August 28, 2025 • 30 mins
Community DC Host Dennis Glasgow visits with the Executive Director for Adams Morgan Partnership BID, Kristen Barden to talk about NW Washington, DC's Adams Morgan neighborhood and all the exciting events, hotel, restaurants, music, theater and so much more to do in this historic area of Washington, DC
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Good morning, and welcome to another edition of Community d C.
I'm your host Dennis Glasgow. This morning we get a
chance to talk about one of the most historic neighborhoods
in Northwest Washington, d C. And that's Adams Morgan. We
are visiting this morning with the executive director for Adams
Morgan Partnership Business Improvement District, Kristin Barden. We'll cover not
only what has been done to beautify the neighborhood over
(00:28):
the years, but also the many incredible events coming up
and year round that they have and great places you
can shop, eat, drink and have an outstanding time. If
you're a regular or it's your first time to Adams Morgan.
Here's my conversation with Kristin. I hope you enjoy it
as much as I did. Good morning, Kristin.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Good morning Dennis.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
How are you.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
I'm well. It's great to speak with you.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
And for full disclosure for listeners, even though they know
this about me, I am a Northwest d C resident.
My wife and I we live in the Petworth neighborhood
and right next door to us is Adams Morgan. And
of course, with you being the executive director for almost
seventeen years with the Adams Morgan Partnership Bid. I am
so grateful that you made time to be on Community DC.
There's lots to talk about, including one of my favorite
(01:09):
things of my wife and I attend porch Fest. But
I think what we should do first is talk about
when you started in the history of Adams Morgan and
what you do. Adams Morgan has a rich history that
I read about when I first got introduced to you
and I went on the website and the history of
the region.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
It goes back a long ways. But I'd like to
just talk about.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
You know, you joining there, what you do as an
executive director, and what your team does. Let's start from
that point, that kind of origin story, and then we'll
go over the last decade and a half all the
incredible things that have happened in the community and where
we are today. But can you tell us about the
origin of your joining the team and what they asked
you to do and what you do do.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Sure, I'm happy to and thanks again for inviting me
to participate today. I've been looking forward to this so yeah. So,
the Adams Morgan Partnership Bid was started in two thousand
and five. It was a number of business owners and
commercial property owners who had a business association that were
(02:08):
doing you know, occasional you know, street cleanups and some
other kind of social activities. But they they'd heard about
bids from the Downtown bid and the Golden Triangle bid,
and they thought that this was a unique opportunity to
come together and agreed to be self taxed basically to
(02:29):
provide additional services to the neighborhood. So in two thousand
and five, there was authorizing legislation introduced into city council
and public hearings and all of that, because only city
council can levy taxes, and so the way the way
bids in d C work is that, you know, through
(02:51):
that enabling legislation, there's a special assessment tax on the
commercial property owners that then the city collects twice a
year with the property tax bills and sends that money
to each of the bids to provide clean, safe, and
friendly services. So you know, in a nutshell, we help
(03:12):
keep each one of our neighborhoods and our case Adams Morgan,
to keep our neighborhood clean, safe and friendly. I was
going to go in and tell you a little bit
more about the clean, safe and friendly parts, but I
can pause there.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Okay, There's so much to talk about, you know, and
I want to start with community economic development and all
the things that matter to different communities. I've been fortunate
to live in a lot of different areas because of
radio and all the moving I've done, especially with my
sports background, to watch stadiums being built and watching restaurants
and bars and clubs and parks and all sorts of
(03:45):
cool things develop around stadiums, whether they're Triple A baseball
parks or their giant NFL stadiums, and it's really the
amazing thing that we get to see. And I know
that in your almost seventeen years with Adams Morgan partnership
BID is that you've got to seeing growth with restaurants.
And I know restaurants come and go, but as I
was looking at the history of your team and what
(04:06):
you do and all the different things that you work
with in the community, the growth in Adams Morgan has
been extraordinary. And for the people that haven't gone through
then and walked through, it's a lot of fun. The
shopping is great, and listen, I biased I live in
the neighborhood but it really is cool because there's a
lot of restaurants, there's a lot of things to do
with shopping, and then we talked about porch Fest and
some other things that we'll chat about. But I would
(04:28):
love for you to talk about the growth that you've
seen from when you started to where we are, because
it really is tremendous. What's happened with that neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
So I started in November of two thousand and nine,
and at that time, I was just the only person
in the office. It was just me and we had
our clean team and our safety ambassadors, but I think
we only had four clean team members. We have six now.
We only had one safety ambassador and we have four
(05:00):
are now. And then we brought on our deputy director
about eight years ago, and and then four or five
years ago we we had enough funding to hire a
marketing communications consultant, and then just a couple of years
ago we hired an events consultant. So our team has
has grown in size tremendously since since I started in
(05:23):
two thousand and nine, and our capacity, you know, of course,
has has has has expanded as our as our team
has grown, and it's and you know that's in large
you know, a team needed to grow in large response
to to the level of activities that you know, and
events that we're producing now. So back in you know,
(05:46):
when I first started, we started doing the movie Nights
that we do in the spring every year, and but
then shortly thereafter we came up with this idea for
porch Fest. And porch Fest was just a fall event,
and as you mentioned, it was usually in October. This year,
it's actually going to be the first Saturday in November,
(06:08):
so November first, it's going to be our porch Fest
this fall. But then four or five years ago, just
after the pandemic, we start the fall porch Fest was
so successful and so popular that we added a spring
porch Fest. So now we also do it in May.
And this last May we brought over fifty thousand people
(06:29):
to the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
For porch Fest. That's incredible, Yeah, it was incredible.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
That's huge.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
One.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
It says a lot about how you market it, but
how cool the event is. And I'll have you talk
a little bit more about specifically and all the other
events that you have coming up over the next several months,
because there really is it's amazing how many events. But
could you do me a favor you mentioned some of
the buckets that you work with with the community, because
are I'm sure that when you started there were just
a few, but now there's so many different buckets that
(06:55):
you work with, and I imagine there's just so many
moving parts for you and your team. It was kind
of can my head spind of how much you have
your hands and everything, which probably keeps everybody very very busy.
