A Hulu show will be shooting some scenes around Georgetown next week. The crew’s rep won’t say exactly what show it is, but based on the few things they did say (Hulu show shooting its third and last season) I can confidently say it’s Paradise.
The scene will be shooting a car driving around west Georgetown. There’s even a map:
The scenes are modern day, so there’s no need bring in old fashioned cars. There will be some no parking for a day or so, but most cars can stay. So if you want your car to maybe get a split second of Hulu exposure, park your car on O st. next week.
Speaking of movies filmed in Georgetown, here’s an article I wrote a while back about some of the more notable films shot here:
To compensate for the fact that no clips of Georgetown made it into the first trailer for Wonder Woman 1984 (despite lots of filming here) GM thought he’d take the opportunity to run through some of the other notable movies filmed in Georgetown.
The Exorcist – 1973
Arguably the most famous movie filmed in (and about) Georgetown, The Exorcist still brings tourists to those iconic steps. The movie itself is a treasure trove of scenes of Georgetown in the early 70s:
Notice how much shorter the trees are here compared with today.
And of course the famous house next to the steps. The whole left side of the house in this photo was just a set built for the movie in order to have a window of the house open out right to the steps.
St. Elmo’s Fire – 1985
Close behind The Exorcist in terms of famous Georgetown movies is St. Elmo’s Fire. GM wrote about it awhile back and here are some of the outdoor scenes shot around the neighborhood:
The Man With One Red Shoe – 1985
The exact same year another film was released with a notable Georgetown locale: The Man With One Red Shoe. Despite having a red hot young Tom Hanks fresh from Splash and Bachelor Party, the film was a box office failure. GM wrote about that one even further back. Here are some notable shots:
No Way Out – 1987
This Kevin Costner movie is famous for depicting the non-existent Georgetown Metro Stop, which was actually just the southwest corner of the Georgetown Park Mall:
The movie also has a couple other scenes shot around Georgetown:
A Few Good Men – 1992
This movie shot a couple scenes on Dent Place:
The money given by the production helped establish the Dent Place Association, a community group that sadly is no more.
Georgetown also has a brief cameo in Wedding Crashers, Burn After Reading, and True Lies. Any other notable movies?
A new doggy daycare/dog training location is apparently coming to 1723 Wisconsin Ave. The facility appears to be called Glover Bark, and from the signage will offer traiing, boarding, and doggy daycare.
The sign lists a website connected with Scott Dancer, a Glover Park-based dog walker and trainer. That, of course, brings up one funny angle in all of this: Is this the first time something located in Georgetown is trading on the Glover Park name? Forever there have been plenty of the reverse situations, the most notable being that the Whole Foods in Glover Park for many years called itself the Georgetown Glover Park. Perhaps it says something that not only does the Whole Foods now embrace the Glover Park name but a business in Georgetown now also claims it!
To be fair, this stretch of Wisconsin Ave. has previously confused people about what neighborhood it’s actually in. It’s squarely within the boundaries of the Georgetown historic district, and it was within the boundaries of the municipality of Georgetown prior to its disolution:
The only other time I’ve seen this sort of reversal was when we had the short-lived Burleith-Glover Park farmers market at Hardy, which is also squarely in Georgetown.
The forthcoming Book Hill Park renovations will begin next week and will cause the park to be temporarily closed starting Monday. The final presentation describing the renovation is below, but in short the work will restore the steps and benches, add lighting for safety and bring a new water spout down to the bottom of the hill.
It’s nice to see a renovation come together so quickly. The first public meeting was last October, where the planners proposed a group of ambitious changes for the park, including the construction of a new terrace. But most of the people interested in the park weren’t terribly interested in those changes and the planners trimmed it back accordingly. The final plans were presented last spring, and were well received. The work should be done in a couple months.
Sure the United States of America finally reached the passé age of 250 this year. Bo-ring! Your neighborhood reached the much classier age of 275 this year. Time to celebrate!
