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Clemence Tonie • April 1, 2023
Frustrated by an overload of angry emails from residents upset about literally everything, the East Chevy Chase Civic Association shut down its email list this week in favor of a large hole in the ground. Residents can stop by the centrally-located void, point their face and mouth downwards, and scream their complaints instead. (Alex Baca / GGWash)
In a surprising twist, RFK Stadium is being transformed into a multi-billion-dollar pickleball court, leaving some tennis enthusiasts feeling a little sour. While the decision may seem like a big dill, officials say the sport’s popularity has been on the rise, and they’re simply trying to serve up what the community wants. Only time will tell if this new court will be a smashing success or if it will just be a bit of a pickle. (Travis Maiers / GGWash)
In honor of the recent excavation of the McMillan sand filtration site, the project’s longtime opponents, Save McMillan Park and Friends of McMillan, will be awarded landmark status by the District’s Historic Preservation Review Board. The application was submitted by Alexandré Acab, a Park View resident who had admired the groups’ tenacity and willingness to carry forth protests of alterations to the property and its distinguished concrete catacombs, which began in the 1980s. Over the years, opponents—who, in an honorable last stand, chained themselves to construction equipment—have suggested gentle, appropriate uses of the 25-acre parcel, including a memorial for dogs killed at war, a Kmart, a prison, concert venues, and a girls’ school. Unfortunately, McMillan will instead play host to a park, community center, public pool, 146 for-sale townhomes, and 467 rental apartments. (Sandra Cheeks / Sand Lovers)
Despite the long-assumed provenance of Sam’s Park & Shop as circa 1930, newly unearthed documents reveal that this supposedly precedent-setting development—lauded for “making space for the then-technological ‘fact’ of the car” and “rationalizing and make more efficient the elements of the new metropolis”—was constructed in 2007. Researcher Alla Finnegan’s hours in the DC Archives have revealed a covenant on the property, beginning in that year, mandating an L-shaped shopping center with architecture reminiscent of high modernism. Rather than changing how residents of Cleveland Park shopped, Sam’s was instead apparently built to institutionalize the prevalent Upper Caucasia insistence that the only viable way to travel throughout their neighborhood, which is less than one square mile, is by car. We anticipate that the Office of Planning’s forthcoming design guidelines will favor a similar facsimile of 1930s architecture and travel patterns built with contemporary materials. (Neil Flanagan / GGWash)
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