. About half way through the glass, I no longer tasted the vinegar tang, but rather the apple with each subsequent sip.

Fur Coat Hop Cider (6.9% ABV)

When blurring lines between beer and cider, you really have to use hops. Graft’s Fur Coat — unfortunately named as everyone who has commented on it has mentioned the involuntary imagining that their tongue is coated — uses Simcoe and Azacca hops to add both bitterness and flavor.

There are also juniper berries in there, which is particularly apparent in the aroma — a mixture of juniper, green herbs, mint and a hint of pickle juice. In the sip, Fur Coat is lightly sweet with a clean pine flavor — curiously more pine needles than pine resin — with a mild tartness in the finish. It seems that the distinct lack of malt from any grain, makes for a light, hoppy drink that goes down smooth. Both the name and the alpine-inspired artwork suggest a winter cider, but this is great on a hot day.

Cloud City Amarillo District Pineapple Dreamsicle Cider (6.9% ABV)

According to founder, Kyle Sherrer, the artwork and names of Graft’s ciders refer to different parts of the fictional world of “Graft.” Cloud City certainly looks and sounds like a fun place. I mean, this is a dreamsicle cider!

Brewed with lactose, for texture and sweetness, and pineapple, Cloud City starts out quite sour and smelling of baking soda and overripe apples. Let it warm a bit, though, and the vanilla and pineapple come out and combine with the velvety mouthfeel created by the lactose to complete the illusion of the dreamsicle.

If you’re a fan of sour beers, you’ll love this right out of the fridge. But if you’re less enthusiastic about sours, give Cloud City a few minutes after you pour it to let it warm. Like its namesake dessert, this is a treat even if it’s not very sweet.

Come in to Dominion Wine and Beer now to get Charm City mead. Graft Cider will be available soon. Stay tuned. Cheers!

The 60s are back!

More stuff like this on Facebook | Instagram

You win some, you lose some – but hopefully you make three new best friends in the process cheers ladies don't fuck with us pic.twitter.com/lxQ3f6Km2P

— Lisette Pylant (@LisettePylant) August 8, 2017

You really just gotta read the insanity that is dating in Washington, DC – August 7, 2017.

The spectacular full Twitter thread as recounted by Lisette Pylant:

Thread alert: so I go on what I think might be a date with a guy my friends set me up on on my birthday (yes it's a bit hazy).

— Lisette Pylant (@LisettePylant) August 7, 2017

Continues:

We're now all hanging out at another bar together pic.twitter.com/jasDbaDQCL

— Lisette Pylant (@LisettePylant) August 8, 2017

MRS. STEAL YOUR GIRL OVER HERE pic.twitter.com/27rY4QJ1EF

— Lisette Pylant (@LisettePylant) August 8, 2017

My friend walked over and told #5 what was up, got her number and this was their convo pic.twitter.com/y30UP261d5

— Lisette Pylant (@LisettePylant) August 8, 2017

YALL COME TO @ANXOcider! The bartenders are rad and have had our back all night. This bar is LIT

— Lisette Pylant (@LisettePylant) August 8, 2017

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE pic.twitter.com/czEzuPyqEI

— Lisette Pylant (@LisettePylant) August 8, 2017

You win some, you lose some – but hopefully you make three new best friends in the process cheers ladies don't fuck with us pic.twitter.com/lxQ3f6Km2P

— Lisette Pylant (@LisettePylant) August 8, 2017

A new coffee shop is open in Arlington Forest in a low-slung shopping center just off Arlington Blvd.

Sense of Place (4807 1st Street N.) replaced a Subway sandwich shop in the Arlington Forest Center. It opened yesterday (Monday), next door to Brick’s Pizza, the DaVita dialysis center and the Mathnasium of Arlington education center.

Sense of Place features a coffee bar that serves specialty pour-over coffee, which uses a filter and a dripper to extract more flavors. At the bar, a certified barista will serve the coffee, while a sign nearby expressly bans the use of laptops to encourage customers to enjoy their drinks without distraction.

“At the bar, customers take the time to see, smell, and taste subtly different notes of flavors and textures with every sip that they may not have noticed before,” the cafe’s website reads.

The new cafe serves its own house-brand coffee, called Enzymo Coffee. The coffee beans undergo a natural fermentation process before being roasted, which staff said keeps the coffee fresh, the acid content low and prevents any post-caffeine crashes an hour or two after drinking.

Also on offer: various other hot and cold drinks as well as homemade pastries, paninis and sandwiches.

Early Tuesday morning, the store was already doing brisk business, despite having been open for just one day. Multiple customers told ARLnow how excited they were to have an independently-owned coffee shop in the plaza, which is also home to Outback Steakhouse and used to house the now-shuttered Filipino grocery store Fiesta Oriental.

Sense of Place is open from 7 a.m.-3 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays. It is closed on Sundays.

Hat-tip to Mike Marketti.

The surface parking lot of the Whole Foods in Clarendon has closed temporarily, and this afternoon it led to tempers flaring in front of the store on Clarendon Blvd.

Crews are currently working to mill and resurface the normally-busy parking lot. Customers, in the meantime, can attempt to find street parking or park in the Market Common Clarendon garage across the street. (Whole Foods validates up to two hours in the garage.)

While the lot is closed, customers have been competing fiercely for the few street parking spaces around the store.

Today, while ARLnow.com was checking out the resurfacing work, several drivers parked along Clarendon Blvd were engaged in a dispute about one vehicle parking too close to (and perhaps striking) two others.

While the parking dispute was going on, a pedestrian in a nearby crosswalk shouted curse words at a stopped driver he thought had honked their horn at him. (In fact, it was the car behind the first stopped vehicle.)

