The Georgetown Metropolitan

Last week, the city hosted the final public meeting on the proposed renovation of Jelleff Recreation Center. The Georgetowner had a great write-up of the meeting, and I encourage you to read it. But I wanted to share the plan images themselves. So here you go!

First the renderings of the external elements. You can see it includes several new features, including:

• A more formal entry plaza
• Solar panel canopies and green roofs
• A new exercise area
• Renovated pool deck
• New fencing and screening

Continue reading →

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• La Bonne Vache adds low ABV cocktail program.
• Authors of the Wolves of K St. coming to the Q&A Cafe in June.

Meet Samantha, a beautiful coonhound that I just started fostering. She comes to us from rural Virginia where she was found as an emaciated stray.

She’s doing well with us, just getting some meat back on her bones! But she mostly just curls up and snoozes!

She’s estimated to be about 2 years old, and is about 45 pounds. But she’s got a decently long frame on her, so once she’s back up to full weight, she’ll probably be closer to 60 pounds or so.

She’s good with other dogs and so far she has just been curious but not at all aggressive with our cats. Like other rescues we’ve had, she is very eager for human affection and wants to snuggle up with you whenever she can!

She is available for adoption now! If you want to meet this lovely lady and give her a forever home, fill out an application with City Dogs Rescue!

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Citizens Association of Georgetown annual meeting tomorrow tonight, 5:30 to 8:00 at Ellington School. The mayor and the acting director of DDOT will be attending. Open to all, regardless of whether you’re a CAG member or not.
• Checking in on Mark Ein’s stewardship of the former Katharine Graham house.

The Georgetown BID is trying out a new event this spring: Fete de la Musique. It will be part of worldwide day of music that was started in France 42 years ago. The Georgetown version will bring musicians all over the commercial district on June 21st. But they need musicians! Perhaps you are one!

As the BID explains:

Each year, over 1,000 cities around the world throw citywide music celebrations around the summer solstice. It all started 42 years ago in France, when the Ministry of Culture imagined a day where free, live music would be everywhere: street corners and parks, rooftops and gardens, storefronts, and mountaintops. And, unlike a typical music festival, anyone and everyone would be invited to join and play music and host performances. It is called Fête De La Musique. In French, the name means both “festival of music” and “make music!” Fête de la Musique-World Music Day celebrates the start of the summer season and music of all genres and backgrounds.

Come and join us for this year’s first ever edition in the commercial district of Georgetown – DC’s most historic neighborhood! The Georgetown BID is partnering with the Embassy of France-Villa Albertine in hosting the 2024 Fête De La Musique-World Music Day and are calling for singers, church choirs, jazz combos, rock bands, glee clubs, MCs, marching bands, mariachis, and every other kind of musician, of any age or skill level, to apply to perform and join in the spirit of the Fête de la Musique at locations throughout the commercial district of Georgetown or at one of three stages at La Maison Française.

So sign up if you’re a musician! And if not, just get ready for some tunes on the Solstice!

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Capital Bikeshare valet back for the summer at Wisconsin south of M.
• Sezane moves in to the old Tory Burch store.

Hello and welcome to your May Northwest Georgetown ANC update!

Spring is here, and with it comes the need to start watering our street trees. While the city and organizations like Trees for Georgetown can plant dozens of trees around Georgetown, it’s incumbent on residents to keep them alive. This is particularly true for the first 3-5 years that they are planted along our streets.

The basic goal you should have is to water young trees at least once a week with a good 20-25 gallons of water, from now until the trees drop their leaves in the fall . If you can’t water the new trees, try to find a neighbor who can.

The preferred watering device is the ooze tube (the bags that go around the bottom of the trees). You can differentiate them from the not-preferred gator bags because the gator bags have zippers. (They’re not preferred because they can create an unhealthy environment around the trunk and you have to remove them after each use.) With the ooze tube you can just fill it up and let it go.

If you don’t have an ooze tube, you can just leave a hose trickling into the tree box for 30 minutes to an hour.

