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If you felt a little closer to your fellow Metro riders last Friday, you certainly weren’t alone. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority reported that more people rode the Metro on July 11 than any other day in the system’s 32-year history.

The Metro system had 854,638 riders, including 25,952 who entered through the Foggy Bottom/GWU Metro Station, said Taryn McNeil, a WMATA public affairs coordinator.

In a news release, the WMATA attributed the surge in riders to a Washington Nationals baseball game, the Women of Faith Conference and a high number of summer tourists. But this summer has already been a record-breaking season for the Metro, with 20 of their top 25 highest weekday ridership days occurring since April—including several days with no major events listed. Commuters and tourists alike seem to be hopping on the Metro to save on rising gas prices.

The previous single-day record took place on June 9, 2004, during former President Ronald Reagan’s State Funeral Service, when 850,636 riders took the Metro. On an average weekday, the Metro and Metrobus combined provide more than 1.2 million trips, according to their Web site.

In loosely related news, two Metro station employees who allegedly ran a prostitution ring out of their Dupont Circle Station were offered anger management, sex addiction and entrepreneurship classes last week in lieu of criminal charges. The charges were pressed when the station’s manager, Sharon Waters, arranged a sexual encounter for an undercover cop—who was posing as a businessman—with Pamela Goins, a Metro custodian. Waters used the Metro’s intercom to page Goins for the arrangement, police said.

On Tuesday night, the Ward 2 Democrats endorsed current D.C. Councilmembers Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) and Kwame Browne (D-At Large) for the election this fall. Evans, a 17-year veteran of the Council, won the endorsement over Cary Silverman, a graduate of GW’s graduate and law schools and president of the Mount Vernon Square Neighborhood Association. Brown will likely face two oponents in the primary: activists Clarence Cherry and George Jackson.

Readers of the Washington Post are saying on their blog that Evans dramatically outspent Silverman at the event and claim that his 22percent margin of victory is underwhelming for a longtime incumbent. Several commenters said Evans provided transport for his supporters and bought KFC dinners for those showed up.

Brown and Evans made headlines last year when they helped prevent the sale of public land near the West End Library to a Georgeotwn-based real estate company after initially supporting the legislation. Evans is also a staunch proponent of an annual GW-Georgetown basketball game.

Ward 2 includes Foggy Bottom, as well as the Georgetown, Shaw and Dupont Circle neighborhoods.

Despite the indignation of some Foggy Bottom community members, the Advisory Neighborhood Commission has decided to delay taking a position on the potential installment of a new statue of George Washington at the corner of the 1957 E Street building.

The issue of the statue’s installment is currently “tabled” by the DC Public Space Committee, and the ANC will not discuss it further until the PSC has, said ANC chairman Asher Corson, at a meeting Wednesday.

However, several individual community members raised concerns at the meeting about the placement of the statue and the prevalence of George Washington images in the neighborhood.

“The sidewalks and the street do not belong to GW. They belong to the community,” said Dorothy Miller, a Foggy Bottom resident. “We are sick and tired of 16 million statues of George Washington.”

Director of DC and Foggy Bottom/West End Affairs Michael Akin pointed out that the plan for the statue falls with in the boundaries of the campus plan and that it would not be in sight of any residential units.

“The location where we placed this one, I think, is appropriate,” he said.
-Reed Cooley

Update | 3:06 p.m. Metro has posted a press release on their Web site regarding this morning’s service interruptions. They also issued an advisory stating that any customers who left the system unprocessed will be able to use their farecards during the evening rush hour.

Update | 10:54 a.m. Power returned to the downtown area after the city restored the electrical substation in Chinatown, according to an e-mail sent from the D.C. alert system.

An electrical substation in Chinatown failed this morning resulting in power outages throughout downtown D.C., according to an e-mail from the District’s alert system.

The Dupont Circle, Shaw-Howard U, Farragut North, Farragut West and McPherson Square Metro stations are running on emergency power, which a Metro spokesperson said could make elevators, escalators and fare card vending machines inoperable, according to The Washington Post. However, the stations remain open, The Post said.

City officials do not know when power will be resumed, according the alert system e-mail.

Metrorail service is also affected this morning because of a fire on the Red Line, according to a later e-mail sent from the District’s alert system. Although the fire has been extinguished, delays exceeding an hour remain for commuters using the Red Line, the e-mail said.

Update, 7:08 p.m. The Democratic National Committee has voted to restore the Florida and Michigan delegations, only giving each delegate one half a vote, reports The New York Times.

Original Post, 5:08 p.m. Hundreds of protesters gathered outside a D.C. hotel on Saturday as the Democratic National Committee wrestled with the fate of the unseated delegates from Michigan and Florida.

The DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee is hearing from party members about how — and if — to seat the delegates after the two states moved up their presidential primaries to January in violation of DNC rules.

