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* There's not a single story that I can find in the media this morning talking about how last night's predicted commuting catastrophe went, on the roads, at RFK, or on the Metro. The announced paid attendance at the ballpark was 23,340, up a few thousand from Monday night, and judging from the 55 M web cam the vast majority of people arriving by Metro made it before first pitch. (The 10-4 drubbing at the hands of the Marlins was a disaster of a different sort.) Anyone have any problems?
(Ah, just as I finished writing, here's Metro's report, saying that yesterday was its ninth highest weekday ridership day ever, though tourists and cherry blossom visitors were part of the mix, too.)
* My Ballpark and Beyond column in today's Post looks at how the dire predictions for Opening Night and Monday night didn't come to pass, and also the many different ways you readers reported getting to the ballpark on Opening Night (so, thanks for all those comments--made my job easy this week!).
* An Inquirer columnist disses concessionaire Aramark's performance at Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park, noting that the company, which had been in charge of concessions at RFK, didn't get the gig at Nationals Park. (He also tosses in a plug for Ben's half-smokes.)
* I'm going to add a list of available cash lots to my Stadium Parking page--I'd love some on-the-ground reports to make sure I'm getting them all (Splash, Chez Resnick at First and L, 80 M, South Capitol and Potomac, perhaps Positive Nature--anyone seen any others? If so, where, and for how much?).
 

Thanks to reader S. for pointing me to this post last week from the Post's Going Out Gurus with news of the "KegBus", which on Fridays and Saturdays is running shuttles to Nationals Park from four Capitol Hill bars -- the Pour House and the Hawk and Dove on Pennsylvania Avenue and Finn Mac Cool's and the Ugly Mug on Eighth Street -- dropping bar patrons off at Second and L, SE (about three blocks from the ballpark). It's sponsored by Miller Lite, and to get on board you need to buy a beer at one of the bars and get a special wristband. There's two runs to the stadium before the game, and two or three after. No drinking on the bus, though! Read the post for more info, or visit one of the bars and demand that they tell you all about it.
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* NBC4 sets the vibe with "Traffic Nightmare Expected in DC Area This Evening", a short piece on the Wizards-United-Nats trifecta. They list the area around RFK as the possible flash point, though all of yesterday's Impending Doom stories pointed toward Metro and Gallery Place. Remember, if you're using the Nats Express, you have to park at RFK's Lot 7 tonight, not Lot 8. Dr. Gridlock has more on getting through the evening.
* WJLA gets into the mix with "Parking Woes Surround New Stadium," retelling a story they had on Tuesday about legally parked cars getting towed during Monday's ballgame. There's also a quote from a school bus driver lamenting not being able to park free on the street anymore, which I'm guessing won't be garnering much sympathy from the pro-Canal Park folks who want the buses out. And there's dueling quotes from Barracks Row shopowners, one who doesn't think it's fair and another who likes the turnover of spaces. There will be a public meeting next month to get first feedback on the new parking restrictions.
* For something a bit more uplifting, try Catholic News Service's "Turning a Stadium into a Cathedral for Pope's Mass in DC."
And, an observation:
* Conventional Wisdom leading up to Opening Day: "OMG! The stadium is going to be a disaster because there's going to be such huge traffic, transit and parking nightmares!"
* Conventional Wisdom after Monday's game: "OMG! The stadium is going to be a disaster because no one's going to go!" (Never mind that it was NCAA finals night/cold as hell/the Marlins/a school night/a game not in season ticket partial plans.)
Stan says the Nats will get the attendance they deserve. Ask the Capitals about that, when you're mulling whether to fork over a couple thousand dollars for a ticket to one of their playoff games.
 

UPDATE: Wow, thanks to reader S for seeing that Metro's already taken down the press release and the YouTube video. Must not have been going over quite so well, as I thought might be the case. Here's my original entry:
Apparently Metro was pretty pumped with the buzz they got a few weeks ago from their YouTube video showing marshmallow Peeps deciding to take Metro to the ballpark for Opening Night. They've now produced a sequel showing a Pope Benedict Bobblehead doing the same thing in advance of his April 17 mass. I hope the WMATA folks have said a few Hail Marys. You can check Metro's Papal Visit page for more information on how to use transit to get to the mass. (And here's the press release on the bobblehead video.)
POST-UPDATE UPDATE: Channel 7 reports (and the Post, too) that the archdiocese was unhappy about the ad.
 

