Night Lights Gain Popularity In Penn Quarter (7th & H St NW)

I love this look as well.

I walked by that corner the other night and the extra lighting is a huge improvement.

What about the electricity wasted though? Does this outweight the safety and aesthetic benefits? Do the lights turn off at a certain time of night?

We could use more lighting everywhere in this city.

I like the lighting, but on commercial buildings only.

Speaking of Ms. Wong, I noticed there was a notice for a hearing for a zoning exemption in the fence in front of her new development on H Street. It would be gerat to hear what she is asking for and how it affects the neighborhood.

I also saw that Yes! Organic grocer just announced a new store opening on U Street. It’s depressing that we still don’t have a local grocery store. I will not be walking all the way to the Safeway being built in Mt. Vernon, it will be quicker for me to drive to Harris Teeter in Pentagon City.

By the way, I also appreciate the extra lighting. It does deter crime, which is more important right now than aesthetics.

Local Observer – how many blocks would you have to walk to get to the new Safeway being built on 5th? I can’t imagine, if you live anywhere in PQ/GP, that driving to Pentagon City would be faster… just not possible… plus think about the exercise you get.

I agree, more lighting is better for safety. Personally, I like the Washington Globe-style streetlamps, but also like the building-mounted lights. And I assume they’re all either compact fluorescent or sodium-type bulbs, which don’t use much energy.

The walk from 7th and E to 5th and Mass takes longer than my drive to Harris Teeter at night. Living by the 9th St. tunnel makes it a breeze. And, I can carry a lot more in the trunk of my car than shlepping my grocery cart. And, I am sure when it gets cold out there will be no question that I am not walking.

BTW, breaking news, looks like Apple is going to get the lease on Nathan’s in Georgetown. Great spot. Sucks for Nathan’s and their cougar owner, who has been trying so hard to stay open.

Hopefully they are using ENERGY STAR bulbs!

In my opinion, the relatively small amount of electricity consumed by these lightbulbs is justified and well spent if it makes our neighborhood safer. If you’re worried about electricity consumption, I’m surprise your issue is not with the amount of electricity it takes to power that screeen outside of the Verizon Center.

Could we speak with Doug Jemal’s company about having a market/small grocery locate in two or three of those vacant storefronts on E Street that they just recently renovated? Could we start a grassroots lobbying effort? Thoughts anyone?

Or, how about and Apple store in one of the empty store fronts on F St.? I think that would be awesome and spark a lot of foot traffic.

Where/what was Nathan’s, again?

Doug Jemal owns the store that has been slated by the city for a grocery store. Back in June we found out that Brookville (the small grocer in Cleveland Park) wanted into that space, but the rents were too high (the rent had doubled since Balducci’s backed-out due to company problems). Many neighbors lobbied JPI about the grocery store issue before they sold the space to Doug Jemal. I’m not sure if anyone has lobbied Jemal, but I doubt that would have any affect on him. He’s a strange cookie.

There was talk of trying to get the city to pressure him on the space, but I am not sure that went anywhere.

As for the lights, they look ok to me. I wish they were better at lighting the buildings’ features but that may be too much.

Lighting like this doesn’t necessarily make the streets safer, and in fact might make them more dangerous. Bright lights create darker shadows, and also limit your night vision. (plus is causes light pollution, but that’s not really something I’m that worried about).

Read this article for information on how less light might lead to less crime, even though it’s completely counterintuitive:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/20/070820fa_fact_owen

The one strong counter to this argument is that the perception of safety is enough to cause more people to walk outside at night, which actually does make it more safe.

Local Observer, just curious, how do you know about Apple taking over Nathan’s space?

at its simplest, I just like being able to see where I’m walking at night. the lighting of a city doesn’t really hit you until you go out to the country where there are no street lights nor background noise.

of course, in the middle of the country you can see the Milky Way with the naked eye and hear the coyotes howl. the PQ is not the place to be for amateur astronomy or wildlife watching.

note: the above is not a gripe.

No. 15, I don’t think that article is applicable to the downtown heart of a major city. Losing your night vision isn’t a problem if the entire core of the city is lit well, as it should be. Shadows aren’t a problem with plenty of cross-lighting (for lack of a better term), and the high-level lighting shown in the photo. Maybe in the quiet residential neighborhoods of upper NW, darker streets might be feasible. But yes, the perception of safety is key.

From the Artisan it’s a good 9-10 block walk to Safeway. I would put money on being able to drive to Pentagon City faster. Or even Whole Foods.

Exercise and more environmentally friendly. We walk from 5th and Mass to Whole Food and are able to do a week’s worth of grocery shopping so it is doable.

16 – I read it on Carol Joynt’s blog. I am a fan of her’s – she owns Nathan’s and also has a reporting background, so while she is fairly open in her blog with her thoughts she also tends to be very credible. It makes sense – it is probably one of the most visible retail spaces in the District.

haven’t seen the new lights yet, but there is a big difference between security lighting and accent/decorative lighting. These look like the former. Those super-bright security lamps usually succeed in making everyone feel like a criminal, and cast a harsh light that’s unflattering for people, buildings, and the neighborhood. It’s appropriate for the back side of a K-mart, but not for a pedestrian-friendly neighborhood. Our goal should be to attract visitors and strollers, not scare away vampires.

