Mural Tour of Logan Circle, U Street Corridor, Columbia Heights, 16th Street Heights, Mount Pleasant, Adams Morgan, and Dupont Circle! – eWheel Going Out Group

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*** It’s a great day for an e-wheel tour. See you there! ***

UPDATE #5: The email with my cell no. has been sent to the yes RSVPs (to the email address associated with your Meetup account). TEXT me if you need to. If you do not see my email, check your email’s spam folder, and also make sure your email and Meetup settings allow for you to always receive messages from the organizer. If you can’t find it, send me a message through my Meetup profile with YOUR CELL NO. so I can text you back. See you there!

UPDATE #4: Weather.com is currently forecasting temperatures in the mid-80s with an 85% chance of NO RAIN (or from a glass half empty perspective, a 15% chance of rain) for the entire duration of our ride for our location’s zip code. Having hosted over 1000 events since 2007, when the percentage chance of rain is below 35% for the location’s zip code at the event start time, I’ve observed that 99% of the time, we’ll end up with no rain. In the summertime, in the rare chance we do end up getting some rain, it will typically be a quick passing “summer” rain. Per the “Rain” section of the full event description, this event is a “go.” This UPDATE has been sent as an email to the yes RSVPs. See you there!

UPDATE #3: Don’t forget to account for Metro, traffic, and parking delays (see the “Metro & Parking” section of the event posting for full details).

UPDATE #2: If you plan to rent an e-wheel, some members have run out of charge in the past. I recommend trying to find one with as full of a charge as possible. Please see the “eWheel Rental” section of the event posting for full details.

UPDATE #1: Just a reminder to RSVP if you plan to join us, as I typically send out an email to the yes RSVPs with my cell phone no. a few hours before the event start time in case you need to reach me on the day of the event. Make sure your email and Meetup settings allow for you TO ALWAYS RECEIVE messages from the organizer.

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Let’s get together for our summer tour!

I’ll hand out swag items to everyone that attends and RSVPs for the tour (a different item on each tour)! A raffle item will be raffled off to those that make it to the end of our ride. New riders, come join us for the first time! Riders from previous Meetups (Adolphus, Adrian, Aian Neil, Aiden, Alejandra, Alina, Alphonso, André, Anibal, Arturo, Ben, Benen, Benicio, Bird, Bob, Brandon, Brooke, Chad, Chris, Christina, Clarissa, Connor, CY, Dave, Declan, Denis, Dilraj, Don, Ecca, Edwin, Eli, Emmanuelle, Erwin, Gary, Gav, Geoff, Greg, Francis, Haitao, Heather, James, Jan, Janovah, Jason, Jeff, Jenna, Jennifer, Jeremy, Jessica, Joe, John, Johnny, Jonathan, Kevin, Kris, Lam, Laura, Lauren, LeRoy, Loren, Lori, Lutalo, Maggee, Mark, Mayu, Megan, Melissa, Michael, Mikel, Nathalie, Nick, Olga, Phil, Rakesh, Rahul, Raul, Raymond, Ricardo, Richard, Riley, Rob, Robert, Rodney, Saphal, Sasha, Sergey, Shelly, Steven, Tim, and Zobair, Zoltan), come join us again!

Don’t own an e-wheel? You can rent one (e-scooter, e-bike) using a micromobility app (e.g. Lime, Bird, Spin, Helbiz, Capital Bikeshare). Capital Bikeshare offers a Day Pass option for $8 that includes a discounted rate of $0.10 per minute for e-bikes (for an estimated total cost of $25 – $30 for our tour length); Lime and Helbiz also offer Day Pass options (as of the date of this event announcement). Since the tours are free, the cost is significantly less than a comparable Segway tour (that uses older technology). Join us for some or all of the tour! See the “eWheel Rental” section of the event posting for full details.

We’ll tour the Logan Circle, U Street Corridor, Columbia Heights, 16th Street Heights, Mount Pleasant, Adams Morgan, and Dupont Circle neighborhoods and stop numerous times along the way for photo-ops and to enjoy the sites, memorials, neighborhoods, landmarks, and to also let some of the slower riders catch up (if some of us decide to go at a quicker speed). Note that this route contains 90% bike lanes. I’ll read aloud the description of each site, memorial, neighborhood, and landmark along the way so that we all know what we’re looking at, and so that we can also learn more about the awesome treasures that exist in our own backyard! Ideally, we’ll all ride together and at the same speed, but that may or may not be possible with other pedestrians, bicyclists, cars, etc. sharing the same paths, but let’s do our best please. In total, it’s ~6.7 mile trip that’s sure to be enjoyable!