But what that said, can you talk about the different
things that you do do and how you work with
the community, because I want to give our listeners some context.
So there's really many different elements of you and your
team work with when it comes to Adams Morgan.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Oh, yeah, yeah, sure.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
So so we have a board of directors of course,
as a fifteen member board, nine commercial property owners and
six business owners. So we have almost monthly board meetings
which are open to the public. And so I and
my you know, in my regular day to day duties,
you know, I'm managing the board, right and I'm managing
those those almost monthly board meetings. So that's that's that's,
(07:42):
you know, one of my many responsibilities. But we also
coordinate city services, right, So I mean our clean team
empties the trash cans and cleans up graffiti, but they
then have to submit to the city service requests, right,
so you know some of the graffiti is on the
second floor that they can't reach, so you know that's
(08:03):
that's a city service request. So so we're constantly managing,
you know, the public space and the public space improvements.
So we work a lot with with the DC Department
of Transportation or d DOT, with DPW, with the Office
of Planning to a certain degree in the City Administrator's office.
We also work closely with DEMPED the Deputy Mayor for
(08:26):
Planning and Economic Development, and lots of different initiatives. So
we you know, we're a nonprofit, we're a five oh
one C six organization and as I mentioned, our board, but.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
We we do a lot of work with.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
The various DC government agencies that have overlap with with
our responsibilities.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Boy, it's truly incredible how many different agencies do you
work with. So, as I mentioned, there's a lot of
moving parts, and I'm sure you just kind of hit
the tip of the iceberg and gave us the highlights
with so many different things that you do. With that said,
I know we want to talk about some of the
business partners and new businesses moving in Adams Morgan, but
I I also love to get some success stories. And
I'm sure you have handfuls of businesses, restauranteurs or you know,
(09:06):
anything coming into the area there. But as you've worked
over the seventeen years and doing what you do, maybe
you could just share a couple of stories of something
that you know was really remarkable or cool, or something
that came into the area that you and your team
are really proud of and that's still prosper today.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Can you talk about a few things?
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah, sure, so.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
I mean one of the things that I think back
on is sort of the development of the Line Hotel.
So the Line Hotel was, you know, the brainchild of
a number of really smart people. But I remember when
when I first heard about this idea that there was
this church, this first Church of Christ Scientist in the
(09:46):
neighborhood that had been there more than.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
One hundred years.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
It was this beautiful old building and they you know,
they wanted to convert it into a hotel. And when
I first heard this, I thought, well that's kind of crazy,
Like how is that going to work, and you know
that the development took you know, probably close to a decade,
you know, both from you know idea conception to you know,
(10:08):
to opening the hotel and it required you know, a
zoning order to combine to lots to build the density.
You know, so there was a lot of a lot
of work that went in behind the scenes. But then
you know, when they opened in right before the pandemic
in twenty nineteen, you know, it was one of these
(10:29):
like oh my gosh, like this like we all worked
together and we made this happen, you know, and now this,
you know, they restored and reused this beautiful church building.
There's two hundred and twenty hotel rooms in that and
they have banquet facilities for for weddings and special events,
and you know, and they they sort of you know,
(10:51):
made this new cornerstone right this new and anchor property
within the within the neighborhood. And it's I think, you know,
in large part the hotel the been able to attract
a lot of the new, you know, terrific restaurants that
we have. We have some Michelin Star restaurants now that
weren't here before. We have a James Beard Award winning
(11:13):
restaurant Perry's on on Columbia Road. The chef there won
a James Beard Award for you know, the the the
best New Rising you know, culinary star. So and Masaco's
story if you if you'll allow me a moment. Massaco
had previously before becoming a chef, was a commander's football cheerleader,
(11:37):
and she got started making some of her family recipes
for her her teammates and just decided that she loved
cooking so much that she wanted, you know, to do
it full time. So so that's kind of a neat
story about about Massaco. But yeah, so the the hotel
was kind of a catalyst for you know, for a
(11:58):
lot of the the you know, these really fantastic restaurants
and retailers that have opened in the neighborhood in the
last few years.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Well, and for anybody who hasn't walked by the hotel,
it's monolithic and when you go in, it's gorgeous. I mean,
it looks like, you know, the Library of Congress when
you see it from outside. It's an old churches, as
Kristen said, but it's just beautiful. And I probably found
out and I'm sure that you and the board and
other people did their due diligence when you found out
that the hotel's going in. When you build a really
(12:26):
nice hotel, as you mentioned, restaurants want to come and
be a part as partners in the neighborhood. And it
makes sense. But you have all those people that come
in from all over the world to this hotel and
experience your neighborhood, so you want to make sure that
everything is just right and they have a great experience.
So I imagine the partnership with the hotel and just
the area is just perfect for all the restaurants in
(12:47):
different places that people can walk to.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
The hotel has been a tremendous partner and we and
I'll use this opportunity to mention one of the ways
that we do partner with the hotel, and that is
with our annual Fall Apple Festival. So that's going to
be October eighteenth, Saturday the eighteenth, from about ten to one,
and that's a really fun event that we do in
partnership with the hotel. We have an apple pie baking
(13:12):
contest and we have sixteen contestants make three pies that
are both cut for samples for the judges, and then
we sell slices of those same pies, and we will
have a really fun panel of judges, some media folks
as well as some of our local.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Council members. And then our nonprofit.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Partner for the Apple Festival when we choose a different
Adams Morgan nonprofit each year. Our nonprofit partner this year
is going to be the Satar Arts Center and so
they will probably have one of their young people who's
participating in the classes there also judge the apple pies.
So it's a really fun day. The Farmer's Market does
an heirloom apple tasting as part of the Apple Festival,
(14:03):
and there's lots of good apple pie to be bought.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Well, it sounds like a lot of fun. And I'm
going to circle back to more events with you that
are upcoming over the next several months.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
There's a lot. As I was looking at the events.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Page before I got on with you today, it's really
tremendous how many are going on. I'm sure that's growing
exponentially all the time. Well, that said, you talked about
being a nonprofit and everybody always wants to know how
you're funded. So how are you funded?
