1600 block of Avon Place.
Monthly Archives: January 2010
City Turns Over Jelleff Fields to Maret
As you may have read from the Current, the city recently entered into an agreement with the Maret School concerning the Jelleff sports fields. Much is unclear right now about the merit of the deal, however, what is clear is that the manner in which it was entered into is very alarming.
For those of you who don’t read the Current (which is the only newspaper covering this issue, and seriously, you really ought to read the Current) two weeks ago the city held a press conference at the Jelleff Branch of the Boys and Girls Club to announce the finalization of the $20 million agreement for the city to buy the club’s Georgetown property along with two other properties in the city. In a passing mention the Mayor disclosed that the city entered into a deal with the Maret School to fix up the Jelleff fields in exchange for giving the school semi-exclusive rights to use the fields. Carol Buckley of the Current diligently followed up on that point. Nikita Stewart of the Post, on the other hand, thought the most newsworthy element of the press conference was the Mayor’s opinion on Gilbert Arenas.
Here are the details of the plan as GM understands them:
- The Maret School will make improvements to the fields. These improvements will likely involve converting the entire field to artificial turf. This would allow maximum flexibility for the field’s use.
- Maret will spend up to $2.5 million although the memorandum of understanding between it and the city does not require any specific amount. The only requirements are that Maret construct an artificial turf field that accommodates baseball, soccer and lacrosse. The designs must be shared with, but not necessarily approved by, the Department of Parks and Recreation.
- Maret shall provide maintenance of the field.
- Maret will get semi-exclusive use of the fields.
- This exclusive use will last for ten years.
The Current has described the semi-exclusive hours generally, but the actual hours contained in the MOU are even more than the Current discussed. They are:
- All day (8:00AM – 4:00PM), seven days a week for the last two weeks of August.
- 3:30 – 5:30 every weekday during the fall and spring (that’s September through mid-November, and March through mid-May respectively).
- On Wednesdays they get the fields starting at 2:00 over that same time period.
- Five full Saturdays each fall and spring (the MOU doesn’t give hours for the Saturdays) Continue reading
Filed under Real Estate, Schools
The Morning Metropolitan
Beer on M St. by JB0912.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Commander Salamander closing. Or moving. It’s not clear.
- The Current reports that the Glover Park ANC is pushing DDOT to more seriously consider a Wisconsin Ave. streetcar line. Right now it’s merely a to-be-considered-later line.
- Want to go to the World Series of Poker? Show up at the City Tavern this Saturday for your chance.
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
Georgetown Crime in 2009
With the end of 2009, GM can now look back and take a look at the complete year crime statistics. While we did not experience quite the overall crime drop that the rest of the city experienced, we nonetheless shaved stats off of just about every category.
Here is how 2009 stacked up against 2008:
Overall, crime stayed about level from 2008 to 2009. It ticked down a mere 3.68%. If you were to disregard the thefts (most of which are shop-lifting and thus do not directly affect residents) the numbers are even more level, with a slight 1.62% increase from 2008 to 2009. Continue reading
Filed under Crime
The Morning Metropolitan
Mural by Daquella Manera.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Construction crews were installing steel trusses for the new library roof this weekend. It’s good to finally see so much progress being made.
- Peggy Cooper Caffritz none too pleased about the possibility of the Duke Ellington School moving. (Although for the record Bill Turque, the school is in Burleith not Georgetown).
- Haiti benefit party this Friday night above Lululemon.
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
The State of Georgetown: 2010
In one of his earliest posts, GM documented all the stores in Georgetown that are on M St., Wisconsin Ave., or just off these two corridors. The study was inspired by an article by the great Marc Fisher lamenting the “generification” of Georgetown.
The results demonstrated that while there are a lot of chains in Georgetown, there are even more independent stores. A lot more. As of December 2008, of the 427 stores in Georgetown, almost 70% were independent stores.
So what does the picture look like a year later? Pretty much the exact same. [Click here to download the complete list of establishments].
Overall Numbers:
Two weeks ago, GM walked the streets again cataloging every store, restaurant, bar, etc. Here are the overall numbers:
Total Establishments: 443
Total Independents: 308 (69.53%)
Total Chains: 122 (27.54%)
Total Regional Chains (e.g., Five Guys): 13 (2.93%)
(While as discussed below, there were openings in 2009, not all the disparity between 2010’s totals and 2009’s totals can be explained by new establishments. GM was simply a bit more diligent about tallying them all this year.)
For the visually minded, here’s what Georgetown looks like in pie form:
Filed under Stores of Georgetown, Uncategorized
The Morning Metropolitan
Photo by David Kleinschmidt.
Good morning Georgetown here’s the latest:
- Western High School may return as a result of The Duke Ellington School possibly relocating to the Logan School campus.
- The Georgetown Hoya finally adds a blog.
- Georgetown Mall M St. employee got pepper-sprayed by alleged shop-lifters.
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
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