Fb 02 12 2014

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Serving Foggy Bottom & the West End

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Vol. VIII, No. 10

The Foggy BoTTom CurrenT

Bowser leads straw poll in Ward 4

BE MINE

■ Election: Gray finishes in

second at Democratic forum By GRAHAM VYSE Current Staff Writer

It was a victory for Muriel Bowser, but also a disappointment. The Ward 4 D.C. Council member won last Wednesday’s mayoral straw poll of Democratic activists in her home ward, but she failed to

secure the 60 percent of votes needed for their official endorsement. Of 652 ballots cast by Ward 4 Democrats, Bowser received 322 — 49 percent — while Mayor Vincent Gray came in second with 223. Third-place finisher Andy Shallal, the owner of Busboys and Poets, trailed significantly with 33 votes, with the other five candidates splitting the remaining 74 votes. These results came in the wake of a January straw poll by the Ward 8

Democrats in which Bowser also bested Gray, but similarly came short of winning an endorsement. Bowser’s campaign touted last week’s showing as evidence that D.C. craves new leadership, citing the fact that more than 60 percent of straw poll voters declined to support Gray. “My constituents in Ward 4 have seen my leadership first hand,” Bowser said in a news release. See Election/Page 25

Push to enforce noise rules sparks debate By KATIE PEARCE Current Staff Writer

Brian Kapur/The Current

Youngsters got to tour Georgetown’s Tudor Place Historic House and Garden on Saturday before convening to make Valentine’s Day cards.

If you choose to live in a dense and bustling commercial area of a major city, do you still have the right to complain about noise? This longtime neighborhood conundrum has become more glaring recently south of Dupont Circle, where a new group is working to quiet down the area’s nighttime activities. The neighborhood group, which calls itself the “D.C. Nightlife Coalition,” argues that the District has failed to enforce its own noise laws with the bars and clubs in the 1200 blocks of Connecticut Avenue and 18th Street. The group says excessive spillover noise from those venues has been detrimental to nearby residents, causing sleepless nights and other stress. Solutions may come from negotiations with individual club owners, but the coalition also wants to see action from a higher level in the city. Members are inviting See Noise/Page 10

Mayoral hopeful Lewis vows to boost access to broadband By GRAHAM VYSE Current Staff Writer

One of the things Reta Jo Lewis saw firsthand during her three years at the U.S. State Department was just how much digital technology has transformed our world. The former special representative for global intergovernmental affairs says her diplomatic globe-trotting left her particularly impressed with countries like New Zealand and Singapore, which invest heavily in broadband networks connecting citizens with high-speed Internet access. She’s thrilled that President Barack

NEWS

Obama has made this an American priority, and now, as a Democratic candidate for mayor in D.C., she’s pitching herself as the best person to ensure that every District resident can get online. Although she acknowledges that Mayor Vincent Gray is already pursuing this goal — specifically through the Connect.DC initiative from the Office of the Chief Technology Officer — Lewis insists she would do more as mayor. “We’ve taken some steps. I just think we need to go further,” she said in an interview Monday. “If we are going to become the great city that

Comment period extended for zoning rewrite proposal

By BRADY HOLT Current Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of the Lewis campaign

Reta Jo Lewis, a former State Department official, would seek private-sector tech partners.

we want to be, we know that we need to be connected, and we can’t leave anybody behind.” Like Gray, Lewis sees issues of See Lewis/Page 25

EVENTS

Fire chief speaks about recent death at ANC meeting — Page 3

National Theatre to host national tour of ‘American Idiot’ — Page 29

Brian Kapur/The Current

Residents of the Palladium and its condo board are among the organizers of a new coalition calling on the District to crack down on nightlife-related noise.

Residents who want to testify on proposed changes to the District’s land-use regulations will have more time to do so. The Zoning Commission on Monday extended the comment period on the zoning rewrite from March 3 to April 17, and commissioners will likely schedule additional public hearings. The change marks the second time the Zoning Commission has decided to hold the record open for longer on the Office of Planning’s recommended overhaul of the Dis-

trict’s 1958 zoning code. Various proposed changes have sparked heated debate throughout a process that has stretched more than five years. While backers of the rewrite’s smart-growth policies say the time is ripe for action, some residents have complained that they haven’t had enough time to read and digest the complex, thousand-page zoning regulation document released last summer. “There’s an awful lot in this code, and the time delay will give a lot of people enough time to understand it and hopefully comment on it so the See Zoning/Page 11

INDEX

NEWS

Logan parking idea sparks dissent near site on S Street — Page 7

Calendar/26 Classifieds/37 District Digest/4 Foggy Bottom News/15 Exhibits/27 In Your Neighborhood/18

Opinion/12 Police Report/6 Real Estate/17 School Dispatches/20 Service Directory/34 Theater/29

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