President's Message

By Eric Langenbacher, president@burleith.org

As autumn is now official, it is time to look forward to a series of events sponsored by the Burleith Citizens Association. On Thursday, October 15, the BCA hosted a reception to celebrate the (near-) completion of the call box restoration project and the almost 100 donors who made that possible. I would like to thank all of the donors for their generosity, as well as Hop, Cask & Barrel, which hosted the party and provided beverages, and Shanghai Lounge, which provided food. The evening started with a walking tour of the five call boxes. I would like to express my deep gratitude to Linda Brooks and Ross Schipper for all of their work on this project, as well as to Liane Jones and Kay Twomey for arranging the party.

The annual Halloween party is on Saturday, October 31, from 2–4 pm at the 35th Street Tot Lot, geared toward younger children. Thanks to Kay Langenbacher (Miss Kay to all the Stoddert kids) for putting this together. This will be the last year that Kay does this (our boys are almost grown), so we are looking for a new organizer. Saturday, November 7, will be the fall clean-up; in December we will once again have Santa visits and a holiday decoration contest—more details will be forthcoming.

Most importantly, the BCA’s annual meeting will take place on Thursday, November 12, starting at 6:30 pm at the Washington International School. This is always an informative event where we have a chance to discuss in depth many issues of community interest. Representatives from Georgetown University and the ANC will provide reports. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans are invited. Other topics include issues with airplane noise, the Ellington renovation, and traffic/infrastructure. Finally, official BCA business will include a financial report and the election of the 2016 Board (see additional information on pages 3–4 of this month's Burleith Bell).

In other news, as I mentioned in my September missive, the ANC endorsed the BCA’s request for several traffic calming measures for Burleith. DDOT has responded that they are starting the process leading to the installation of yellow crosswalk signs at four intersections: 37th and S Streets; 37th Street and Whitehaven Parkway; 35th and S Streets; and 35th and T Streets. Officials are also looking into restoring several lost parking spaces on 35th Street, just north of T Street. Thanks to the efforts of Gwen Verhoff, we have received notification that 37th Street will be repaved in spring 2016, presumably in conjunction with the new bike lane markings. In addition to several new alleys and sidewalks, this augers well for the state of our neighborhood’s infrastructure.

I want to remind everyone that at the end of August, the BCA—along with ANC 2E, Georgetown University, and numerous other neighborhood associations—signed on to a legal petition for review of the FAA’s recently published new flight routes to Washington Reagan National Airport. We have also contributed to the initial legal/ filing fees along with all other community associations. The legal firm involved is Dentons US LLP. This was a time-sensitive matter because there was a 60-day statute of limitations to appeal the flight paths, which the FAA published on June 25th. Many neighbors feel that airplane noise has increased considerably and that the new flight paths in conjunction with the larger aircraft using National Airport are unacceptable intrusions into our quality of life. There has not been too much movement lately, but if things do proceed in a certain manner, all of the communities will have to engage in fundraising efforts.

Finally, I would like to remind everyone that if you have issues with neighbors’ noise, trash, etc., please report them immediately (details available on our website under About>Good to Know). There have also been reports of problems with rats in some properties or entire blocks. If you see a burrow, please contact the city’s 311 line and look for “rat abatement.” You might also consider getting all of the residents on your block to petition for a larger treatment because rat burrows can stretch for many feet across property lines.

I hope to see you at our upcoming events.