ANC Round-Up: Christening Alleys Edition

Last night the ANC met for its October session. GM has to admit that he’s been so busy recently that he’s actually missed the last couple meetings. So the fact that he could only stay for the first hour or so for this meeting was actually an improvement. Luckily that’s when most of the interesting stuff happens.

Cashell Alley

The highlight of the meeting was easily the section devoted to the proposed naming of an alley. The alley is seen above on July 4th several years ago. GM’s house is right behind the bouncy castle. The lovely family who rented out the castle for the day lives to the left of the castle, the Kenneys. They have a pretty incredibly gifted twelve-year-old daughter named Raya.

Recently, it occurred to Raya that the alley that is shared by the houses on her block (3200 block of Volta) and some of the houses on 33rd (like GM’s) had no name. She decided to give it one. Rather than choose a silly name (or her own) she dove into the archives at the Peabody Room and with the help of Jerry McCoy came up with the name of the block’s original owner and developer: Hazel Cashell. (That’s Mr. Hazel Cashell, actually).

Raya decided on Cashell as the better choice. At this point she started reaching out to the neighbors for approval and advice. GM was aware that the DC Office of Planning actually really wants people to name the nameless alleys (a recommendation that is contained in this great study on alleys and alley dwellings in DC). Raya reached out to the Office of Planning and Jack Evans’ office.

Both were very encouraging of her efforts. In fact, as described by a representative of the Office of Planning’s Historic Preservation Office last night, the choice of a historic owner’s name is exactly what they’d prefer. Her office endorsed the request. With GM’s prompting, the Citizens Association of Georgetown also endorsed the request. And after a unanimous vote, last night the ANC did as well.

It will take actual legislation to officially christen the alley, but all signs point to that not being a problem.

So congrats Raya!

Pennsylvania Avenue Bridge

Unfortunately soon after discussing that cheerful topic, the commission had to shift to a much less pleasant topic: the partial closing of the Pennsylvania Ave. bridge over Rock Creek.

The historic bridge needs major repairs. In order to provide those repairs, DDOT will be closing the western lanes for 6-8 months. The traffic will be rerouted up 26th to M St. In other words, all traffic approaching Georgetown from Pennsylvania Ave. will be detoured up 26th to M. Eastern traffic will remain as normal.

This will cause major headaches at an already overly congested juncture. The ANC suggested that there have been successful projects that were sped up using longer work hours, and suggested to DDOT that they do the same here. The DDOT representatives indicated that they’d consider it, but strongly hinted that the residents of the condo at 26th and Pennsylvania would likely object if the work hours were pushed too late.

Although the closures will last 6-8 months, the total construction will take at least 15 months. The construction will begin next summer.

Wider Sidewalks

Also on the agenda was the BID’s request to temporarily widen the sidewalks on M St. between Wisconsin and 33rd. They would do so on Georgetown University’s Parent’s Weekend, which is a brilliant idea given the crazy pedestrian crunch that occurs that weekend.

Unfortunately GM had to leave before the topic came up, so he can’t report on how the ANC took the proposal. Essentially it would involved simply removing parking for about 20 cars along M St. and setting up fences out on the edge of the parking lane. It’s a slightly more ambitious application of a model the BID has successfully used at the past two French Markets on Book Hill and one that it has proposed expanding.

If GM had his way, these temporarily expanded sidewalks would be in place on weekends all summer long. But we’ve got to learn to crawl before we can walk. This would be another cautious inch forward.