The Georgetown Metropolitan

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• One of the last waterfront buildings still being used for industrial purposes is being converted to condos.
• What’s next for Blues Alley.

The ANC will be meeting next Monday night for our February meeting. The preliminary agenda is below, but one item I wanted to highlight is a request for diplomatic parking.

As I reported in October, Romania is opening diplomatic offices in the former Long and Foster building at the corner of Wisconsin and Reservoir. As the time, I cautioned that while I hadn’t heard anything about diplomatic parking space springing up, I would keep an eye on it.

When, they’ve since sprung up. A request was filed to convert several parking spaces along Wisconsin Ave. to diplomatic parking. Here is the proposed layout:

The green would remain normal parking. The orange would be converted to diplomatic parking. (The red would be an expansion of the corner no-parking zone to increase pedestrian visibility and safey.)

So the proposal appears to be establishing 3-4 new diplomatic parking spots on Wisconsin. That would be somewhat par for the course, but the fact is that the building already has off-street parking. There are about 9-10 off-street spots, in fact. I am not terribly open to turning over public space to the exclusive parking of an office building with its own private parking simply because the office is diplomatic in nature. I have asked for more clarity from DDOT about this, but have not heard back yet. I hope to have more information by Monday, but lacking it I will likely oppose this request. (That said, I am not terribly confident DDOT will listen to this, especially if the State Department has already approved it.)

Here is the complete agenda:

Photo by Victoria Pickering.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• After successfully returning to its old location in Georgetown, Barnes and Noble is opening a new store in the old Woodies Building downtown.
• Big real estate firm sells off large stake in Georgetown portfolio.

Over the past year I have been trying to pass along the dramatic changes that WMATA is planning for the Metrobus network. Literally every bus line will be different in name and (mostly) route by the end of this year. I recently learned that some tweaks have been made to the plans I’ve circulated, so I wanted to pass those along to you as well.

For the benefit of those who have not been following these changes, I’ll try to sum them up here. A good place to start is from the map above, which shows how the various bus routes will pass through Georgetown. It’s probably best to group them in a couple baskets:

Wisconsin Ave.

Since the days of the streetcars, Wisconsin Ave. and M St. have been serviced by the 30 Series. What particular routes ran has changed a lot over the years, but right now we have two routes remaining: the 31 (which goes only to Foggy Bottom) and the 33 (which now goes to Union Station as a substitute for the defunct Circulator). The Better Bus network will maintain similar service, but the names will change. Now it will be the D80 and the D82.

The last time I discussed the possible changes, the only route I discussed was the D82 (if WMATA had proposed the D80 at that point, I must have missed it). This was that previous D82 route:

The D82 Route now only goes to Foggy Bottom, and is basically the same as the current 31:

The D80, on the other hand, would now travel all the way to Union Station, much like the 33 does now:

So in short: the 31 becomes the D82 and the 33 becomes the D80. Travelers along the Wisconsin Ave.-> M St. routes will likely just have to memorize new bus route names. The service will otherwise be fairly similar (although I am working with my ANC colleagues and the BID to make sure that WMATA keeps the frequency to what we’re used to).

East-West Lines

The second basket of routes I think it’s helpful to consider are the primarily east-west routes through the heart of Georgetown. This currently includes the D2, D6 and the G2. The D2 and the D6 cross Georgetown mostly on Q St., with the D6 traveling from Sibley to the west and RFK stadium to the east, and the D2 running between Glover Park and Dupont. The G2 starts next to Georgetown University and snakes through Georgetown on a couple different streets before heading east to Dupont along P St.

Each of these routes will be mostly replicated in the new system, however they will all travel primarily on Q St. as they travel east-west.

Here is the D94, which is the D6 replacement:

As you can see, it will no longer travel all the way to RFK Stadium. This is unchanged from earlier proposals.

Here is the D96, which is the D2 replacement:

This obviously doesn’t look terribly like the current D2 route, but between Glover Park and Dupont, it is basically the same. But now it will continue westward all the way to Bethesda (and on weekdays it will travel beyond Dupont to Foggy Bottom).