We’ll meet up in the center of Logan Circle at 2pm. Then we’ll ride west on P Street NW for 0.1 miles, at 2:30pm. Once we come across 14th Street NW (1 block), we’ll make a right and travel north for 1.2 miles.

When we reach Columbia Road NW (18 blocks), we’ll turn left and travel west for 0.1 miles. When we reach Harvard Court NW (1 block), we’ll turn left and ride for 0.1 miles.

We’ll immediately come across CentroNía (1/2 block, right-hand side). CentroNía, a nationally recognized, award-winning elementary school provides quality early childhood education, professional development to educators, and family support services in a bilingual and multicultural environment to more than 2,400 low-income children and families. The mural, painted in 2008, consists of nine paintings of Olmec colossal heads – human heads of people from ancient Mesoamerica – made out of stencils in all colors of the rainbow. Sun rays beam out of the heads, and the high school student who painted each design wrote their name underneath the head in large bubble letters. Artist Ryan McDonnell worked at CentroNía at the time he taught the free after-school program that empowers youth through hip-hop and art. McDonnell said he still keeps in contact with some of the students who worked on the mural 15 years ago, four of whom said the class helped nurture their passion for art. He said he has run into them multiple times over the years, and four of the students went on to pursue professions in art.

Next, we’ll ride north on Harvard Court NW (through an alley) for 1 block. At the end of the alley, we’ll turn right and travel for 1 block. When we reach 14th Street NW, we’ll turn left and travel north for 0.4 miles.

When we reach Sam Cole Alley (5 blocks), we’ll turn left and ride 0.1 miles. When we reach Meridian Place NW (1 block), we’ll turn right and travel 0.1 miles.

We’ll immediately come across Meridian mural. The Meridian mural is located on the side of a 2250 square foot, 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath single family house. It was led by artist Aniekan Udofia in 2008, working with students from Bell Multicultural High School and the Midnight Forum. Using acrylic paint, these students created a mural with a theme of children, music, art, and education. The mural “serves as a source of pride helping to ground our community in our core values “says Gabriel Rojo, property owner. Elements of the students’ own identities are infused with the positive message of the mural, as can be seen by the hip-hop element which is represented, for example, by the speakers painted onto the buildings.

We’ll continue east on Meridian Place NW for 0.1 miles. When we reach 14th Street (1 block), we’ll turn left travel north for 0.7 miles.

When we arrive at Arkansas Avenue NW (11 blocks), we’ll turn left and travel southwest for 0.4 miles. When we reach 16th Street NW (1 block), we’ll turn left and ride south for 0.6 miles.

Along the way, we’ll come across Guglielmo Marconi Memorial (7 blocks, Lamont Street NW, right-hand side). Guglielmo Marconi Memorial, located in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood, commemorates the Italian inventor who is responsible for developing wireless telegraphy. One of the few memorials in DC erected to an inventor, Marconi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, and his invention was widely used. After the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, ships began installing Marconi’s wireless telegraphs as a safety feature. The statue has two main components: a smaller granite block with a bronze portrait bust of Marconi on top of it, and a larger granite block featuring a symbolic bronze sculpture comprised of electrical waves disappearing into clouds set beneath an emerging world. Atop the world sits a dynamic nude female with her left arm extending east and her right arm bent and pointing to the sky. The figure’s arms, the drapery around her legs blowing behind, and her wavy mass of stylized hair echo the electrical waves below, a nod to Marconi’s work in radio wave technology. Funded by the Marconi Memorial Foundation and completed in 1941. The artwork was listed on both the District of Columbia Inventory of Historic Sites and the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.

We’ll travel northwest on Lamont Street NW for 0.1 mile. When we arrive at Mt. Pleasant Street NW (1 block), we’ll turn left and ride southeast for 0.3 miles.

Next, we’ll come across the Francis Asbury Statue (Irving Street NW, 1 block, left-hand side). The Francis Asbury Memorial is located in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood. As one of only a few memorials dedicated to a religious leader, it honors someone whom many consider the “father of the American Methodist Church.” Asbury also became an advocate for abolition, even urging George Washington to draft anti-slavery legislation. The young British preacher at 26 years of age left a rugged iron-working region of England, his family, and his childhood friends to set out across the treacherous Atlantic Ocean. His goal was to preach the Gospel to the 13 American colonies. He traveled more than 6000 miles on horseback annually, and covered more than a quarter million miles over the course of 45 years. This bronze sculpture features Francis Asbury seated upon his horse wearing a cape and broad-brimmed hat, to protect him from the elements. In his right hand he holds a bible. The horse is bending its head down to lick its left leg, perhaps to heal a wound from an errant branch poking from a thickened trail. The display of the horse’s strong teeth are in line with the entire sculpture’s hard-to-miss theme of gritty perseverance.

