It starts at 6 pm, and promises a "mystical environment for guests," with street performers, fortune tellers, a mariachi band, a beer garden, and a "celebrity graveyard," allowing attendees to "pay their respects to the likes of Elvis."

Admission is free, and it runs until 10 pm.

And it took me every ounce of strength to not write this as Stefon: "Near Southeast's hottest ghoul-based event is GraveYards...."

The ANC commissioners running for 6D02 and 6D07 may be unfamilar to you, so I suggest again that you read the questionnaire they were all nice enough to fill out (even though one of them told me it was like filling out a college application).

Neighborhood residents will be voting not only for mayor and the aforementioned ANC Commissioners, but also for their Ward 6 council member, either Charles Allen or Libertarian candidate Pranav Badhwar. Voters will also choose the delegate to the US House of Representatives, two at-large council members, and the city's attorney general, which is an elected position for the first time. There's also the race for Ward 6 representative to the "state" board of education, and the "shadow" US House/Senate seats.

And if none of those races get you excited, there's also the vote for or against Initiative Measure No. 71, the "Legalization of Possession of Minimal Amounts of Marijuana for Personal Use Act of 2014."

Here's the Ward 6 sample ballot, if you don't believe me. (Scroll to page 5 for the "back side.")

The DC Board of Elections is happy to tell you that early voting is underway, up through Saturday, Nov. 1. The closest early voting center to Near Southeast is at the King Greenleaf Recreation Center, at 201 N St. SW, and it's open from 8:30 am to 7 pm daily. It's only had 504 voters so far as of this writing, the lowest of any of the early voting centers. Let's step it up, people!

If you're feeling old-school and you plan to vote on Election Day itself (that's Tuesday, Nov. 4, if you REALLY aren't paying attention), you can find your polling place here, though for most of the residents of Near Southeast you'll be voting at Van Ness Elementary School, 1150 5th St. SE. It will be open on Election Day from 7 am to 8 pm.

The Voter's Guide (with its upside-down DC flag now fixed) can help you as well.

Plus, when you vote you get one of these, which is really the best part of all.

UPDATE, 10/30: The Hill is Home interviewed mayoral candidates about Ward 6 issues. See who responded, and who didn't.

The proposal apparently is to exchange both the L Street building and its land for various streetscape and construction improvements to be performed by the District along of Martin Luther King Avenue adjacent to St. Elizabeths. "In return, the District would own 49 L Street SE in fee simple with full rights and ownership over the property."

Quoting the quote from the EHN release: " 'This exchange takes GSA further with work necessary to complete the DHS headquarters,' Norton said. 'In the process of moving a DHS priority, GSA has found a way to dispose of the long-underutilized 49 L Street SE by exchanging it for construction services from the District.' "

This is the building that residents have eyed as possibly becoming the Half Street Market, envisioning the building as a "public venue for a food market, restaurant, and flexible community space." (The group recently posted a new video rendering of their reimagining.)

As the release says, this is still in the negotiations stage, and even if the city does get the building there will then be I imagine a process about how to handle the site, but it's the first sign of movement since the flurry of activity about the building and the market idea back in 2013.

The building, as yet unnamed and generally just referred to by some variation of the oh-so-attractive "Square 769N Residential" moniker, is planned for the northern part of the block bounded by 2nd Place, 3rd, L, and M, next door to the recently discussed 250 M Street office building. It will be 11 stories, and will include 34 units of public housing in its 171 rental units. There will also be about 4,100 square feet of ground-floor retail. (The above image shows the block as seen from Canal Park, with the apartment building at left and 250 M at right.)

This funding is not enough to get the building's construction jump-started, but a) it's better than no funding at all and b) it probably helps move the process toward full funding forward.

It has already spent plenty of time in Zoning Land, having received its second-stage PUD approval back in 2009 followed by time extensions in 2011 and 2013.

This is one of four** large mixed-income apartment buildings still to be built as part of Capper's redevelopment, with two more planned for the other blocks along the east side of Canal Park plus one on the old trash transfer site at New Jersey and K.

* For sticklers, this award is part of the 2014 Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) awards from the Housing Production Trust Fund.

** It could be five, since the Housing Authority is looking at splitting some units out from one planned mixed-income rental building (not this one!) into a second market-rate condo building. But there has been no public indication of movement one way or the other on that, and a planned Zoning hearing this fall has been pushed back to at least early 2015.

