The ANC will meet for the last time of the year next Monday night at 6:30 at Visitation. A draft agenda is above. As you can see, there are Old Georgetown Board projects listed on the agenda. The OGB is right now working through the backlog of cases that built up during the shutdown. In fact, they’re meeting tomorrow to go through projects that were supposed to be reviewed back in November. Then they’ll meet again on Dec. 11th to go through the rest of the backlog.
However, there still are no Commission of Fine Arts members. Projects needing permit approval will still need to wait for the CFA to be filled again before moving forward. There’s a meeting of the CFA scheduled for January, so perhaps there will be members by then. We’ll see.
Hello and welcome to your December Northwest Georgetown ANC update.
Leaves and Snow
It’s that time of year again, when the city makes an (often unsuccessful) effort to clear the leaves from the streets. This lack of success comes in several forms, but last year the largest complaints were:
That they completely missed whole blocks
That they didn’t take bagged leaves, and
Even for the blocks they did pass, they missed lots of leaves
The ANC has been repeatedly pressing DPW to address these complaints. And I can at least report that the city is now stating that they’ll take bagged leaves. (Remember that bagged leaves always have to be in paper bags, not plastic.) We also provided the mayor’s rep with a list of blocks that were missed last year, so hopefully they will not be missed again this year.
As for timing, DPW splits each ward into four zones: a, b, c, and d. It works through each zone sequentially. Right now it is starting zones c, which in Georgetown is east of Wisconsin Ave. So if you live east of Wisconsin, get your leaves out as soon as possible.
The area west of Wisconsin is in Zone d, and will be picked up after c. Depending on weather, this could start in a couple weeks. You can check this website for updates.
Hopefully they will actually get all the leaves this year. But if after a couple weeks, your block is still untouched, please email me at 2e02@anc.dc.gov and let me know.
In either event, leaf pick up season will be followed (or briefly coincide) with snow season. Unlike with leaves, this job is mostly on us. Please remember that your sidewalk needs to be cleared within 8 hours of daylight after it stops snowing. (If you’re able, go ahead and shovel your neighbors’ sidewalks too!) If you are unable to shovel your sidewalk, please let me know and I’ll try to arrange someone to handle it for you.
Breakfast With Santa and Volta Park
Don’t forget that this weekend, the Friends of Volta Park are hosting their annual and beloved Breakfast with Santa:
Speaking of Volta Park, I continue to share the concerns that many have expressed about the apparently abandoned work on the ball field renovation. I am continuing to push DPR for answers on why it continues to be delayed and what impact this delay will have on the overall timeline. Some residents have also expressed an interest in clearing some space on the field for use by residents while the wait continues. I will update as soon as I get some clear answers.
On the positive side, I was recently informed that a splash pad may be coming to the park. It would likely be located in the plaza south of the rec. center. I think this would be a great asset for parents of young kids.
Book Hill
There is a public meeting next week for the planned Book Hill Park renovations. It will be on December 9th at 6:00 pm in the library. This will be the second meeting for the planned renovations and I expect that they will be presenting some of their initial findings and recommendations at this meeting. If you’re interested in the park, come on out!
And with that, I wish you a warm and happy holiday season!
There will be a community meeting next week to update the public on the status of the planning for the Book Hill renovation project. Click here for a summary of the first meeting. At that meeting, planners proposed several possible elements for the project, including repairs to existing infrastructure and the possibility of a new terrace. We’ll see how the plans have evolved since then.
My understanding is that the city is reprograming money from the “Triangle Park” project at the intersection of 33rd and Wisconsin and moving it to the Book Hill project instead. Apparently the crepe myrtles in the triangle park were deemed worth keeping and thus no viable plan for dramatically improving the pocket park remained. But this is great news for Book Hill since it will dramatically increase the available money.
If you are like me, and you have a teenage girl, I present to you breaking news: Garage is coming to M St.
That is a meaningless message to me. And it may be meaningless to you too. But to many a teenage girl, this is a coveted clothing shop. And with its arrival, trips out to Tyson’s Corner become all that less necessary (by “necessary” I mean necessary by the standards of a teenager, not a normal human being.)
According to the Washington Business Journal, the store will be taking over the former Club Monaco space at M and 33rd (which is the former Rhino Bar, to somewhat old-timers, and the former Winston’s to genuine old-timers.) No word when it will open.
Breakfast with Santa will be returning to Volta Park this December 6th. Here are the details!:
One of our favorite events will be returning on December 6th to the Volta Basketball Courts. Join us between 10am-12pm and enjoy the holiday cheer with friends and neighbors. Bring the whole family, including your four-legged fur babies, for the Santa Experience ($20) which includes: sitting with Santa (*parents will take their own photo), festive crafts, doughnuts, coffee/hot chocolate and new this year – live DJ music and face painting!
On behalf of Georgetown Ministry, we will also be collecting gently used adult coats, hats, mitts and scarves. *Please do not bring any children’s coats or clothing for donation.
Come join us for the festivities, sure to bring laughter and smiles for the whole family.
Two new stores are on the horizon for Georgetown, at least according to this month’s Old Georgetown Board submissions.
The first is the international brand Uniqlo. They have long been rumored to be looking for a location in Georgetown, and it appears they have found one. The sign application indicates that they are aiming to take over the recently vacated J Crew location on M St. (J. Crew moved to the other end of M St., opening recently at M and 30th).