Many of the protesters carried signs expressing dissatisfaction and calling for the delegates to be seated including “Count every vote” and, according to a post on The New York Times politics blog, “I was thrown under the bus by the D.N.C.”

Denise Solomon was among those who traveled a long distance to protest outside the meeting, which is being held in the Marriot-Wardman Park Hotel near the National Zoo.

“There are buses of us from Florida but I’m proud to see people from other states coming out to support our cause,” Solomon said.

Unsurprisingly, many in the crowd appeared to be supporting Hillary Clinton, who has rested her last hopes for the nomination on seating the delegates from Michigan and Florida. Clinton won decisively in both states but some say the victories are flawed because candidates were not allowed to campaign in either state. Her main opposition, Barack Obama, did not appear on the ballot in Michigan.

Although Solomon said she supports Clinton, she claimed her protest wasn’t about seating more delegates for her candidate.

“This is about making every vote count,” Solomon said. “The people of Florida shouldn’t be punished for a decision they didn’t make themselves.”

Dave Williams, a D.C. resident, said he was not part of the protest but did hope the DNC reached a compromise that satisfied voters in both states.

“The differences between Hillary and Obama are so small compared to differences with Republicans that we can’t afford to push people away over this issue,” Williams said.

MSNBC is broadcasting a live video feed of the meeting.

McFadden’s Saloon is closed tonight after the District temporarily suspended its liquor license.

The bar and restaurant, located at 24th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, was dark and empty — an unusual sight for the popular drinking spot. Signs posted on the doors announced the suspension, which was effective only today.

Cynthia Simms, a community resource officer for the D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, said the temporary closure resulted from a sale to a minor in late December. She said the long gap between the violation and the suspension was common in the District.

“All of these violations have to go through the attorney general’s office,” Simms said. “There’s a huge number of them so it often takes months before we get to them.”

A male bartender, who declined to be identified, turned away patrons at the door but reassured them the bar would be open again tomorrow and handed out cards promising $2 drinks and no coverage charge.

Photo by Andrew Nacin/Hatchet photographer

The Georgetown Hoya reported that on Saturday, a student was sexually assaulted at gunpoint in a campus dorm, prompting discussions about security policy changes at the university, including expanding campus police forces.

At approximately 3:40 a.m., an assailant described as a black male between 17 and 20 years old, attacked a female student while she was smoking on a public balcony, according to an alert from the Georgetown Department of Public Safety. A Metropolitan Police Department investigation followed but so far no arrests have been made.

Georgetown’s vice president for university safety, Rocco DelMonaco, told The Hoya, “The fact this happened is very disconcerting, and if there is a vulnerability we want to identify and address it.”

The Hoya reported that following evening, Georgetown administrators held a meeting with residents in the dorm the attack took place in to discuss improvements to campus security.

Anyone interested in catching a glimpse of the Pope tomorrow can see him as he travels to the White House between about 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. As you can see from a map of the route (below), he will be traveling from the Naval Observatory to Foggy Bottom, mostly via Pennsylvania Avenue.

There are already barricades around Pennsylvania Avenue and this afternoon there were newscasters standing around the area talking about the Pope’s visit. It is probably advisable to arrive early, given the amount of District residents and tourists in town for this event.

And if you’re not sure what to look for, the popemobile is pretty unique.

Post by Tim Gowa

Update, 11:02p.m: A “very cluttered apartment and a bunch of debris” caught fire on the 9th floor of Columbia Plaza on Friday evening, causing a massive flurry of activity on Virginia Avenue between 23rd and 25th streets.

Firefighters from Foggy Bottom’s Engine Company 23 were first on the scene and extinguished the flames without any injuries within 10 minutes, according to D.C. fire officer Richard Sterne.

About 30 residents milled outside, as a dozen D.C. fire engines stretched hose lines across the street towards The Diplomat building. Despite the dramatic response, the building was re-opened just before 10 p.m., with the exception of the 9th floor.

Fire Department Spokesperson Alan Etter said in an e-mail they are still determining the extent of the damage. The cause of the fire is also still unknown.

Stay with the Hatchet for more details.

- David Ceasar and Eric Roper contributed to this report.

You may have seen our article last week about how thefts from automobiles are increasing in the District, including in Foggy Bottom. It’s certainly a problem that’s being addressed across the city, especially in the Second District police area. Just last night, 10 cars were burglarized on the same block of New Mexico Avenue just north of Georgetown, according to a crime summary released this morning from the Metropolitan Police Department. Some of the items stolen include a CD player, 800 CDs, a satellite radio, eyeglasses, a t-shirt, a backpack, tools, etc. It has become one of the most common crimes in the Northwest.

Police in the area are trying to tackle the problem using bait cars (which can be turned off remotely), and tracking stolen GPS systems. The crime can best be prevented if residents hide their expensive items before leaving the vehicle, local police luitenant Phillip Lanciano said in our article last week.