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, so I mentioned the special assessment tax that's collected
by the city, So that's the majority of our funding
comes to the bid tax. It's called the Business Improvement
District Tax. But then we also have a couple of
grants from the city DSLBD, the District Department of Small
Local Business Development. They provide us with a grant towards
(14:48):
the cost of our clean team. Our clean team, as
I mentioned, is three full time and three part time people,
so it's a lot of labor, and so the DSLBD
grant really helps ensure that that program is a seven
day a week program because one of the changes I
made actually shortly after I started here was making the
(15:10):
cleaning program a seven day a week three sixty five program.
And when I first started, it was only a five
day a week program. And it became clear to me
that no, we needed cleaning seven days a week, and
we need cleaning on July fourth, and we need cleaning
you know, the day after any you know, major holiday,
when there's a lot of foot traffic, so the trash
cans just you know, became too full. So that so
(15:34):
DSLBD has been a big supporter through the clean Team grant.
And then we also in the last few years have
gotten a grant from the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety
Injustice or d MPSJ, through the Safe Commercial Corridors Grant program,
and that has provided us additional safety ambassadors. And safety
(15:55):
ambassadors are civilians. They don't carry a gun, they don't
have arresting powers. They are they are that they are ambassadors,
and they wear a bright yellow shirt so they're easily identified,
and they walk around the neighborhood and check in with
business owners throughout their tour to make sure that that
they're not experiencing any crimes or any any issues. And
(16:16):
they they really create a very friendly presence, right They
help tourists find their way if they have questions, and
they uh. They've been a really valuable resource for us.
So those are the other two two grants that we've
gotten in recent years. During the pandemic, we also got
(16:38):
an Office of Planning grant that enabled us to purchase
some removable barriers that we use now for for our
special events outstanding.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Well, let's circle back and talk about events, and of
course you mentioned the Farmers Market and movie Nights, and
we've talked a little bit about porch Fest. It sounds
like all the as I look on the events page. Oh,
a lot of the holidays are covered by what's coming
up over the next several months that you're excited about
that we also want to let our listeners know about.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
I think our next event is probably the Apple Festival,
which will be on Saturday October eighteenth in front of
the Line Hotel and that's at Champlain and Euclid Street, Northwest,
and that will start out with the heirloom apple tasting
at ten and then at around eleven thirty the judges
will judge the best apple pie in the neighborhood and
(17:27):
then the pie sales will start right after that. And
then following the Apple Festival is porch Fest. That's on Saturday,
November first, from two to six pm, and we will
be closing Eighteenth Street for porch Fest again this year,
so eighteenth between Columbia Road and Calorama Road will be
closed to the public, close to traffic, open to the public,
(17:48):
but close to traffic. And we'll have a stage right
outside our office at twenty four to twenty four Eighteenth Street.
That'll be kind of the main stage and we're looking
forward to having some really fun local acts there. And
then at Marie Read just down Eighteenth Street at Wyoming,
we're going to have another youth stage where lots of
(18:11):
young young adult bands will play. And then in front
of the Jubilee Housing building at the corner of Eighteenth
in Columbia, we'll have the Jubilee Stage and we'll have
some other really fun local talent perform there. So are
those are the kind of the highlight stages. But then
porch Fest really is all about the porches. So we'll
(18:33):
have probably twenty neighborhood residential homes that they will open
up their front porch for music as well, and most
of those twenty porches will have four different performances between
two and six pm on the first And I.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Want to tell my listeners about this, that when you
walk through the neighborhoods and it's usually a really nice day,
there's bands playing on porches and it just it's electric
because everybody just standing around and then when they're done,
you just move on, maybe do a couple of houses
down or the next block. It's such a cool thing.
I'd love to ask this because I was always wondering
if I were a home owner, I would love to
(19:11):
have a band for porch Fist playing. There are several bands.
How does that relationship work? I imagine you have a
really great relationship with the neighborhood, but how does all
the communication work and loaning out their porches for Porch Fest.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
So, well, the way it started when we first started
this event, and back in twenty eleven, I think was
the first year we did this. So my communications consultant
at the time, and we walked around the neighborhood and
we found porches that we thought were big enough, you know,
for a band, and we sent them a letter and said, hey,
(19:44):
would you be interested, And that's how we came up
with the first ten porches. So and then so yeah,
and then since then, you know, you know, as the
event has gotten bigger and people get to know about it,
then a lot of times people will just say, hey,
I've got a porch, you know, can I have music
on my porch? And and you know, and we check
it out and make sure that it's big enough and
(20:04):
that it's not too close, you know, for noise bleed
you know, to another location. But yeah, and then you know,
we we sometimes will you know, we'll staff you know,
those porches with bands. But in other cases, they you know,
may have their own friends that play, you know, that
play in bands, and then we welcome them to you know,
(20:26):
to coordinate that on their own.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Okay, I want to talk about some of the businesses
in Adams Morgan. Now I realize that there are hundreds
there and we're not going to be able to mention
probably ninety nine point ninety percent of them. But with
that said, I know you've been there a long time,
you've been able to enjoy restaurants and shopping if you
were maybe not necessarily a top ten list Kristin.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
But if somebody hasn't been to.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Adams Morgan a long time, or maybe this will be
their first visit and we've talked about some of the
cool events, but if they just want to go to
some restaurants or for drinks and maybe some shopping, because
there is so much to do there, folks, can you
maybe just kind of to give them this If this
is your first visit, these are the places you have
to hit and enjoy.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
So Adams Morgan has, you know, has hundreds of restaurants
and shops as you mentioned, But one of the things
that I think makes Adams Morgan really unique is the variety,
right we have. We have cuisine from around the world.
We have Italian and Chinese and Latin American food. We
have an Afghan restaurant called Lapies. We have sushi, we
(21:26):
have tacos, we have you know, terrific Italian food. We
have a great American food. You know, there's a couple
of places that have really fantastic bar food and we
have a really an award winning barbecue restaurant. So you
know the variety of restaurants here. I like to say
(21:48):
that there's something for every palette and every pocketbook. You know,
there's really you know, you won't go hungry here. And
then we've had some really fun retellers join us. Urban
Dwell is a home good store and they have fantastic gifts.
