The Dupont Circle ANC is having its regular monthly meeting on February 10 at 7pm at the Brookings Institution (1775 Massachusetts Ave NW). Our agenda (available HERE) includes several items of note for our neighborhood:

• Application by Policy Restaurant (1904 14th St) to add a "Dancing" to their existing entertainment endorsement. 
  • Under our alcohol regulations, a restaurant must be licensed to allow dancing in their establishment. While this restaurant is allowed a DJ and live music, they are not currently allowed dancing. According to the restaurant, many of their customers dance and the they seek to be in compliance with DC regulations.  

​

• Comments on proposed regulations for pub/bar crawls. I have led this effort for the ANC and will propose several changes to the regulations to further protect neighbors. See my BLOG POST on the topic. 

• Historic preservation review of construction at 1514 Swann St for a rear addition and third floor rear pop-up. I plan to support this project because of an agreement made between the developer and neighbors. I'll closely monitor the compliance of that agreement to make sure the neighbors are protected during construction. 

• Proposal for adjustments to 16th St Buses, including service improvements, traffic improvements, and physical adjustments of the road and stops. Major changes would include:
  • Reserve one lane (alternating in AM and PM) of 16th Street for buses only. 
  • Consider adding a 5th lane between U Street and L Street to accommodate a dedicated bus lane. 
    • We would make sure to maintain the historic viewshed of 16th Street and protect our beautiful views of the White House.
  • Add off-board payment and all-door boarding to speed up boarding. 
  • Add transit signal priority to keep buses moving.
  • Eliminate a few bus stops, including the Northbound Q Street stop and both V Street stops. 
  • See the latest proposal from DDOT on their 16th Street Bus Project site.

If you have questions or comments about either of these, please let me know. I hope to see you there!

Late last year the DC Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (ABC) responded to the requests of ANC Commissioners, neighbors, MPD, Business Improvement Districts and others by adopting emergency rules and proposing permanent rulemaking on pub/bar crawls. A pub crawl is when a group of establishments organizes together to promote an event where ticketed customers go from place-to-place in a certain time. There are usually drink specials and a theme around a holiday, like Valentine’s Day, New Year’s, or Halloween.

 Pub crawls are common around our neighborhood and can draw thousands of people to the area at once. The area south and west of Dupont Circle sees the most pub crawls, but they are becoming more commonplace on 14th Street. Generally, after these crawls the streets around the participating establishments are littered with trash and there is nobody held responsible for cleaning up. With thousands of people on the sidewalks and streets at once, there is also no coordinated public safety effort like there would be with any other event.

 The ABC Board’s proposed regulations are actually very good; they require pub crawl promoters to be registered and to plan for the public safety of their participants and the clean-up of the neighborhood. These promoters charge anywhere from $10 to $40 for a ticket to a pub crawl and have almost no overhead besides a website. They need to take responsibility for leaving our neighborhoods in the same or better shape as they found them.
​
 I will introduce a motion this Wednesday for ANC 2B to support the regulations with a few modifications, such as that the Board should not approve more than one pub crawl in the same place at the same time. Please take a look at the regulations and let me know what you think!