Comments on: Jaffe to Georgetown: Drop Dead

By: So Was is it Worth the Wait? «

So Was is it Worth the Wait? « — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:02:56 +0000

[...] here it is, after all that hullabaloo, the Apple Store is finally open. Now that the crowds have died down a bit, we can go in [...]

By: 2009 – A Georgetown Year in Review «

2009 – A Georgetown Year in Review « — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:20:40 +0000

[...] decisions to reject the designs weren’t being made by “Georgetown,” there were howls of complaints from commentators who should know better lamenting about the monied-elite squashing their dreams of [...]

By: joe

joe — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:46:03 +0000

Why would Apple open a Georgetown store? They don’t need the flagship position – they’ve got that with their glass cube off Central Park in NYC. They opened the first Apple store in Tyson’s Corner. That’s right – the suburbs. Most of the traffic around Wisconsin and M is either gridlocked for cars, or pedestrian poseurs more interested in looking rather than shopping. Sure there are some nice exceptions – the Patagonia store on the canal. Maybe down by the new waterfront park would work….

For entertainment, the scene in Georgetown died with the loss of Desperado’s, The Bayou, and The Cellar Door.

By: Gtown09

Gtown09 — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:41:45 +0000

“Moreover, GM doubts there are that many Georgetowners who really care that much about getting an Apple store in the first place. It’s not like it’s a store you can particularly benefit from having in your neighborhood.”

I do agree with your post overall, but very much disagree with this statement. If you have any kind of Apple product, it’s such a huge benefit to have an Apple store near you. Contrary to what Apple wants everyone to think, their products aren’t flawless, and can often need repair. My Macbook’s logic board broke three times in one year, and each time I had to trek out to Tyson’s Corner or Clarendon to get it replaced. It invariably breaks right around midterms or finals, and being a student without a car, this is such a huge pain in the ass.

I don’t know about permanent residents, but at least for Georgetown students (at least half of which use a Mac), this would be a wonderful, convenient neighborhood addition.

By: Chris Loos

Chris Loos — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:50:38 +0000

I agree with you completely. I’ve picked up on all the ‘Georgetown is dead’ comments lately, and can’t understand for the life of me what people are talking about. Georgetown is, without a doubt DC’s main shopping district. It has everything it needs – walkable streets, a dense fabric of small shops, and healthy foot traffic. Over on the Georgetown BID webpage (georgetowndc.com), 235 shops are currently listed. 237. That’s not even counting restaurants. I’d love these Georgetown haters to name one other neighborhood in the city with that many shops. In fact, let them try to pick 3 neighborhoods with that many shops combined.

Lets look at the 3 neighbohoords that commenters on the various local blogs were proposing as an alternative location for Apple’s new store: U Street, Penn Quarter, and Columbia Heights. U Street is undoubtedly hip, but it still has a long way to go as a shopping district – there are maybe 20 boutiques. My girlfriend and I were there on Saturday, and we hit every shop on the strip in less than an hour. Penn Quarter has some great restaurants but limited retail, and also lacks the walkability and small blocks of Georgetown. Columbia Heights is still transitional, and lets face it – the biggest shopping attraction in the area is a Best Buy and a Target.

Apple KNOWS Georgetown is still where its at. They probably paid a consultant bucket loads of money to do a market analysis to come to that conclusion. That’s why they’re willing to put with these setbacks – they know they will make the most profit on that location. So why do people keep insist on ignoring reality?

By: IMGoph

IMGoph — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:44:17 +0000

congrats on calling jaffe out on the metro stop comment. it’s a damn shame that someone who wrote a book as important as “dream city” has forgotten how to do basic research for a simple newspaper column.

By: SG

SG — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 05:03:42 +0000

I completely agree. It’s typical yellow journalism that is sure to get hits, because it’s very popular now to hate on Georgetown.

As to some of your peripheral points… I do think it would behoove Georgetown and Adams Morgan to reinvent themselves in the coming years. The former’s image is becoming that of a boring and stodgy place, thanks in part to the media portrayal. The latter is suffering because now there’s so much nightlife in other parts of the city that is “hipper” and less “collegey.” Both need to pump a bit of new blood in, lest they lose out to the U Streets, H Streets, Columbia Heights’, and Penn Quarters of the world.