The Georgetown Metropolitan

Photo by Elvert Barnes.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• *sigh* Another person is entering the Ward 2 race, further increasing the chances we’ll be stuck with Evans again.
• If you’re scrambling for Valentines Day, the BIDs got you covered.

2600 block of M St.

This week on Georgetown Time Machine, GM is visiting M St. at the turn of the last century. The photo comes from the archives of the Historical Society of Washington DC. It shows a horse-drawn streetcar leaving the streetcar barn on the south side of M St., just east of Wisconsin Ave.

The car barn by Key Bridge is far more familiar to current Georgetown residents. But the M St. car barn was just as substantial. It occupied what eventually became the Georgetown Park Mall. You can see it here:

Continue reading →

Photo by Kenya Allmond.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• More on the skeletons found in a Q St. basement.
• Jack Evans skipped most recent candidate forum.

3200 block of P St.

Yesterday, GM started to detail how exactly WMATA wants to make bus service in Georgetown worse. Discussing the changes to the D2 and G2 was enough for a full article. Today GM will discuss the other bad ideas WMATA has.

The first, and perhaps least controversial, involves the elimination of the 30N and 30S lines. These are the sole remaining fully crosstown 30-series routes. Once just about all of the 30-series buses traveled all the way across DC. Over the years those routes have been chopped up, with the main logic being that if you want to travel all the way across DC, you probably ought to switch to Metrorail at some point. That argument will be even stronger if WMATA goes forward with its plan to provide free transfers between bus and Metrorail. Continue reading →

Photo by Olaf Zerbock.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Nice run-down of the state of the Ward 2 race.
• Potomac St. home up for auction.

1000 block of Wisconsin Ave.

As discussed by GM back in December, WMATA is proposing to seriously degrade bus service for Georgetown (in fairness, they’re degrading bus service across town too). Over the weekend the agency released more details on what the service cuts will specifically mean, and, frankly, GM’s alarms are more than justified.

The most significant cut is the elimination of the G2 route through Georgetown. The earlier discussion mentioned the “consolidation” of the D2 and the G2. But, at least in Georgetown, the proposal is to completely cut the G2:

Current riders of the G2 are expected to walk to catch the D2, which will keep its current route through Georgetown. This is a huge cut for residents of west Georgetown. If you ordinarily catch the G2 bus west of Wisconsin, WMATA thinks you ought to have to walk up to a half mile more to take a bus. The same is true to a slightly lesser extent in east Georgetown. And on both sides there is a decent elevation change to boot.

WMATA pitches it as a benefit to riders who can now take more bus lines from the same stops. But that’s extremely disingenuous. As described below, despite cutting the G2, the D2 will come no more frequently, at least on weekdays. And WMATA wants to eliminate the D1. So current G2 bus riders will get to walk a half mile for the privilege of occasionally catching a D6 instead. Continue reading →

1000 block of 29th St.