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1600 block of Wisconsin Ave.

Tomorrow, the DC Board of Zoning Adjustment will meet and likely decide on the fate of the Georgetown Call Your Mother bagel shop.

This long, stupid, fight has gone on since last fall. After multiple hearings, the board still wasn’t prepared to decide back in December. And moreover, they gave a neighbor party status, which delayed matters further.

Tomorrow the board is expected to decide whether to grant the restaurant an area variance to operate as a corner store. Theoretically they could vote against that and still vote to grant a use variance, but GM thinks it more likely they’ll either vote for the area variance or reject it altogether. (And GM thinks the former is more likely). Continue reading →

Photo by Angela N.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Everything at Gypsy Sally’s is up for auction.
• Fun list of etymologies for the names of DC’s neighborhoods, including Georgetown.

1300 block of Wisconsin Ave.

Last Friday, GM posted the above photo of one of his favorite architectural quirks in the neighborhood. It’s two horse heads poking out of the facade of 1111 34th St. as if were a barn. Given the location of the building on an alleyway, GM just always assumed it must have once been stables.

But turns out that’s not right. Kim Bender, the executive director at the Heurich House, pointed out their true origin:

https://twitter.com/kim_p_bender/status/1215353069338333185

The Huerich Brewing Co. was the brewery of DC. It once maintained a massive complex where the Kennedy Center stands now: Continue reading →

Photo by Olaf Zerblock.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The Asian skewer restaurant, Sticx, is finally taking shape at 1728 Wisconsin. This spot has been vacant and under construction for well over five years.
• GM missed this over the holidays, but former ANC commissioner Bill Starrels was acquitted of charges related to allegations that he threatened customers and employees of Charcoal Town.

1600 block of Avon Place

Photo by Joe Flood.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• GM got a little ahead of himself yesterday. Despite releasing a feasibility study saying that constructing the Palisades Trolley Trail would be a good idea, DDOT apparently doesn’t actually want to do it. So it won’t buy the Foundry Branch Trestle Bridge and WMATA will have it destroyed. Big win for “bike friendly” Georgetown University! Not to mention all those that claim to care about historic preservation when it means blocking construction of condos, but not when an actual significant piece of history will be scrap-heaped! It’s amazing how honest people become once you propose something that might make some cyclists less likely to die.
• In other distressing news: A Californian woman was arrested for making bomb threats against Georgetown Visitation over the school’s decision to report its alumnae’s same-sex marriages in its alumni magazine.

1100 block of 34th St.

Photo by Brett Young.

The DC Department of Transportation released the results of its feasibility study into the construction of a pedestrian/bike trail between Georgetown and the Palisades. It ultimately recommends the construction of the trail and also recommends repurposing the Foundry Branch Trestle Bridge for the eastern end of the trail.

Here’s the report (just read the Executive Summary if you want the highlights):

The study came from an effort to take the existing right-of-way that the city has through the Palisades (which once was where the Glen Echo Trolley went) and rehab it to be better suited for pedestrian and bike use. By bringing the trail all the way to Georgetown, it would provide a much needed non-auto connection between the neighborhoods. Continue reading →