Move-ins are being billed as starting around Dec. 1, at least if you go by the Craigslist ads for low-floor units posted in the past few days. The base prices as published give the rate for 1 BR/1 BA units as being between $1,970 and $2,165, going up to 2 BR/2 BA ranging from $2,385 to $3,485. The Craigslist ads include two studios priced at $1,600 and $1,770, and on all units advertised there are showing a current one-month-free deal. (Parking and storage units extra.)

The building isn't open for tours yet, but there's PDF floor plans on the official web site.

However, if you're looking for something a bit more three-dimensional, they've created virtual tours of five upper-floor units (hence the killer views depicted): a studio, a junior one bedroom, a one bedroom, a one bedroom/den, and a two-bedroom penthouse.

You can also virtually tour the roof and the ground-floor amenity spaces. And check out the new twilight-time building rendering.

The office, in the trailer across from the building on the southeast corner of 1st and K, is open seven days a week.

(By the way, this is the first rental apartment building in DC for Toll Brothers.)

This study is actually an Environmental Assessment, meaning there are very specific structures and steps that DDOT will be following.

Its stated purpose is "to develop a premium transit system that improves transportation capacity, connectivity, mobility, and safety through an integrated, multimodal transportation corridor" across Near Southeast, Southwest, and the Anacostia Historic District.

Also, the study is to address "east-west transportation needs between the Southeast and Southwest Washington communities of Anacostia and the Waterfront."

One tidbit in the materials that may be news to people: If streetcars are chosen as the area's "premium transit mode," there will be a need for storage and/or maintenance, and so this Environmental Assessment "will review and analyze potential sites for a Streetcar facility."

Eight potential sites meeting the initial minimum requirements have been identified: three near M Street, SW, three at Buzzard Point, and two along 7th Street, SE, including, believe it or not, the Blue Castle, aka the Navy Yard Car Barn, where streetcars were stored and maintained during the many years they ran through the city before being shut down in the early 1960s.

A second public meeting is expected in early 2015, with the draft Environmental Assessment and associated public hearing in spring and the final document late in the year.

(Thanks to Josh Hart for the heads up about the web site, and no thanks to DDOT, who didn't mention it in their releases about the meeting. BAH!)

It states that DCHA is "seeking proposals from qualified service providers with a broad experience in providing programs, fundraising, property maintenance, asset management, and community outreach in a mixed income environment,"

Responses are due on Friday, Nov. 21.

Earlier this year the Housing Authority ran a community "engagement process" to come up with a series of recommendations on what sort of programming and activites the neighborhood would like to see at this building, which presumably/hopefully/possibly whichever operator is chosen will use to guide their plans. And this gives me an excuse to post the final copy of the report.

UPDATE, 10/29: It took a while, but the RFP itself is finally available.

While the demolition of Building 213 has decreased the neighborhood's Spooky Quotient considerably, there's still some Halloween-related activities if you're looking for more than just trick-or-treating.

* (ADDED) Canal Park is having a free Pumpkins in the Park shindig on Saturday, Oct. 25 from 11 am to 1 pm on the north block at 2nd and I. "The fun includes small pumpkins and decorating tools, face painting, and a performance by Mr. Skip at 12:00pm! "

* Alas, the Haunted Ship Barry at the Navy Yard is dark for a second year in a row, but on Saturday the Navy museum is holding a Haunted Gallery. Little kids are invited from 4 pm to 7 pm, and teens and grownups from 7:30 to 10 pm. See the flyer for more information, and be sure to give them a call to be filled in on the security requirements for getting to the museum.

* There's a Halloween Party on Sunday, Oct. 26 from 5 to 7 pm at the Courtyard by Marriott at New Jersey and L, being put on by the Waterfront Church, which a few months ago began offering services there on Sundays at 10 am. The party is free and will have games, pumpkin painting, candy, and more. The Facebook event page has more info, and you can RSVP there so they don't run out of goodies.

If you want to venture a little farther afield, here's TheHillisHome's guide to Halloween events.

Anything else? Post in the comments--and if I get more announcements, I'll update this.

The neighborhood's newest retail establishment, Unleashed by Petco, says it will be opening at the Boilermaker Shops in the Yards on Monday, Nov. 3, thus beating Harris Teeter to the finish line by two days.

As you can see in the photo provided by my personal stringer, the store will be open from 9 am to 9 pm six days a week, and 10 am to 7 pm on Sundays.

