The Georgetown Metropolitan

3100 block of R St.

This week for Birds of Georgetown, GM is exploring the Columbidae family of birds, which are better known as doves and pigeons.

In Georgetown, that almost entirely boils down to two species: the mourning dove and the rock pigeon.

The mourning dove, seen above, is a lovely bird. It can be recognized by its cloudy golden/gray plumage. But you often hear it before you see it. They have a call that is easily recognizable; you’ve probably heard it thousands of times before. Here’s a sample:

Mourning doves also make a lovely whistling sound when they take flight:

Mourning doves live in DC all year round. Although GM did once find a dead mourning dove in his garden during a particularly cold winter week. (Lifting a bird is an odd sensation. They are remarkably light.)

All in all, mourning doves are a lovely bird to have around, which is a lot more than we can say about their cousins, the rock pigeon. Continue reading →

Photo by Bill Starrels.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Kevin Planck lowered the price of his house, which can now be yours for under a quarter of a billion dollars. just under $25 million.
• Former Filomena chef now in charge at High Street Cafe.

Dumbarton Oaks

Parking in Georgetown is a perennial topic of discussion. But often left out of these discussions is hard data. Thankfully the city has finally collected this data and recently shared it with the community. The purpose of the exercise is to inform any discussions regarding reforming how we handle on-street parking. But the data is fascinating regardless. Here it is:

• There are 11,095 residents in Georgetown
• There are 5,957 cars registered in Georgetown
• Which means 1.86 cars per person and 1.6 cars per address (update: see comment below regarding this seemingly incorrect ratio) people per cars. (Update to the update: the city seems to have flipped the ratio)
• One resident has 7 cars registered to him or her
• There are 5,720 on-street parking spaces in Georgetown
• There are about 3,500 off-street parking spots in Georgetown (excluding public parking garages)
• There are 4,378 residential parking permits issued to Georgetown residents (which implies that roughly 1,600 cars don’t have Zone 2 stickers)
• There are only 4,096 RPP spaces (i.e. spaces that allow Zone 2 parking 24/7)
• So that means there are roughly 300 more cars with Zone 2 stickers than there are Zone 2 spots (many of these probably have off-street parking)
• On average there are 815 RPP spots vacant
• That is roughly 20% of the supply
• But roughly 12% of blocks were on average full
• There are 8 spaces designated for a specific handicap permit (i.e. right outside their house)
• Four spaces have been repurposed for bike parking

Continue reading →

Photo by Ken Mayer.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Uh, Jack Evans seems to be in a bit of trouble. Will it stick this time?
• Nice old shot of the long gone Key Mansion.

3300 block of O St.