The Georgetown Metropolitan

Hello and welcome to your June Northwest Georgetown ANC update! What incredible weather we’re (finally) having! Just in time for it to immediately turn to the brutal summer heat with swarms of mosquitos!

Alert: Aggressive Late Night Ticketing

The community—including the ANC, CAG, the University, and many others—have been pleading with the Department of Public Works (DPW) to restore regular and aggressive parking enforcement to address the huge and persistent problem of people coming to Georgetown and parking all day long with no consequences. It seems like DPW finally heard a portion of that message, but with some fairly infuriating misunderstanding of the problem.

Over the past month or two, a DPW ticketing officer has been showing up in the middle of the night (i.e. between 11 pm and 1 am) and ticketing residents for “standing or parking in the bike lane”. But rather than ticketing cars for actually parking in the bike lane (i.e. double parking), the agent is targeting cars which are parked in the legal parking lane but whose wheels are slightly parked across the bike lane line. In other words, they have parked slightly over the line by a few inches.

This has been happening at least on 33rd St., but I suspect it is happening on other streets in Georgetown with bike lanes.

To be clear, this is not cases where the car is actually obstructing the lane. I know this because I’ve gotten some of these tickets. I didn’t immediately realize I actually received these tickets, unfortunately, because DPW appears to have moved away from actually putting the ticket on the car. They mail it. But by the time it reaches you, there’s a good chance the the initial 30 days has passed and the fine is doubled (even though it’s not really due for 60 days).

On Saturday, my neighbor alerted me to having observed the agent ticketing cars late the previous night. I checked the system and saw that I had been issued multiple of these tickets over the past two weeks (again, with no notice). This is a real bummer since the tickets are $150 each.

Having been alerted to the fact that the agent was issuing tickets for de minimis violations, I pulled my car in as close to the curb as possible.

So it was with a great deal of surprise and anger that I discovered on Sunday morning that the agent came by again late Saturday night after I pulled my car as close to the curb as possible and gave me yet another ticket.

This is how I was parked (I swear to God I did not move it after getting the ticket):

This was considered “standing or parking” in the bike lane according to this aggressive ticketing agent.

This is frustrating on many levels, most obvious being that DPW tells us time and again that its staffing prevents it from being able to adequately enforce flagrant violations of the 2 hour limit day-in and day-out in Georgetown. But apparently they can pay a DPW agent overtime to drive to Georgetown in the middle of the night to address a problem that does not exist.

(To be clear, I bike to work every single day. I completely agree that blocked bike lanes is a problem. It’s one I encounter daily. But I have never met a single fellow cyclist who has complained about cars being parked an inch or two over the line. Especially not in the middle of the night.)

I admit, my car has a wide footprint. (It’s not helped that the parking lane on 33rd St. is only 80 inches wide, not the regular 96 inches). And maybe this agent is targeting just me as a result of this mismatch. But my neighbor has observed the agent taking down other car’s plates. So I suspect I am not the only one caught up in this misguided sweep.1

I have reached out to DPW and Brooke Pinto’s office to address this situation. If DPW has the resources to go after residents for these extremely de minimis violations, then surely they can start ticketing commuters who park on the streets all day? But in the meantime, I strongly encourage residents to be careful when you’re parking your car adjacent to a bike lane. Let me know if you have been getting any of these tickets (you may need to check online).

Volta Park

On a more happy note, hopefully you can come out and support the Friends of Volta Park this Thursday night for their spring cocktail fundraiser. (Funnily enough, tickets are also $150 bucks. But hopefully I’ve just saved you from at least one $150 buck ticket, so consider this found money and send it along to Volta Park!) I hope to see you there!

The work on the ball field appears just about complete. The grass needs a bit more time to set in, though, before they’ll open it fully. I’ll let you all know when the final opening is announced.