The shelves are already looking well stocked, and certainly this could become a prime destination for the bajillion dog owners who live nearby. And I suppose I should make a full disclosure that I assume I will duck in there on occasion, as my not-dogs continue to eat us out of house and home. (It's a good thing they are cute.)

Officially, "The purpose of the study is to develop a premium transit system that improves transportation capacity, connectivity, mobility, and safety."

This is an off-shoot of the first M Street SE/SW study from 2011 and 2012 as well as the subsequent Special Events transportation study that was completed earlier this year. In other words, the study after the study after the study.

The meeting will be held at at Van Ness Elementary at 4 pm (! - I asked if that was a typo, and was told no). DDOT's announcement of the meeting says that "the public will be provided an opportunity to discuss the transportation issues and potential solutions that will be addressed in the study."

BALLPARK SQUARE: Grosvenor and McCaffery Interests, developers of this hotel/residential/retail project along the west side of 1st Street north of N Street, say that they hope to start construction before the end of the year, though at this point the building permits are still pending. The 325-unit apartment building and 170-room hotel (operator not yet announced) are expected to take about two years to complete once construction gets underway. Their "intention" is to construct at the same time the separate two-story retail pavilion nestled between the arms of the Hampton Inn on the corner of 1st and N, with an eye toward completing it before the 2016 baseball season, though no tenants have been secured at this point.

Once construction begins, the existing sidewalk will be blocked, with pedestrian traffic expected to be moved to a covered structure in the 1st Street parking lane (and bike lane), though the final configuration is still under negotiation with DDOT, with the Nationals offering input as well, given the site's location just north of the ballpark.

Also, note that the 99 M Street office building planned for the north end of this block is being developed separately by Skanska and is on its own schedule, separate from these projects. (Building permits are filed, not yet approved.)

250 M: WC Smith is asking the Zoning Commission for a second third extension to the second-stage PUD for its long-planned 230,000 square foot office building, which was originally approved in 2007, then revised in 2008, and given its first extension in 2010 (and another in 2012). This would push the required date to file for a construction permit to Sept. 2016, with construction being required to commence by Sept. 2017. WC Smith's representatives noted the current state of office development basically requires a building to be 70 percent leased before financing can be procured, but that recent activity in the office leasing market "gives us hope" (especially with about 33 million square feet of GSA leased space turning over in the next few years.) Smith's Brad Fennell said that the company is "committed to the site," feels that office space "is the right use for this spot," and has been working hard to find potential tenants. (All of which is laid out in more detail in the zoning filing.)

The ANC supported the request for an extension 6-1, with Roger Moffatt voting against.

Fun fact for readers who haven't been around for this building's history: it is actually part of the Capper/Carrollsburg Planned Unit Development. It would only occupy about half of the block bounded by 2nd Place, 3rd, L, and M--the north end of the block is slated to someday be a Capper mixed-income apartment building.

(In other WC Smith-related news, I was told that the company hopes/expects to begin pouring the slab at the bottom of 800 New Jersey/Whole Foods in two months or so.)

1244 SOUTH CAPITOL: JBG came to the ANC looking for its support for this project's Capitol Gateway Overlay Review, which I wrote about in detail a few weeks back and which is scheduled for Nov. 13.

There have been some small tweaks to the design, along with now an additional variance request to have two 20-foot and two 30-foot loading bays, since original plans to have a 55-foot bay and two smaller bays has run afoul of the teensy width of the block's alley and of Van Street, where the bays will be located. Otherwise, this remains designed as an apartment building with 290ish units and about 26,000 square feet of retail.

The ANC voted to support the project 7-0.

The early questions from the commission centered mainly around Peter May's contention that granting this density--which the applicants refer to as an additional 1.0 FAR but which May was happy to always refer to as "264,000 square feet"--was akin to "incentivizing something that's going to get built anyway." May expressed that the additional height and additional density were "perfectly appropriate" but that he was "not seeing the greater good that comes out of this," i.e., what Forest City would be providing in return.

Initially May zeroed in on proposed language he felt was too weak, that the eventual review of any building proposed along the Yards West M Street frontage would ensure that its design and site plan would "facilitate the provision of a public entrance to the Navv Yard Metrorail Station" on the southwest corner of New Jersey and M. (He also mentioned as an aside concerns he said he had heard recently that the explosion in residential development in the neighborhood instead of office projects was restricting the amount of available evening and weekend garage parking for stadium events.)

