The unpermitted protest and street blockade caused a slowdown during rush hour. According to the Capitol Police Department, two protestors were arrested for obstructing and inconveniencing traffic this morning and another 38 were arrested later in the afternoon at a second protest.

The protests, marketed as  “,” were planned by . Founded in 2019, ShutDownDC considers themselves “an organizing space where organizations and individuals can come together to organize direct action.” Their goal was to urge lawmakers to fulfill the social spending promises they made now that the 2021 legislative session is coming to an end.

Protestors built five blockades out of wagons, scaffolding, and other materials, obstructing multiple traffic intersections around Capitol Hill. The blockades were organized by CODEPINK, Extinction Rebellion DC, voting rights activists and others.

Although each blockade stood for a different purpose, protestors said they were unified in their cause.

“We have to take bold actions to get people to pay attention because the government isn’t paying attention,” said Reb Spring, a 15-year old student attending Duke Ellington School of the Arts.

A difference in jurisdiction

Because demonstrations were spread out around the Hill, some fell into the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Police Department, while others were in Capitol Police jurisdiction.

After CPD warned protestors blocking the streets adjacent to the United States Botanic Garden to disperse multiple times, activists moved to the sidewalks. However, on the other side of the garden, CPD arrested two individuals and plans to .

CPD is unsure how long the arrested protestors will be held because it depends on a “range of variables,” according to a public information officer.

On the other hand, MPD seemed more lenient with protestors, allowing demonstrations to block intersections like the one at 4th St. and Independence Ave. for at least two hours. They did not make any arrests, according to a MPD public information officer.

Blockading the streets

With at least eight major thoroughfares shut down during rush hour this morning, commuters and lawmakers alike experienced significant delays.

While MPD blocked off entire intersections in some areas for demonstrations, other streets like 4th and Pennsylvania Ave. were partially closed to help ease the traffic flow.

Mark Sussman, a D.C. resident, the demonstrations on Pennsylvania Ave. caused the “most traffic” he’s seen “in two years.”

First Amendment Activity reported at 4th and Independence Ave, SW

4th and C Street, SW (Northbound)
4th & Jefferson, SW (Southbound)
6th and Independence Ave (Eastbound)
3rd and Maryland Ave, (Westbound)

MPD is on the scene.

— DC Police Traffic (@DCPoliceTraffic)

The Cause

Those interested in joining the Dec. 7 demonstrations could sign up in advance on ShutDownDC’s website and were able to choose a specific blockage point, and whether they were willing to be arrested for the cause.

Lori Emrich joined the blockade in front of the Smithsonian American Indian Museum. She said while she was not interested in being arrested, she believed, “it’s more than past time to act” on gender and social issues.

Olivia DiNucci, an organizer and activist with CODEPINK – a national human rights organization against militarism – helped organize the blockade in front of the Smithsonian, calling on Congress to “stop business as usual,” cut the Pentagon budget, divert funding to social programs and limit military carbon emissions.

“We are here for life-affirming programs,” DiNucci said. “We’re shedding light on the hypocrisy in Congress – that 778 billion go to the Pentagon budget, yet we are fighting for crumbs.”

DiNucci said despite not having a permit for the protest and road closure, she would remain at the blockade “until morning traffic is out.”

Other blockades throughout the Capitol featured a brass marching band, a go-go band aboard a flatbed truck, and a “300-foot long pipeline snake” made by indigenous youth activists. Each effort was united in their demand for the Senate to take decisive action on Biden’s $1.75 trillion Build Back Better bill before the congressional recess on Dec. 10.

Protestors ended their traffic blockades around 11 a.m. Many demonstrators relocated to Union Station to join efforts with CASA and United We Dream for a march to demand the inclusion of  immigration reform in the spending bill. By late afternoon, 38 protestors associated with the immigration reform demonstration were detained by Capitol Police, according to a spokesperson.

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The D.C. Council to ban the use and sale of gas-powered leaf blowers in the District but elected to wait three years to enforce the ban to give residential and commercial landscapers ample time to transition to electric and battery-powered leaf blowers.

The reason for the ban comes down to two major issues: noise and air pollution.

Noise pollution

According to , a policy and advocacy group instrumental in bringing the issue to the council’s attention years ago, gas-powered leaf blowers emit dangerous noise levels and are significantly louder than electric or battery-powered options.

