My OperaFinally at 1234
Tuesday, June 30, 2009 1:49:43 PM
The editor has been remiss in not letting out a rousing "Huzzah!" about the Long View's move to 1234 Ninth Street, which was announced here, in RenewShaw.com. It's been a long time for 1234.
When the editor moved into the Blagden Alley and Naylor Court neighborhood, the property was occupied by City Lights, which supplied lighting to various theatrical productions around town and had an inventory of several million dollars. The editor was always amazed that that there wasn't a major theft from the business, but their security must have been really good.
After a while City Lights moved elsewhere, and the property was vacant for a few years. It was one of those places that led to a certain depression in the community, in that it sat there vacant after having been a real business. The feeling was, among many, that this slum would never improve. There was among some the feeling that anything, yes anything, was better than a vacant property.
Then came a proposal from an AMG Corporation, which wrote a piece for the March 1992 newletter:
March 1993
City Lights Night Club by Alton Gayle AMG, Inc.
AMG, Inc. has leased with an option to buy the City Lights building, located at 1234 9th Street, N.W., between "M" and "N" Streets. This building was previously used as a lighting production warehouse. We plan to develop the property as a nightclub. A hearing will be held in May 1992, concerning the issuance of a liquor license.
Our plan is to renovate the building to convert it to a nightclub, keeping the name "City Lights".
The building exterior will be kept the same, except for the addition of a door. The nightclub will have an international flavor, featuring various types of music, such as jazz, calypso, top 40 and reggae. The interior will be tastefully decorated to attract and maintain a mature professional clientele. A light fare menu will be served.
With the proposed redevelopment of the District of Columbia owned property, located directly across 9th Street, AMG, Inc. anticipates being able to support an upscale restaurant as well as a nightclub, in the future. Currently, the District of Columbia property is planned for development as an underground Convention Center with mixed-use development above ground.
We view the development of "City Lights" nightclub as a spark that may spur economic development along 9th Street. With new development in the area, others may begin to position themselves to take advantage of the major revitalization planned for the Ninth Street Corridor.
The was the proposed logo:
From a September, 1992 newsletter, probably by the editor:
City Lights Out
The City Lights nightclub has apparently died aborning. There is a regulation that certain kinds of liquor licenses are not permitted within 400 feet of a church--if the church objects.
The Salem Baptist Church objected. The District measured, and came up with 420 feet.
So did the applicant's surveyor. That's to the Church "lot", if one doesn't count the parking lot, which the applicant's lawyer said you shouldn't since it was purchased at a different time than the "church lot" and had a different lot number and there was maybe a different comma or initial in the ownership title and "church lot" really meant to the front door, anyway, not the edge of the lot, and so it was beyond 400 feet.
But there was also something in the regulations about the "shortest distance" across public space, not down the block and square across the street. So they remeasured on the bias, and lo and behold, it was well under 400 feet. Pythagoras (and Euclid) did not live in vain!
I do expect the lawyer to appeal on the basis that the curvature of the Earth was not taken into account.
The community exhaled, since City Lights was to be a go-go club. Those were active in other parts of the District then, with the requisite number of shootings and killings.
More in Few Days
The editor will fill in more on 1234 in a bit.
There is Always a Blog...
After reading that AMG piece, you're probably saying to yourself: Isn't there a blog about unnecessary quotation marks? Yes, it's here. And the never satisified among you, and you know who you are, then probably asks about apostrophes. It's here.
The editor saw these when he was checking InstaPundit this morning.
When the editor moved into the Blagden Alley and Naylor Court neighborhood, the property was occupied by City Lights, which supplied lighting to various theatrical productions around town and had an inventory of several million dollars. The editor was always amazed that that there wasn't a major theft from the business, but their security must have been really good.
After a while City Lights moved elsewhere, and the property was vacant for a few years. It was one of those places that led to a certain depression in the community, in that it sat there vacant after having been a real business. The feeling was, among many, that this slum would never improve. There was among some the feeling that anything, yes anything, was better than a vacant property.
Then came a proposal from an AMG Corporation, which wrote a piece for the March 1992 newletter:
March 1993
City Lights Night Club by Alton Gayle AMG, Inc.
AMG, Inc. has leased with an option to buy the City Lights building, located at 1234 9th Street, N.W., between "M" and "N" Streets. This building was previously used as a lighting production warehouse. We plan to develop the property as a nightclub. A hearing will be held in May 1992, concerning the issuance of a liquor license.
Our plan is to renovate the building to convert it to a nightclub, keeping the name "City Lights".
The building exterior will be kept the same, except for the addition of a door. The nightclub will have an international flavor, featuring various types of music, such as jazz, calypso, top 40 and reggae. The interior will be tastefully decorated to attract and maintain a mature professional clientele. A light fare menu will be served.
With the proposed redevelopment of the District of Columbia owned property, located directly across 9th Street, AMG, Inc. anticipates being able to support an upscale restaurant as well as a nightclub, in the future. Currently, the District of Columbia property is planned for development as an underground Convention Center with mixed-use development above ground.
We view the development of "City Lights" nightclub as a spark that may spur economic development along 9th Street. With new development in the area, others may begin to position themselves to take advantage of the major revitalization planned for the Ninth Street Corridor.
The was the proposed logo:
From a September, 1992 newsletter, probably by the editor:
City Lights Out
The City Lights nightclub has apparently died aborning. There is a regulation that certain kinds of liquor licenses are not permitted within 400 feet of a church--if the church objects.
The Salem Baptist Church objected. The District measured, and came up with 420 feet.
So did the applicant's surveyor. That's to the Church "lot", if one doesn't count the parking lot, which the applicant's lawyer said you shouldn't since it was purchased at a different time than the "church lot" and had a different lot number and there was maybe a different comma or initial in the ownership title and "church lot" really meant to the front door, anyway, not the edge of the lot, and so it was beyond 400 feet.
But there was also something in the regulations about the "shortest distance" across public space, not down the block and square across the street. So they remeasured on the bias, and lo and behold, it was well under 400 feet. Pythagoras (and Euclid) did not live in vain!
I do expect the lawyer to appeal on the basis that the curvature of the Earth was not taken into account.
The community exhaled, since City Lights was to be a go-go club. Those were active in other parts of the District then, with the requisite number of shootings and killings.
More in Few Days
The editor will fill in more on 1234 in a bit.
There is Always a Blog...
After reading that AMG piece, you're probably saying to yourself: Isn't there a blog about unnecessary quotation marks? Yes, it's here. And the never satisified among you, and you know who you are, then probably asks about apostrophes. It's here.
The editor saw these when he was checking InstaPundit this morning.
