Anacostia

Wow! The July 29 front-page article on Anacostia gentrification ["Black middle class is redefining Anacostia"] was almost unbelievable. If that article had been about African Americans moving into a white area and the white residents spoke that way about blacks, your paper would have editorials condemning the residents' actions. But the article barely mentioned the racial implications of the residents' actions and views in this case. What happened to The Post's opposition to racism?

It will eventually stretch longer than a football field and, when finished, will have burrowed through four miles of clay beneath the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, leaving behind a tunnel so big it could hold two tractor-trailers stacked on top of each other. The enormous tunnel-boring machine, nicknamed "Lady Bird," made its debut Tuesday at the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant, where DC Water officials heralded it as part of a plan to significantly reduce the amount of raw...

Blog excerpt from voices.washingtonpost.com/prepspost-dc Willie Stewart, one of the Washington area's iconic coaching figures, has been fired after 29 seasons of leading Anacostia's football program. According to a letter sent by first-year Anacostia Principal R. Malik Bazzell to Stewart that was obtained by The Washington Post, the coach's failure to implement a "mandatory study hall" for his team and "no noticeable change in [Stewart's] players' behavior or attitude toward school" were the causes for his dismissal.

He followed his father, a veteran of Vietnam, into the Army, and spent a year fighting in Iraq. Arlester Jay returned home addicted to drugs and alcohol, his father said, and he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He was homeless for a time, unable to hold even a menial job. D.C. police pulled Jay's body from the Anacostia River on Monday after a rower spotted it floating near the Langston Golf Course in Northeast. The discovery ended a nearly four-week search after Jay's family reported him missing in early...

The H Street Playhouse is relocating to 2020 Shannon Place SE in Anacostia . In the face of escalating rent, H Street founder Adele Robey was forced out of the Northeast neighborhood she (and her husband, who died in 2009) had helped to revitalize. Robey said she felt positive about the move before a news conference Monday, around the corner from the soon-to-be theater, which is now a warehouse. "For many reasons, it feels right," she said, not the least of which is the serendipity of moving to the neighborhood where her husband,...

Cato June, the 1997 All-Met Defensive Player of the Year at Anacostia and former NFL Pro Bowl linebacker, is Anacostia's new football coach, Athletic Director Walter Bond said. June replaces Terry Dixon, who was fired after two seasons, Bond said. Under Dixon, who took over for longtime coach Willie Stewart, the Indians compiled a 1-17 record. Anacostia finished last in the D.C. Interscholastic Athletic Association this fall with a 0-8 overall record, including a forfeit for its role in a fight that...

The true test for whether Anthony Wright would be a repeat customer at Big Chair Coffee & Grill was whether his steak sandwich could stand on its own without mambo sauce. Twenty minutes after ordering, his plate sat before him at the bar, sans any trace of the hot sandwich or one piece of a french fry, mambo sauce long forgotten. A satisfied customer. Wright, 47, an abandoned-vehicle investigator who works in Ward 7, is one of many customers who had heard the buzz about the coffee shop since the summer.

Anacostia and McKinley must forfeit their Nov. 4 games for their roles in a fight that ended Saturday's game , D.C. Public School officials said Friday. A DCPS spokesman said player suspensions would be handled by each school's principals, and none had been issued as of Friday afternoon. After a McKinley wide receiver scored to give the Trainers and 12-0 lead with 3 minutes, 17 seconds left in the third quarter, he and an Anacostia defensive back got into a fight, according to coaches.

For more than 30 years until his death in 2000, Calvin Woodland devoted himself to the children of his struggling Anacostia neighborhood with missionary zeal, founding sports teams to keep them out of trouble, rustling up money for their families in times of crisis and welcoming the hardest cases into his own home. Yesterday, District officials showed their appreciation by renaming the street where he lived: The 2500 block of Hartford Street SE will be known henceforth as Calvin B. Woodland Sr. Place.

The woman who opened a hip new bar and restaurant this year in Anacostia has been charged in a federal drug-trafficking investigation that tracked 65 kilograms of cocaine from Texas to the doorstep of her office in Fort Washington. Natasha Dasher, 36, whose Uniontown Bar and Grill has become a popular destination in Southeast Washington, was confronted late last month by federal drug agents who had followed a tractor-trailer carrying the cocaine, about 140 pounds of it, to Fort Washington,...