They have some very Adams Morgan centric gifts as well
as more like Washington branded gifts, and I go there
(22:14):
for a lot of my gift giving.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
I wanted to talk a little bit more about economic
development in your relationship with all these businesses, and once
again I've gone really deep dives for different communities in
the DMV and talking about how they solicit businesses to
come and why they should come. And I think you
would agree being from this area, Christin that the DMV
is exponentially just bursting out with restaurants and shopping and
(22:38):
all sorts of cool things, including Adams Morgan. So when
you get a new restaurant or a new shop or
a business that comes in, I imagine there's an introduction,
but how does the relationship work in and what do
you tell you can do for them and what can
they do for you?
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Anytime we have a new we hear about a new business,
or we see a sign going up in a window,
reach out to them and introduce ourselves and we usually take.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Them a little welcome back.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
We have some canvas bags that we that we put
maps in and and we have a heritage trail in
Adams Morgan, so that we put those brochures in to
kind of help the familiarize themselves with the neighborhood. And
then we tell them, you know that that we're here
to support them, that we're here to help market them,
to announce you know, they're both their grand opening and
(23:26):
you know hopefully they're their fifth year anniversary, right and
we can help provide them with some with some marketing
and communications.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Assistance.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
But also you know, if they run into trouble with
you know, a permit, We know people at d l
c P, the District Department of Licensing and Permits, and
you know, we're happy to help put them in touch
with people that can that can help move things along,
you know, or if it's a Washington Guests or PEPCO
issue again, you know, we have relationships with those agencies
(23:59):
and can help the businesses, you know, find the right
people to talk to to resolve whatever the concern might be.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
You know, I'm curious about data. I don't know how
much data and analytics you get, and I imagine things
have exploded since you started so long ago, seventeen years ago,
what you do today as executive director. But when you
get to take a look at some data and analytics,
how's the area doing? And it is everything growing exponentially
right now?
Speaker 2 (24:25):
You know, the pandemic was tough, right yeah, everybody? Yeah,
on everybody.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Yeah, So you know we're coming back up out of
the pandemic. We we were fortunate and that we did
not lose very many businesses due to the pandemic. I
think we lost six and in that same time period
we actually had nine new businesses. Open, which was phenomenal,
and the summer has been you know, a little bit slower,
(24:54):
I'll have to be honest, slower than some summers. You know, summertime,
you know, with people's travel does slow down a little bit.
But we learned last week that Call your Mother Bagels
is coming to.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
Add one of my favorite so I'm very excited about that. Yeah,
that's great, that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Yeah, so Call your Mother is a regional favorite, and
they let us know that they'll be opening on Champlain Street,
right across the street from the Line Hotel.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
In spring of twenty twenty six.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
By the way, by the way, that's huge.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
And for anybody that hasn't added to Call your Mother,
I'm telling you what, folks, because I have one in
my neighborhood and Petworth down on Georgia Avenue. But I
think I've hit all of them in the DMV and
they're very historic, and I think mine is the first
one ever that's just down the street on Georgia Avenue.
But I'm thrilled that a business like that is coming
to Adams Morgan because that's a really big deal because
(25:49):
not only do they have a brand, as you know,
Kristin but they're damn good bagels and it's a great menu.
So I'm thrilled. I did want to talk about the future.
We only have a couple of minutes left, but you know,
when it comes to twenty twenty six and moving forward,
I know you you and your team always looking forward
with what's coming to town or events. Is there something
that you're looking forward to or that you're working on
right now that you could share with us.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Yeah? Sure.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
So one of the one of the big, you know,
regional events that that we're all you know, planning for
is the celebration of America's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary,
right which will be next July. And we're working really
closely with our partners at Destination d C and also
the Bid Council of you know, our colleagues and the
other bids to really put together some really robust programming
(26:35):
and not just in July next year, but like in
the months leading up to that, to encourage people to
come to the area and really celebrate everything that Washington
has to offer. So we're doing a lot of planning
now looking looking towards you know, the July of twenty
twenty six and and doing some really fun, you know,
(26:57):
sort of unique things to sell the two hundred and
fiftieth anniversary of America.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Okay, well, let's do this because I know you've got
a gorgeous website. I don't know who designed it, but
it's beautiful and it's upgetting very nicely. It's easy to navigate,
and when it comes to social media, I think everybody
would love to follow.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
You.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Get on the website and once again, folks, you know,
the events are all on there, easy to see, lots
of cool facts, and there's a map on there to
get you around, and just everything that you know, whether
it's porch vest or any of the other things you
want to check out, The restaurants and all the businesses,
everything is on there. So Kristin, why don't we give
our listeners. I'm sure some of our smart listeners have
(27:35):
already Googled to find out where you are. But let's
get the website any social media to make sure that
they can follow and check out.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
So the website is ADMODC dot org admo DC dot org,
and the social media is usually admo bid so either
at admobid or hashtag admobid.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
All right, listen, you've got about a minute. This is
your chance to do a sales pitch for Adam Morgan
Partnership and having people come to the neighborhood if they
haven't done that before or it's been a while, what
would you tell them that they could really enjoy.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Yeah, so I would say, you know, come, Adams Morgan
is a twenty four to seven neighborhood, right, so you
can come and have terrific coffee in the morning, you know, stay,
wander around the bookstores and the fun record stores and
retail shops, and then you know, stay for dinner and
(28:29):
we've got great music and dancing in the evening, so
you can, really you can spend a whole day in
Adams Morgan and just.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Have a blast.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Very well said. And I've been there many times and
my wife and I love it. You guys do such
a nice job. And I'm so glad that we could
get you on Community DC and I hope we get
a chance to visit again. But thank you for your
valuable time. Give my best to your team. And it
sounds like the fall is going to be a lot
of fun. It's going to be busy, but it's going
to be great. There's a lot of things going on
and hopefully the weather cooperates. But Christin, thanks again for
(28:56):
joining us on the show and let's stay in touch.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Okay, okay, it sounds great once again.
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and
Good morning, and welcome to another edition of Community d C.
