ANC 5A has cancelled the special meeting scheduled for tonight July 30, 2025.
From ANC 5A:
Residents,
We are very sorry that due to unforeseen circumstances, we need to cancel the meeting that was scheduled for this evening. We understand that people are anxious to learn more about the status on the ABCA situation and McDonald’s. We will send out out an email update about the ABCA situation later today or tomorrow and we will work on inviting the McDonald’s team to the ANC meeting in the fall.
Join ANC Commissioners Danielle Geong (4B09) & Keith Sellars (5A01) for a neighborhood clean up along Eastern Avenue on Saturday, August 2, 2025, from 8:00 am to 9:00 am. We will also be picking up trash around the edges of Fort Circle Park near Sargent & Galloway.
Meet at Eastern Avenue & Kennedy Street NE at 8am. Trash bags, grabbers, gloves, and water provided.
All ages welcome. Community service hours available.
As of July 25, 2025, several units remain available for leasing at the recently constructed Riggs Crossing Senior Residences located at 307 Riggs Road NE.
Studio unit: 1 available
1-bedroom: 20 available (6 of the units are ANSI accessible units and 1 is a UFAS accessible unit)
2-bedrooms unit (requires two leaseholders): 1 available
The building is dedicated to individuals aged 55 and older, and all units are income-restricted at 50% of median family income (MFI) or below.
To avoid long wait times, the leasing team recommends scheduling an appointment through the Riggs Crossing Senior Residences website. Floor plans are available online.
V. Commission Action Items/Updates a. 5A04- Michigan Ave Turn Lane Resolution b. 5A08- Clinical Health and Wellness 4942 South Dakota Ave NE c. 5A08- Mc Donald’s Presentation and update
The Mayor’s Office of the Clean City will host its Roll Off of “Bulk Trash” this Saturday in front of the North Michigan Park Recreation Center, access via Delafield Place NE. The event begins at 10:00 am. The notice does not indicate an end time, but it normally ends about 1:00 pm.
Residents noticed that McDonald’s started rebuilding at 4950 South Dakota Avenue NE in North Michigan Park and then all of the sudden the structure came down. Apparently, McDonald’s officials decided the placement of the building on the lot was incorrect, so they decided to start over.
This is completely unsurprising.
They were (unrealistically) hoping to reopen in August this year. That will not happen, so neighbors get to enjoy a few more months of construction, a lot with overgrown vegetation and trash, and no construction updates.
The property sits in ANC 5A08. Residents may direct questions to ANC Commissioner Elaine Alston (5A08) at 5A08@anc.dc.gov or (202) 481-2115.
On July 14, 2025, the Alcoholic Beverage & Cannabis Administration (ABCA) held a roll call hearing on the application of Clinical Health & Wellness to open a medical cannabis shop at 4942 South Dakota Avenue NE in North Michigan Park. The property sits in ANC 5A08. ANC Commissioner Elaine Alston (5A08) represented the ANC at the roll call hearing.
By order dated July 16, 2025, the ABCA Board dismissed ANC 5A’s protest. The Board’s order states, “A review of the protest criteria versus the issues claimed by the ANC show that the initial protest lacks sufficient specificity under the law to proceed to a protest.” The order is just a few pages, well worth reading.
(During an ANC meeting, a couple of us tried to tell the ANC what they needed to include in a resolution, but they did not listen and here we are.)
ABCA also does not know what they are doing though. ABCA (maybe erroneously) issued an initial placard dated April 18, 2025. They rescinded that placard and readvertised a new one dated May 9, 2025, but they neglected to update the text of the notice. While the summary of the hearing information in the readvertised placard was updated with the new hearing dates, the text of the readvertised notice still listed the old hearing dates. On July 18, 2025, after the July 14th roll call hearing and July 16th Board decision, ABCA decided to issue a “corrected” notice with the correct hearing dates in the text of the notice.
In any case, at an emergency meeting on July 16, the ANC voted to spend ANC funds to retain counsel to seek reinstatement of the protest and to apply for a technical assistance grant from the Office of Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (OANC).