Quiet Clean D.C. states on their website that most gas leaf blowers “impact the operator’s ears at 100 decibels or more” and according to the , exposure to 100 decibels for just 15 minutes a day can lead to hearing loss.

While the operators of noisy lawn care machinery are at the greatest risk of hearing loss, noise also causes harm to community members – 100-decibels is loud enough to penetrate walls and windows.

Air pollution

Chuck Elkins, a member of Quiet Clean D.C. and an ANC commissioner in Ward 3, said the health and climate effects resulting from the air pollution created by gas blowers make this “an environmental justice issue as well as a noise issue.”

Gas-powered leaf blowers typically operate using a two-stroke engine and burn a mix of oil and gasoline, emitting ozone-forming chemicals and particulate matter that are dirtier and more harmful than those emitted by cars.

According to a 2011 study by , a two-stroke leaf blower emits 23 times the amount of carbon released by a Ford pickup truck and the hydrocarbon emissions from a leaf blower in a half-hour of yard work are “about the same as a 3,900-mile drive from Texas to Alaska in a [Ford pickup truck].”

As with noise pollution, these fumes are most harmful to those operating lawn care machinery. Unprotected long-term exposure can lead to asthma, cardiovascular problems, cancer and a number of other health problems.

Community response

In the H Street NE neighborhood, some community members are aware of gas blowers’ health and climate effects and welcome the new restrictions. Others see the ban as a waste of the District’s time and money.

Harrison Flakker lives in the H Street NE neighborhood and said he supports the ban. “I have walked by gas-powered blowers and have been left with a gasoline taste in my mouth,” Flakker said.

But Stephen Harris, a resident of the neighboring Trinidad neighborhood, said the D.C. Council has “lost their thinking cap,” complaining that he just purchased a new gas-powered leaf blower a few months ago.

Professional response

Serena Masters Fossi owns Gardening and Gentle Redesign, a small landscaping business in the D.C. area and said the ban on gas-powered leaf blowers is a move in the right direction.

In a text, Masters Fossi said the “transition away from fossil fuel-powered vehicles and tools in landscaping is a miniature version of trying to do that more widely in society.”

But as a professional in the landscaping industry, Masters Fossi said she recognizes the financial and logistical strain the transition from gas to green-energy blowers creates for business owners and their staff.

“Most of the battery-powered leaf blowers have improved greatly and can meet almost all, but not all, of the professional uses required,” Masters Fossi said in an email to 91����. “Very large properties would likely use up multiple batteries and that would be difficult to accommodate,” she said.

In her own business, Masters Fossi has already begun the transition to battery-operated blowers ahead of the Jan. 1, 2022 ban. She said her business recently purchased a backpack-style battery-powered blower which “holds the heavier batteries needed to last during the day.”

Masters Fossi shared that the new blower cost about $500, which is almost twice that of the average gas-powered backpack leaf blower but said, “we won’t really know the expense comparison until we use it for some time vis-à-vis how long they last.”

For businesses and individuals in the District looking to transition to green-energy blowers before the end of the year, offers a rebate program to offset the cost of the new equipment.

Enforcing the ban

When it comes to enforcing the new ban, Elkins said much of the responsibility will fall on individuals.

After the ban goes into effect on Jan. 1, if D.C. residents notice gas-powered leaf blowers being used in the District, they can take a picture and submit it along with the name of the landscaping company to the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. The DCRA will then review the submission and issue a warning or a $500 fine when appropriate.

“We want people to comply,” Elkins said, “we don’t really want to cost them money […] we’d rather have them spend the money on buying the equipment rather than paying some kind of fine. It’s ultimately a $500 fine and you can buy a blower for less than that.”

D.C. isn’t the only local government working to eliminate gas-powered leaf blowers. The Town of Chevy Chase and Chevy Chase Village have already banned gas blowers and and both seem poised to follow suit.

The post Here’s what you need to know about DC’s leaf blower ban first appeared on 91����.

For the Afghans who made it to the United States, a long journey of resettlement and integration lies ahead.

The Afghan Resettlement Report looks at the journey of evacuees fleeing Taliban rule in Afghanistan, how they are navigating the U.S. government resettlement system, and how they are being welcomed by nonprofits and local communities.