The lot is expected to reopen by Thursday, an employee said.

Will I ever stop following shibas on instagram? Who can say? Who among us can truly say?

Webtoon | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

Based on this tweet by duumb!

Webtoon | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

It belongs in a museum’s coffee shop!

Website / Patreon

Killpecker Sand Dunes Open Play Area

The Killpecker Sand Dunes Open Play Area is part of the Greater Sand Dunes Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC). ACECs are areas within the public lands where special management attention is required to protect and prevent irreparable damage to important resources. Important resources in this area include wildlife, cultural, scenic, and wilderness. The western portion of the ACEC includes the Sand Dunes and Buffalo Hump Wilderness Study Areas (WSA). These are areas of land that have potential for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System. The Steamboat Mountain area is crucial birthing habitat for deer and elk.

This area is closed to motor vehicles from May 1st through June 30th to protect this habitat. The BLM is required by law to maintain the natural character of WSAs. Recreational activities like hiking, hunting, and horseback riding are allowed while those that involve the use of motorized vehicles or mechanical transportation are not.

This week, we invite you to explore many of the hidden gems on your public lands by checking out blm.gov/visit. We want to remind you to always be safe outdoors and make sure you prepare for whatever adventure you choose. Many of the recreation opportunities on BLM-managed public lands are often remote and rugged, offering unparalleled connections to the American outdoors.

Photo by PoPville flickr user John Sonderman

“Dear PoPville,

While enjoying a picnic with 3 other friends at Picnic Area 16 in Rock Creek Park on the 4th of July, I witnessed and had a disturbing interaction with U.S. Park Police. First, I watched as two officers pulled up at the picnic grounds next to ours, about 80 yards away, where a Hispanic family was peacefully enjoying the holiday afternoon. The two white officers jumped out of their SUV and immediately started rifling through the bags and coolers of the family (in front of their young children, no less). We watched quietly from our table, troubled but silent. After the officers appeared to take some items from the family and place them in their truck, they then drove quickly across the grass toward the table where we were picnicking.

The officer driving, stepped out of his truck and as he walked toward us, said, “This is my 24th 4th of July spent away from my family.” It was obvious that he intended to let us know that he was in a foul mood and that we were required to have a respectful attitude toward him if we wanted this interaction to end well. He made reference to smelling alcohol in the air (all the more unbelievable since he drove over from a distance of about 80 yards) and said that it was weird that we were drinking out of mason jars on the picnic table.

We didn’t know how to respond because it was obvious that we were drinking water from the jars as there was a bottle of water on our table and the jars were filled with that water. Also on the table was some cheese, bread and our baseball gloves (we had just finished playing catch, which is why we were drinking water). He then put his foot up on the picnic table and intimated that we might be doing something illegal, while his partner circled our table, searching the grounds and peaking around our bags (presumably for alcohol). This was all taking place in the middle of the afternoon, out of the blue, with no apparent reason.

They did not search our belongings the way they did with the Hispanic family (we were a predominately white group in our mid-to-late thirties), which also made me even more suspicious of the officers earlier actions. When one of my friends spoke up, asking what the officers intent was and why they were acting in such an aggressive manner to 4 adults enjoying an afternoon picnic, the officer threatened my friend with ARREST. He said something to the effect of “I’ve already brought a couple people down to the station today, so if you want to keep up with that attitude I can bring a few more.” After that we remained quiet and cordial so that our pleasant picnic didn’t end in being hauled away to jail and so the officers would leave us be, which they eventually, thankfully did.

We sat in shock for quite sometime, unable to process what had just taken place. There was no reason to suspect we had done anything wrong and clearly, as the officers eventually left us alone, they obviously agreed. Also, as we were the closest table the Hispanic family, I can attest that they had not been causing any disturbance and I can’t understand how it was legal for the police to just jump out and start going through their things. Also, they obviously took items from that family, presumably alcohol, but they didn’t charge them with anything, which also seems bizarre. As we no longer felt welcome in the park, we gathered our suspicious mason jars and drove home.

Later that evening I called the District 3 Police Station in Rock Creek Park to report the incident and file a complaint. I was put through to talk to the sergeant on duty. I told him what had occurred and that I wanted to file a complaint. The sergeant on the other end of the phone told me that he was ‘taken aback’ because he was in fact the officer involved in what I described. He told me that I was lying about the facts of what happened and that it was impossible for him to file a complaint against himself. I then asked to speak to his superior and he slammed down the phone.

I filed another complaint by email earlier this afternoon but wanted to spread word of this encounter. I’m sure there are other supervisors I could call, but after the very officer who accosted us (apparently the sergeant there) was the one who took my call, called me a liar and hung up on me, my confidence that any action will be taken is pretty low. This, after all, comes just a couple of weeks after the Park Police handcuffed African American teenagers for selling water on the mall.

If this is how U.S. Park Police interact, particularly a sergeant, with visitors just enjoying the grounds peacefully, then I advise caution in Rock Creek Park. As that sergeant is the one who takes the complaints, it’s all the more obvious that there is no recourse for any abuse they dish out. That’s terrifying. That this happened on a day when we are supposed to celebrating our freedom as Americans is all the more troubling. Be careful out there.

Travis Hare

Washington, D.C.”

4700 Wisconsin Ave, NW

Stay tuned for Steak n Egg updates as construction progresses on the expansion.

Side note – Philly Cheesesteak Egg Rolls: Awesome or awful?

Wisconsin and Chesapeake St, NW

Join us next time for more adventures of Reginald and Harrison and nobody else

Website / Patreon / Twitter