The Georgetown Metropolitan

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Interesting opportunity to enjoy a private performance of traditional Korean music along the waterfront this week.
• More on the shooting on 28th st. from last week.

The ANC will be meeting for its November session next Monday night at 6:30 pm via Zoom. On the agenda are several interesting items, but the one that caught GM’s eye was the Old Georgetown Board item concerning the sidewalk extensions throughout Georgetown.

The extensions have been in their current form and extent since earlier this year, when the BID constructed them. While the sections that have been converted to outdoor dining have been received mostly positively, the sections that merely expand the sidewalk have received more mixed reviews. And the ANC sided with the critics and passed a resolution in September opposing all sidewalk extensions that aren’t being used for dining so that a few people can park their cars there instead.

That resolution concerned the permitting of the sidewalk extensions. This month the matter comes up under the OGB calendar. Could this be the end of the sidewalk extensions? We’ll see. It would be a perfect statement of the reality of historic preservation if the OGB decides it’s somehow too inconsistent with history to have wide sidewalks but a Virginian parking his 2021 Toyota Tacoma there for three hours is A O.K. Historic preservation for thee, not for me, essentially.

Also on the agenda is a possible resolution concerning DDOT’s recent announcement that it would move to streamline the adoption of traffic safety measures in response to a spike in traffic violence across the city. The agency made the move because people, including little kids, keep dying on the streets and the approval process to make the streets safer is too slow and filled with veto points that prevent safety measures from being adopted. So naturally the ANC–one those veto points–is requesting information about this new process. GM hopes they support making these changes but fears they’d rather keep the current system.

Here is the rest of the agenda:

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Self storage units to be added to the former Georgetown Park mall.
• GU will hold an in-person commencement on campus next spring (it was cancelled in 2020 and held at National Park last spring).

DC is currently in the process of re-drawing the eight ward boundaries as a result of the 2020 Census. GM had previously theorized about the possibility that Georgetown and/or Burleith could be returned to Ward Three, that result now appears extremely unlikely.

DC needs to redraw the ward boundaries every ten years. The law mandates that each of the wards’ populations must be within 5% of the city average. So, for example, if the city had 800,000 residents, the average for the wards would be 100,000. And the maps would have to be drawn to ensure that no ward had fewer than 95,000 or more than 105,000 residents.

Early estimates put Ward Two slightly above the average, although within the 5% buffer. If that were the case, there would not be any need to grow or reduce the physical size of Ward Two. But it might have lead to changes nonetheless since some wards definitely have to grow or shrink, and to make that possible Ward Two might have needed to change.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Julia Child’s house is for sale again.
• New jewelry store on M St.

A new restaurant in opening at 3206 O St. It is called Masala Street and it specializes in Indian food.

It is expected to be open this week. The menu featured a broad array of popular Indian food such as Chicken Tikka Masala and Saag Paneer, plus much more (including the always popular, but not particularly Indian, choices of wings and fried chicken).

The restaurant replaces Pica Taco, which served Mexican food at that location since 2018. Previous to that was the short lived Gtown Bites, and the much longer lasting Georgetown Dinette before that.

Georgetown always needs a good supply of cheapish eats, so GM’s glad to see that continue with Masala Street.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• GU is planning on building a large new dorm near Union Station.
• The story behind the Cat Cafe.