The Georgetown Metropolitan

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.

The Georgetown Citizens Association has a new home: a small rowhouse steps from the canal. The new home was formally announced yesterday by CAG president Tara Sakraida Parker:

In the Citizens Association of Georgetown’s 142-year-old history, there have been milestones that we look back upon and cherish as critical points in CAG’s history.

CAG gratefully announces a momentous bequest from the Trust of A. Michael Sullivan, Jr., intended to purchase a new permanent headquarters in Georgetown. Our new townhome is located on 30th Street along the historic C&O Canal and will honor Mr. Michael Sullivan and his wife, Beverly Bissell Sullivan. Their legacy gift supports CAG in an exceptional and unprecedented way.

For the first time ever, we have a permanent home to gather and grow, and to build a foundation of impact and change.

Continue reading →

Photo by Vincent.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Piece on the restoration of Holy Rood Cemetery.
• If you ever wondered about the sculpture of the man playing chess at GU, here’s your chance to learn about the professor who inspired it.

3300 block of O St.

Anyone paying attention to the state of WMATA knew this was coming, but even they will likely be surprised: the transit agency is proposing massive service cuts to balance its FY2022 budget.

And don’t think GM is just being dramatic here. If anything, “massive” undersells how devastating these cuts would be. They would fundamentally devastate the entire public transit model for the DC region. Metrorail trains would come every half hour during the week. They would be completely shut down all weekend long. Nineteen stations would simply be closed entirely.

And buses–which are critical for Georgetowners–would hardly be spared. Half the routes would simply be cancelled. Since this is a budget document, it does not actually lay out which lines would be cut. But we’ve been down a similar road recently, and multiple Georgetown lines were on the chopping block then. With a true bloodbath like WMATA is now proposing, though, we’d be extremely lucky to escape with only those cuts. Continue reading →

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Big development proposed for Wisconsin Ave. property.
• Lafayette Rec Center and Park in Chevy Chase to be renamed Lafayette-Pointer Rec Center and Park after formerly enslaved Capt. George Pointer who lived and worked in Georgetown.

Tudor Place

This week for Georgetown Time Machine, GM visits a legendary event from Georgetown’s past: the Great Ice Flood of 1918.

The photo, taken February 15, 1918, shows the flooding along K St. through Georgetown. It was caused by a phenomenon called an ice dam. This occurs when a deep freeze is followed by a rapid thaw. What happens is that a thick layer of ice forms with the freeze, but then gets broken up by the thaw. The ice starts to float down river, but can quickly become jammed by bridge abutments, and other blockages. The jam then blocks the water flow and causes the river to rise over its banks. In the case of the 1918 flood, it caused catastrophic damages.

GM has written about this flood before, and the Post wrote a detailed account of how it occurred two years ago. But reading about it in the contemporary newspapers adds a whole new layer.

The flood was instantly compared with another huge flood in 1889. That flooding occurred in June and was simply the result of heavy rains. It caused half the National Mall to be flooded (all the areas within the dark blue line were flooded):

But back to the 1918 flood. The February 14th evening paper gave a blow-by-blow as the situation grew perilous:

By the next evening, the Washington Times was reporting photos of the scene of flooding along the Georgetown Waterfront, including the photo up top.

Although by this point, it was starting to play it a bit for laughs, as it compared Georgetown to the canals of Venice (which were still a war zone at the time):

This photo is one GM has explored before, but would have never guessed the exact context involved directing freight cars around:

Continue reading →