Broccoli City and &pizza Are Opening a Bar in Shaw Where Happy Hour Goes Until 10 PM

Earlier this year, Brandon McEachern, Marcus Allen, and Darryl Perkins—founders of Broccoli City, the hip-hop, rap, and R&B music festival that’s featured headliners like Solange, Cardi B, and Future—headed down to South by Southwest in Austin, TX, where they met &pizza CEO Michael Lastoria over a few adult beverages. On October 24, just seven months after that boozy chat, the guys will open a cocktail-and-pizza bar called Broccoli Bar. Inspired by art pop-ups like the Future of Sports, Allen, McEachern, and Perkinsthe trio hopes to expand the community outreach and health programming that they celebrate each spring during their music festival.

One thing the Broccoli team wants to do to differentiate its bar from others in the buzzy neighborhood is hold an extended happy hour they’re calling “The Vibe,” which will run from 6 to 10 PM with discounted drinks and DJs. For those who actually make it to late night, the bar will be open till 2 AM Thursday through Saturday. The bar will serve up &pizza staples, plus an exclusive pie topped with broccoli and cheddar beer cheese. The inaugural talk planned for 6 PM on opening day (October 24th ), features Ajit Varghese and Harry Alford, founders of the venture capital firm Ventures. Another event, planned for November 14th, will feature Christopher Bradshaw, the founder and director of Dreaming Out Loud. Another thing major happening kicking off on November 3rd - weekend brunch with three breakfast pizzas.

Bloomingdale and Michigan Park are the City’s Hottest Neighborhoods…Literally

Temperatures were off to the races in late August when cars whizzed around Washington and Baltimore, armed with digital sensors, scoping out which parts of these sweaty cities swelter the most. Data was logged every second, 75,000 measurements were processed and then mapped. The data was collected as part of a field campaign funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to better understand the urban heat island effect in the two cities. Heat islands are caused by high concentrations of asphalt and concrete, which pump up temperatures. In Washington, the neighborhoods of Queens Chapel, Michigan Park and Bloomingdale, and iIn Baltimore, the neighborhoods of Penn-Fallsway…, as the hottest neighborhoods in the area.

Temperatures varied across sections of the city by as many as 17 degrees when the field campaign was conducted in Washington on Aug. 28, one of the summer’s hottest days. Several neighborhoods saw temperatures shoot up to 102 degrees. But other locations, also within the confines of the District, merely hit 85. Many Washingtonians have long fled to the mountains or to the Atlantic beaches, driving hours at great expense, to escape Washington’s oppressive summertime heat. The National Arboretum and areas of Ivy City and Brentwood contain a difference of 10F within just a few city blocks. The radical temperature changes over short distances show just how important urban planning and the presence of green space can be for comfort and, during dangerously hot weather, human health and safety. Policies could also be developed to support efforts to alter the environment in the hottest areas by introducing green space and changing building materials and design practices. Studies have shown these efforts can lower temperatures.

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The 6 Best Apps For Planning a Room Layout & Design

What a time to be planning room layouts! Lucky for us, we now have access to a treasure trove of user-friendly apps to help us create floor plans and virtually design our rooms—taking a lot of the guesswork out of everything from gauging the right-sized furniture for our space, to assessing how a paint color will look, to putting entire rooms together in virtual reality before we take the plunge IRL.

FOR CREATING A FLOOR PLAN

Magic Plan - is a free app (in-app purchases $2-200) that lets users create floor plans based on their photos. According to the product description, there is "no need to measure or draw" so it's a good option for users who have minimal experience creating floor plans.

Room Scan Pro - draws floor plans by itself". Users simply hold a phone up to a wall which scans the circumference of a room (a voice-activated prompt states "hold against wall until you hear a beep"). Reviews note there is a bit of a learning curve to using the app but also praise its effectiveness in accurate floor plan creation.

Floor Plan Creator - allows users to create detailed floor plans in 3D. Reviews praise the app's usefulness when furniture shopping to gauge whether potential furniture will fit in the context of specific room dimensions.

FOR DESIGNING A ROOM LAYOUT

Room Creator - lets users design a room interior in "10 minutes or less" by entering room dimensions, designing floor patterns, choosing wall colors, and adding in decor.

Amikasa - allows users to create room layouts using furniture and home decor from real brands—about as mistake-proof as you can get in room planning. The app also has cool features like a walk-through mode that allows users to take a virtual tour of their newly created rooms to get a feel for the room design and layout, and the option to share the room via social media for input and advice.

Home Design 3D - The app receives praise for its high level of detail while still remaining easy to use, and the latest version even offers an online 3D-printing option.