When we arrive at Harvard Street NW (1 block), we’ll turn right and ride for 0.3 miles. When we arrive at Adams Mill Road NW (4 blocks), we’ll turn left and travel 0.3 miles.

Along the way, we’ll come across Walter Pierce Park (Clydesdale Place NW, 3 blocks, right-hand side). Located in the Adams Morgan neighborhood, Walter Pierce Park offers a playing field, basketball court, community garden, children’s play area and playground, chess tables, picnic tables, and DC’s first fenced-in dog exercise area. In the 1960s, teenage Walter Pierce turned the vacant lot into a place for neighborhood kids to play. He, his brother Ronald, and others built makeshift playground equipment and organized games there. In 1976, developers began negotiating so townhouses could be built there. Walter Pierce went to Capitol Hill, office to office, to show politicians a video of the park. He knew Congress would have to appropriate funds to purchase the land. The money was found, and the park — known as Community Park West — was officially dedicated in 1977. Walter Pierce died in 1991. In 1994, the park was renamed in his honor. In 2009, artist Aniekan Udofia designed different murals at Walter Pierce Park, one with birds soaring from a globe to represent people fleeing their native lands in search of better lives, and another with a girl happily blowing bubbles beside a cartoonish-looking dog to represent the care-free nature of childhood. These murals reflect the character of the neighborhood and the park and beckon the community to come and play.

We’ll now continue southeast on Adams Mill Road NW for 0.1 miles. We’ll turn left at the Calvert Street NW intersection (1 block) to stay on Adams Mill Road NW, which will veer right and turn into 18th Street NW. We’ll stay on 18th Street NW for 0.2 miles. When we arrive at Kalorama Road NW (2 blocks), we’ll turn left and travel east for 0.1 miles.

Along the way, we’ll come across a vivid 3-story, vivid, icon-based mural (Champlain Street NW, 1 block, right-hand side). Titled “Every Day I See Something New,” this mural was artist MISS CHELOVE’s first public art commission. The design explores various symbols and scenes from in and around the Adams Morgan neighborhood. Over an almost solid black background, the elements fit together to create a pattern of bright, bold color, but if one views this mural for long enough, a message emerges: “Every Day I See Something New.” The purpose of this mural was to combine elements from the Adams Morgan neighborhood with D.C.’s rich musical heritage, the local natural environment, Ethiopian and Salvadoran ethnic populations, D.C. street style, and popular food spots. It was conceptualized with the children of the neighborhood in mind. The playground for Marie Reed Elementary School sits directly across the street from the mural site, so MISS CHELOVE wanted to create a design that could be seen day after day and hopefully still remain fresh — a simplified, sort of “Where’s Waldo” of imagery to get lost within. As the title indicates, the artist hopes people find a new detail each time they walk by.

We’ll immediately turn right onto Champlain Street NW and travel southeast for 0.1 miles. When we reach Florida Avenue NW (2 blocks), we’ll turn right and ride southwest for 0.1 miles. When we reach Seaton Street NW (2 blocks), we’ll turn left and travel east for 0.1 miles. Upon arriving at 17th Street NW (1 block), we’ll turn right and ride south for 0.4 miles.

Along the way, we’ll come across the Cairo Wine & Liquor store mural (Corcoran Street NW, 7 blocks, right-hand side). The mural on the side of the Cairo Wine & Liquor store is a result of the 2022 Calle Libre DC Streets Art Festival, hosted by Dupont Underground in collaboration with the Austrian Embassy to present a week of art created by Austrian and American muralists. It is an amalgamation of 5 murals by 5 different artists. In the upper left is a painting by artist David Leitner from Vienna Austria of a man nurturing a baby. In the lower left is a painting by local artist Edith Lopez-Estrada (also known as Siempre Arte) honoring transgender identity. In the upper right is a painting by local artist Jay F. Coleman depicting the face of an African nomad. In the bottom middle is a painting by Austrian artist BOICUT showing windmills, flowers, and bees. In the bottom far right, is a painting by local artist Maria Miller of a woman’s face with flowers on each side.

We’ll continue south on 17th Street NW. When we arrive at Q Street NW (1 block), we’ll turn left and travel east for 0.5 miles. When we arrive at 13th Street NW (5 blocks), we’ll turn right and ride south for 0.1 miles back to Logan Circle.

Come join us as we spend an afternoon together exploring the sites, memorials, and landmarks Logan Circle, U Street Corridor, Columbia Heights, 16th Street Heights, Mount Pleasant, Adams Morgan, and Dupont Circle have to offer. Also, please help spread the word of our group and the tour.

I look forward to seeing you there!

– J.T.