Lobby Bar and New Cannabis Shop

At the end of April the ABC Board held the protest hearing concerning the Lobby Bar’s liquor license renewal. I led the questioning for the protesting parties. I feel confident that we demonstrated that the bar is in routine violation of its settlement agreement, particularly with regards to the summer garden (i.e. the outdoor patio) hours. We asked the board to not renew the summer garden.

The board did not make a decision yet. We have post-hearing submissions due this month. After that point, the board will have several months to decide. We’ll see.

For what it’s worth, residents have observed that the bar does not appear to be open anymore. The bar owner stated during the hearing that it was closed for renovations for several weeks. It appears to have been more than that and residents haven’t observed any actual renovations occurring. “Closed for renovations” is often a white lie that bars and restaurants say when actually they’re closing for good. Time will tell if that’s the case here. In either event the license will continue until it’s cancelled, so we will continue to push to have the summer garden removed.

On a different note, next door to the Lobby on 33rd St., the building that has a massage parlor is applying to be a licensed cannabis shop. This location appears to be within 400 feet of Capital Connect, a license cannabis retail on Wisconsin Ave. This should make the 33rd st. location ineligible to host another licensed cannabis shop. I’ve made inquiries with ABCA on this.

If this location is actually allowed to host a cannabis shop, understand that this will not be a redux of the unlicensed pot shops that pockmarked this stretch of Wisconsin Ave. just a few years ago. The shops that are licensed have been opening under fairly strict settlement agreements that have so far been effective, as far as I can tell. I would seek to get a similar agreement for this location that would be especially sensitive to not allowing cannabis to be smoked on the premises. Stay tuned.

1

The city releases a dataset of every parking ticket. But the most recent dataset is from February. I am confident that once the May report is issued it will reveal this crack-down in Georgetown.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s your weekly news round-up:

• Arrest made in the case of the man who threw a beer keg through Georgetown Cupcake’s window.
• More ib the donut shop now open across the street.
• Reminder: Friends of Volta Park Spring cocktail party on June 4th!

The Citizen M Hotel appears to be nearing completion. And part of finishing up apparently involves adding a new mural to the eastern facade. The mural can be seen above. It depicts part of a crew team as it rows into the sunset (or sunrise) (or ceaselessly into the past). It’s a fitting theme for a hotel so close to one (and someday two) rowing boathouse(s).

This was the location of another Georgetown(ish) mural until the closing of The Berliner:

I like them both, honestly. The old one tied the quintessentially Georgetown JFK with the city that was the theme of the restaurant. And the new one ties it in with its immediate surroundings. Two bad we couldn’t have both.

This week on the pod, I’m joined by my friend and ANC colleague Kishan Putta where we discuss Georgetown’s public schools. I also give a rundown on who all the historic school buildings in Georgetown are named after. Listen here or at Apple podcasts or Spotify

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s your weekly news round-up:

• Man throws beer keg through Georgetown Cupcakes window.
• Across the street from said vandalism, a new donut shop has finally opened called the Salty.
• In that same general area: a furniture store is taking over the former FedEx Store.

Last week I published a podcast episode on Bike to Work Day. You can listen to it here. It’s a bit late as far as guiding you to this year’s BTW day, but it’s got a bunch of tips for anyone considering trying biking to work out, so give it a listen if that describes you!

Georgetown University is hosting a discussion this Thursday night to discuss the role the Georgetown neighborhood had in shaping DC. The discussion will include Adam Rothman, Professor of American Studies, Mary Katherine Lanzillota, Chair of the Old Georgetown Board, and myself. We will be led in our discussion by Uwe Brandes, Professor of Urban & Regional Planning.

The event will take place at the Copley Formal Lounge from 5:30 to 7:00. The event is free and open to the public. More information can be found here.

I hope to see you there!

Happy Birthday to Georgetown! Well, happy slightly belated birthday to Georgetown: On Friday the neighborhood/former city officially turned 275 years old!