I'm your host Dennis Glasgow. This morning we get a
chance to talk about one of the most historic neighborhoods
in Northwest Washington, d C. And that's Adams Morgan. We
are visiting this morning with the executive director for Adams
Morgan Partnership Business Improvement District, Kristin Barden. We'll cover not
only what has been done to beautify the neighborhood over
(00:28):
the years, but also the many incredible events coming up
and year round that they have and great places you
can shop, eat, drink and have an outstanding time. If
you're a regular or it's your first time to Adams Morgan.
Here's my conversation with Kristin. I hope you enjoy it
as much as I did. Good morning, Kristin.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Good morning Dennis.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
How are you.
Speaker 4 (00:45):
I'm well. It's great to speak with you.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
And for full disclosure for listeners, even though they know
this about me, I am a Northwest d C resident.
My wife and I we live in the Petworth neighborhood
and right next door to us is Adams Morgan. And
of course, with you being the executive director for almost
seventeen years with the Adams Morgan Partnership Bid. I am
so grateful that you made time to be on Community DC.
There's lots to talk about, including one of my favorite
(01:09):
things of my wife and I attend porch Fest. But
I think what we should do first is talk about
when you started in the history of Adams Morgan and
what you do. Adams Morgan has a rich history that
I read about when I first got introduced to you
and I went on the website and the history of
the region.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
It goes back a long ways. But I'd like to
just talk about.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
You know, you joining there, what you do as an
executive director, and what your team does. Let's start from
that point, that kind of origin story, and then we'll
go over the last decade and a half all the
incredible things that have happened in the community and where
we are today. But can you tell us about the
origin of your joining the team and what they asked
you to do and what you do do.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:47):
Sure, I'm happy to and thanks again for inviting me
to participate today. I've been looking forward to this so yeah. So,
the Adams Morgan Partnership Bid was started in two thousand
and five. It was a number of business owners and
commercial property owners who had a business association that were
(02:08):
doing you know, occasional you know, street cleanups and some
other kind of social activities. But they they'd heard about
bids from the Downtown bid and the Golden Triangle bid,
and they thought that this was a unique opportunity to
come together and agreed to be self taxed basically to
(02:29):
provide additional services to the neighborhood. So in two thousand
and five, there was authorizing legislation introduced into city council
and public hearings and all of that, because only city
council can levy taxes, and so the way the way
bids in d C work is that, you know, through
(02:51):
that enabling legislation, there's a special assessment tax on the
commercial property owners that then the city collects twice a
year with the property tax bills and sends that money
to each of the bids to provide clean, safe, and
friendly services. So you know, in a nutshell, we help
(03:12):
keep each one of our neighborhoods and our case Adams Morgan,
to keep our neighborhood clean, safe and friendly. I was
going to go in and tell you a little bit
more about the clean, safe and friendly parts, but I
can pause there.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Okay, There's so much to talk about, you know, and
I want to start with community economic development and all
the things that matter to different communities. I've been fortunate
to live in a lot of different areas because of
radio and all the moving I've done, especially with my
sports background, to watch stadiums being built and watching restaurants
and bars and clubs and parks and all sorts of
(03:45):
cool things develop around stadiums, whether they're Triple A baseball
parks or their giant NFL stadiums, and it's really the
amazing thing that we get to see. And I know
that in your almost seventeen years with Adams Morgan partnership
BID is that you've got to seeing growth with restaurants.
And I know restaurants come and go, but as I
was looking at the history of your team and what
(04:06):
you do and all the different things that you work
with in the community, the growth in Adams Morgan has
been extraordinary. And for the people that haven't gone through
then and walked through, it's a lot of fun. The
shopping is great, and listen, I biased I live in
the neighborhood but it really is cool because there's a
lot of restaurants, there's a lot of things to do
with shopping, and then we talked about porch Fest and
some other things that we'll chat about. But I would
(04:28):
love for you to talk about the growth that you've
seen from when you started to where we are, because
it really is tremendous. What's happened with that neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
So I started in November of two thousand and nine,
and at that time, I was just the only person
in the office. It was just me and we had
our clean team and our safety ambassadors, but I think
we only had four clean team members. We have six now.
We only had one safety ambassador and we have four
(05:00):
are now. And then we brought on our deputy director
about eight years ago, and and then four or five
years ago we we had enough funding to hire a
marketing communications consultant, and then just a couple of years
ago we hired an events consultant. So our team has
has grown in size tremendously since since I started in
(05:23):
two thousand and nine, and our capacity, you know, of course,
has has has has expanded as our as our team
has grown, and it's and you know that's in large
you know, a team needed to grow in large response
to to the level of activities that you know, and
events that we're producing now. So back in you know,
(05:46):
when I first started, we started doing the movie Nights
that we do in the spring every year, and but
then shortly thereafter we came up with this idea for
porch Fest. And porch Fest was just a fall event,
and as you mentioned, it was usually in October. This year,
it's actually going to be the first Saturday in November,
(06:08):
so November first, it's going to be our porch Fest
this fall. But then four or five years ago, just
after the pandemic, we start the fall porch Fest was
so successful and so popular that we added a spring
porch Fest. So now we also do it in May.
And this last May we brought over fifty thousand people
(06:29):
to the neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
For porch Fest. That's incredible, Yeah, it was incredible.
Speaker 4 (06:33):
That's huge.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
One.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
It says a lot about how you market it, but
how cool the event is. And I'll have you talk
a little bit more about specifically and all the other
events that you have coming up over the next several months,
because there really is it's amazing how many events. But
could you do me a favor you mentioned some of
the buckets that you work with with the community, because
are I'm sure that when you started there were just
a few, but now there's so many different buckets that
(06:55):
you work with, and I imagine there's just so many
moving parts for you and your team. It was kind
of can my head spind of how much you have
your hands and everything, which probably keeps everybody very very busy.
But what that said, can you talk about the different
things that you do do and how you work with
the community, because I want to give our listeners some context.
So there's really many different elements of you and your
team work with when it comes to Adams Morgan.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Oh, yeah, yeah, sure.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
So so we have a board of directors of course,
as a fifteen member board, nine commercial property owners and
six business owners. So we have almost monthly board meetings
which are open to the public. And so I and
my you know, in my regular day to day duties,
you know, I'm managing the board, right and I'm managing
those those almost monthly board meetings. So that's that's that's,
(07:42):
you know, one of my many responsibilities. But we also
coordinate city services, right, So I mean our clean team
empties the trash cans and cleans up graffiti, but they
then have to submit to the city service requests, right,
so you know some of the graffiti is on the
second floor that they can't reach, so you know that's
(08:03):
that's a city service request. So so we're constantly managing,
you know, the public space and the public space improvements.