(Moved to its own entry, to give the Pope Bobblehead stuff its own glory.) Here's Metro's press release detailing preparations for Wednesday's Triple Threat of the Wizards, DC United, and the Nats all in action at the same time. And, because you can never have enough press releases, here's one from the Nats (link to come) explaining that, when DC United is playing at RFK, Nats Express shuttle parking will be in Lot 7: "Washington Nationals fans choosing to park for free at RFK Stadium and take the Nats Express to Nationals Park may park in Lot 7 on all D.C. United home game dates. RFK Stadium Lot 8 will not be available to Nationals fans on Wednesday, April 9 or any future date in which the Nationals and D.C. United each play at home. Lot 7 may be accessed off the Whitney Young Bridge (East Capitol Street) or off of Oklahoma Avenue. The Nats Express begins ninety minutes prior to Nationals home games." WTOP asks about whether there will be any patrolling of DC United fans parking free in Lot 7 (apparently not).
 

It's not the same as seeing townhouses sprout from the ground, but it might still be worth noting that today's data feed for DC building permits shows a slew of approvals for Capitol Quarter addresses on Fourth, Fifth, and I street addresses....
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Apr 8, 2008 3:29 PM
The mayor's office has put out this press release today officially announcing the regional high school baseball tournament to be played at Nationals Park on May 31. Called the "Congressional Bank Baseball Classic," it will "include four games being played between area schools. The day will begin with a game between the DC Interscholastic Athletic Association (DCIAA) East and West Division champions, which will be followed by a game between the two top private school teams, followed by an All-Star game featuring players from across the region. The tournament will end with the DC High School Baseball Classic, where the DCIAA and private/parochial game winners will face off." Read the release for additional details.
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Apr 7, 2008 10:42 PM
(Decided to move this to its own entry.) As expected, it wasn't anywhere close to a full house at Nationals Park tonight. I wandered over to South Capitol Street at about 6:30 and traffic wasn't even backed all the way up the exit ramp from the freeway, and M Street was all but empty. The T and U lots at Capper didn't seem to get more than about 30 cars between the two of them, though the E, F, J, K, and L lots were pretty full. And I see that the garage at 80 M Street, which is not an official Nats lot, is offering cash parking for $20. (Looked like the Positive Nature folks on New Jersey Avenue are running a cash lot, too?) Lots of people coming out of the Navy Yard station at Half and M at 6:30ish--if you arrived that way and walked to the Center Field Gate, you were greeted by the Budweiser Clydesdales. Inside the park, lines were shorter (since there were fewer people) but there's definitely still grumbling about the speed of service.
What was your experience tonight, either getting to and from the park or inside?
As for media reports, the Post paints a similar picture to what I saw, that the evening went smoothly. WJLA focuses on the glitchy scoreboard, apparently not finding anything else of note to report from the evening. Announced paid attendance was 20,487, says AP, noting that Metro says they noticed almost no difference from a normal rush hour. Another AP story talks about the scoreboard problems and the fact that the ballpark was less than half full. Next stop, Wednesday's triple threat with the Nats, the Wizards, and DC United all in action at the same time. And with warmer weather on the way, finally.
UPDATE: A few more media reports: WJLA reports on overzealous towing (and note the interesting use of an un-cleaned-up quote from an angry resident). The Examiner focuses on Metro having little trouble.
 

Apr 7, 2008 10:53 AM
Residents and commuters should remember that tonight is the first weeknight game at Nationals Park (vs the Florida Marlins), scheduled for a 7:10 pm start time. Dr. Gridlock has a good roundup on all the different ways to get to the ballpark on his Get There blog, and here's Metro's press release from Friday on how they're preparing. Let me know how the evening goes for you, either as stadium-goer or commuter. (Reports again on how you got to the game and any counts on the number of cars using the parking lots would be great, too, since I can't get to all the lots myself. Post 'em in the comments.)
With the weather setting up to be icky again (my kingdom for a sunny day), and with tonight being the NCAA basketball championship game, and with the visiting team being, well, the Marlins, I'm not sure if this game is going to set any attendance records, meaning it probably shouldn't be used as a real indicator of how weeknight games will go. But the commentariat will certainly be watching for any meltdowns to jabber about.
To tie this into the *real* big sports news of the weekend, tonight's pre-game ceremonies will have Cristobal Huet, Mike Green, and Coach Bruce Boudreau of the Capitals throwing out the first pitch and announcing "Washington, Let's Play Ball."
ADDING: The Nats are home six of the next seven days (tonight, then Wednesday through Sunday). Wednesday night will bring issues with Nats Express parking at RFK because DC United will be playing and with Metro thanks to a Wizards Game at Verizon Center, and Friday will have the Caps playing their first playoff game vs. the Flyers at Verizon Center at the same time as the Nats are playing on South Capitol Street.
 