This is basically the same as earlier proposal but for one tweak. The route around Dupont appears to be more like the current D2 route than in the prior iteration:

Here is the previous proposal:

It’s hard to make out exactly what’s going on, but it appears to be using Mass Ave. and Sheridan Circle in one direction (probably westbound). The newer proposal is cleaner:

That appears to match the current D2 route which takes Q St. eastward all the way to the Dupont northern escalator and takes P St. westward to 20th St. at which point it heads back up to Q St. westward to Georgetown again. This is a much better plan, if you ask me.

Finally, here is the G2 replacement, the C91:

This is a big change from the previous iteration. Previously this proposed route was called the D92, and it went to Union Station:

The C91 will now instead more closely match the G2 by going to Howard University/Le Droit Park (but with a somewhat more circuitous route on the eastern end.)

The western end is also going to change from the current G2 route, but it is consistent with the earlier proposals: to whit, rather than snaking through the middle of Georgetown, it will travel up 35th St. to Q St. and go eastward from there. This will be a big loss of transit access to those in the middle of the east village, who will now have to walk all the way up to Q St. But it will be an improvement for those closer to Q St., who can now have even more options at the same stop versus before. Sadly, as with many changes to transit networks, it often ends up with zero sum games like this.

M Street Lines

The last bucket to consider are the bus lines that are primarily on M St. through Georgetown. Right now that only includes the 38B, which goes from downtown, along M St., to the Key Bridge and ultimately Ballston. Two new routes will be in this bucket: the A58 and the C85.

(Before I go on, just a quick note on the naming conventions: WMATA is giving the new routes different prefixes depending on where they mostly go. Arlington/Alexandria routes start with an A; Fairfax/Falls Church routes start with F; Montgomery County routes start with an M; Prince Georges County routes start with a P; and DC routes start with a D or a C. The D routes are more likely to go downtown and the C routes are mostly between residential neighborhoods. I think that is why the G2 replacement was changed from D92 to C85 once it no longer travelled to Union Station.)

Here is the A58, which is the 38B replacement:

This is identical to earlier proposals.

Here is the C85, which is a genuinely novel route that has no obvious precedent in Georgetown (except perhaps the former D5 route):

It travels from Foggy Bottom, through Georgetown on M St. to Canal Rd. Then after going through the eastern part of the Palisades, it turns back through Burleith and Glover Park upwards through Ward 3.

This route is mostly the same as earlier iterations, but they’ve modified the route substantially north of Burleith, as you can see from the earlier design:

In total, these tweaks are mostly that: tweaks. But the totality of the oncoming change is nonetheless monumental. Not since the (in my opinion) tragic demise of the streetcars and the “bustitution” that followed has such a radical change come to Washington’s surface transit.

Photo by Victoria Pickering.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Easbanc offering its portion of the historic Georgetown post office for sale.
• The construction of this house was a pain in the ass for the neighbors nearby, but it sure looks nice now.

Photo by Joe.

Way back in 2011, I wrote an article about the old Key Theater that stood in the building recently vacated by the Wawa. Writing about old establishments like that often inspires people to share their memories in the comments section. And one individual left such a long and interesting comment that I posted it as its own article several days later: Plucked From the Comments.

That article itself has attracted its own long string of comments, and I’d like to once again pluck a recent one out to make sure everyone sees it. A Mr.LLoyd1964 writes:

