The Georgetown Metropolitan

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• GM will discuss this more later, but Stephen Starr is opening an Italian restaurant in the old Dean and Deluca and everyone is psyched.
• Big items for Georgetown parks and facilities in the mayor’s proposed budget.

As previously discussed, parking enforcement has resumed in Georgetown (and the rest of DC). The city had stopped ticketing most infractions since the beginning of the pandemic, but that has (almost entirely) come to an end.

Not all infractions were overlooked over the past year. For instance, parking in an illegal spot could still garner you a pink reward under your wiper blades. But parking meters and other time limitations were unenforced. Some viewed this as a boon. Travel along the mall early in the morning and you’d see car after car with Maryland and Virginia plates, as nearby workers took advantage of the unlimited free parking.

But for residents in neighborhoods like Georgetown, it was a different story. Those same cars with Maryland and Virginia plates have been able to remain parked on residential blocks all day long with zero consequence. This in turn reduces parking for residents. It has also allowed the hundreds of off-campus Georgetown students to keep their out-of-state cars on the street all year. (Theoretically off-campus students could register their cars in DC and get a parking permit, but they rarely do).

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The tiny P St. house just sold again.
• Heavy turnover for off campus students this week. Are they moving in to do internships or just to get away from their parents?

Tonight is the June ANC2E meeting via zoom at 6:30 (link here). Two possibly fun topics will be discussed:

The first is the future of the former Dean and Deluca building. This building, which is city-owned, dates to 1865 and federal law requires it to be operated as a market. Last year, Jamestown was going to bring in a Brooklyn-based flea market to operate in the building, at least for a temporary basis. And then the pandemic hit, and well, it’s still vacant.

On the agenda is a discussion of a “retail proposal” for the space. Most in the community hope the city holds Jamestown to operating the market as a food market. But the fact that last year Jamestown was about to bring in a flea market suggests that it is not limiting its search to just food concepts. Tune it tonight to find out.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The home Jackie Kennedy moved into after JFK’s assassination is for sale.
• On Georgetown’s hot real estate market.

This week for Georgetown Time Machine, GM is returning again to the Willard R. Ross postcard collection. Specifically he’s checking out a photo from New Year’s Eve, 1928, of the Renwick Chapel in Oak Hill Cemetery.

Not a whole lot has changed of this scene ninety plus years later:

Of course one very significant thing has changed: the ivy. It covered the chapel in 1928 and is gone now. It’s unclear when the ivy was first grown over the building. It was described as “ivy-covered” in 1888 during the funeral of William W. Corcoran (who created Oak Hill Cemetery and commissioned the chapel):

The chapel was built in 1850 and designed by James Renwick in his famous gothic revival style. Growing ivy over it was probably in keeping with the ancient look Renwick was aiming for.

Good morning Georgetown here’s the latest:

• New book released documenting the history of GU owning enslaved people.
• Speaking of GU: Max Scherzer didn’t let GU commencement get in the way of his workouts.