The Georgetown Metropolitan

Photo by Joe Flood.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Reverie now offers a “pay-what-you-want” option.
• Did anyone see this man? He’s was last seen in Georgetown November 27th.

Tudor Place

Exactly ten years ago this Thursday, GM started publishing the Georgetown Metropolitan. The name was chosen in order to continue the publication of an earlier Georgetown Metropolitan, a newspaper that was published in the then independent city from approximately 1820 to 1837. The photo above is from July 12, 1826 and contains a report on the deaths of former presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.

Frankly, when he started it, GM doubted it would continue for more than a year or so. But here we are ten years later. And a lot has happened to both Georgetown and GM personally over that period. This week, he’ll rehash some of those events. And today he’ll talk about the “distant” past of 2008 to 2012. Continue reading →

Photo by Joe Flood.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Bourbon Steak is pouring bubbly in weird dome tents, if you’re so inclined…
• More about this year’s Glow artists.

3300 block of O St.

Last night, DDOT hosted a public meeting on the topic of traffic circulation through Georgetown. The pre-meeting public information was sparse, so it was unclear what that meant. One of GM’s speculations was that it was about turning some two-way streets into one-way, and indeed it was. (For the record: It’s not really that impressive to get a speculation correct when you make as many speculations as GM does…)

This was just the first meeting, and DDOT will be conducting data collection and receiving public input before putting out any recommendations. But the substance of the presentation suggested that changing the direction of streets was one of the central ideas they would study.

What does that mean for Georgetown? Well as you may know, there’s a big difference between the streets on the east and west sides of Georgetown. West Georgetown has far more one-way streets than the east side does. You can see that in this map that was part of the presentation last night:

All the dark streets are one-way. West Georgetown’s streets are probably over 50% one-way. East Georgetown, particularly above M St., are almost entirely two-way.

From the audience, it was clear that there is a vocal group in support of changing that. Among the changes most voiced would be to change 29th, 30th, and 31st to one-way (likely 30th southbound, and 29th and 31st northbound). There was also a lot of support for converting N St. to one-way (probably westbound, to mirror Dumbarton St.). Continue reading →

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• GM has heard that Le Petite Corner Store at 34th and Dent has been closed several weeks.
• An entire gingerbread town was built in an architecture firm in Georgetown.

Tudor Place

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The crazy neo-classical bus station that Georgetown University never built.
• Despite the federal government closure, the DDOT meeting on Georgetown’s transportation is still happening tonight at Visitation at 7:00.