So we work a lot with with the DC Department
of Transportation or d DOT, with DPW, with the Office
of Planning to a certain degree in the City Administrator's office.
We also work closely with DEMPED the Deputy Mayor for
(08:26):
Planning and Economic Development, and lots of different initiatives. So
we you know, we're a nonprofit, we're a five oh
one C six organization and as I mentioned, our board, but.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
We we do a lot of work with.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
The various DC government agencies that have overlap with with
our responsibilities.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Boy, it's truly incredible how many different agencies do you
work with. So, as I mentioned, there's a lot of
moving parts, and I'm sure you just kind of hit
the tip of the iceberg and gave us the highlights
with so many different things that you do. With that said,
I know we want to talk about some of the
business partners and new businesses moving in Adams Morgan, but
I I also love to get some success stories. And
I'm sure you have handfuls of businesses, restauranteurs or you know,
(09:06):
anything coming into the area there. But as you've worked
over the seventeen years and doing what you do, maybe
you could just share a couple of stories of something
that you know was really remarkable or cool, or something
that came into the area that you and your team
are really proud of and that's still prosper today.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
Can you talk about a few things?
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Yeah, sure, so.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
I mean one of the things that I think back
on is sort of the development of the Line Hotel.
So the Line Hotel was, you know, the brainchild of
a number of really smart people. But I remember when
when I first heard about this idea that there was
this church, this first Church of Christ Scientist in the
(09:46):
neighborhood that had been there more than.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
One hundred years.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
It was this beautiful old building and they you know,
they wanted to convert it into a hotel. And when
I first heard this, I thought, well that's kind of crazy,
Like how is that going to work, and you know
that the development took you know, probably close to a decade,
you know, both from you know idea conception to you know,
(10:08):
to opening the hotel and it required you know, a
zoning order to combine to lots to build the density.
You know, so there was a lot of a lot
of work that went in behind the scenes. But then
you know, when they opened in right before the pandemic
in twenty nineteen, you know, it was one of these
(10:29):
like oh my gosh, like this like we all worked
together and we made this happen, you know, and now this,
you know, they restored and reused this beautiful church building.
There's two hundred and twenty hotel rooms in that and
they have banquet facilities for for weddings and special events,
and you know, and they they sort of you know,
(10:51):
made this new cornerstone right this new and anchor property
within the within the neighborhood. And it's I think, you know,
in large part the hotel the been able to attract
a lot of the new, you know, terrific restaurants that
we have. We have some Michelin Star restaurants now that
weren't here before. We have a James Beard Award winning
(11:13):
restaurant Perry's on on Columbia Road. The chef there won
a James Beard Award for you know, the the the
best New Rising you know, culinary star. So and Masaco's
story if you if you'll allow me a moment. Massaco
had previously before becoming a chef, was a commander's football cheerleader,
(11:37):
and she got started making some of her family recipes
for her her teammates and just decided that she loved
cooking so much that she wanted, you know, to do
it full time. So so that's kind of a neat
story about about Massaco. But yeah, so the the hotel
was kind of a catalyst for you know, for a
(11:58):
lot of the the you know, these really fantastic restaurants
and retailers that have opened in the neighborhood in the
last few years.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Well, and for anybody who hasn't walked by the hotel,
it's monolithic and when you go in, it's gorgeous. I mean,
it looks like, you know, the Library of Congress when
you see it from outside. It's an old churches, as
Kristen said, but it's just beautiful. And I probably found
out and I'm sure that you and the board and
other people did their due diligence when you found out
that the hotel's going in. When you build a really
(12:26):
nice hotel, as you mentioned, restaurants want to come and
be a part as partners in the neighborhood. And it
makes sense. But you have all those people that come
in from all over the world to this hotel and
experience your neighborhood, so you want to make sure that
everything is just right and they have a great experience.
So I imagine the partnership with the hotel and just
the area is just perfect for all the restaurants in
(12:47):
different places that people can walk to.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
The hotel has been a tremendous partner and we and
I'll use this opportunity to mention one of the ways
that we do partner with the hotel, and that is
with our annual Fall Apple Festival. So that's going to
be October eighteenth, Saturday the eighteenth, from about ten to one,
and that's a really fun event that we do in
partnership with the hotel. We have an apple pie baking
(13:12):
contest and we have sixteen contestants make three pies that
are both cut for samples for the judges, and then
we sell slices of those same pies, and we will
have a really fun panel of judges, some media folks
as well as some of our local.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Council members. And then our nonprofit.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Partner for the Apple Festival when we choose a different
Adams Morgan nonprofit each year. Our nonprofit partner this year
is going to be the Satar Arts Center and so
they will probably have one of their young people who's
participating in the classes there also judge the apple pies.
So it's a really fun day. The Farmer's Market does
an heirloom apple tasting as part of the Apple Festival,
(14:03):
and there's lots of good apple pie to be bought.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
Well, it sounds like a lot of fun. And I'm
going to circle back to more events with you that
are upcoming over the next several months.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
There's a lot. As I was looking at the events.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Page before I got on with you today, it's really
tremendous how many are going on. I'm sure that's growing
exponentially all the time. Well, that said, you talked about
being a nonprofit and everybody always wants to know how
you're funded. So how are you funded?
Speaker 3 (14:26):
Yeah, so I mentioned the special assessment tax that's collected
by the city, So that's the majority of our funding
comes to the bid tax. It's called the Business Improvement
District Tax. But then we also have a couple of
grants from the city DSLBD, the District Department of Small
Local Business Development. They provide us with a grant towards
(14:48):
the cost of our clean team. Our clean team, as
I mentioned, is three full time and three part time people,
so it's a lot of labor, and so the DSLBD
grant really helps ensure that that program is a seven
day a week program because one of the changes I
made actually shortly after I started here was making the
(15:10):
cleaning program a seven day a week three sixty five program.