I used to work at the Biograph Theater (1967-1996) in the mid seventies and early eighties. Hot Diggity Dog was a hot dog restaurant in a repurposed gas station next door with ample table seating out front. Their fries were oval potato slices which I drowned with malted vinegar that they had in bottles. The place was only open from May 1977 to August 1978. On the other side of the Biograph used to be a club in the sixties called Emergency that utilized the concrete ramp going down under the auto dealership where the Biograph was. People would sit on the ramp and watch shows on a stage at the back of the club, or so I heard. On M between 30th and 31st, Harold’s was a working class deli serving thin sandwiches and chili in a waxed paper cup. In the middle of that block was the Charring Cross, named after a London subway stop, serving Italian food, run by Iranians. A little farther up the block was Kemp Mill records. At 31st and M was Food Mart (Mood Fart to those in the know) that was a small grocery store with great sandwiches. Woolworths did have a lunch counter with circular stools that you could spin around on. Between Wisconsin and Key bridge, a large video game arcade appeared in the mid to late seventies on M street where I parted with many quarters. A bit farther west on M Street was Stetsons, a bar with live jazz music and a small pocket of outdoor seating in the back. At the end of the block near Key Bridge (across from the Cellar Door) was Max’s a dive bar with red and white vinyl checker board table cloths that got damp with beer by the pitcher. Below the C&O canal were abandoned block-long concrete factories that were empty, except for homeless people and curious teenagers like myself. I had heard there used to be a glue factory along the Potomac in Georgetown well before my time.

As always I love to receive comments and personal stories like this, so please consider adding your own below!

Photo by Thomas Hawk.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Some great Winter Restaurant Week options around Georgetown.
• How Georgetown real estate sales stacked up last month.

One consolation I have long taken from intense cold snaps Iike the one we are experiencing now is that it would kill off more mosquitos and lead to a less buggy season next summer. If you have also had this understanding, I am sorry to inform you that we’ve been wrong.

It is true that mosquitoes become less active when the temperature drops below 50 degrees. And many do die with the onset of freezing temperatures. But they long ago evolved as a species to handle cold winters. Depending on the species, they either enter hibernation or lay eggs. And in both cases the creatures are able to withstand much colder weather than we’re dealing with right now.

And really, that makes a lot of sense, seeing as places like Alaska or northern Canada have huge swarms of mosquitos, despite also having bitterly cold winters.

The good news? There is one climate phenomenon that actually can reduce the mosquito levels. As insect expert Dr. Daniel Markowski told WUSA a few years ago: “consistent cold isn’t as bad for mosquitos as cycles of warm and cold days that keep waking them up throughout the winter. Waking up burns energy, and if it happens often enough, it can be deadly for the insects.”

So if we get a nice midwinter thaw, followed by another freeze-up, not only will that give us a respite from the cold, it may actually make our summer gardens a bit more pleasant!

Photo by Jonathan E. Hendley.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• What some students are hoping GU will look for in its next president.
• Osteria Mozza is already taking its place as a magnet for extremely bold-faced names. Hopefully us hoi polloi also get to enjoy it once in a while too…

Located at the corner of Volta and Wisconsin, Georgetown Lutheran is currently undergoing an large scale renovation project to restore and modernize their historic parish. As part of that project they are working on the church bell tower, using scaffolding to access the the top.

Taking advantage of the limited opportunity to access this view, the church is opening it up to the community to climb up to the top and take in this unique and short-lived view. More details below:

Our pictures don’t do it justice (we were focused on the repair work) but the scaffold high over our bell tower has the most incredible view of our beloved Georgetown. So when we’ve been up there, we thought of you – and want to invite you, neighbors and friends who join us with a donation to this “People for the Steeple” campaign – to join us for this special view and a history tour for those interested.

It is truly a once in a lifetime view and opportunity. Come learn from and support Georgetown’s oldest congregation, founded 1769 here on this corner. We’re proud to be your neighbor and a community partner that serves and shares. This restoration and renovation work has come a long way to improve our corner: we’re proud of it and want to celebrate it with you. 

Click here to register your RSVP/interest to join us for the view and tour, this Sunday, January 19!

We’ll welcome small groups escorted up the scaffolding pointing out architectural and interesting history along the way. Wear sturdy shoes and bundle up as needed, but know that the scaffold is very safe and easy to ascend: five or so ladder rungs at the start lead you to a secure, five story fully enclosed with full regular staircases and railings throughout. Then join us in the church for some light refreshments and more history, art, and architecture to see and learn about as you’re interested!

Project Lead Charles Bushman, Pastor Brett Wilson, GLC President, Mark Robbins  – Questions? Want to connect? Contact: office@georgetownlutheran.com