Monthly Archives: October 2010

It’s Not Like You Have a Choice Anyway, But…

Next week is the general election, and Georgetown will go to the polls and decide who will serve on the ANC. The thing is, of course, that Georgetown doesn’t really have a choice in the matter. None of the seven seats are contested (although each has a candidate, which is more than can be said for some seats across town).

But notwithstanding the lack of a genuine competition, GM thinks an election is a good time to become more acquainted with your elected officials. So today he’s going to give his “endorsements” despite the meaninglessness thereof.

First up: SMD 2- Ron Lewis

SMD 02 Commissioner Photo

Ron has been representing SMD 2 since 2006. He served as chair of the commission this past term. He also serves on the transportation subcommittee.

Ron’s a great asset to the ANC. He runs the meetings efficiently and fairly, without allowing too many distractions slow down the meetings. He is a consensus builder. Best of all, from GM’s perspective, Ron is a forward thinker on transportation issues. While Ron is not ready to accept all of GM’s uber-urbanist suggestions, for a Georgetown ANC rep he is very enlightened.

On the downside, Ron’s wife is on the Old Georgetown Board, so he has to recuse himself from most of the OGB discussions. This takes away one opinion from the discussion, although in the interest of shorter meetings that’s arguably a pro. Also, while Ron is a progressive thinker on a lot of transportation issues, GM thinks he’s a little to gun-shy about shutting down streets for events. Also, he rightly took some heat from GU students for pushing a re-route of the GUTS bus which increases the length of the ride significantly. That was the wrong decision in GM’s opinion.

All in all, while he’s not GM’s rep, GM would be happy to vote for Ron if he could. Continue reading

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The Morning Metropolitan

Georgetown Library by Cleita.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

  • More details on the Georgetown Drug Lab case.
  • Final Georgetown (for now) Capital Bikeshare station opened by GU’s gates yesterday.

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The Georgetown Metropolis

3100 block of Q St.

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Thirty Years Ago GU Students Were Just As Good At Ruining Their Lives

The police arrived before the sun was fully up. They took several Georgetown University students under custody on drug related charges. The campus was shocked to hear the news. By noon it was clear the arrested students’ lives were changed forever.

This could describe what happened last Saturday, but in this case GM is talking about slightly earlier events. Thirty years earlier.

At 4:30 AM April 30, 1980, the police raided a home at 1401 Foxhall Rd., which housed a group of Georgetown students. Along with other raids, the cops arrested 8 GU students and 10 other individuals for the sale of cocaine and LSD. Along with the arrests they seized a pound and a half of cocaine and 30 tabs of LSD. Continue reading

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The Morning Metropolitan

Photo by Serge Melki.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

  • Drug lab found in GU dorm Saturday morning.
  • GM heard a rumor that the building’s fire alarm system didn’t work and campus police had to go door to door waking students up and telling them to get out. If true, that sounds like something the university ought to follow up on.

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The Georgetown Metropolis

1000 block of 30th St.

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Ginkgo Season Not So Bad This Year

While it’s not peak ginkgo berry season yet, GM is confident predicting it won’t be that bad this year. He was a little nervous going into the fall since there was talk last spring that the weather turned warm too quickly for DDOT to spray the trees. After the spring passed without signs going up warning about the spraying, GM became particularly nervous about this fall.

Turns out the worry was misplaced. While signs never went up (at least not in GM’s neighborhood) the spraying took place. GM heard that on his block the spraying took place at about 3 in the morning.

Either way, as this season has progressed, the berry production seems way down even compared with last year’s relatively modest crop. Continue reading

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The Morning Metropolitan

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

  • New theater just over the bridge in the West End is opening next week.
  • The great Brass Knob Back Doors Warehouse is closing in November, so if you’ve got some historic renovations planned, you ought to stop by soon.

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The Georgetown Metropolis

3200 block of M St.

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Three New Stores Open Up

As GM was biking up Wisconsin checking out the new CaBi stations, he noticed a trio of new stores that have rather suddenly swept in to Georgetown.

Muncheez Mania

The first is the somewhat unfortunately named Muncheez Mania at 1071 Wisconsin Ave. It advertises itself as a “hip and funky restaurant…offer[ing] fresh, homemade fare at a reasonable price in a lively, fast-casual dining environment.” DCist had this to say:

The main attraction is the hand-stretched bread called saj — a thin flatbread not unlike a pita, but stretched thinner and cooked on a saj (which looks like an upside down wok). The texture ends up being close to naan, but with the thinness of the pancakes you receive with Peking duck. The same dough is stretched less and baked in the oven for sandwiches and wraps.

Sounds tasty. And by staying open until 4:00 AM, this will likely be a popular post nightlife spot.

Interesting tidbit:

This is the work of Capital Restaurant Concepts, the people behind Paul Bakery, which should be opening up across the street later this year. It’s funny to think how this “hip and funky” and kinda tacky restaurant will be facing the (likely) staid and conservative Paul Bakery, yet have the same corporate parent.

And for what it’s worth, GM’s fairly certain that that sideways facing blade sign wasn’t approved by the OGB (or at least it shouldn’t have been). Continue reading

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