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METRO & PARKING

We’ll meet at Logan Circle. The closest Metro stops are McPherson Square (Blue, Orange, Silver lines), Dupont Circle – South exit (Red line), and Mt. Vernon Square (Green, Yellow). I suggest taking Metro / taxi / ride-share services if you can. I also recommend using wmata.com for travel planning. Don’t forget to account for Metro, traffic, and parking delays. If you are driving, you will need to find street parking or a garage. For Sunday events, street parking is typically free in DC. I recommend using parkopedia.com for garage parking planning.

EWHEEL RENTAL

Don’t own an e-wheel? You can rent one (e-scooter, e-bike) using a micromobility app (e.g. Lime, Bird, Spin, Helbiz, Capital Bikeshare). Capital Bikeshare offers a Day Pass option for $8 that includes a discounted rate of $0.10 per minute for e-bikes (for an estimated total cost of $25 – $30 for our tour length); Lime and Helbiz also off Day Pass options (as of the date of this event announcement). Since the tours are free, the cost is significantly less than a comparable Segway tour (that uses older technology). Join us for some or all of the tour! See the “eWheel Rental” section of the event posting for full details. If you plan to rent an e-wheel, some members have run out of charge in the past. Please try to find one with as full of a charge as possible.

DRESS

Please dress appropriately for the weather. For those with problems having their feet go numb or tired during long rides, I recommend wearing shoes with a stiff and flat sole.

RIDING ETIQUETTE / RULES

Since e-wheels are relatively new technology, please be as courteous as possible to other pedestrians, bicyclists, etc. Based on personal experience (I’ve been riding daily since 2015), I’ve noticed some general good practices and rules to follow. 1) ALWAYS give pedestrians the right of way. 2) When riding on a narrow sidewalk, and you’re coming up behind a pedestrian and you need to pass them, either a) wait until there’s an opening, or b) clear your throat and say “excuse me” or “on your left” in a *gentle* manner (I’ve noticed people tend to get startled / surprised when they see and hear a tall figure behind them on a wheel) before passing them. 3) SLOW DOWN to a pedestrian’s walking pace (until you are completely clear of them) whenever approaching or passing (whichever direction they are walking). Only after passing a pedestrian for a little distance is it a good idea to go faster than walking pace. Whatever you do, please do NOT wiz by them. 4) Thank the pedestrian as you are passing. 5) Slow down as you are going around a turn (whether there are other pedestrians in sight or not) with a lot of bushes or other obstacles next to the sidewalk, as they can be coming from the other end of the turn (and not be visible initially). 6) Ride single file whenever pedestrians are around (on the sidewalk), or cars are around (in the bike lane). 7) Dismount when in the official memorial areas, such as the FDR Memorial (it’s the law). 8) Please stay behind me since I know the route and may be turning left or right at any time.

RIDING SKILL

For the safety of others and ourselves, we will all be required to be able to: (1) comfortably balance on the wheel while riding straight and turning left or right (2) ride at a snail’s pace and (3) start and stop comfortably without the need to hold onto any wall, post, or similar structure.

LEGALITY

People have asked me questions regarding the laws pertaining to riding our e-wheels in the DC metro area. I did a lot of research before purchasing my e-wheel to ensure I could make use of it. In short, they are generally considered Personal Mobility Devices or Electric Personal Assistive Mobility Device. (1) Virginia: “An electric personal assistive mobility device or motorized skateboard or foot-scooter may be operated on any highway with a maximum speed limit of twenty-five miles per hour or less. An electric personal assistive mobility device shall only operate on any highway authorized by this section if a sidewalk is not provided along such highway…” See link here. (2) Washington DC: “Personal Mobility Device (“PMD”) means a motorized propulsion device designed to transport one person, OR a self-balancing, two non-tandem wheeled device, designed to transport only one person with an electric propulsion system. Permitted on Sidewalk – Yes, except PMDs are generally not permitted on sidewalk space in the Central Business District. Permitted on Bike Lanes – Yes.” See link here. (3) Maryland: “‘Bicycle’ means […] an electric low speed scooter […]” and “has the rights and is subject to the restrictions applicable to pedestrians […]: (i) on a sidewalk or sidewalk area; or (ii) in or through a crosswalk[…]. At an intersection, a person […] is subject to all traffic control signals […].” See link here and here. “Green” devices for the win!

RAIN

If there’s a greater than a 35% chance of rain, we’ll cancel or reschedule. Having hosted over 1000 events since 2007, when the percentage chance of rain is below 35% for the start time of the event at the location’s zip code, I’ve observed that 95% of the time, we’ll get no rain. I’ll post an update to the top of the event posting by 11:30am on the day of the event, and also send an email out to the yes RSVPs.

<  Click here to go back to RSVP page

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