Apr 7, 2008 10:35 AM
From the Nats: "The Washington Nationals today announced that the public and tour groups will have the opportunity to take tours of Nationals Park. The tour program will begin on Saturday, April 19. On all non-game days, the team will offer a behind-the-scenes look at the ballpark through an hour and fifteen minute tour. Led by a Nationals Park guide, tours will begin at the Center Field Gate and encompass many areas of the ballpark the public cannot usually access, including the premium club areas and suites, the Shirley Povich Media Center and the Nationals dugout, batting cages and bullpen." There will be four tours a day (seven a day on the first two days), and times, prices, online ticket purchase, and additional details are available at nationals.com.
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Apr 7, 2008 9:29 AM
This morning's Post has an interview with Deborah Ratner Salzberg, president of Forest City Washington, the company behind The Yards and much of the Capper/Carrollsburg redevelopment. Bullet points of interest:
* Salzberg says that they're "just beginning construction" on the 170-unit Pattern Shop Lofts, with work starting this summer on the 45,000-sq-ft Boilermaker Shop retail space and the Waterfront Park. All three are expected to be opened by fall of 2009 (though I think there will be later phases of the park with additional offerings, such as the water taxi piers she mentions). The Boilermaker Shop will have "restaurants, a bookstore and possibly a climbing wall."
* She says (as we heard a few weeks ago) that construction will begin this summer on the Capitol Quarter mixed-income townhouses at Capper.
There's going to be more of the interview posted today on the Post's WashBizBlog; I'll add the link when it's available. UPDATE: Here's the complete interview.
This would have been a fabulous time for me to post those new photos I took in The Yards this weekend, but alas, I haven't gotten to them yet. Soon, I promise.
 

Apr 6, 2008 12:15 PM
The sunlight wasn't fabulous when I ventured out yesterday, but I still took a pretty complete set of photos along First Street between I and N. With 909 New Jersey now peeking up above ground level, and Velocity racing upwards, the skyline is morphing yet again. And of course work continues on Onyx and 100 M (both due to be completed this summer). As I've mentioned a few times lately, the streetscape improvements to First Street have made the stretch from I Street southward pretty much unrecognizable from what it was a year or so ago (or even three months ago).
While you can look at the complete set of photos I took yesterday, I'd suggest taking a little extra time and looking at these new shots by intersection, where you can see the photos paired with their "befores": check out First and I, First and K, First and L, First and M, and First and N (above); and there's also some updates at Half and N by the ballpark Center Field Gate and New Jersey and I thrown in as well. Click on the See All Photos of This Angle wherever you see it to see the photos between the Before and the After (or, more precisely, the "During").
Soon I'll post some additional photos from yesterday of portions of The Yards, which is now more accessible thanks to the new parking lots. And if the sun ever comes out again, I'll venture along Half Street and other locations that need updating.
 