Join ANC Commissioners Danielle Geong (4B09) & Keith Sellars (5A01) for a neighborhood clean up along Eastern Avenue on Saturday, August 2, 2025, from 8:00 am to 9:00 am.
Meet at Eastern Avenue & Kennedy Street NE at 8am. Trash bags, grabbers, gloves, and water provided.
All ages welcome. Community service hours available.
Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George is holding a constituent services pop up today, July 21, from 3 pm to 5pm at New Hampshire Avenue & Rittenhouse Street NE. Stop by to get your community concerns addressed by the Ward 4 team.
Join the DC Department of Parks & Recreation (DPR) for the Jazz in the Park series Tuesday July 22, 6pm-8pm, at Riggs-LaSalle Rec. Bring a chair or blanket and enjoy live music with neighbors.
WASHINGTON, DC) — The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) will implement a temporary roadway detour beginning July 21, which will change north/south bound traffic patterns on Blair Road NW starting at Rittenhouse St NW continuing through to 2nd St NW. This work will be permanent for the installation of the new Metropolitan Branch Trail.
This mill/overlay of asphalt work will continue for approximately 1 week starting Monday, July 21 through Saturday, July 26 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., weather permitting.
These lane closures and traffic pattern changes are necessary to complete final paving of the roadways for installation of the multi-use trail in the most efficient manner as a part of the Metropolitan Branch Trail Fort Totten to Takoma Project. For the least amount of public inconvenience, this work will be performed as quickly as possible. During this work, a single north/south bound lane of travel will be maintained at a minimum.
Traffic controls, including signage and temporary traffic control barrels/cones, will be placed to guide motorists and pedestrians safely around the work zone. All users of the roadway are advised to stay alert and be observant of signage and work zones while traveling in this area.
Once complete, the Metropolitan Branch Trail Fort Totten to Takoma Project will include improvements such as a new multi-use trail section, sidewalks, streetlights, green area revitalization, and other streetscape elements.
For more information about this project and to stay up to date on traffic related impacts and construction progress, please visit https://mbt-forttotten-takoma.ddot.dc.gov.
Get ready to make a splash this summer as you dive into an unforgettable water adventure, packed with fun. You’ll cool off with water themed games, enjoy delicious snack bowls, and sip on refreshing beverages. We’ll have special guests to help guide you through the games. Plus, don’t miss out on the awesome giveaways! Dress in your best swimwear and get ready for a day of sun-soaked fun, laughter, and endless memories.
August 23rd – “Minecraft” Back to School Bash & Pizza Party
Enjoy some summer fun for the whole family! Join DC Fray & The Cafritz Foundation for an afternoon of inspiration + prizes as part of our community-centered Children’s Festival Event Series to provide supplies and get students and their families enthused about the upcoming schoolyear!
September 13th – Fall Carnival Experience
Ready to experience an amazing Carnival right in your own backyard? Come out and enjoy games, food, a live DJ, and loads of fun! There will even be a face painter on site! All as part of our community-centered Children’s Festival Event Series.
Join The Parks Main Street for the annual Riggs Park Art Crawl. Featuring live performances, interactive workshops, handmade crafts, and engaging activities for all ages.
For questions, contact task force co-chairs Julia Larsen (julia@lrcadc.org) & Keith Sellars (keith.sellars1@gmail.com)
* Hosted in conjunction with The Parks Main Street and ANC Commissioners Keith Sellars (5A01), Shelagh Bocoum (5A09), Garrett Moore (4B08), & Danielle Geong (4B09).
The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) held two public meetings to discuss next steps for the South Dakota Avenue NE Corridor Safety project.
The tl;dr is that DDOT will not be doing a road diet. Instead, they will focus on spot treatments at a few problematic intersections. DDOT has a new survey asking residents to rank possible locations for spot treatment. South Dakota & Galloway is one of the intersections being considered. South Dakota & Decatur is another.
