Re: Digest for swann-street-listserv@googlegroups.com - 8 updates in 2 topics

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Louisa Morgan Manzeske

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May 12, 2025, 9:39:54 PMMay 12
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We had a great time at Porchfestito! Thank you, Tom, for organizing, and to all the helpers! I would be happy to see this happen again. 

I also loved the bake sale/lemonade stand and would be an advocate for something like that again—thanks to Jen and crew!

Regarding the crowd size — I personally thought it was a good sized group. There were enough people for some buzz and a nice ambiance, but it also felt really friendly and easy to meet/talk to neighbors at the same time (and I definitely met some new people on the block). I loved that it was frequented by all ages. My little daughter had fun wandering between our patio, the bake sale, and the musicians.

Yes, agreed it would be helpful to avoid Mother’s Day weekend in a perfect world but the time of year is perfect, weather wise.

Great job!

Louisa (1728)

On Mon, May 12, 2025 at 2:05 PM <swann-stre...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
Tom Reiter <motor...@gmail.com>: May 12 07:22AM -0700

Thanks for the feedback; we haven't gotten any negative feedback, so I
think we should try and do it again next year. I wanted to put down a few
thoughts about next year so that people can think about things before we
start planning early next year.
 
*ATTENDANCE: * I think that attendance was pretty good, although I think
that we could actually have accommodated 2x or 3x the crowd we had pretty
comfortably. It also seemed like a fairly low percentage of residents
actively took part. It seems like A LOT of people were out of town, I
guess either for Mothers' Day or to avoid Porchfestito!
 
Attendance is THE key issue for planning...while I'd like to invite the
whole neighborhood rather than just our block, I have no idea how to do
that without running the risk of having 5,000 people show up, which we
don't have the space or resources to accommodate. See notes below about
attendance for the various planning options.
 
Anyway there are a few planning options for next year:
 
*CLOSE THE BLOCK, HAVE LIVE MUSIC: *This was the original plan for this
year, but as mentioned in previous e-mails, I think it is completely
impracticable. Under DC rules to have ANY event with ANY live music, you
have to have a "Special Events" permit, which is very different from a
"Block Party" permit: to even apply for the permit, we'd have to have a
special license, then we have to apply six months in advance, and we'd need
to have insurance, security, portapotties, etc. Maybe it would be worth it
if we wanted to attract 5,000 people, but we don't, so I think this option
is off the table.
 
*DON'T CLOSE THE BLOCK, HAVE LIVE MUSIC: *This is what we did this year,
and it worked out pretty well. Since we didn't close the block and you
don't need permission to have live music on private property, we didn't
need a permit. Blocking off the parking spaces in front of 1724 was pretty
crucial, and that worked pretty well, although we might consider slightly
expanding the no parking zone to include the opposite side of the street in
front of 1724. Also, even if we don't apply for a permit, I think we
should get signatures like we did this year, mainly to ensure that people
are aware of the event and can make plans to attend (or leave town!).
 
The main problem with this approach is that it imposes real attendance
constraints because of lack of space; that said, I think we can accommodate
more people than this year, and for next year I propose a more intensive
outreach on our block to make sure people are aware. In particular it has
been hard to reach people living in some of the apartment/condo buildings,
so I'm going to ask the residents of those buildings on our listserve if
they can help out with that next year (for those of you living in
apartments/condos, if your building neighbors want to be added to this
listserve, just let me know!).
 
*CLOSE THE BLOCK, DON'T HAVE LIVE MUSIC: * Another option would be to
close the block, but have a DJ or whatever instead of live music...so this
would be kind of like Halloween but with fewer kids. Let's think about
this option, but honestly for me the live music is kind of the whole
point. Also, if we don't have live music, I'm not sure if we need the
extra space provided by closing the street, because I don't think that many
people would come to just hang out on our street. I suppose we could
provide free food like on Halloween, but that would just mean having people
tied up with grilling and serving, whereas the whole point of this exercise
was to allow people time to mingle with neighbors instead of serving up
free grub.
 
There are other options of dubious legality that would allow us to close
the street and have live music, but I'm not sure if there is any point:
we wouldn't be able to promote the live music while complying with the
block permit, and therefore we wouldn't really need the extra space
provided by closing the street.
 
Anyway, no need for any decisions right now, but I wanted to raise the
various options for people to consider....no rush, but at some point it
would be good to get feedback from you all.
 
Regards,
 
Tom
Liz Halloran <liz.ha...@gmail.com>: May 11 04:27PM -0400

Big thanks and congratulations to Tom for pulling off a truly fun inaugural
event!
 
It was great seeing so many people gather, and we loved hearing the sounds
of fun into the evening.
 
Again, Tom, thank you for all your work pulling this together.
 
Cheers to all, Liz.
 
 
--
Liz Halloran
liz.ha...@gmail.com
202-253-2656
Tom Reiter <motor...@gmail.com>: May 11 02:04PM -0700

Thanks Liz! Actually it was remarkably easy to organize, and lots of
people helped out--in particular Renn & Nicky (general encouragement and
help), the guys in 1724 (Braeden, Gavin, Luke, for being so flexible and
accommodating), and of course you yourself with the car-shuffling
exercise.
 
Generally I think things went remarkably well, although we kind of lucked
out with the weather and also being able to find two musicians so easily
(almost had 3!). Personally I'd be up for doing it again next
spring--everyone pls let us know what you think!
 
If we do it again next year, I've got some ideas for improvement and would
organize a meeting early next year for anyone who has some ideas or wants
to help. Or if you have some ideas already feel free to send them now...
In the meantime, keep your eyes (and ears!) open for any musicians you
think would be a good fit.
 
One more thing: after the show I found out that Nina not only played for
free, but she came in from out of town to do it! And then she broke her
guitar the morning before the show. So I think we definitely need to give
her at least a little money--I'll ask Caroline for $200 from the block fund
and will figure out a way to get it to Nina. Hopefully no objections
there, I thought that she was great!
 
Regards,
 
Tom
 
 
On Sunday, May 11, 2025 at 4:27:23 PM UTC-4 liz.halloran wrote:
 
Renn Osborne <renno...@gmail.com>: May 11 06:39PM -0400

Agree, great event - and perfect weather! Thanks to Joe and Nina for the
music and to Tom for putting the plan into action.
 
I agree it would be great to do next year as well. Looking forward to it
and happy to help!
 
Renn
 
Josh Dawsey <jdaw...@gmail.com>: May 11 06:42PM -0400

Pepper and I had a blast. Thanks for organizing. Would be happy to help
next year.
 
Maria Foscarinis <maria.fo...@gmail.com>: May 11 06:48PM -0400

Thanks, Tom! A very fun event, appreciate your making it happen. That
Tomgria was stronger than I expected!
 
Marcy Logan <logan...@gmail.com>: May 11 07:09PM -0400

Great idea to have the party, Tom, and well executed. Thanks to Joe for
his singing and picking! It was definitely time to have this party and we
needed it. Of course, I look forward to having it again next year… or
next week!
 
Marcy Logan
 
On Sun, May 11, 2025 at 6:48 PM Maria Foscarinis <maria.fo...@gmail.com>
wrote:
 
Nicky Vogt <vogt...@gmail.com>: May 12 08:51AM -0400

It was such a lovely opportunity to meet new neighbors, hear great
musicians, and catch up with everyone. 10/10 event and look forward to
helping next year!!
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