This podcast was reported and produced by the graduate broadcast journalism students of American University’s School of Communication.

Thank you to the local experts who shared their time and knowledge with the reporters of this podcast:

Mark Greenberg, Senior Fellow at Migration Policy Institute
Hannah Tyler, Research Analyst at Bipartisan Policy Center
Monika Evstatieva, Senior Producer of Investigations at NPR
Glenn Luther, Former Photography Instructor in Afghanistan
Rep. Abigail Spanberger, (D-VA) (Statements from House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on 9/13/21)
Noah Klose, Community Outreach Manager at Homes Not Borders
Billy Coleburn, Mayor of Blackstone Virginia
Lea Ruscio, Field Operations Lead for Team Rubicon
Kenneth Speicher, Parishioner at United Methodist Church
Timothy Young, Press Secretary for Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
Huneressa Fariad, translator from the All Dulles Area Muslim Society
Taliha Masroor and the rest of her family, owners of Bistro Aracosia

Supervising Faculty: , SOC Professor 

The post The Afghan Resettlement Report first appeared on 91����.

In addition to extending the streetcar and connecting it with the Benning Road metro station, the DDOT project will also reconstruct bridges and enhance bicycle and pedestrian facilities along the roadway. The final design phase will conclude in spring of 2022 and construction will begin in spring of 2023. The project is estimated to cost just over $178 million, with anticipated completion in 2025 or 2026.

Delia Houseal is the vice president of the . This advocacy group focuses on the expansion of the streetcar east of the Anacostia River, something Houseal said is essential for “transportation equity.”

For Houseal, transportation equity means the “unfair distribution of transportation resources, services, policies [and] infrastructure” and “transportation equity is the need to make sure that those resources are distributed in a way that is fair and does not disadvantage any population.”

According to Michael Havlin, president of the Friends of the D.C. Streetcar, the Benning Road streetcar expansion would serve 37,000 Ward 7 residents living within walking distance of the proposed new streetcar stops. These residents currently live in what Havlin called a “transportation desert” and do not have easy .

“Ward 7 is isolated and separated from the rest of the District,” Havlin said. “We need permanent infrastructure that unites instead of divides right now […] When you look at the history of transit planning in D.C., it’s pretty clear that Wards 7 and 8 were intentionally separated from the rest of D.C.”

Houseal and Havlin both said that it’s important that the solution to this transportation desert take the form of the streetcar extension rather than a bus. To them, the streetcar represents a permanent system, while bus routes can be changed and removed.

“It’s just about having permanent infrastructure,” Houseal said. “Regardless of fluctuations in the budget, it’s there. They can’t completely strip it away.”

Houseal said that even though her neighbors in the Benning Road area would benefit most from the streetcar expansion, she’s heard a mix of responses from her community as the project has continued.

Many of her neighbors fear that running the streetcar down Benning Road will lead to further gentrification of the Northeast. Houseal reminds them that “the streetcar does not cause gentrification; what causes gentrification is the lack of affordable housing options.”

Despite Houseal’s rejection of this argument, about the existing D.C. Streetcar and gentrification have been widespread since the streetcar’s inception, with many of H Street’s new, luxury apartments appearing concurrently with the streetcar’s arrival.

Gentrification is just one of the many concerns voiced by critics of the current H Street NE streetcar and DDOT’s plans for its expansion. Other frequently cited complaints are that the streetcar is too slow and contributes to traffic on H Street NE.

Rhea Rossiter Koziatek has lived in the H Street NE neighborhood for two years and said when she first moved to the area, she had “very high hopes for the streetcar” but since then has found it to be “very underwhelming.”

The D.C. Streetcar does not have its own lane on H Street NE and is confined to the right-most lane of traffic in either direction. This means the streetcar shares a lane with cars and must obey the same traffic laws as the rest of traffic. Koziatek said it also means the streetcar is, “constantly getting stuck behind cars illegally parked in the lane.”

There are two trains stuck behind this extremely privileged and entitled .

I asked him very nicely to move while emphasizing the trains but he’s not having it. please help.

— Robb Dooling (@Robb4DC)

Connor Garvey, another resident of the H Street NE neighborhood, said running the streetcar in the right lane of traffic makes it “by far one of the slowest options of travel because it competes with inconsiderate drivers.”

