Category Archives: ANC

October 26, 2010 · 10:00 am

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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October 8, 2010 · 10:00 am

Standards Set for Tree Boxes Throughout Georgetown

Courtesy of GGW.

There was one more topic from Monday’s ANC meeting that GM forgot to mention in the round up the other day: tree boxes. Besty Emes of Trees for Georgetown appeared along with representatives from Casey Trees and the District Urban Forestry Administration to discuss setting design standards for tree boxes throughout Georgetown.

When tree boxes are designed well, they can be a significant factor in the survival of a tree. What is a well designed tree box? It looks like the photo above. It’s 18″ high, it allows water to flow in and out of the box, and it’s at least a foot from the edge of the curb.

The height part of that can be somewhat controversial. Monday night Tom Birch voiced skepticism with the size of the boxes. In his words, they’re “offputting.”  The boxes defenders argued that while there is not a scientific certainty that 18″ is the perfect height, experience demonstrates that when the box is roughly that high, far fewer things make their way into the box. The most important things that stay out are dogs, whose “byproducts”, so to speak, are very damaging to trees (including “number one”, which many might not realize hurts trees-in fact it’s probably more harmful than “number two”). Continue reading →

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October 6, 2010 · 10:00 am

ANC Round Up: The Remains of the Agenda

As GM mentioned yesterday, Monday night’s ANC meeting was so long that GM was left with no time to write up the whole meeting in time for yesterday. So here’s what you missed:

Crime

Sgt. Hedgecock came by for his monthly report and bore bad news. Georgetown has been struck recently with a spike in muggings, mostly of the iPhone variety. Some robbers are snatching it right out of people’s hands, but some have taken a more violent approach by simply knocking the victims on the ground. This happened twice two weekends ago.

And then of course there was the brazen bank heist on September 30th, which Hedgecock compared to the move “Heat.”

GM will have more on the crime numbers later this week, but the message sent by MPD is mostly two-fold: they’ve changing up their patrols to pay more attention to Sunday through Thursday–when a lot of these crimes occurred–and they’re encouraging residents to not waive their iPhones around. That’s all well and good, but GM hopes they have opportunity to announce some arrests soon.

Meet the New ANC Commissioners, Mostly the Same as the Old ANC Commissioners

Monday night, the ANC gave over the floor to the two candidates to replace the departing commissioners, Aaron Golds and Bill Skelsey. Jeffrey Jones is running to replace Skelsey and Jake Sticka is running to replace Golds.

The one thing that struck GM about their speeches wasn’t so much what they had to say, but rather that this will be yet another two years of an entirely male commission. What’s particularly odd about that is that just about every other Georgetown civic group is disproportionately run by women. For instance, look at CAG’s board, only three of the eleven members are men. GM doesn’t think the ANC is sexist or anything, but it’s just a little odd, don’t you think? Continue reading →

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October 5, 2010 · 10:00 am

ANC Roundup: Tudor Place Preview

Ok, so last week GM predicted a relatively short ANC meeting this week. He was woefully wrong. The meeting was a 4 1/2 hour beast. Sadly, that left little time for GM to write up a sizable summary before hitting the sack.

So as not to leave you totally bereft of an ANC summary, GM will briefly discuss the real heart of the meeting: Tudor Place.

Tudor Place has been working on a plan over the past several years to radically overhaul it’s physical plant. As it stands now, the Tudor Place Foundation keeps the property’s vast collection of 17th-20th century artifacts and papers inside the historic home in very unsafe conditions. Since the building is not well designed to prevent fires, floods, pests, and other threats to both the structure and the possessions, the current situation is not sustainable.

Continue reading →

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September 30, 2010 · 10:00 am

ANC Preview: Ah, That’s Better Edition

Since the Old Georgetown Board doesn’t meet in August, projects get backed up for approval for September. As a result, the September ANC meeting is absolute torture. But thankfully September is behind us, and the October meeting next Monday looks downright brief. Check out the more interesting topics:

Tudor Place

Tudor Place is planning a large construction project. They want to clear out all administrative uses from the main building and restore it entirely to its historical shape.

To accommodate this, Tudor Place wants to build climate controlled space for its large collection of documents and artifacts from the house. It also wants to build a new gatehouse and an educational center.

The neighbors are objecting to the proposed construction, mostly because of its effect on 32nd St. residents (the idea being that the new buildings would loom too much over the neighbors). They would like to see less construction above ground and more below ground space. CAG has said it won’t support the plan as it currently exists (Full disclosure: GM is on the CAG Historical Preservation Committee that voted on the resolution.)