Apr 4, 2008 4:28 PM
This just in, from a Nats press release: "The Washington Nationals today announced they will offer individual game parking passes to fans for all 2008 home games at Nationals Park. The opportunity to purchase individual game parking is only available online by visiting nationals.com/waytogo." The lots/prices are: $15 per game at Green Lot HH (under the freeway at South Capitol Street); $20 per game at Orange Lot W (the old Capper Seniors lot at 7th and M); and $40 to Red Zone parking (lot unspecified). See my Stadium Parking map to see where these lots are (I'll update it with this info momentarily).
Quoth Stan: "After careful review of the experience of the first weekend, the team is pleased to make available yet another amenity for fans, daily parking spaces at various price levels." After some lots were pretty empty on Opening Night, this offer isn't surprising.
And note, again, that single-game parking in these lots is available only online--you have to buy it before you go to the game, because it won't be available by just driving to the lot. This presumably is being done with an eye toward mitigating the congestion that would arise when people wander around looking for parking. We'll see if they were *too* successful on Opening Night, and some people who dutifully took Metro or the Nats Express from RFK and saw few traffic problems and empty lots decide to now arrive by car, reversing the initial success.
If I were to offer advice, I'd say that buying a parking pass isn't a bad idea for weekend games, but I'd still counsel caution at the idea of driving to Near Southeast during a weeknight rush hour.
UPDATE: The Post writes about the new parking options, and also about Monday night's game being the next big test for getting fans to and from the ballpark.
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Apr 4, 2008 12:39 PM
* Metro has put out a press release (one of many to come, I'm sure) describing their plans for the first weeknight game, the April 7 game at 7:10 pm. This comes right during rush hour, and the Green line isn't exactly empty at that time of night, and until they get more of their new railcars into service Metro can't add trains, so this might be the first blemish on the Nationals Park commute. Ditto with folks driving to the lots close to the ballpark. There will be plenty of trains after the game, but an early (or late) arrival might be advisable.
* Tonight's ballpark Open House has been cancelled, but you can still go on Saturday (read how to sign up). And there may still be time to sign up for those singing auditions!
* Until then, we can take one more look back at what went right over the inaugural weekend via WTOP with Mark Seagraves's column: "The fact is very few people thought this past weekend would happen in the almost flawless fashion that it did. District officials built a state-of-the-art stadium, the first sports stadium to certified environmentally friendly, and they did it in only 22 months." He mentions that the ballpark construction itself was on budget (arguments can continue until the end of time about land acquisition costs and other "soft" costs); I'd add that three other pretty big ballpark-related projects were also completed on time over the past two years: the upgrading of the Navy Yard station west entrance (remember the wailing a few weeks back about how it wasn't done yet?), the streetscape upgrades to Potomac, First, and I (remember what I Street looked like about three days before Opening Day?), and the summer 2007 Douglass Bridge Extreme Makeover and accompanying improvements to South Capitol Street.
I must say that I'd been dreading this week for about three years now, imagining the gallons of ink and millions of electrons that were going to be spilled complaining about the ballpark not being finished, or detailing the massive cost overruns, or the traffic meltdown, or the transit catastrophe, or any combination therein. In fact, I've hardly known what to do with myself over the past few days since there's been so little news (which I'm sure is equally true for the media on the ballpark beat who no doubt expected to be writing all those stories).
I think the era of four or five new posts a day at JDLand is over, which hopefully most people won't see as a bad thing. But be prepared that there might not be new posts every day anymore, if there's nothing to report. There will still be photo updates every few weeks, though!
 

Apr 3, 2008 8:30 PM
The Washington Blade has an article about the possibility that Ziegfield's and Secrets--two gay bars at Half and O SE that were shut down in 2006 to make way for Nationals Park--may be reopening in Buzzards Point, at 1824 Half St., SW. The first part of the article is about how DC police chief Cathy Lanier had to weigh in after initial comments from 1D commander David Kamperin made it sound like the police would oppose the relocation. The rest of the article deals with the application for a liquor license, for which a hearing is scheduled May 14.
 

Apr 3, 2008 2:40 PM
From a press release, word that you American Idol dreamers have two chances at glory at the ballpark on Sunday: "Washington Nationals fans will have the opportunity to audition to sing the 'The Star-Spangled Banner' at a 2008 Washington Nationals game. Fans interested in participating in the auditions must e-mail anthem@nationals.com. The first one hundred fans to sign up are guaranteed a spot in the auditions; walk-ins will not be accepted. Contestants will be asked to sing the National Anthem in under 90 seconds, the length of the anthem during pre-game ceremonies. Fans selected to perform the anthem at a Nationals game will be notified throughout the season."
Following those auditions, "the Nationals will host tryouts for one 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' performer as part of MLB's 100th anniversary celebration of the song. Five finalists will be chosen from these auditions and one winner will be selected to perform 'Baseball's National Anthem' during the Seventh Inning Stretch at the Nationals game on May 19th vs. the Philadelphia Phillies. The final winner will be chosen through a fan vote at a later date. [...] To participate in this competition fans must RSVP at entertainment@nationals.com."
The auditions are Sunday (April 6), with the anthems starting at noon and the 'Ballgame' singers starting at 4:00. Alas, the events are not open to the public. But if you're close by, you might get to hear anyway.
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Apr 3, 2008 9:58 AM
* The Post's District Notebook finds out that council member David Catania is "over" the financing deal for the ballpark that he so vociferously opposed: "Catania quickly put a damper on [Kwame] Brown's enthusiasm, saying the stadium still is not worth the more than $611 million of public money. 'I will never think differently,; Catania insisted. 'I'm over it.' "
* WTOP has another stadium-related shocker to add to its Hall of Fame: the car and schedule magnets being given out at the April 10 home game could demagnetize your Metro farecard if they get too close to each other! Don't let this happen to YOU.
* The Post's DC Wire blog posts about the plans for the four-game high school baseball series to be held at Nationals Park on May 31 (first reported by the WashTimes in early February). There will be a fundraiser for the event on May 3, asking for "corporate contributions up to $15,000 and individual contributions up to $3,000."
* My Ballpark and Beyond column in the Post's District Extra this week is about the surprise approval last month of the design for RiverFront on the Anacostia, on the Florida Rock site just south of the ballpark. See my project page for renderings of the plans as well as photos of what the 5.8-acre site currently looks like.
 

