The Georgetown Metropolitan

3000 block of O St.

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Early risers will be treated to quite a show this Sunday morning as the Rosslyn Holiday Inn comes tumbling down.

The demolition will be accomplished not by boring cranes or wrecking balls but with friggin’ dynamite. ARLNow reports:

The 18-story hotel tower at 1900 N. Fort Myer Drive is set to come down at 8 a.m. Sunday “as safety, crowd control and weather conditions permit,” an advisory obtained by ARLnow says…“The implosion… should last about 20 seconds. Avoid any windows facing the Holiday Inn or being in front of windows at time of implosion,” the advisory says. “Dust may drift outside and downward of the Exclusion Zone, depending on weather conditions. Please stay indoors during the demolition and afterwards until the dust has settled.”

It’s an extremely rock’n’roll ending to an extremely boring building. The hotel was built in 1972, and looks the part. It will eventually be replaced by a mixed use project that looks like this: Continue reading →

Photo by Vincent.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• This is what the former Little Tavern at N and Wisconsin could look like when the Dig restaurant opens there.
• Former Georgetown student literally found buried treasure.

1600 block of 30th St.

This week in Georgetown Time Machine, GM looks back to an effort almost 99 years ago of Georgetown businesses to boost interest in the neighborhood with a splashy section in the Washington Herald Magazine.

The section consisted of two pages of photos and ads:

What’s particularly fun about this is that it shows a grouping of street level photos of shops in Georgetown circa 1922:

This is now the Cos (the former Benetton). Continue reading →

Photo by Vincent.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Please take this survey by Parks and Rec to let them know what you’d like to see done to improve city parks and playgrounds, including in Georgetown.
• An MPD lieutenant will be at the intersection of Wisconsin and K to meet with the community this Wednesday from 4-5. Hot cocoa and cookies will be available!

3300 block of P St.

After receding over the summer, DC’s coronavirus numbers have spiked at an alarming rate. Whereas there are often fewer than 75 confirmed positive cases daily in August, over the last few days the daily numbers have exceeded 300. Hospitalizations have also risen, essentially doubling since early November. Test positivity has also more than doubled. In short, while there is a vaccine light at the end of the tunnel, we’re still very much well in the tunnel.

But how is Georgetown doing relative to the rest of the city? For the most part the answer is better than average.

Above is a handy map created by the excellent website: DCCovid.com. This site takes the raw data released by the city and slices and dices it into a series of incredibly informative charts. They allow you to quickly and easily see how each neighborhood in the city is doing right now, and over time. It also breaks out the data by age, race and other categories.

Each square in the map above represents a different neighborhood in DC, with each square roughly where the neighborhood appears on the real DC map. The squares contain a dark line showing how the covid positive numbers have changed for each neighborhood since March. And the color of the square represents how many positive results right now (with darker being higher results). As you can see, the darker squares are primarily on the eastern side of the city. Continue reading →

Photo by Vincent.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Come live down the block from GM! But act fast, the seller priced it so low there have been a constant stream of people looking at it.
• Hair-dye model, Rudy Guilliani, checked into GU hospital with Covid.

3000 block of O St.