The Citizens Association of Georgetown is throwing a party to mark the occasion September 17th at the City Tavern. That’s an incredibly fitting location for such a party, as the City Tavern is itself 230 years old and served an important role in Georgetown during the first years of the new District of Columbia. Come to the party and you’ll be getting tipsy within the same walls that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams tossed back a few.
Tickets are available here. Special events like this are a great opportunity to keep the spirit of Georgetown as its own small city alive. I hope you can make it!
The prodigal son has returned: Dolcezza gelateria is coming home to Georgetown. Signs up at 1300 Wisconsin Ave. now announce the store’s return scheduled for this winter. (Sorry for the poor photo with the car blocking the shot.)
Dolcezza was founded in Georgetown in 2004 and operated at 1560 Wisconsin Ave. for many years. Even as the store opened other locations, it continued to actually make the gelato in the basement of its original location. But as the chain took off like a rocket opening multiple fancy locations across the District and beyond, the original spot was somewhat left behind and finally closed in 2018 to my great chagrin.
By 2019, the chain had nine locations, including a massive production facility in Union Market which opened in 2014 and replaced the tiny cramped Georgetown basement. But the double whammy of perhaps an over expansion coupled with Covid led the chain to trim five locations in late 2020.
But they are back to expanding, with a new location on H St. NE opened earlier this year. And now they are finally ready to come home.
When they left Georgetown I spoke with their retail broker who was hopeful they’d be back soon at a more busy location. Wisconsin and N is definitely a lot busier. So hopefully this homecoming will stick.
As for the building they left, it has seen a series of restaurants open and sadly fail. Fingers crossed for the newest entrant, Delhi Belly, but its success would be a surprise frankly. The location is simply not particularly well suited to a restaurant, except, ironically, for a gelato or ice cream shop.
Hello and welcome to your September Northwest Georgetown ANC update! I hope you had a great summer. Or I should say I hope you are having a great summer, since it will be in the high 90s this week!
ANC Meeting
We are holding our September ANC meeting tomorrow night (Monday). It will be at the usual time and place (6:30 PM at Visitation, with a Zoom option).
One item of note that is on the agenda concerns the Georgetown University campus plan. The school is seeking a modification to the plan as it pertains to certain student enrollment caps. In short, the changes are reasonable and I support them.
Specifically, the school is seeking changes to two student enrollment caps and is proposing a new condition that will help prevent the changes in the enrollment cap impacting residents. The first cap change is to the undergraduate limit. Right now the school is limited to 6,675 undergraduate students attending GU “on the hilltop” (i.e. on the main campus here in Georgetown). The school is asking to lift that by 100 students (or a mere 1.5%). The change is needed to help the school address the substantial financial blow that the actions of the federal government has taken since last year, particularly with regards to international students.
As part of the change, the school will take several concrete steps to ensure that the increase in students on campus won’t actually result in an increase in students living in the neighborhoods off-campus. This includes several “carrots” designed to incentivize students to remain on campus both Junior and Senior years. Most notable is that students who agree to live on campus both years will get substantial priorities in housing selection, as well as certain fees being waived.
But if the carrots fail, the proposed zoning change has a substantial stick too. If the number of students living off-campus exceeds 970 (a number agreed upon by the Georgetown Community Partnership, or GCP) the expanded undergraduate cap will be reduced commensurately until the number of off-campus students drops down below the 970 threshold again.
Moreover, the school is agreeing to take concrete steps to better ensure that undergraduate students don’t bring cars to Georgetown. The student code of conduct prohibits this already, but enforcement has been difficult. Going forward, the school will require students to consent to a DMV-check to identify any cars attached to them. Then the school will use automated license plate readers attached to university cars to drive through the neighborhood and identify students who have violated this rule. Those students will be ordered to get rid of the car and may be punished further if they fail to comply.
The change will also include an expansion of the Medical School enrollment cap by 80 students, increasing by 20 each of the next four years. To address the possible impact from these students driving and parking in the neighborhood, the school will make on-campus parking available to any medical school student who needs it.