Not sure why its a decision between walking to the new Safeway and driving to Pentagon City… the new Safeway will have dedicated parking in the City Vista garages. If you have a car and the 8-10 block walk is too strenuous, drive to the new Safeway and keep your tax dollars in DC.

Safeway has proven to be a poor choice compared to some other grocery stores. They’ll have to prove themselves to get my business. Whole Foods has free parking and I will continue to go there when I need higher quality produce and meats or fish. It is never a good argument to people about “keeping your tax dollars local” – that is not a competitive reason to go there. How about “they will impress you with their service or quality or experience?” Will the parking at least be free to customers?

I agree about Safeway being a poor choice. For many years, both Safeway and Giant have not been giving their District stores the attention they have been giving many of their suburban stores. I have even found the brand new Giant in Columbia Hieghts to be second rate. No where as good as the Giant in McLean for instance. I like to reward the stores that have treated the District customers well when I do shop in the District.

I am all for keeping tax dollars in DC, but in the end, I give my money to the locations that have earned my business. I believe rewarding businesses who provide me second rate products/services gives them no incentive to change. I would love to be pleasantly surprised by the new Safeway. If they earn my business, I will shop there.

It is the same principle that has me avoiding the CVS at 7th & H. I am annoyed they won’t move out and let the neighborhood benefit from improving the building. They don’t care about the neighborhood, just their own money. And the more people shop there, the more incentive they have to prevent the improvement of that corner.

I heard that the new Safeway will be an upscale “gourmet” grocer designed to cater to the new-condo Penn Quarter clientile. This is purely hearsay, however, and I would appreciate if anyone has more information on this point.

2 Points:
1) This is going to be a Safeway Select designed to compete with Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s by offering better products and service, including a full completement of Organic produce
2) CVS at 7th and H is out of the building come the end of October so the building can be redeveloped. They will then move back in once the building is complete, hopefully more like the CVS on 4th and Mass.

Yes, it is being marketed as an Urban Lifestyle Safeway. You can go here to view photos of what it supposedly will look like:
http://www.cityvistadc.com/amenities/safeway.php
Not sure if parking will be free/validated for those shopping at Safeway.

Those pictures of the street level retail on the cityvista site look great. They sure have a long way to go in that neighborhood. Hopefully it doesn’t just turn into more empty storefronts like we have in many other parts of Penn Quarter.

Thanks to commenters 26, 27, and 28 for actually doing a little independent research and reading before they reply. For a group of people constantly bemoaning the fact that they don’t have a grocery store, there is a whole lot of knee-jerk negativity towards a large, brand new, promised-to-be-upscale grocery store opening only a few blocks away.

I agree that most Safeway stores in the city are terrible, as with the Giants. I too drive to the suburbs for most of my grocery shopping, which I supplement with the local Whole Foods when I want higher end products. But I cannot wait for the new Safeway to open and I most assuredly will be giving it a test run the week it opens.

I did state that a trip to the new Safeway would “keep tax dollars in DC,” which is true, but I agree should not be the only discriminator. If the service and quality is crap, then by all means go elsewhere. The purpose of my comment was to let people know that there will, in fact, be parking at the new Safeway. All things being equal (assuming that the new Safeway is high quality and service oriented as promised), a shorter trip to the grocery store and keeping tax dollars in DC is a good side benefit.

My comment about tax dollars was an easy one to criticize, though, if you want a grocery store on your block and getting one 5 to 10 blocks away just isn’t acceptable.

I remain suspect of Safeway’s concept. I know this is a litle bitchy, but I have seen what has heppened to Safeway in places like the Watergate and don’t want it to happen here. Why should Safeway have multiple tiers of brands/stores? Treat customers in some neighborhoods better than customers in other neighborhoods? Have different levels of quality food products? Are they going to feel like they can charge more than in other stores? If you are going to deliver quality, then it should be a value up and down your organization, not just for a separate division.

Has anyone been to one of their Urban Lifestyle stores?

From an article I read in an issue of Time last year, Safeway in the process of re-vamping all of their stores. With 1000+ stores nationwide, this obviously won’t happen overnight. After reading the article I was under the impression that all new stores would take on the new look and feel (which seems comparable to Whole Foods), and older stores will gradually be transitioned over the next several years. So there’s still hope for the Watergate Safeway (where I frequently dreaded shopping too while in grad school at GW)!

Re: Safeway renovations
If you look at the Safeway on 17th St in Dupont, it was “redone” last year or the year before – they put in a faux wooden floor and really didn’t chnage much else. That said, plenty of chains vary their product line based on the demographics of the surrounding neighborhood -just look at the Gtown Safeway vs. the Adams Morgan one. Why sell highly priced groceries except in high income areas? As for Dupont, I think the issue there is more one of space than demography, which doesn’t necessarily bode well (i.e. does “Urban Lifestyle” = “small”)?

I have been to an “urban” Safeway in downtown Chicago, though Safeway operates under the Dominick’s name there. It’s not quite equivalent to Whole Foods, but they stocked more organic and higher quality foods. It’s definitely not a typical Safeway dressed in urban clothing. And, of course, prices are closer to the Whole Foods level.

The new Safeway in SE at 13th and Kentucky is actually pretty nice. If the Safeway coming to Penn Quarter is comparable, I’d be very happy…The store is clean, there is a Starbucks and a there is a sandwich counter with some pretty good sub selections. The only downside is the lack of a salad bar.