THE REGION THE DISTRICT Teenage boy shot in Southeast A 16-year-old boy was shot and wounded early Monday near the Washington Highlands neighborhood in Southeast Washington, according to D.C. police. The shooting occurred about 12:40 a.m. in the 1200 block of Valley Avenue SE near Wheeler Road. Officer Tisha Gant, a police spokeswoman, said one of two men in a red, two-door sedan shot at the youth as he walked along Valley Avenue. The boy was struck in the back and leg and was...

A person on the 18-hole Langston Golf Course in Northeast Washington spotted a body in the Anacostia River on Monday afternoon, according to D.C. police. Firefighters retrieved the body and it was taken to the medical examiner's office. A cause of death, and an identification, could not immediately be determined. Officer Anthony Clay, a police spokesman, said the body was spotted about 1:45 p.m. near Anacostia Park. It was unclear where the body was pulled from the water. While police said the initial call came from the golf course in...

Dear Dr. Gridlock: I travel to the Pentagon area each day. I take Route 4 to Suitland Parkway, make a right on Firth Sterling Avenue , merge onto Interstate 295 and then the 11th Street bridge to go onto the Southeast-Southwest Freeway. Are they going to keep the entrance onto I-295 from Firth Sterling to the 11th Street bridge like this forever? It is 10 times worse now! Before construction, there was a two-lane ramp to I-295. I would stay in the right of the two lanes...

The Anacostia Playhouse, originally slated to open as early as mid-March , is probably going to be mired in parking-permit purgatory at least until the end of April, if not the end of the summer. Here's what happened at 2020 Shannon Place: The Anacostia Playhouse is the new home of the former H Street Playhouse, which was forced out of its Northeast D.C. location last summer . Rising rent left the 10-year-old theater and its owner, Adele Robey, in search of a new location.

Dunbar's Turkey Bowl win over Anacostia in November has been revoked because of the use of an ineligible player, D.C. Public Schools officials announced on Friday evening. The ineligible player competed in two games this past season, which made the Crimson Tide ineligible for the DCIAA playoffs. Dunbar beat Anacostia, 12-8, in the annual Thanksgiving Day game on Nov. 22. DCPS officials said in a release Friday that they received information about the student in late November,...

On a July evening last year, Nicole Johnson piled her four children into her Chevrolet Suburban and tried to drive them into the Anacostia River. On Friday, after months of mental-health evaluations and a decision that she is fit to stand trial, Johnson, 33, appeared in D.C. Superior Court. She plans to plead guilty to assault with intent to kill, one of her public defenders told Judge William Jackson. Unresolved in court Friday, however, was whether city...

DeQuan Turner fell to his knees, and looked up at the sky. He had just rolled out on fourth and goal from the Dunbar two-yard line, his team trailing 12-6, two minutes to go. And instead of running it — like he had all day in the 43rd Turkey Bowl — Anacostia's dynamic quarterback decided to throw. The ball sailed just high in the corner of the end zone, and Dunbar's sideline erupted with relief. Anacostia wasn't expected to make much of a run this season in the DCIAA.

The plan was for Anacostia merely to get the ball out of what Indians Coach Cato June calls "the black zone. " Stuck on its own one-yard line with roughly four minutes to play Friday night against Bell , Anacostia called for a quick fade pass. But as he dropped back to throw, senior quarterback Dequan Turner immediately recognized a blitz coming. Turner eluded a few defenders and evaded the end zone. "Next thing you know, he makes a cut-back, and I'm telling him to get down, and he...

Ballou's Nadiya Holley has developed a reputation as one of the city's best scorers in recent weeks, but her shooting stroke had all but disappeared Tuesday night against Anacostia . She scored just one point in the first two quarters, missed a bundle of shots to start the third and watched opposing point guard Morgan Smiley help the Indians build a lead over her team. That's when Ballou Coach Andrew Gaston went to Holley and issued a request: He wanted his...

Following a 7-1 start under first-year head coach Dwayne Shackleford, Anacostia suffered a long trip to New York in late December. Playing in the All-In Holiday Classic in Brooklyn, the Indians were swept in a two-game set by St. John's Villa and Brooklyn Collegiate – two muscular teams that are as close to resembling H.D. Woodson as Anacostia is going to see all season. And for Morgan Smiley , that was the true gift from the two losses. Smiley, a senior guard who is averaging 18 points...