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Happy Monday, D.C., and welcome to fall. Weekend temps didn’t quite feel like sweater weather, but it’s coming. Here’s some news you might have missed while you were at H Street Festival (not to be confused with HFStival).
Speaking of HFStival …
D.C.’s alt-rock festival of the ’90s and ’00s was resurrected on Saturday. About 25,000 attendees (and their children) showed up for the one-day event at Nats Park featuring a lineup with Liz Phair, Incubus, Tonic, Violent Femmes, Death Cab for Cutie, and (the final live performance of) the Postal Service.
“Watching people and their kids sing back lyrics that were a thought in my head over 28 years ago is really something,” Tonic lead singer Emerson Hart told City Paper contributor Christina Smart during a backstage interview after the band’s set.
Jenny Lewis and Ben Gibbard close out HFStival with a headlining set from the Postal Service; Credit: Christina Smart
The original festival, organized by 99.1 WHFS, ran from 1991 to 2011 and mostly took place at RFK Stadium. The reboot wasn’t as much about reliving former glory, Smart writes. “Rather, it was about recalling a musical legacy while potentially building a new one.” Read Smart’s full review of the more civilized and less mosh-pitty festival on our website.
River Cleanup
About 60,000 pounds of trash and 33 boats will be removed from the Anacostia River over the next four years. The cleanup is largely funded by an almost $1 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Local jurisdictions will kick in another $156,000.
The effort will focus in part on the Lower Beaverdam Creek tributary, a 1,500-foot portion of the river with one of the highest concentrations of trash including car parts, appliances, and other metal scraps. Larger items, such as abandoned or sunken boats, are tricky to remove. It’s hard to tell what condition they’re in, and disturbing them could cause hazardous liquids to leak into the water.
Crosswalk Crosstalk
The man who hit a 12-year-old girl with his Land Rover as she was walking home from school is now charged with reckless driving. Earl Darryl Curtis was initially given a citation for colliding with a pedestrian, a lesser offense, for the Sept. 9 incident.
Curtis, 58, ran a red light and hit Paisley Brodie while she was in the crosswalk at Sixth and D streets NE in Capitol Hill. Paisley’s foot was fractured as a result of the collision, and she has had trouble walking. At the time of the crash, the Land Rover that Curtis was driving had racked up more than $18,000 in unpaid traffic citations. On Friday, when he was charged with the more serious crime, that figure had jumped to $20,270 in unpaid fines, including a ticket for going 16 to 20 miles per hour over the speed limit on the same day he struck Paisley.
In an interview with the Washington Post before he was charged with a more serious crime, Curtis alleged that it was Paisley who hit his vehicle and left a “nick.”
“We’re talking about a kid that could have very well ran into my car, and did,” he said.
Give Me a Break
Angela Alsobrooks benefited from tax breaks on two properties she owns in D.C. and Maryland, according to CNN. Alsobrooks, Maryland’s Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, improperly received property tax exemptions for a house she owns in Northeast D.C. that are meant for District residents who live in their homes and for low income senior citizens—neither of which apply to her. The exemptions saved her almost $14,000, CNN reported.
Alsobrooks, the current Prince George’s County executive, also owns a townhome in the county. She has received the homestead exemption since 2008, and continued receiving the tax break that’s only available for residents who live in the exempted home, after she started renting out the property sometime later. Alsobrooks’ campaign has said she is working with the respective jurisdictions to repay any taxes she owes.
—Mitch Ryals (tips? mryals@washingtoncitypaper.com)
Third graders who were changing in a locker room after a swim class at Dunbar High School told their parents they saw high school students having sex. D.C. Public Schools Instructional Superintendent Gwendolyn Payton notified parents of students at Capitol Hill Montessori, where the third graders go to school. D.C. police are also investigating the incident. [WUSA9]
A gas explosion at a Columbia Heights apartment building on Friday has displaced 110 residents. Three of the 35 units in the building have been condemned. At least one tenant has been hospitalized with serious injuries. [NBC Washington]
You can start ordering free COVID tests starting later this month. Each household can receive up to four nasal swab tests, which can detect the current strain of the virus. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has not announced when the tests will become available, but they can be ordered online at COVIDTests.gov. [WTOP]
By City Paper Staff (tips? editor@washingtoncitypaper.com)
A group of nine media organizations boycotted a “background briefing” by officials at the District’s troubled Office of Unified Communications, arguing that Mayor Muriel Bowser and other government officials should answer questions about the city’s 911 call center transparently instead of trying to massage information released to the press. [WJLA]
Drivers for the DC Circulator say they still need help from the District government as the bus line’s elimination looms this fall. Some employees expect to get new jobs at Metro as the transit service takes over some Circulator routes, but those will likely come with pay cuts. The union representing most drivers is rallying outside the Wilson Building Monday to make their demands clear. [WUSA9, WJLA]
D.C. pays three teams at the Department of Public Works to scrub graffiti from buildings all year round. But is it worth the effort, particularly when the city is also trying to spur the preservation of some street art? “The urge to scribble and leave a mark somewhere is deep in the psyche of the human animal,” says artist Eric B. Ricks. [AP]
By Alex Koma (tips? akoma@washingtoncitypaper.com)
Bipartisan bar (whatever that means) Political Pattie’s opened Friday in the spot formerly occupied by gay bar Dirty Goose. The name, which is more eye roll-inducing than the theme, is a pun on political parties. Reporter Maura Judkis wants to know if the new bar stands a chance in this “partisan town.” [Post]
D.C. pastry chef Paola Velez, who’s cooked with Selena Gomez and Zooey Deschanel and co-founded Bakers Against Racism, will release her first cookbook, Bodega Bakes, on Oct. 1. [Axios]
Indian restaurant darling Daru is expanding with a new sister restaurant. Tapori will open on H Street NE this fall and serve Indian street food that explores the country’s regional flavors as well as “Indian-ish” tropical cocktails. [Axios]
By City Paper staff (tips? editor@washingtoncitypaper.com)
Credit: Cameron Whitman Photography
Dance With Death: The Comeuppance Gives DMV Natives of a Certain Age Their Due
The audience for this Branden Jacobs-Jenkins play from 2023 should be up for 9/11 voyeurism and thinking about immortality.
Credit: DJ Corey Photography
Primary Trust Is a Welcome Friend, Right on Time
Signature Theatre’s production of Eboni Booth’s intimate drama, reminds us that sometimes good things happen, too.
Credit: Margot Schulman Photography
Round House’s Sojourners Is an Intimate Epic
Mfoniso Udofia’s ambitious nine-part examination of the Nigerian immigrant experience begins with quiet power.
The musicians who make up the National Symphony Orchestra have unanimously voted to authorize a strike against the Kennedy Center for the upcoming opening weekend. Collective bargaining negotiations hit a snag over what the NSO’s union says is an unacceptable wage gap between its musicians and their peers in orchestras of similar size and stature. It’s been 46 years since NSO last went on strike against the Kennedy Center. [Post]
Mabel O. Wilson, professor of architecture, planning, and preservation and chair of the African American and African Diaspora Studies Department at Columbia University, will give the 74th A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts this spring at the National Gallery of Art. [NGA]
Last year, our Swing Beat columnist Michael J. West broke the news that Fred Irby III, director of the Howard University Jazz Ensemble, would retire in 2024. After 51 years, one of Irby’s former students looks back at the legacy of the trumpeter and professor. [Capital Bop]
By Sarah Marloff (tips? smarloff@washingtoncitypaper.com)
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