Bruce News

Alas, you can't be at two places simultaneously, unless you've mastered the whole space/time continuum thing, or unless you're hopelessly insane.

In my case, the boxer meetup (see previous post) was happening in faraway Annandale at the very moment the Pleasant Plains Civic Association meeting was taking place.

On the agenda was an update on the long-neglected Bruce School. It's a huge, beautiful building, and I've been hoping someone with vision would magically appear and breathe life into its old halls again. Renovate it all you want, but please don't knock it down. It's an awesome thing, up on that hill.

So, while I couldn't make the meeting, at least I can offer some relevant minutes, courtesy of Darren Jones' post to the Columbia Heights listserv:

--Caesar Chevez Public Charter School Chief Operating Officer David Robinson says that renovation will be complete at the Bruce School campus in December 2008. The school is at Kenyon St. and Sherman Ave. and will house 420 students by 2011. Association members reminded Mr. Robinson that the school promised community space for afterschool activities. Principal Andrew Touchette spoke about the mission of the school and its hiring process for teachers. Construction Program Manager Eric Thompson says that a trailer will be set up in the coming months to hire neighborhood residents for construction jobs. The civic association will be informed.

Also of note was Chairman Thomas Smith's announcement that a new sit-down restaurant is coming to Lower Georgia Ave. I could find no further details, so as always, stay tuned...

And finally, it was confirmed that the grand opening of the love-it-or-hate-it DCUSA Shopping Center will be Saturday, the 8th of March. I can imagine the place being mobbed by barking mad photo-bloggers, hungry for discount tube-socks:

You ready to rumble, Prince of Petworth? I'll race you to those damned tube-socks! Digital Cameras at ten paces!