(In case you’re wondering, in English the name of the store is pronounced like Unah-Klow. For what it’s worth, in its original Japanese it’s pronounced more like Unick-Cah-Lo.)
The other new store is probably a less familiar name to you. It’s called Nuts Factory, and it’s coming to the former Town Liquors location at Wisconsin south of O St. This appears to be pretty much what it says: a store that sells nuts. But it appears the main product that they sell is something called Dubai Chocolate. They have about a dozen existing store locations, all of which are in the northeast.
Last month, a Swedish company gave a demonstration of a boat they make designed with a hydrofoil hull. The company says it hopes to one day use this technology for a water ferry on the Potomac to Georgetown. While this is an impressive display, there are reasons to remain skeptical that we’ll see hydrofoil ferries anytime soon pulling up on the dock.
Hydrofoil hulls work by essentially bolting on a set of wings to the bottom of a normal boat. As the boat picks up speed, the “wings” (i.e. the foils) provide lift enough that the whole boat (minus the foils of course) rises up and out of the water. This has several advantages. For one, it significantly reduces the drag caused by the boat going through water, so higher speeds can be achieved with less energy spent. Additionally, (and more relevantly for Georgetown) the boat produces a far smaller wake because it is no longer having to push so much water out of the way. The video above demonstrates how small the wake is, despite the boat traveling over 18 knots (about 20 mph).
This would have the potential to dramatically reduce the travel times for a ferry to Georgetown. That’s because there is a “no wake zone” above Memorial Bridge. So any boat traveling from, say, Alexandria, has to spend the last mile creeping along at a very slow rate. If a ferry could cruise in to Washington Harbour at 20+ mph, it could significantly reduce travel times and possibly make it a more viable option for some.
But there are plenty of reasons to doubt this will actually happen.
First, we’ve been here before. Starting around 2010, a water taxi company operated a few routes to Georgetown (not the one that operates now). After a few seasons they closed down but promised to return with hovercrafts that would allow them to travel faster. They even had a demonstration of the hovercraft in 2013 at the exact same spot the hydrofoil was just shown. You’ll not be surprised to hear that the Potomac hovercraft never came to pass. (It’s probably telling that as I searched for a news report of the 2013 hovercraft demonstration, Google instead kept giving me news reports of this 2025 hydrofoil demonstration.)
Another concern is that it’s not quite right to say that there is a “no wake zone” above Memorial Bridge. There’s a speed limit, full stop. No boats are permitted to go over 6 mph. And this is not just pedantry. This part of the river is designed to host slow recreation boating, like kayaking, paddleboarding and canoeing. Throwing off a huge wake is bad and dangerous for these activities and is prohibited. But a boat going 20+ mph through here is also bad and dangerous for these activities even without a wake because a big fast boat can still injure or kill someone.
Maybe there could be remedial measures put in place to prevent that from happening, but I’m skeptical they’d be sufficient to limit the risk.
On top of everything, ferry-sized versions of these hydrofoil boats cost about $1.3 million. Is there enough demand from riders to justify that expenditure? We’ll see.
The public high school designated for Georgetown is in the process of receiving its official name, one that will be familiar to many in the neighborhood: John Thompson Jr. High School.
The high school, which was established by DC in the fall of 2023 and occupies the former Georgetown Day School on MacArthur Blvd. in the Palisades, is the in-boundary high school for Georgetown students. The school was created to address overcrowding issues at Jackson Reed (the former Wilson High School). Now students who attend Hardy Middle School will have the right to continue on to the new high school.
For its first years, the new school has been named MacArthur High School, after the street it’s on (which itself was named after Gen. Douglas MacArthur). It was always intended to be a placeholder name as the city considered a proper permanent name. Earlier this year, after support for the idea of naming the school after the legendary GU basketball coach gained traction, the decision was made to go with that idea. Legislation putting that decision into action was recently approved. I am not sure when the official renaming will take place, but I would guess it will be before the end of the school year.
The sports teams were previously known as the MacArthur Mammoths, but I understand that the new mascot will be the Jaguars.
Georgetown is down to two Starbucks again. The location at M and 34th has closed. This leaves just the location at Washington Harbour and the long standing location on Wisconsin by S St.
A note in the window of the recently closed location stated that it was closed after an “incredibly difficult decision”:
Starbucks has had a bit of a hot-and-cold relationship with Georgetown over the years. They once had a location at 33rd and M St. that was closed around 15 years ago as part of a similar downsizing. Then they opened this location just a block away in 2018, just for it to get axed by downsizing again. So perhaps in a few years they’ll try again yet another block to the west?
And also there was the other location at M and 31st that lasted until around 2020. So with this recent closure, there will now be no Starbucks on M St. for the first time in decades.
Which leaves the question of what will happen to the 34th and M building itself. It is one of the most storied buildings in Georgetown, as it was the location of the famous Cellar Door club. This was the location of the debut of “Country Roads Take Me Home”, written the night before in an apartment at 31st and Q St. And of course, it was the location of several legendary live recordings, including ones by Miles Davis and Neil Young.
Any rich and nostalgic investors out there interested in bringing the Cellar Door back? Here may be your chance…
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
You must be logged in to post a comment.