Apr 2, 2008 11:30 PM
* If you haven't been inside the ballpark yet and want a free visit on either Friday night (April 4) or Saturday afternoon (April 5), WTOP tells you how. (Hint: it involves signing up for the Nats promotional e-mail list.)
* The credit crunch on Wall Street has caused the interest rates on a small portion of the stadium bonds to skyrocket, says the Examiner.
* WTOP says that Metro feels pretty good about its performance on Opening Night (as do most riders, at least evidenced by the comments you folks have been posting), but they've got a few tweaks in store for the homestand next week. They'd like you to stretch out on the Navy Yard platform, please, and will put in more trash cans so that people can toss drinks and food and cigarettes when they get to the station.
* Speaking of the Navy Yard station, if you've done that walk up Half Street and want information on what's planned there beyond the renderings on the east-side fences (or want to see what was there up until about 18 months ago), check out my Monument Half Street page. Plans for the west side of the street, where the Southeastern Bus Garage has now been vacated by Metro, are stalled thanks to a lawsuit brought by Monument against WMATA after the land was sold to Akridge in a way that Monument contends was unfair.
* This is a little old, but I'll toss it in anyway (I *think* I haven't already linked to it; it's all just a blur now)--MLB.com reports that Stan Kasten was very happy with how Opening Night went in terms of the fan experience.
 

Apr 2, 2008 3:46 PM
As I wrote a month ago in an entry that was visible for about five minutes thanks to all of the ballpark news, the first new-construction buildings at The Yards are now winding their way through the zoning process. It's two buildings that look like one--a 320,000-square-foot 10-story office building at 401 M Street and an 11-story 180ish-unit apartment building to its south at 400 Tingey Street. They would both have ground-floor retail, but it's what's planned for 401 M that will probably have everyone's attention, because a grocery store is proposed for that space, just inside the historic wall and sentry tower on the southeast corner of Fourth and M. The office building would be LEED certified, and the 20 percent of the residential building would be affordable housing units (up to 50 percent of the area median income).
The Parcel D plans have already been reviewed by the National Capital Planning Commission in advance of its meeting tomorrow (April 3), with the executive director reporting that the buildings are not inconsistent with the Comprehensive Plan and do not adversely affect any other federal interests.
The Zoning Commission Southeast Federal Center Overlay Review of the plans and three associated variance requests is now rescheduled for April 24. ANC 6D will be bringing it up again at its April 14 meeting, after electing not to vote on the project at its March 10 meeting because of the lack of a community benefits package--see the summary of the meeting in the April Hill Rag (I was out of town, and so don't have any additional details).
As for start dates, documents earlier in the year had the office portion getting started in 2008 for a 2010 delivery, and the residential portion starting "based on market conditions." However, a reader is reporting that a sign now up at Fourth and M says "Coming 2011." I'll see if I can get any further details. (UPDATE: Yup, 2011 is now the current "estimate" for the project. So, don't stop shopping at the Capitol Hill Safeway just yet.)
In the meantime, work on renovating the Boilermaker Shop at Third and Tingey into a 46,000-sq-ft retail pavilion should be starting Any Minute Now, as should the rehab of the Pattern Joiner Shop across the street into a 170-unit apartment building. Both are expected to be finished in 2009. (Did you see the light displays being projected onto the Pattern Joiner building during the ballgames?) The Factory 202 residential rehab of the old Gun Mount Shop at Fifth and M, which is a joint project between Forest City and PN Hoffman, also now has a "Coming 2011" sign.
 

Apr 2, 2008 1:59 PM
If you're interested in knowing everything about the food at the ballpark, check out all the Washington Post offerings today, starting here. There was also a chat with folks from the Food section staff. UPDATE: For a different point of view on today's Food section offerings, I point you to the Washington City Paper's City Desk blog.
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