But then ANC 6D chair Roger Moffatt testified, noting that while the ANC voted 6-0 to support Forest City's request, it did so while strongly encouraging the Zoning Commission "to require units have more than two bedrooms as a condition of this added height and density." He continued: "ANC 6D supports growing DC into a larger population, but we don't want to exclude families who have children from being able to live in our section of the District. We believe this is an issue whose time has come and we hope that Zoning will take a step in the right direction here tonight."

A light bulb then seemed to go on, with each commissioner supporting May's request that Forest City work with the Office of Planning and the Office of the Attorney General to come up with stronger language not only on the Metro issue but on a "greater mix." Marcie Cohen spoke of families being pushed out of the city, and that Forest City needs to offer "compelling evidence" that there is no market and will be no market for units with more than two bedrooms. Michael Turnbull discussed how if a family has a boy and a girl "you are looking at a three-bedroom unit to make things work" and that "two children is not unreasonable for a lot of families."

While agreeing with the desire to have the language of the proposed text amendments looked at, commissioner Robert Miller did say that the board shouldn't treat lightly that granting the additional density would result in an additional 350 residential units to the area beyond what's already allowed, 70 of which would be affordable housing units, which is "something we need."

Finally, chair Anthony Hood admitted that the commission hasn't concentrated on the issue of units with more than two bedrooms ("I don't call it derelict because I'd call myself derelict"), and that it is something that the board needs to "start looking at this in other projects across the city." However, he seemed a bit skeptical that anything could really come of taking the extra time for the Office of Planning to work on the language in this particular case to achieve that end: "Let's see what happens. Make me wrong."

This case is scheduled to be back in front of the commission in late November.

At 1015 Half Street, the new CBS Radio space along L Street is moving along, with a ticker now hung on the building (below left) and the ground-floor studio space being built out (below right).

There's four holes in the ground in various stages of construction, though alas I missed getting pictures of the Arris apartment building at the Yards, which has reached ground level and so should be starting the showy part of its progress within the next few weeks. The Lofts at Capitol Quarter are about at ground level on the east end of their not-at-all-level footprint at 7th and L (left), while digging down down down continues at 800 New Jersey/Whole Foods (right). (The third one, the new 1111 New Jersey apartment project, isn't all that much of a hole just yet.)

(Speaking of 800 New Jersey, I noticed that the rebuilt-but-not-open H Street has had its asphalt laid and is now a good nine inches or more higher than where it meets 2nd Street. Preparation for that intersection and Virginia Avenue to be bumped up with the construction of the Virginia Avenue Tunnel?)

Getting close to topping out is the Hampton Inn at 1st and N (left). And, apropos of nothing (but needed here for layout purposes), a photo of the signage for the Subway Café at 20 M Street, which sounds to not be too long from opening.

And wrapping up the tour, here are the two buildings nearest to completion, the Parc Riverside at 1st and K (left) and the Park Chelsea on New Jersey Avenue (right), seen from one block to the south because it's So Freaking Big.

Now, everyone chime in and tell me what I missed.

If you want more photos of these projects (and who wouldn't?), just follow the links to the project pages.

The reason he gives for the decision to quit early is that he is moving to Shaw/Logan Circle/U Street, a location that one might note is a handy confluence of two wards (with another close by) in which to continue trying to establish a base for a run for city-wide office, if one were interested in such things. Especially if one had already spent a few years in Ward 8 followed by a few in Ward 6.

But before David skedaddles, he plans to anoint a chosen successor for his ANC seat, which he will be doing on Monday, followed by an event at Willie's on Tuesday where he will "introduce people to the candidate I think will do a great job."

If you haven't checked out the questionnaires I submitted to the three people running to replace David as commissioner for 6D07, here they are.

But a few weeks ago I saw a blurb about Google's My Maps upgrade, now called Maps Engine Lite. You can draw lines and shapes! You can have layers (well, a few of them)! You can have Google as your maps base!

So I went off to play with it, and quickly decided that it could make a likeable enough successor to my original Web 0.1 map.

And now, here it is.

You can also always get to it by clicking on "View Full Map" on the mini-map at the top right of most JDLand pages, or the "Project Directory" link in the black menu bar.

It still isn't quite everything I dreamed of, but at least now you can zoom in, pan around, and filter the display by layers--if you only want to look at completed residential projects, or projects under construction, or projects not yet begun, or some combination thereof, click the little menu icon at top left and make your choices.