Other complaints about the D.C. Streetcar have come from high places, including a by D.C. councilmember at-large and mayoral candidate Robert White to defund expansion and redirect $35 million in streetcar funding to fix public housing issues. White’s motion was ultimately defeated within the D.C. Council, but by a narrow margin.

Despite its controversy, the current stretch of streetcar on H Street NE serves an important purpose for its users, who ride the streetcar free of charge, though ridership has decreased during the pandemic.

According to the acting director of DDOT, Everett Lott, between Feb. 2016 and Feb. 2021, the D.C. Streetcar carried more than 4.4 million passengers to destinations along H Street NE.

Before the pandemic, the streetcar served 3,000 passengers a day, on average. In an email statement, Lott said “ridership dropped significantly during the public health emergency,” and the “streetcar currently averages 1,000 passengers a day, but ridership continues to increase as the city reopens.”

For neighborhood resident Vernita Brown, the traffic obstacles do not outweigh the convenience of a free ride on the streetcar. Brown said the streetcar is “great for just running down the street to the Giant grocery store” and making other stops along H Street NE.

As the Benning Road expansion project continues, its current design includes plans to run the streetcar down the center of the six-lane boulevard, rather than in the right-most lane, eliminating traffic issues cited most frequently with the H Street NE streetcar.

The Benning Road project is expected to break ground in spring 2023, but both Houseal and Havlin said they are only cautiously optimistic about that timeline.

The post As DC Streetcar plans expansion, community conflicted over merits and faults first appeared on 91����.

In its third weekend of shows amid the ongoing pandemic, the Atlas presented two performances of its annual Café Flamenco show on Oct. 24 featuring D.C.-based flamenco dance troupe, Furia Flamenca. The cabaret-style show featured four dancers, a live band, and all the theatrics and foot-stomping of traditional flamenco.

Douglas Yeuell, executive director of the Atlas, said over his seven years leading the arts center, he has seen a lot of ups and downs, but in Feb. 2020, it seemed like the Atlas had reached a positive turning point. That month their annual festival was “the most successful festival we ever had financially,” he said. But that feeling didn’t last long.

Like other , the economic and societal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic hit the Atlas particularly hard. The center closed to the public at the start of the pandemic and in July 2020, the Atlas laid off 30 part-time staff and 10 full-time staff, bringing the entire Atlas staff to a total of just six people.

“That’s an element of tightening our belts, which just allowed us to hunker down and turn all the lights out,” he said. “Saving on utilities every which way we could save in order to sustain us to get to the other side.”

Yeuell said this kind of drastic measure, along with emergency funding from the federal and local government, carried the Atlas to this fall.

Now that the Atlas has reopened, Yeuell said their strategy is to play it, “safe versus sorry.” While planning the fall season, he said his objective was to “do things in a very controlled, contained, smaller way, so that when we do it, we do it right,” he said.

For Yeuell, this strategy means playing it safe both in programming decisions and in the theater’s rules and regulations. Over the summer, the Atlas joined theaters across the D.C. region in an alliance to require proof of vaccination for all audience members and performers at all theater events. Attendees are also required to wear masks during performances.

In addition to being among the Atlas’ first events since the start of the pandemic, Sunday’s Café Flamenco shows were also Furia Flamenco’s first mainstage performances since then. In the week leading up to the shows, Estela Velez De Paredez, dancer and artistic director of Furia Flamenca, said returning to the stage felt “beyond comprehension.”

“It was the most alive I have felt since this whole ordeal started,” she said.

Though excited to be back performing for a live audience, just days before Sunday’s shows, De Paradez expressed concern over ticket sales. “We usually would have been sold out by now,” she said, “we’re not even 50-percent at any one of the shows.”

Ticket sales increased later in the week and by Sunday, the matinee show was sold out and the evening show was about 85% sold. The evening audience may have been smaller, but De Paradez said from the stage Sunday night that they were louder and more generous with their shouts of “olé!” than the afternoon crowd.

For Josephine Hill, marketing manager for the Atlas, this type of connection with the audience is what the H Street NE performing arts center is all about.

“The performing arts are so valuable to the community because not only does it raise morale and build people’s spirit, but it finds another way for us to connect and remember the value of having community,” she said.