These changes were approved by the GCP this summer. If you’re not familiar with the GCP, it’s an organization made up of university and hospital reps along with an active group of community volunteers, including members of CAG, the Burleith Citizens Association and others. It was established in 2012 to radically improve town-gown relationships here in Georgetown. And it has been immensely successful at that. The amount of trust and good will that has been fostered between the school and the community is a credit to the work of the GCP and the many volunteers who have given countless hours towards its success.
The very fact that Georgetown can propose an increase in the student enrollment and get support from groups that 20 years ago would have (and did) sue the university over similar requests is truly remarkable.
Volta Park
The field has been open sometime now, and a couple problems have already emerged, which I am trying to get addressed. The first is that the part of the field north of the new fence appears to be overlooked by DPR mowing crews. The last time I checked, the grass was about a foot high. I’ve reached out to DPR to ensure it be addressed promptly and regularly, going forward.
Secondly, some (including myself) have noticed that the outfield grass sometimes has been a bit soggy, even without a recent rain shower. I notified the DPR rep in charge of the construction and he responded that it is likely due to the sprinklers needing to be calibrated to the slightly cooler temps we were having. In other words, through the heat of the summer the irrigation fed the field a lot of water, but as it cools off, that water doesn’t evaporate quite as fast and as a result we have some soggy spots. He promised that the sprinklers would get re-calibrated. If the problem persists, let me know.
Finally, members of the Friends of Volta Park have been working with the city on the installation of new rat-proof trash cans. As part of that, the city also wants to install a food waste bin. This would enable participants in the food compost program to deposit their food scraps in the bin without waiting for the curbside pick-up. Moreover, the curb-side pick-up program is restricted to a limited number of houses. But anyone can use the food waste bin, once it is installed. This includes people who want to compost their home food, but it also includes people who are eating in the park. For instance, used pizza boxes are perfect for the food waste bins. This will keep them from taking up space in the trash bins and keep them from the rats, to boot.
Both the rat-proof trash bin and the similarly rat-proof food waste bin will be located in the northwest corner of the park.
Two More Years!
I’ve decided to run again for the ANC to keep serving the beautiful people of ANC 2E02! I’ll be on the ballot unopposed (phew). I’ve continued to enjoy serving in this roll and I look forward to another two years of progress for the neighborhood!
This week marks the beginning of August, and with it my annual break. Here is my paean to the eight month, see you in September!:
August is here. And it is perhaps the greatest time of year for Georgetown.
Sure, this month is tagged with the “dog days” of summer gibe. And the heat of July is still a houseguest with its feet comfortably sprawled on our couch, with its bags not remotely packed upstairs.
And gardens get long in the tooth this month too. Black-eyed Susans wilt. Geraniums burst further out of their pots, knowing the end is near. Petunias get leggy and brown. Even in its overgrown state, an August garden is one succumbing to decay.
And despite the fact that school is still a month away, camps across the city shut down, as if we’re all French and heading off to the Cote D’Azur in our Renaults for four weeks.
But August is still one of the greatest times of year in Georgetown. True, the holiday season fills Georgetown streets with twinkling lights and festive greens. And surely the scent of magnolias and the sight of Yoshinos puts springtime on top. But August is close behind.
Because, in August, Georgetown is empty.
The streets are empty. You can park your car like it’s a suburb in the 60s. The pools are empty because the interns left. The sidewalks are empty because even tourists have better sense than to visit DC in the summer.
Despite the stifling, turgid air, you can breathe. You can walk into a restaurant at 7:00 on a Friday and get a seat. You can even walk on M St. on a weekend.
And like spring, it is great because it is brief. We don’t ultimately love Georgetown because it’s empty, but because it’s decidedly not. That restaurant walking you to a table would be out of business if it were like that year round. Those streets without parking in September mean more people coming and keeping our thriving businesses thriving. Quiet is nice, but too much is boring.
