Logan Circle LGBTQ Oral History Project

LCCA, in collaboration with the Washington Blade (https://www.washingtonblade.com) and the Rainbow History Project (https://www.rainbowhistory.org) plans to collect oral histories of LGBTQ-identified people who have lived, played and recreated in Logan Circle for ten or more years. Together with the narrators that we interview, the team will plan how best to make the histories available to the public.

14th Street, NW Street Grate Art

The long-awaited 14th Street Streetscape Project, undertaken by the District Department of Transportation “to create a safer, more livable, sustainable and attractive corridor, was completed in 2020.”  Over the past two years, neighborhood activists have tweaked the improvements, shifting bench locations, lobbying for more and better litter cans, and now looking at how to improve the bio-retention areas.

Bioretention areas? They are shallow landscaped depressions that are typically under- drained and rely on engineered soils, enhanced vegetation and filtration to remove pollution and reduce runoff downstream. Look for three of them located on the west side of 14th Street, NW – in front of Jinya, Miss Pixies’ and Barcelona, and Logan Hardware and Chicken and Whiskey.  The plants in them have died; the boxes capture a lot of trash and have many weeds in them. The small black fences around them are a tripping hazard for some and limit access to streateries from the sidewalk and adjacent restaurants.

 LCCA and Logan Circle Main Streets are lobbying the District to permit LCCA to commission an artist to design a metal grate -- perhaps out of cast iron -- that would cover the boxes but still allow stormwater to drain into the boxes.  Periodically the grates could be lifted so the boxes could be cleaned, and the Logan Circle Main Street program has volunteered to do that.  The grates would be strong enough to support pedestrians and would obviate the need for the low fencing.