With the neighbors and CAG in lockstep opposition to the plan, it seems likely that the ANC will object as well. But it should make for a fun discussion. Continue reading →

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September 8, 2010 · 10:00 am

More on Those Two New Liquor Licenses

Last week GM reported the news that on top of the seven newly minted liquor licenses being issued to Georgetown establishments, two additional licenses that were held-in-safe-keeping were going to be also issued. The news was announced at the September ANC meeting by none other that ABRA head Fred Moosally. This is what GM had to say about the two applicants:

  • Come To Eat – ABRA Director Fred Moosally was at the meeting last night. He spoke briefly about the moratorium and revealed that two licenses that were held in safe keeping were released. One of them will likely go to a restaurant called Come to Eat to be located in the mall. No details on what that would look like.
  • Ma Maison – More excitingly, Moosally mentioned that the other license would likely go to a restaurant called Ma Maison, which would move into the old Hibiscus Cafe space on Water Street. GM could have misheard it, but he swears Moosally said that the same family behind Cafe Bonaparte would also run this restaurant.

GM was a bit wrong on each of these. Continue reading →

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September 3, 2010 · 10:00 am

ANC Changes Expected for Next Term

Today is the deadline to turn in your petitions to run for ANC commissioner. Barring some last minute entrant, however, it appears the make-up of the next term’s ANC is set, and it will include a couple new faces.

First there is Single Member District 4, where student commissioner Aaron Golds will hand over the reins since he’s graduating next spring. The only candidate that has stepped forward is GU sophomore Jake Sticka. He told the Georgetown Voice last spring that he’s “pretty concerned about whether or not the student voice is being heard, and whether or not the community actually respects the University and the students’ role in the community. Hopefully, on the ANC, I can advocate for those interests.” Continue reading →

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August 31, 2010 · 8:00 am

ANC Round Up: Lots Of New Gin Joints Edition

Last night the ANC met for its September session. It was long and grueling. In fact, for the first time in over a year GM left before the end, and that was after three hours.

Notwithstanding his early exit, GM was witness to a lot of interesting news, and most of it had to do with new bars and restaurants.

But first off, let’s talk bikes:

Capital Bikeshare Stations

Chris Holbin of DDOT came before the ANC to present his agency’s plans on new Capital Bikeshare stations in Georgetown. As previously reported here, there will be four such stations in Georgetown. One of those stations was previously announced to be at the gates of the university. Unfortunately, as Holbin discussed last night, there isn’t enough space on the sidewalk for a station and DDOT hasn’t reached an agreement with the school to place it inside the gates.

So they went looking for a replacement site and settled on the north front of the Car Barn on Prospect St. The commissioners, who to their credit were in favor of the program, nonetheless were opposed to this new location. They argued that the immediate neighbors objected to the noise and activity it would create. Ironically, the one commissioner who actually lives across the street from the proposed location, Aaron Golds, didn’t object. But his lone vote against the resolution objecting to the location wasn’t enough. Said resolution called for DDOT to look for another space closer to the university or on the university’s grounds.

Frankly GM would love a station across the street, but never underestimate Georgetowners’ ability to look a gift horse in the mouth. Continue reading →

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August 26, 2010 · 10:00 am

ANC Preview: Ugh Edition

The September ANC meeting is always a slog. The commission takes August off, so a whole second month’s worth of projects backs up waiting for review. Thus next Monday’s meeting is not for the faint of heart.

But the one upside of so many projects is that there are some interesting topics. Let’s dive in:

Morso’s Long Shot

Apparently Morso Restaurant at 3277 M St. is applying for a permit to allow sidewalk tables and chairs. There is no way there’s enough space on the sidewalk for tables and chairs on M St. Curiously, the agenda discusses “sidewalk tables and chairs on Prospect Street at the side of Moreso.” GM guesses that it’s supposed to say “Potomac St.” since the east side of Morso faces Potomac St. Nonetheless, given the battle that Potomac St. residents waged on Philly Pizza, GM suspects they may have something to say about a new sidewalk cafe. GM hopes something can be worked out. Continue reading →

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August 3, 2010 · 10:00 am

So You Think You Can Do a Better Job?

ANC2E SMD Map

Georgetown, Burleith, and Hillandale have one of the most active and (in GM’s opinion) responsible ANC’s in DC. While GM has certainly had his complaints about certain decisions and commissioners, he generally thinks they’re a decent group of citizens who do a pretty good job within a legal entity that is, in many ways, functionally toothless.

But hey, maybe you think they an awful group of dictatorial killjoys and that you could do a lot better job. Well starting tomorrow, you can take your first step towards taking a shot. That’s when the District Board of Elections and Ethics allows you to start circulating a petition seeking signatures to get your name on the ballot. You only need to collect 25 signatures of people who live in your Single Member District (numbered 1 through 7 above). Continue reading →

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