Knowing August is fleeting is the best way to enjoy it. So enjoy it, it’s already later than you think.
How could the opening of a massive stadium on the other side of DC eventually transform Georgetown?
The answer is gold. Gold Line, the be precise. But we need to start with the stadium.
Like all publicly financed stadiums sold to a gullible public by guileful billionaires, the new Commanders stadium hasn’t even broke ground before it’s become clear it was a massive bait-and-switch. Leading up to the approval to give a billion of your public dollars to billionaire and Florida-resident Josh Harris, the mayor and others said that the transit around the stadium could be handled by a new Metrorail station.
The ink was barely dry before Metro did a study and decided that a new station isn’t feasible. But it concluded that the existing Stadium-Armory station is woefully inadequate to handle the crowds. It estimated that it would take hours for the crowds to file through to their trains on game days. (Which comes to a staggering 10 times a year. Did I mention the city abolished the Circulator program before it handed over your money for this?)
The solution that Metro has come up with is about the first good idea to come from this daylight robbery: the Gold Line.
Despite the colorful name, this would not be a new subway line like the Red line, etc. This would be a new bus. But more specifically it would be a new bus rapid transit, or BRT.
BRT is a contentious term in transit circles. When done right, it marries the ease of use and speed of a subway with the dramatically cheaper overhead of a bus network. But that’s only when it’s done right. And right means the bus having lanes entirely to themselves that physically cannot be blocked by people in their cars. The generally are in the middle of the road to avoid conflicts from parked cars. The photo above gives you a decent idea of a well designed BRT.
The problem is that often transit systems start off planning for BRT and then start making compromise after compromise (either to budget realities or entitled drivers). Eventually you end up with a BRT being nothing but a normal bus, operating on normal streets, with maybe a slightly shorter headway and a fancy paint job.
To WMATA’s credit, they appears committed to doing BRT correctly.
And this is the cocktail napkin-style map they’ve issued so far:
The map shows three phases. The first phase is a line from the stadium up to Benning Road, down H St. to Union Station. The second phase would bring the buses east from the stadium to the Benning Road Metro. And the third a final phase is the one that would impact Georgetown: it would run west from Union Station all the way through Georgetown to Rosslyn.
The map isn’t absolutely clear, but it appears to show the bus line travels down K St. to Pennsylvania Ave. to M St. Although the system would be designed for game days, it would run the rest of the time too.
The multibillion dollar question is this: would Metro stay committed to the full BRT model all the way through Georgetown? This would mean a new bus-only lane, separated by some sort of fencing, all the way down M St. to the Key Bridge. Does Metro have the stomach to push for (and pay for) that?
Or would they compromise like the other “BRT” systems and just turn it into another bus trundling down M St. stuck in the same traffic?
Along those lines, the map above may be familiar to long time readers because it’s an awful lot like this:
This, of course, was an early map of what the DC Streetcar was hoping to become. It’s even broken up in the same three sections! But like poor BRT systems, the DC Streetcar was victim to compromise after compromise. It was built in the traffic lane. The traffic lane was next to the parking lane. It didn’t really connect point a to b. It was, at best, a kernel of what a good system could have been built off of. But by the time it arrived the hope of a bigger system was already gone. It would stand alone and eventually die alone.
Will WMATA learn from those mistakes or repeat them?
It’s clear that the challenge of getting tens of thousands of fans home from the stadium needs a solution and some form of this will likely be it. But if it then becomes the backbone of a true BRT system is a completely different question.
But if it does actually deliver a true BRT system all the way to Georgetown it would be revolutionary for the neighborhood. It would, in theory, bring Metrorail like service finally to Georgetown, without the endless escalator rides no less. And it would completely reshape the physical form of M St. (and potentially Key Bridge). Are people ready for that? Well you’ve probably got years and years to prepare for it. Even the first phase is not scheduled to be open until the stadium opens in 2030. No word on the timing of the future segments.
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
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