And when I first started, it was only a five
day a week program. And it became clear to me
that no, we needed cleaning seven days a week, and
we need cleaning on July fourth, and we need cleaning
you know, the day after any you know, major holiday,
when there's a lot of foot traffic, so the trash
cans just you know, became too full. So that so
(15:34):
DSLBD has been a big supporter through the clean Team grant.
And then we also in the last few years have
gotten a grant from the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety
Injustice or d MPSJ, through the Safe Commercial Corridors Grant program,
and that has provided us additional safety ambassadors. And safety
(15:55):
ambassadors are civilians. They don't carry a gun, they don't
have arresting powers. They are they are that they are ambassadors,
and they wear a bright yellow shirt so they're easily identified,
and they walk around the neighborhood and check in with
business owners throughout their tour to make sure that that
they're not experiencing any crimes or any any issues. And
(16:16):
they they really create a very friendly presence, right They
help tourists find their way if they have questions, and
they uh. They've been a really valuable resource for us.
So those are the other two two grants that we've
gotten in recent years. During the pandemic, we also got
(16:38):
an Office of Planning grant that enabled us to purchase
some removable barriers that we use now for for our
special events outstanding.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Well, let's circle back and talk about events, and of
course you mentioned the Farmers Market and movie Nights, and
we've talked a little bit about porch Fest. It sounds
like all the as I look on the events page. Oh,
a lot of the holidays are covered by what's coming
up over the next several months that you're excited about
that we also want to let our listeners know about.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
I think our next event is probably the Apple Festival,
which will be on Saturday October eighteenth in front of
the Line Hotel and that's at Champlain and Euclid Street, Northwest,
and that will start out with the heirloom apple tasting
at ten and then at around eleven thirty the judges
will judge the best apple pie in the neighborhood and
(17:27):
then the pie sales will start right after that. And
then following the Apple Festival is porch Fest. That's on Saturday,
November first, from two to six pm, and we will
be closing Eighteenth Street for porch Fest again this year,
so eighteenth between Columbia Road and Calorama Road will be
closed to the public, close to traffic, open to the public,
(17:48):
but close to traffic. And we'll have a stage right
outside our office at twenty four to twenty four Eighteenth Street.
That'll be kind of the main stage and we're looking
forward to having some really fun local acts there. And
then at Marie Read just down Eighteenth Street at Wyoming,
we're going to have another youth stage where lots of
(18:11):
young young adult bands will play. And then in front
of the Jubilee Housing building at the corner of Eighteenth
in Columbia, we'll have the Jubilee Stage and we'll have
some other really fun local talent perform there. So are
those are the kind of the highlight stages. But then
porch Fest really is all about the porches. So we'll
(18:33):
have probably twenty neighborhood residential homes that they will open
up their front porch for music as well, and most
of those twenty porches will have four different performances between
two and six pm on the first And I.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
Want to tell my listeners about this, that when you
walk through the neighborhoods and it's usually a really nice day,
there's bands playing on porches and it just it's electric
because everybody just standing around and then when they're done,
you just move on, maybe do a couple of houses
down or the next block. It's such a cool thing.
I'd love to ask this because I was always wondering
if I were a home owner, I would love to
(19:11):
have a band for porch Fist playing. There are several bands.
How does that relationship work? I imagine you have a
really great relationship with the neighborhood, but how does all
the communication work and loaning out their porches for Porch Fest.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
So, well, the way it started when we first started
this event, and back in twenty eleven, I think was
the first year we did this. So my communications consultant
at the time, and we walked around the neighborhood and
we found porches that we thought were big enough, you know,
for a band, and we sent them a letter and said, hey,
(19:44):
would you be interested, And that's how we came up
with the first ten porches. So and then so yeah,
and then since then, you know, you know, as the
event has gotten bigger and people get to know about it,
then a lot of times people will just say, hey,
I've got a porch, you know, can I have music
on my porch? And and you know, and we check
it out and make sure that it's big enough and
(20:04):
that it's not too close, you know, for noise bleed
you know, to another location. But yeah, and then you know,
we we sometimes will you know, we'll staff you know,
those porches with bands. But in other cases, they you know,
may have their own friends that play, you know, that
play in bands, and then we welcome them to you know,
(20:26):
to coordinate that on their own.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Okay, I want to talk about some of the businesses
in Adams Morgan. Now I realize that there are hundreds
there and we're not going to be able to mention
probably ninety nine point ninety percent of them. But with
that said, I know you've been there a long time,
you've been able to enjoy restaurants and shopping if you
were maybe not necessarily a top ten list Kristin.
Speaker 4 (20:45):
But if somebody hasn't been to.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
Adams Morgan a long time, or maybe this will be
their first visit and we've talked about some of the
cool events, but if they just want to go to
some restaurants or for drinks and maybe some shopping, because
there is so much to do there, folks, can you
maybe just kind of to give them this If this
is your first visit, these are the places you have
to hit and enjoy.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
So Adams Morgan has, you know, has hundreds of restaurants
and shops as you mentioned, But one of the things
that I think makes Adams Morgan really unique is the variety,
right we have. We have cuisine from around the world.
We have Italian and Chinese and Latin American food. We
have an Afghan restaurant called Lapies. We have sushi, we
(21:26):
have tacos, we have you know, terrific Italian food. We
have a great American food. You know, there's a couple
of places that have really fantastic bar food and we
have a really an award winning barbecue restaurant. So you
know the variety of restaurants here. I like to say
(21:48):
that there's something for every palette and every pocketbook. You know,
there's really you know, you won't go hungry here. And
then we've had some really fun retellers join us. Urban
Dwell is a home good store and they have fantastic gifts.
They have some very Adams Morgan centric gifts as well
as more like Washington branded gifts, and I go there
(22:14):
for a lot of my gift giving.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
I wanted to talk a little bit more about economic
development in your relationship with all these businesses, and once
again I've gone really deep dives for different communities in
the DMV and talking about how they solicit businesses to
come and why they should come. And I think you
would agree being from this area, Christin that the DMV
is exponentially just bursting out with restaurants and shopping and
(22:38):
all sorts of cool things, including Adams Morgan. So when
you get a new restaurant or a new shop or
a business that comes in, I imagine there's an introduction,
but how does the relationship work in and what do
you tell you can do for them and what can
they do for you?