Once a tree is mature, you can stop watering it. By then the roots are so spread out under the sidewalk that it doesn’t need your help anymore (although during any particularly dry periods, it can’t hurt to water it).

I can speak from experience that diligence pays off! When I first moved into my house on 33rd St. in 2011, a London plane had recently been planted up the street. This is what it looked like in early 2012 (you can barely see it honestly):

The trunk was only about an inch or two wide. I made sure to water that tree diligently for about four years, and then left it to its own (with some mulch and weeding). And now this is what it looks like:

The trunk is over a foot thick. and the tree has got to be nearly 50 feet tall. And most important of all, it creates a pool of shade on the sidewalk at least as wide as that. (Another London plane to the south is about five years behind it in growth, but combined they already create about 100 feet of shade in the summer).

So please water any young trees on your block! If you have a young tree and cannot water it, please let me know and I’ll try to find a neighbor to take care of it!

Volta Park

I wish I had concrete news to announce on the Volta Park field renovations. Unfortunately DPR tells me that it is still “going through permitting”. I am still hopeful the work will get done, but I am not going to try to give timing estimates any more.

Speaking of Volta Park, there is a dangerous sinkhole in the playground. It has been there for well over a year at this point. At least one child has already been seriously injured by it. Specifically, this child broke their femur due to it.

Despite repeated pleas from the Friends of Volta Park and the ANC, the sinkhole remains unrepaired. The ANC will attempt once more to bring a spotlight on the problem this Wednesday night at its May meeting (6:30 pm at Visitation). We will keep demanding that the city fix it until it finally acts.

Pot Stores (Revisited)

The city is moving forward with its sea change on cannabis stores. Several stores in Georgetown are on the cusp of receiving a license to operate a retail medical cannabis store. The ANC has negotiated a strong settlement agreement with the stores, and I am hopeful that their operation will not cause an adverse impact on the neighborhood.

However, over a dozen unlicensed “gifting” stores remain. The message from the city is clear: the days of these stores has come to an end. But it will take time and coordination between multiple agencies to see them actually go away. In March, ABCA sent warning letters to six of the stores in Georgetown. At least one has already closed. But a bunch remain.

All I can say is that this is all new territory for ABCA. They were only given the authority to go after unlicensed shops earlier this year and they are proceeding cautiously. I can assure you that the ANC is working close with them and looks forward to a time (hopefully in the near future) when the only cannabis shops in Georgetown are licensed and in compliance with the law and our thorough settlement agreement.

(If you want an in-depth discussion on what is happening with cannabis enforcement in DC, please see my update from last year.)

Bulk Trash Pick Up

The GU school year will come to an end this month and with it will come the annual student move-out. The Office of Neighborhood Life coordinates a robust effort to clean up the bulk trash that this migration causes. And full-time residents can benefit from the service as well. See below for more information:

Let me know if you have any questions or if there is trash on the sidewalk that is not getting removed!

Quick Updates:

• Final community input meetings for the Access and Circulation Study the week of May 20th (details in link).
• Final community meeting on Jelleff Rec Center renovation this Thursday night.
• The Barnes and Noble is reopening in June after being gone twelve years.
• Speaking of returning after being away for a while: Wingo’s on O Street has reopened.
• Friends of Volta Park spring cocktail fundraiser will take place on June 1st.

Happy May!View draft history

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Green Almond Pantry to open sister restaurant next to Reverie.
• Reminder, meeting on Jelleff renovation tomorrow night.

The Georgetown Barnes and Noble is set to reopen in Georgetown on June 19th, according to the stores Instagram account. That would mark exactly 4,550 days since it closed New Years Day, 2012. Surely that must be a record for a gap between the time a store occupied the exact same location?

In either event, this reopening is really a strong endorsement of the Georgetown neighborhood as a retail destination. We are so back!

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Home sales in Georgetown now averaging over $2 million.
• Final community meetings on the Access and Circulation Study to take place late May. Here are the details.