Arena Grand Opening

Ward 6 Town Hall: Vincent Grey's "One City" tour hits Ward 6 on October 27th.  Town Halls in other wards have been well-received.  This is our opportunity to put Southwest on the presumtive mayor's agenda.  Notably though, this continues a disturbing pattern of Ward 6 meetings located north of Southwest and Capital Riverfront.

WaPo on the Waterfront:  Washington Post development writer Derek Kravitz just released his detailed account of the Southwest Waterfront proposal unveiling last week at Arena Stage.  

M Street Bike Lanes: Some may recall the recent effort by Councilmember Tommy Wells to put bike lanes on existing M Street SE and SW automobile lanes.  After outcry from Southwesters and business leaders in Southeast, the proposal was withdrawn, but the idea is still hovering.  Greater Greater Washington wonders if floating bike lanes would be a better solution.  Inspired by a plan in Kentucky, bike lanes might shift between the parking lane and the center traffic lane of M Street depending on the time of day.  More bike lanes would be a nice amenity.  Given the limited width of our streets and dramatic increases in development, a multi-modal transportation study would be a great first step.

Arena Stage Homecoming Grand Opening: Southwesters are looking forward to Arena's opening celebration, a "full day of free events, including performances by Broadway and Tony Award-winning stars, conversations with prominent Arena Stage artists, presentations by local arts groups and more."  Due to limited availability, events in the theater spaces require tickets.  Tickets become available tomorrow (Friday); Arena expects the tickets to sell out soon; don't wait to get yours.

Hirshorn Explosion:  The Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden has an exciting new director and vision.  This week the Museum announced plans to dramatically rethink and expand the sculpure garden.  This is on top of a plans to convert the courtyard into a seasonal international exhibition hall.  Perhaps the National Mall will once again become a sort of backyard recreation and amusement space for Southwesters that it was before the 1910 McMillan plan turned the Mall into a monumental front lawn for the nation.  A future Built Southwest DC post will expound on this turn of events.

Speaking of Culture...:  A three-week outdoor cultural festival begins tomorrow in the NoMa neighborhood.  Given Southwest's cultural institutions - Arena Stage, the art gallery planned for Randall School, the Smithsonian Museums - and other notable public spaces, this might be a great model for a future Southwest culture festival.  Zestfest, as it is being called "will bring the NoMa neighborhood to life, celebrating the beautiful outdoors in DC’s autumn season – and focus on enlivening public spaces for use by residents and employees. Join us for Zestfest, a three-week party on the streets of NoMa! Fun unleashed for 3 weeks October 7-23, 2010."