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Anytime we have a new we hear about a new business,
or we see a sign going up in a window,
reach out to them and introduce ourselves and we usually take.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Them a little welcome back.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
We have some canvas bags that we that we put
maps in and and we have a heritage trail in
Adams Morgan, so that we put those brochures in to
kind of help the familiarize themselves with the neighborhood. And
then we tell them, you know that that we're here
to support them, that we're here to help market them,
to announce you know, they're both their grand opening and
(23:26):
you know hopefully they're their fifth year anniversary, right and
we can help provide them with some with some marketing
and communications.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Assistance.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
But also you know, if they run into trouble with
you know, a permit, We know people at d l
c P, the District Department of Licensing and Permits, and
you know, we're happy to help put them in touch
with people that can that can help move things along,
you know, or if it's a Washington Guests or PEPCO
issue again, you know, we have relationships with those agencies
(23:59):
and can help the businesses, you know, find the right
people to talk to to resolve whatever the concern might be.
Speaker 1 (24:06):
You know, I'm curious about data. I don't know how
much data and analytics you get, and I imagine things
have exploded since you started so long ago, seventeen years ago,
what you do today as executive director. But when you
get to take a look at some data and analytics,
how's the area doing? And it is everything growing exponentially
right now?
Speaker 2 (24:25):
You know, the pandemic was tough, right yeah, everybody? Yeah,
on everybody.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Yeah, So you know we're coming back up out of
the pandemic. We we were fortunate and that we did
not lose very many businesses due to the pandemic. I
think we lost six and in that same time period
we actually had nine new businesses. Open, which was phenomenal,
and the summer has been you know, a little bit slower,
(24:54):
I'll have to be honest, slower than some summers. You know, summertime,
you know, with people's travel does slow down a little bit.
But we learned last week that Call your Mother Bagels
is coming to.
Speaker 4 (25:07):
Add one of my favorite so I'm very excited about that. Yeah,
that's great, that's awesome.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
Yeah, so Call your Mother is a regional favorite, and
they let us know that they'll be opening on Champlain Street,
right across the street from the Line Hotel.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
In spring of twenty twenty six.
Speaker 4 (25:26):
By the way, by the way, that's huge.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
And for anybody that hasn't added to Call your Mother,
I'm telling you what, folks, because I have one in
my neighborhood and Petworth down on Georgia Avenue. But I
think I've hit all of them in the DMV and
they're very historic, and I think mine is the first
one ever that's just down the street on Georgia Avenue.
But I'm thrilled that a business like that is coming
to Adams Morgan because that's a really big deal because
(25:49):
not only do they have a brand, as you know,
Kristin but they're damn good bagels and it's a great menu.
So I'm thrilled. I did want to talk about the future.
We only have a couple of minutes left, but you know,
when it comes to twenty twenty six and moving forward,
I know you you and your team always looking forward
with what's coming to town or events. Is there something
that you're looking forward to or that you're working on
right now that you could share with us.
Speaker 2 (26:10):
Yeah? Sure.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
So one of the one of the big, you know,
regional events that that we're all you know, planning for
is the celebration of America's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary,
right which will be next July. And we're working really
closely with our partners at Destination d C and also
the Bid Council of you know, our colleagues and the
other bids to really put together some really robust programming
(26:35):
and not just in July next year, but like in
the months leading up to that, to encourage people to
come to the area and really celebrate everything that Washington
has to offer. So we're doing a lot of planning
now looking looking towards you know, the July of twenty
twenty six and and doing some really fun, you know,
(26:57):
sort of unique things to sell the two hundred and
fiftieth anniversary of America.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Okay, well, let's do this because I know you've got
a gorgeous website. I don't know who designed it, but
it's beautiful and it's upgetting very nicely. It's easy to navigate,
and when it comes to social media, I think everybody
would love to follow.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
You.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
Get on the website and once again, folks, you know,
the events are all on there, easy to see, lots
of cool facts, and there's a map on there to
get you around, and just everything that you know, whether
it's porch vest or any of the other things you
want to check out, The restaurants and all the businesses,
everything is on there. So Kristin, why don't we give
our listeners. I'm sure some of our smart listeners have
(27:35):
already Googled to find out where you are. But let's
get the website any social media to make sure that
they can follow and check out.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
So the website is ADMODC dot org admo DC dot org,
and the social media is usually admo bid so either
at admobid or hashtag admobid.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
All right, listen, you've got about a minute. This is
your chance to do a sales pitch for Adam Morgan
Partnership and having people come to the neighborhood if they
haven't done that before or it's been a while, what
would you tell them that they could really enjoy.
Speaker 3 (28:07):
Yeah, so I would say, you know, come, Adams Morgan
is a twenty four to seven neighborhood, right, so you
can come and have terrific coffee in the morning, you know, stay,
wander around the bookstores and the fun record stores and
retail shops, and then you know, stay for dinner and
(28:29):
we've got great music and dancing in the evening, so
you can, really you can spend a whole day in
Adams Morgan and just.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
Have a blast.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Very well said. And I've been there many times and
my wife and I love it. You guys do such
a nice job. And I'm so glad that we could
get you on Community DC and I hope we get
a chance to visit again. But thank you for your
valuable time. Give my best to your team. And it
sounds like the fall is going to be a lot
of fun. It's going to be busy, but it's going
to be great. There's a lot of things going on
and hopefully the weather cooperates. But Christin, thanks again for
(28:56):
joining us on the show and let's stay in touch.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Okay, okay, it sounds great once again.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
For some children, a single surgery can turn an untreated
cleft into a smile for life.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
But at smile Train, we understand that most children need
a little extra care.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
They need nourishment to ensure they grow healthy and strong.
Speaker 1 (29:23):
They need a confident voice so they can express themselves clearly.
They need emotional support and counseling to help them navigate
the challenges of school and home life. And they need
orthodonic and dental care to make sure their smiles light
up the room as brightly as possible. Visit SmileTrain dot
(29:47):
org to learn how smile Train is supporting the cleft
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Speaker 4 (29:54):
Smile Train changing the world one smile at a time,
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