You may have found yourself on Champlain Street if you were/are:
(A) Desperately looking for a parking spot in Adams Morgan on a weekend night.
(B) A cop answering a call for a murder, two shot officers and another man down, a terrible drug sale gone wrong turned mugging (leading eventually to a death).
(C) A child attending Marie Reed elementary school—-or should I say “Arie H. Reed Ommunity Learning Center.”
(D) A Washington City Paper staffer! Our office is located here.
(F) A person that enjoys rats.
For a long, long time there’s been discussion of opening up the street under the Marie Reed breezeway, which is currently closed to traffic all the time. (There’s a big curb.) After years of violent crime by that area, and a campaign promise by Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham to see through the plan, the change is finally imminent.
Fort Myer Construction Corporation was recently selected to remove the curb, and revamp the streetscape “with an open roadway, new sidewalks, street lights, trees, a bicycle lane, and improved traffic flow,” according to a listserv notice from Graham.
Construction was originally supposed to start in June.
The construction crews “want to start as soon as possible” and anticipate beginning in the next few weeks, says Jonathan Kass, a Graham staff member.
The road still may be closed during the school day for child safety purposes, Kass says. But traffic will be flowing at night—-hopefully diminishing the area’s crime problem
A mural is planned for the breezeway.