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Category Archives: Greater Georgetown
Greater Georgetown: Washington Post Edition
A long while back, GM occasionally highlighted some examples of people misapplying the name Georgetown to a variety places and things far beyond the actual boundaries of Georgetown. He called it Greater Georgetown. However, after a few posts, GM gave it a rest. Pointing out that people lie about where an apartment is on Craigslist is just not that interesting.
However, GM decided to dust off the feature after seeing an article in the Post this weekend. Under the headline “Georgetown’s Unapologetically Modern House” Nancy McKeon writes about a stunning modern home. You may recognize it, that is, if you go to Burleith much:
McKeon tries to come clean in the first paragraph of her article, but can’t quite admit that this home isn’t really in Georgetown:
A vacant lot is hard to come by in Georgetown, but Fred Bahrami found one, right on Georgetown’s border with Burleith. An unapologetically modern house is also hard to find in Georgetown, so Bahrami built one.
This house is at 36th and R. It is squarely in the heart of Burleith, not “right on Georgetown’s border.” It’s one thing to be a little sloppy about where one neighborhood starts and another ends, but the whole “hook” of this article is based on the idea that this house’s existence is newsworthy specifically because it’s in Georgetown. Which it isn’t. (For a quick primer on Georgetown’s borders, read this). Continue reading
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Note to Journalists…
There’s no Whole Foods in Georgetown:
Yes, it’s a bit confusing that Whole Foods calls the squarely-in-Glover-Park Whole Foods the “Georgetown Whole Foods”, but if you can get a quote from the DCFD spokesman, you can use google maps.
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Greater Georgetown – Open Table Edition
As part of an ongoing, if infrequent, series the Georgetown Metropolitan attempts to document the more egregious examples of people and places claiming to be in Georgetown that are clearly not. Today GM explores Opentable.com. The convenient restaurant reservation finder is pretty lax in its geographic boundaries. Check out what restaurants are identified as being located in Georgetown:
Filed under Greater Georgetown
Greater Georgetown
It is an old real estate trick to use a “desirable” neighborhood name beyond the boundaries of that neighborhood. For instance, every block west of 14th and south of U used to be called “Dupont” until Logan Circle developed its own cache. Now “Dupont” has shrunk as “Logan” advances. Perhaps no neighborhood is subject to more deceptivecreative expansion than Georgetown. Whether through laziness, misunderstanding, or outright subterfuge, the neighborhoods of Burleith, Glover Park, Foxhall Village, Foggy Bottom, and the West End frequently get the name “Georgetown” erroneously attached to them.
Generally this is a completely harmless event and Georgetowners shouldn’t get snobby about it. Nonetheless, the more egregious examples of this creativity need to be called out. And so GM introduces the feature “Greater Georgetown” wherein particularly lazy or deceptive uses of the name “Georgetown” are discussed.
After the jump, the inaugural class:
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