The Georgetown Metropolitan

Potomac River

For a neighborhood that is not known much for live music anymore, Georgetown has an incredibly rich history of it. Whether it’s Mile Davis recording at the Cellar Door, John Denver debuting “Take Me Home Country Roads” at the same venue, or Roberta Flack getting her start at the Georgetown Mr. Henry’s before getting her own venue at the Capitol Hill spot, Georgetown has a lot to brag about. But another legend–one who died before her time–staked her place in Georgetown music lore: Eva Cassidy.

Cassidy was a DC-based singer songwriter who worked in jazz, blues and folk. After a successful stint working with the great Chuck Brown, Cassidy looked to record as a record to launch her career as a solo artist. She brought her band to Blues Alley a few days after New Years Day 1996 and recorded over two nights. The result was Live at Blues Alley.

Sadly, Cassidy died eleven months later. But her story didn’t end there. A British radio deejay plucked one of her albums from relative obscurity and played it. The public responded with huge enthusiasm, picking up 100,000 copies. Her posthumous success took off even more when a video from her appearance at Blues Alley of her singing her signature tune, Somewhere Over the Rainbow, hit the British airwaves. Her album sales skyrocketed, eventually reaching millions of copies sold. By 2005, Amazon was listing her as the fifth highest selling artist of all time.

The video above is a documentary on Cassidy’s nights at Blues Alley, the place it all kicked off. It’s well worth your watching.

Photo by Victoria Pickering.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• How did the old streetcar from Georgetown to Glen Echo get around the Delcaria reservoir?
• Double digit numbers of people in the GU community still testing positive for coronavirus each week.

Montrose Park

At last week’s ANC meeting, BID CEO Joe Sternleib gave a presentation on the state of retail in Georgetown. During his presentation he displayed an updated version of the BID’s list of recent closings and openings.

The list above (click on it to enlarge) shows 63 shops and restaurants that have closed over the past year or so. That’s about twice the rate Georgetown normally sees. That’s obviously bad news, but in a way it’s good news in that it’s only twice as bad. Given the devastation that the pandemic has wrought on commercial activity, it could be a lot worse.

On an even more optimistic front, Sterneib put up a slide showing recent and future openings too: Continue reading →

Photo by Victoria Pickering.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• More on how GU plans to punish any medical students who got the Covid vaccine when they shouldn’t have.
• Wisemiller’s shifting to cookie delivery to maintain their business during the pandemic.

2900 block of R St.

The New York Times published an absolutely fascinating map this week gathering election data from every election precinct they could from across the country. It shows at a glance how each precinct voted, and more interestingly, how that vote differed from 2016. Georgetown’s map reflects a slight shift towards Trump for east Georgetown. While this is true in a sense, drilling down into the numbers tells a slightly more complicated story.

First off: in either event the vast majority of Georgetowners voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020. Here are the vote totals for the combined precincts for each election:

• 2016
  • Clinton – 4355
  • Trump – 578
• 2020
  • Biden – 4393
  • Trump – 697

While Trump added over 100 more votes across Georgetown from 2016 to 2020, Biden added almost 40. So across the neighborhood, the voters nudged towards Biden. Continue reading →

Photo by Vincent.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Luxurious cakes now for sale at Cut restaurant.
• Public meeting next Wednesday on the Jelleff renovation feasibility study.

Dumbarton Oaks Park