It may not be optimal for phones, and so I have to think about that for a while, but the big static list of projects is still available beneath the map if you are a words-and-not-pictures type of information ingestor.

I'll wager that my Parking Lots map will get migrated as well before Opening Day 2015.

And if you have any complaints with how it functions, feel free to let Google know!

OMA/Olin designed a park in "a sloping 'X' shape" over both the river and the banks on its eastern side. Features include a central plaza, a café, boat launches, an amphitheater, and "a series of nets that would allow people to dangle out over the river."

One competition juror described the design thusly: " 'It is at once both a crossing and place. In its purest role it is a hyphen that connects and celebrates the physical and cultural histories of two historic and vibrant Anacostia shoreline communities, while establishing a civic expression of democracy.' "

The Washington Post has a video rendering of the park design, in addition to the many renderings available on the official web site.

As always, however, the looming question remains the full funding of the park's $40 million price tag. As explained by the Post, "The D.C. government has committed to providing $14.5 million of the $25 million construction price tag[.] An additional $15 million would provide operations funding." A capital campaign is underway to fund that $25 million difference. So, needless to say, construction won't be starting next week.

As to whether it *will* open Friday at 5, well, we'll see!

Willie's is located on the west end of the Boilermaker Shops, at 3rd and Tingey streets, SE.

If you want to read about the long road to this point, have at it.

In other food news, TaKorean is now going to be open on Sundays from 11 to 7.

UPDATE: In non-food Boilermaker Shops news, the Yards folks also tweeted that Unleashed by Petco is scheduled to open Nov. 3.

There's been no announcement of construction financing (see update), or any sort of "Hey, we're starting!" missive, but snarky observers can no longer point to the lack of even an initial permit as a signal that the project might be about to get underway. The permit for the actual vertical construction of the building is still in process, however.

UPDATE: From GlobeSt., via a reader, showing that I was off by 24 hours: "MRP Realty and Florida Rock Properties have secured a $65 million construction loan provided by First Niagara's Commercial Real Estate Group for the development of a mixed-used residential building on the Anacostia Waterfront. Yvonne Ulrich, vice president of the Plymouth Meeting, PA-based lending group, managed the transaction for First Niagara."

This construction financing release also says that the apartment building will be called "The Riverfront." And a delivery date of Sept. 2016 is mentioned.

This building will go up at the far eastern end of the site, next to Diamond Teague Park, expanding the existing public plaza and offering some retail there as well. I wrote more about the design back in 2012, though admittedly the final zoning approvals for the project came during my hiatus and so I didn't watch too closely.

When will work start? All together now: We Shall See....

To say this is a long time coming is an understatement -- it was five years ago, in Sept. 2009, when the first official reports of Teeter coming to The Yards surfaced, and even then, I referred to it as "long-rumored." In 2010 the building at 4th and M with the planned grocery store space changed from office to residential.

It was in June 2011 that developer Forest City finally confirmed that the grocery store space in what was now called Twelve12 would in fact be a Harris Teeter. Work on the site began in early 2012, and now, with a little bit of 2014 left, here we are.

Almost.

It seems like the city has been in campaign mode for about 15 months, but we are now down to the final four weeks before the Nov. 4 general election. Which also means that it's the final four weeks before the elections for Advisory Neighborhood Commission 6D.

Near Southeast is covered by two Single Member Districts--6D07 and the South Capitol-spanning 6D02--and so for the third time since I started blogging I sent out questionnaires to the candidates to try to better gauge their positions, their opinions, and their interests.

Meredith Fascett, Josh Hart, and TD Stanger are the three candidates running for the 6D07 seat being vacated by David Garber, while incumbent 6D02 commissioner Stacy Cloyd is running unopposed. All four were generous enough to reply to my multiude of questions.

While we know that I generally frown on political fisticuffs in the comments threads, feel free to mix it up in this one about your preferred (or unpreferred) candidate. Keep it civil and away from personal attacks, though.

If you are new to this whole ANC thing, here's a good explainer from, go figure, anc.dc.gov. (That's also where I pilfered the above clip art from. Couldn't resist.) The short version is that ANCs "ensure input from an advisory board that is made up of the residents of the neighborhoods that are directly affected by government action. The ANCs are the body of government with the closest official ties to the people in a neighborhood."

Also, note that the deadline to register or update one's information for the Nov 4 election is mere minutes away, on Oct 6. You can do it online at www.vote4dc.com.