It was on May 15, 1751 that the Maryland colonial legislature passed the following bill:

An Act for laying out and erecting a Town on Potowmack River, above the Mouth of Rock Creek in Frederick County. Whereas several Inhabitants of Frederick County, by their hum- ble Petition to this General Assembly, have set forth, that there is a convenient Place for a Town on Potowmack River, above the Mouth of Rock Creek, adjacent to the Inspection-House in the County aforesaid; and prayed that sixty Acres of Land may be there laid out, and erected into a Town. Be it therefore Enacted by the Right Honourable the Lord Pro- prietary, by and with the Advice and Consent of his Lordship’s Governor, and the Upper and Lower Houses of Assembly, and the Authority of the same, That Capt. Henry Wright Crabb, Master John Needham, Master John Clagett, Master James Perry, Master Samuel Magruder the third, Master Josias Bealle, and Master David Lynn, shall be and are hereby appointed Commissioners for Freder- ick County aforesaid; and are hereby authorized and impowered, as well to buy and purchase sixty Acres, Part of the Tracts of Land belonging to Messieurs George Gordon and George Bell, at the Place aforesaid, where it shall appear to them, or the major Part of them, to be most convenient, as to survey and lay out, or cause the same to be surveyed and laid out, in the best and most convenient Manner, into eighty Lots, to be erected into a Town.

And thus the town of Georgetown, MD was established. The town was not established as its own municipality until 1789, at which point Maryland was a state in the newly created United States of America. Georgetown continued as an independent municipality–first in Maryland and then in the new District of Columbia–until it was merged with the city and county of Washington in 1871.

Georgetown was founded by a group of tabacco merchants who set up shop along the Potomac River. With Little Falls just a little ways up the river, this was about as far as ocean going vessels could reach. The merchants petitioned the colonial legislature to establish the town.

But who was Georgetown named after? A definitive answer to that has been lost to time. It was, of course, not named after George Washington, as some mistakenly believe. (George Washington was a teenager living in Virginia when Georgetown was formed.) The most likely candidates are either King George II or one or both of George Gordon and George Beall, from whom the town’s land came.

Perhaps it’s all of the above. By naming it Georgetown (or rather, George Town, as it was more often written originally) they could honor the king and both the primary landowners. Those two primary landowners, it should be mentioned, we’re actually nonplussed about the establishment of the town. They initially refused to sell their land and then sued when the town commission condemned the land to force the transfer. They were ultimately awarded £280 (that’s only about $75,000 in today’s money). So maybe the town name was an olive branch to them. No one wrote down the reason, as far as we know, so we’ll probably never know the actual reason.

But whoever it was named after, they should be proud. The town has existed for 275 years, seeing everything from the negotiations over the purchase of the land that became DC, seances attended by Abraham Lincoln, the founding of IBM, the writing of Country Roads Take Me Home, St. Elmo’s Fire, and more. No too shabby for a scruffy 18th century riverside tabacco port.

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s your weekly news round-up:

• Martin’s featured (sort of) on SNL.
• Last call to participate in Fete de la Musique.
• Summary of our last ANC meeting.

The annual Bike to Work Day is this Friday. As is usual, the Georgetown BID will be hosting a pit stop at the Georgetown Waterfront Park. Register here if you plan to stop by.

Bike to Work Day is a great way to explore biking as an option for your commute. I’m a daily bike commuter myself, but 15 years ago I was not. I would occasionally try it out, and I was often quite surprised at how easy and quickly I could get to my downtown job using my old Schwinn. It wasn’t until my daughter started at a nursery school back in Georgetown that it started to be a regular thing. I came to realize that simply put. it was the most reliable way to get across town at rush hour.

The advent of Capital Bikeshare certainly helped. And having a shower in my office building helped even more. There was no moment when I consciously made the switch. It happened gradually. One day I realized that I had hardly ridden the Metro in months. I was a bike commuter.

Maybe that’s not your future. It’s not for everyone. But maybe it is for you. So it’s worth trying out. And Bike to Work Day is a great way to do that. So sign up and head on down to the waterfront this Friday!