With a full season ahead and pandemic precautions in place, Yeuell said he sees a full rebound in Atlas’ future, but a lot will depend on how this season goes and how enthusiastic the performance-going public is.

“We are fine as long as we continue to stay on track with all of our goals and spending and budgetary things,” he said. “It’s a work in progress, but I am hopeful. I am optimistic.”

The Atlas has programmed a for the fall and will soon begin planning their 15th anniversary celebration in the spring of 2022.

The post After 20 months of empty stages, the Atlas is on the road to recovery first appeared on 91����.

Residents of D.C.’s H Street NE neighborhood have seen firsthand the shortcomings of Vision Zero. Keya Chatterjee, ANC Commissioner for 6A01, called the effort a “total failure.”

“So far, the D.C. government has failed to take [Vision Zero] seriously and the numbers show that that is the case,” she said. “People are dying on our streets.”

Just last year, the District saw 37 traffic fatalities – the highest number since the Vision Zero effort began. So far in 2021, there have been 30 traffic fatalities and suggests the final 2021 number may surpass the 2020 record.

Chatterjee said she’s grown accustomed to seeing cars that have crashed and flipped over on the sidewalks and roadways of the H Street NE neighborhood. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she said the problem worsened.

“We had a three or four-month period where we were having a driver crash into a building on H street every few weeks. One of those was at Joy of Motion dance studio, and if it had not been during COVID, it would have been a mass casualty event,” she said. “The driver drove straight through a dance studio that usually is full of children taking dance lessons.”

Staff from is on the scene this evening helping to secure the building. The car drove through the Marley studio window & also damaged the actor’s lobby.

Donate to Atlas here:

Donate to Joy of Motion here:

— Joy of Motion Dance Center (@JOMDC)

The issues that Chatterjee is most concerned about on H Street NE are the exact problems that Vision Zero was designed to prevent.

D.C.’s Vision Zero plan is modeled after a by the same name that saw a level of success in Swedish cities that remains to be seen in the District.

When the plan launched six years ago, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced : data, enforcement, education and engineering. The Vision Zero website states, this combined approach is necessary because “infrastructure alone will not reduce fatalities and serious injuries to zero.”

Since 2015, Mayor Bowser and the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) have implemented measures to increase safety for pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers – from high tech crosswalks to expanded bike lanes and safer dual-turn lanes. But it hasn’t been enough to make a dent in the number of serious injuries and fatalities.

While traffic fatalities and injuries have increased across the District, the highest concentration has been in Wards 7 and 8. Most recently, On Oct. 6 in Ward 8, two school children and their father while crossing their street on their way to school on National Walk to School day.

Loren Copsey co-owns a bike shop along H Street NE, The Daily Rider. He told 91���� Vision Zero is “little more than a hashtag” or “a thing you can put on a bus shelter or the side of a metro bus.”

He said the failings of Vision Zero are evident in the comments he hears from his clients.

“Their biggest fear is being struck by a car or being struck by a car while they have their child on the back of their bike,” Copsey said.

According to Mark Eckenwiler, ANC commissioner for 6C04, it’s no wonder cyclists are intimidated on D.C.’s roadways.

“It’s bad out there, and anybody who walks around any part of this city for any amount of time sees that,” he said.

Eckenwiler has worked for years to bring traffic-calming measures to H Street NE.

In February 2020, Eckenwiler, Chatterjee and other ANC commissioners sent a letter to DDOT listing dangerous intersections on H Street NE and requesting specific solutions, including turn lanes, bulbouts, signaled turn arrows, and protected bike lanes.

According to a letter shared with 91����, Everett Lott, Interim Director of DDOT, responded to the commissioners’ letter 19 months later, rejecting some requests and promising to conduct studies for others.

For Chatterjee, this type of lag in response time is a symbol of Vision Zero’s failings. “It’s unbelievably slow to get tiny, tiny pieces of incrementalism that are completely inadequate for the task of saving lives,” she said.

91���� reached out to DDOT for a comment about this complaint, but did not receive a response. However, Mayor Bowser held a press conference this morning addressing the issue.

“The work to make our roads and sidewalks safer is urgent,” Mayor Bowser said. “In addition to accelerating safety improvement projects citywide, residents deserve a faster process for having dangerous conditions on our roads and sidewalks addressed. We can and will move faster, and implementing a streamlined, less bureaucratic process is the first step in making that happen.”

