Popular D.C. pizzeria Menomale is in talks to open a Hyattsville location.

Owner Mariya Rusciano told the Hyattsville Wire that she is looking at a space inside the upcoming Hyattsville Canvas Apartments at 5300 Baltimore Ave., next to the historic Armory building.

“We are negotiating the lease at the moment, but nothing is signed yet,” she said.

Site plans for the apartment and retail complex show two smaller spaces with a little over 2,000 square feet and a large corner space with 5,362 square feet “under negotiation.”

The apartment building’s retail brokers have already signed deals with Mathnasium and an outpost of Akira Ramen & Izakaya.

This would be the third location for Menomale, which started in Brookland and added a second space in NoMa. Following the rules of the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, it’s one of a handful of D.C. restaurants that serve authentic Neapolitan pizzas.

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Community Forklift is wrapping up another summer of First Fridays in September.

The nonprofit reuse warehouse in Edmonston will be open from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 6, wit live music, food and drinks for sale, local artist and vendor booths, and discounts on salvaged and surplus home goods and building materials.

During First Friday events, the warehouse offers discounts on salvaged and surplus home goods and building materials and the material donation drop-off bay remains open.

Along with local artists and vendors, the September event will feature live music from Tritone Jazz Trio, a Seafood Boss food truck and drinks from Clear Skies Meadery.

Located at 4671 Tanglewood Dr., Community Forklift collects donations of new and gently used building materials and home essentials and redistributes them to the community for free through its community giving programs and at below-market prices through its warehouse store.

Event sponsors include Kim Kash of Compass real estate, Vigilante Coffee Company and the Town of Edmonston.

You can RSVP for free on the Community Forklift website here.

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Brentwood’s miXt Food Hall plans to create a new public art display facing Route 1 and is calling for artists’ submissions.

Located at 3809 Rhode Island Ave. next to the Studio 3807 apartment building, the food hall is currently looking for an artist to design, create and install an artwork on the patio facing Rhode Island Avenue.

According to a recent call for submissions put out by the food hall, the artwork can be affixed to the building or railing or mounted in a plant bed. The piece must also be washable and able to withstand the local climate.

The artist who is chosen will receive a $2,000 honorarium and up to $500 worth of supplies.

The deadline for submission is Sept. 15, with the goal of installing the artwork in November. Artists who are considering submitting should include a rough sketch with a descriptive narrative and examples of previous work.

Submissions are limited to three per artist. Any questions and submissions should be sent to Sandy Patterson at spatterson@mixtfoodhall.com.

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Renovations on a popular Hyattsville park that has been closed for two years are nearly complete.

Located at 4203 Gallatin St., next to the Mount Hermon Masonic Lodge, Robert J. King Park has been closed since 2022 to install new playground equipment and pavilions and update stormwater and landscaping.

The park is normally heavily used by young children from nearby St. Jerome Academy and Hyattsville Elementary School, as well as those who live in Hyattsville’s Historic District and other nearby communities.

Based on community feedback, the design for the new park includes a nature-themed playground that uses more wood rather than plastic, shaded seating, two new pavilions, and picnic benches.

There’s also a long curved reading bench near the park’s Little Free Library set back among trees and shrubs and signs identifying native plants. A spot has been set aside for a future piece of public art as well.

Renovations were originally scheduled to be done by the spring.

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The College Park City-University Partnership plans to extend a campus bike path to the Rhode Island Avenue Trolley Trail.

The $3 million bike lane would run along Campus Drive from the main campus to the intersection with the Trolley Trail near the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute.

Though it’s only a half-mile, it would make College Park much more bikeable, especially for University of Maryland students living in one of the apartment buildings along Route 1.

The proposal, first reported by Streetcar Suburbs News, comes as the university plans to expand its biking infrastructure.

In April, the university published a 42-page study outlining plans to expand and improve bike paths throughout campus. The study noted that all the new nearby housing has raised demand for more “last-mile” trips on foot or on bikes, scooters, and even skateboards.

“This demand will only increase with additional pending off-campus housing along the Baltimore Ave corridor, as well as the completion of the Purple Line and its accompanying side path that runs east-west through the entire campus,” the study noted.

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A single block of eight townhomes is under construction next to DeMatha High School in Hyattsville, west of Route 1 on Oglethorpe Street. The lot owner was listed as Alan Rahimi on planning documents.

They new homes will have a similar layout to the nearby Arts District Hyattsville townhomes, with a first-floor garage and office, sweeping second-floor kitchen, dining, and living room area, and bedrooms on the third and fourth floors.

The lot, just across the street from the Oglethorpe Condominiums apartment building, was previously vacant, with just grass and some small bushes, after a historic bungalow on the site had fallen into disrepair and been torn down.

The block-long development lacks green space, but the developers are paying a fee in lieu of park space.

The site was previously zoned for commercial use, but the strong and consistent demand for townhomes along the Route 1 corridor, especially near the Arts District, continues to be strong.

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A new piece of public art inspired by Japanese anime has been installed in Mount Rainier.

The mural, painted by D.C. artist Kelly Towles, is located on the side of the Washington Glass School at 3700 Otis St.

A native of Ohio, Towles moved as a child to Australia, where he began watching anime on public television. Now the director of the D.C. Walls Festival, he’s painted murals in Tokyo, Taipei, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas, among other places.

The mural, which covers one entire side of the building, features a variety of characters, including an old woman, a young girl, a boy riding a bike, and a cat. It was painted in July with the help of a boom lift despite 100-degree weather.

Otis Street is home to another building-sized mural, which went up in 2022 on the Otis Street Arts Project.

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