For South Dakota & Galloway, they would potentially look at signal timing and improvements to crossings and cross time. For South Dakota & Decatur, they would potentially look at signalization, improvements to crossings, and simplifying the intersection.
If you care, take the survey and rank the locations. You can also suggest other locations for consideration.
It is worth taking at a look at the presentation slides and project website. DDOT explained how they determine whether a road diet is feasible. They explained the impact of a full road diet to travel the entire South Dakota Avenue corridor from Bladensburg to Riggs to show that delay would be minimal.
On weekdays, northbound motorists would see a 1 minute decrease in travel time for the entire corridor during morning peak and a 4.7 minute increase during evening peak.
On weekdays, southbound motorists would see a 7.3 minute increase in travel time for the entire corridor during morning peak and a 2.7 minute increase during evening peak.
On weekends, a full road diet would increase travel time 42 seconds going northbound and 2.3 minutes going southbound.
They also shared travel time impacts at key intersections. Spot treatment modeling videos are on the project website:
(One thing a resident pointed out to me is that these numbers are based on present day; the study does not take into account planned development along/near the corridor.)
A full road diet for the entire corridor would cost around $6.5 million. DDOT does not plan to seek funding necessary for a road diet, choosing to focus their efforts on the previously identified high risk corridors. DDOT will publish the safety study and keep it in DDOT’s library for future reference. They will use the $600,000 remaining in the project budget on spot treatments at a few locations.
Spot Treatments
Examples of safety treatments that may be implemented include:
New Traffic Signal Installation
Curb Extensions (Bulb-outs)
Pavement Marking Improvements
Turn Lane Modifications
No Turn on Red
Left-Turn Traffic Calming
Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons (RRFBs)
HAWK Signal (Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon)
Median Refuge Islands
DDOT discussed the costs of common treatments. A full traffic signal costs $300,000. Markings signs, and side street safety treatments can cost $10,000- $50,000 per intersection. Concrete improvements can start at $50k for a curb extensions or median island. So if DDOT puts a traffic signal at one of the intersections, that will use up half of the $600,000 budget for spot treatments. DDOT shared all of this to manage expectations and to emphasize that there will be tradeoffs depending on what is most important to residents.
As ranked by number of comments received, the number one and number two locations of concern were (1) South Dakota & Galloway and (2) South Dakota and Riggs. But DDOT does not plan to address South Dakota & Riggs any time soon. A DDOT representative first told me it is not part of Ward 5 (it partially is) and then they said that Riggs needs its own corridor study and that “we need to talk to our councilmember,” referring to the Ward 4 councilmember.
(Aside: This is pretty typical where the executive and council pass the ball back and forth and make residents jump through hoops again and again and do repeated backflips to get a known problem addressed. In this case, one that the city is responsible for poorly designing in the first place. Moving on.)
DDOT will select locations for spot treatment based on a few factors, including safety data and community input.
Selection criteria include:
High Injury Network intersections – areas with a history of severe or fatal crashes.
Intersections with high crash rates – based on recent traffic collision data.
School zones – especially where children frequently walk, bike, or cross busy streets.
Unsignalized multi-lane crosswalks – crossings that lack traffic signals and are challenging for people to navigate safely.
Resident-identified areas – any additional locations where the community has raised serious safety concerns.
During the meeting, DDOT stated they will prioritize locations based on crash data and turning movement (primarily looking at left turn conflicts with pedestrians). After the public presentation, DDOT told me they will also consider input from Councilmember Parker.
Timeline
DDOT will have a another meeting to review and prioritize spot improvement locations. Once the locations are selected, DDOT will finalize design and issue Notices of Intent (NOIs) before installing any treatment. DDOT expects to start spot improvement construction in fall 2026.
MPD Fourth District Commander Nikki Lavenhouse’s next Community Walk will be on July 16, 2025, at 4 pm at 200 Rittenhouse Street NE. Spread the word and come out to speak with Fourth District Command staff about your neighborhood concerns.
Next Stop...Riggs Park 
