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Tomorrow has been dubbed “Giving Tuesday”. GM’s not necessarily a fan of made up holidays or whatever, but this one is at least worthy of your time. And money.

If you’re a federal employee, you’re probably already getting asked by you agency to sign up for the Combined Federal Campaign right now. Hopefully Giving Tuesday will get you do finally do it! It makes donating to charity so easy, you hardly notice it. Continue reading →

Photo by Yngve Roennike.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Dumbarton Oaks might have America’s oldest house plants.
• After its new location opened across the street, Major will close its former location.

1500 block of 33rd St.

In the near future, there will be four different banks that will have two different branches in Georgetown. The newest to join this terrible group is Wells Fargo, which will be opening an “express center” branch at 1331 Wisconsin Ave. This superfluous location will join Wells Fargo’s other location at M and 29th.

Capital One is one of the other banks, with its old Chevy Chase Bank location at Wisconsin and Q, as well as the nauseating Capital One Cafe that is soon opening in the old Nathan’s building at Wisconsin and M. Chase bank will soon occupy both the old Neam’s market building at Wisconsin and P, and the old Sports Zone space on M St. east of Wisconsin. And United Bank already has two locations, after it purchased Cardinal Bank (and its location next to the Safeway) and the Bank of Georgetown (with its location at the bottom of Wisconsin Ave.) Continue reading →

Photo by Bill Starrels.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• J. Paul’s is closing.
• If you find yourself on GU campus, uh, maybe take the stairs.
• A little more info on the move for Major (first reported by GM last month).

1600 block of 30th St.

The (widely expected) news that Amazon picked Crystal City for (half) its second headquarters finally came out this week. This being an extremely niche publication, GM immediately started thinking about the Georgetown angle. And here are some of his wild speculations of how the change will affect our neighborhood:

More Demand? Ehhh..

One of the primary concerns expressed about the possibility of Amazon moving in to any city is how it would drive up housing demand, and thus prices. And like many successful American cities in 2018, DC is already facing a housing affordability crisis. Even with just one half of the HQ2 coming (does that make it HQ1? HQ1.5?) that’s still 25,000 new relatively highly paid employees.

But actually, that’s not quite right. Many if not most of the new jobs will go to people already here. Or people who would otherwise be coming. Put it this way: there are 3.3 million non-farm employees working in the DC area right now. During the year prior to July 2018, there were 77,100 new jobs added. So yes, 25,00 new jobs is not insignificant. But it is not nearly as significant as the hype makes it out to be.

Granted, these will be higher paying jobs than average, and they will be concentrated in a relatively compact area. But the impact will be spread out over both time (it will take a while for Amazon to actually bring all the jobs here) and space (the jobs will be located from Crystal City all the way down to Alexandria, and the employees will likely live all over the place). Continue reading →

Photo by Ehpien.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Ride-hailing drop off spot created on Wisconsin, just north of M St.
• The snow was a bit of a surprise, so make sure to stock up on sidewalk de-icer this weekend to be prepared. Icy sidewalks can be very dangerous.

3000 block of R St.

As you head out (or stay in town) for Thanksgiving next week, it’s important to take some time to think about those that have much less than us to be thankful for. And to turn those thoughts into action, please consider giving to Georgetown Ministry Center.

The shelter, based right in the heart of Georgetown, offer services and programs to the area’s homeless. And in cold winter nights, it offers a place to sleep, which can be a question of life or death.

Georgetown Ministry Center is an effective and efficient charity that makes people’s lives better right here in your own backyard.

If you’re a federal employee who participates in the Combined Federal Campaign, please add the center (CFC# 31661) to your list of charities. Then pass the gravy!