Eckenwiler isn’t hopeful that the audit of Vision Zero will lead to much change, but he thinks the for Lott later this month could be the right venue to voice concerns.

He said the confirmation hearing is “a clarion call for everyone in the district who thinks that things need to get better in a hurry on our roadways.”

Until then, he’ll continue using the only real power he said he has as an ANC member, “that of the bully pulpit,” but according to Eckenwiler, “it’s not a very tall pulpit.”

The post Vision Zero, a ‘total failure’ for the H Street NE community first appeared on 91����.

Washington’s largest street festival re-emerged on H Street NE on September 18 for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. While festival organizers and vendors said the pandemic shifted the planning landscape of the event, on the surface, the H Street Festival seemed back to normal.

In the days and weeks leading up to this year’s festival, Anwar Saleem, Executive Director of H Street Main Street, and his two colleagues worked around the clock to coordinate and execute the annual event, which went virtual in 2020 during the early days of the pandemic.

Planning this year’s festival stretched the staff in new ways as the pandemic wears on and continues to affect everything from supply chains, market prices, labor availability, and volunteerism in the H Street community.

“It’s a lot of work. It’s kind of tough,” Saleem said, “we don’t have as many volunteers because of the pandemic, so you have to retool and readjust.”

In a normal year, Saleem said, the H Street Festival would utilize over 100 volunteers. This year, they had just 20 volunteers confirmed on the Friday before the festival.

The same shortage applies to festival vendors. Saleem said this year’s event would have fewer vendors and he suspected the reason was, “one of two things: one is fear of what’s happening down at the Capitol, the other is the pandemic.”

While the effect of the pandemic was evident in the festival’s planning, Saleem said he wasn’t sure how much it would affect actual festival attendance.

Pre-pandemic, the festival would attract between 125,000 and 150,000 people throughout the day. In an interview after the festival, Saleem said this year they had just over 100,000 visitors.

Saleem emphasized the importance of a strong turnout both from vendors and attendees for the H Street community.

“The festival serves as a Black Friday for many of our businesses,” Saleem said. On the day of the festival, businesses make, “three, four, five times as much as they would make on a normal day and so they’re able to pay a lot of bills.”

For Saleem, the festival is about keeping the H Street corridor “vibrant” and “economically feasible”

Though Saleem said the ongoing threat of COVID-19 may keep some vendors and attendees home, he was confident in the steps the festival planned to take to keep people safe from the virus.

Saleem said he stocked up on hand sanitizer and 20,000 disposable masks for distribution and said the festival would require masking except while eating or drinking.

On the day of the festival, police presence was significant due to the at the Capitol, but the mood among festival-goers and staff seemed unaffected by events outside H Street and the COVID-19 pandemic.

As in years past, the festival spanned 11 blocks, from Third Street to 14th Street, and featured seven stages, each displaying bands, dance performances, and fashion shows simultaneously. Food trucks and artisans lined the streets, and attendees searched for patches of shade and misting tents to cool off on the unusually warm September day.

Jenilee Hurley, Co-Owner of EthicGoods, said it felt “nuts” to be back at a bustling festival, selling her handmade jewelry.

Business for EthicGoods “stalled out” during the pandemic, Hurley said, but they’re growing now and have been “eager to get back and sell and do business.”

For Angelica Callanta, owner of Found Objects, the gains of selling at the H Street Festival and returning to the festival circuit outweighed the risks of COVID-19 and the right-wing rally at the Capitol.

Callanta said her business is, “maybe at best 40% of what it was before the pandemic.”

“I make most of my money traveling and doing markets,” Callanta said, “and obviously I couldn’t do that [during the height of the pandemic], so the money went away.”

For the people and businesses that rely on the festival, showing up on Saturday was worth the risk, but the risk may have been higher than advertised.

Despite Saleem’s assurance that masks would be distributed and required at the H Street Festival, there was no signage or noticeable enforcement of these rules and the majority of attendees and vendors seemed to forgo their masks.

In the end, Saleem said he was happy with how this year’s festival went and has received a lot of positive feedback already.

“Some people said it was the best festival ever,” Saleem said, though he wasn’t sure if he entirely agreed.

The post H Street’s ‘Black Friday’ returns with annual festival first appeared on 91����.