The Georgetown Metropolitan

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Not really Georgetown news, but lots of Georgetowners (like GM) will be sad to hear that Johnson’s garden center is closing.
• How Arthur Cotton Moore changed DC (and Georgetown).

Cashell Alley

GM knows that this is the time of year when parents of young children looking to make plans for next fall start applying to nursery schools. And with that in mind, please consider GM’s heartfelt recommendation: the Children’s House of Washington.

The Children’s House of Washington (or C.H.O.W.) is a Montessori school located in the Dumbarton Methodist Church right here in Georgetown. It doesn’t get quite the same attention as some of the other nursery schools around Georgetown, but GM’s daughter graduated from there last spring after three wonderful years, and he can say with confidence that it was absolutely one of the best decisions he (and Mrs. GM) made for her. Continue reading →

Photo by Ron Cogswell.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• MPD weighs in on the obvious: Don’t call 911 to report people riding dockless bikeshare bikes.
• It’s approximately negative zero outside, so why don’t you stop by this regular Havana party to warm up?

3400 block of Volta Pl.

Now that it’s been below freezing long enough, GM wanted to republish his annual article reminding everyone that skating on the canal is legal. Granted, the canal is dry through Georgetown nowadays due to the lock work, but further west the canal has some water, so grab some skates and explore!

As the days finally get colder, GM starts to think back to his childhood days skating on a tiny frozen pond behind his friend’s house in Connecticut. (The fact that the pond was only about 25 feet across helps explain why GM never really learned to stop on skates; he hardly had room to start). It was this nostalgia for outdoor skating that led him to wonder: why not build a waterfront rink? GM’s question was answered in the affirmative shortly afterwards when MRP Realty announced plans to bring an ice rink to the Washington Harbour.

But that won’t get built in time for this winter (ed: obviously that’s not true anymore!). And what if you want to skate on a natural body of frozen water? Well we’ve already got one of those: the C & O Canal.

While it hasn’t been cold nearly enough for the canal to freeze yet this winter, by late January, February at the latest, it should ice over. And guess what? You are allowed to skate on it if you want. GM just assumed the NPS would prohibit such a fun activity since, lets face it, they can kinda be killjoys. But according to C & O Canal National Historic Park:

It’s that time of year and weather when Park visitors may go ice skating.

The ice skating issue is addressed in the Park’s rules (reprinted in the C&O Canal NHP Volunteer Manual):

“Ice skating is permitted at your own risk park-wide, except where prohibited by signage.” Continue reading →

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Profile of one of Georgetown’s newest students, who is 63 and a descendant of the enslaved people whom the school once sold.
• GM missed this from November, but here is a nice profile of a man who designed a lot of Georgetown gardens.

3200 Block of Volta Place

Photo by Joe Flood.

While GM was enjoying his holiday break, he was almost pulled back into service by a story that made all of Georgetown look bad. That story related to a small group of cranks discussing their efforts to thwart the city’s experiment with so-called dockless bikeshare providers.

Specifically, as reported by Martin Austermuhle of WAMU:

Here are the two more egregious emails from the discussion:

Dear Friends,

At the community-wide meeting recently held about the experimental dockless bicycle program being run by DDOT Mr.. Sam Zimbabwe from DDOT advised that if dockless bikes were found which were illegally or inappropriately parked  that 311 could be called to have them removed.  I tried it the week after Mr. Zimbabwe made the announcement and the 311 operator with whom I spoke did not have a clue about what I was reporting and refused to take the report.  This morning I observed one of the Ofo bikes illegally parked in Rose Park and I called 311 to report it.  I’m happy to say that the 311 operator took the report as “an abandoned bike” report.  I received an e-mail confirmation of the report with a report number.  I will pass the report number on to Mr. Zimbabwe.  If you make such a report I would also suggest that you forward the report number to Mr. Zimbabwe.  His e-mail address is:  sam.zimbabwe@dc..gov.  I can’t believe that we have to waste City time and money, via the 311 system, on these ridiculous and unsafe bikes and I hope that the Attorney General’s Office will look into this program.

I have had to call 311 every night this week (leading up to Xmas Eve Sunday). 

When I come home from work, the bikes are all over the sidewalk and in the street. An elderly neighbor hit her head on a bike as she fell, suffering a massive bruise. 

These bikes serve no purpose whatsoever.

We have informed our neighbors to call 911 immediately when you see someone using the bikes, and to snap photos and videos of all individuals using the orange, green, yellow and now RED bikes. 

I didn’t call the real police @911 when my neighbor slipped, but now whenever we see anyone (male or female) using these bikes, we call 911 and report “suspicious activity” 

Provide a physical description of the rider

Color of bike

Direction of travel

And state the assailant suspect is “acting suspicious”

Since Sunday, we have noticed a DRAMATIC decrease since initiating these calls directly  to MPD 2D. 

This pearl-clutching even made the national news. And the headlines simply write themselves: “Rich Georgetowners Don’t Like Outsiders and Complain Like Children to Keep Them Out”. This is an easy article for people to write because it only reinforces what every one already thinks about Georgetowners in the first place. It’s why against all evidence, people still believe racist Georgetowners thwarted a Metro station (they didn’t, although some, like Eva Hinton, took credit for doing just that).

It should not have to be stated–but apparently it does–that it is not ok to call 911 when you see someone do something entirely legal just because you don’t like that they are choosing to do the thing you don’t like them doing. In fact it is itself a crime.

Calling the police to report that someone riding a bike you don’t like to report that he is acting suspicious and is a goddamn “assailant” is repulsive behavior and you bring us all shame to call us your neighbor.

An equal number of people wrote back on the listserv to object to the original emails, which is somewhat heartening. But the gentle pushback is only getting its shoes on by the time the Georgetowner cliché is literally halfway around the world.

It’s ok to not like the dockless bikeshare pilot. You might just be the type of person who hates bikes. Or maybe you don’t hate bikes, per se, but just don’t want to see the bikes on the sidewalk. There are definitely kinks to work out. Maybe all dockless bikes should have to at least lock to something (the Jump bikes already require this)? Maybe one parking spot of every block should be converted to a bike rack? There are problems, but there are also solutions. Above all else, the place you should be lodging your complaints is DDOT, not the police.

Trying to sabotage the pilot by illegally wasting the time of 911 call center employees and police officers is not acceptable. When you do this, we all look bad. Cut it out.

Photo by Victoria Pickering.

Happy New Year! Here’s just some of the stuff that happened while GM was taking a holiday break:

• Historic alley dwelling approved for single family home.
• Sadly, the overlooked but reliable Unum closed in December.
• Also the Daily Grill closed.
• El Centro had a fire.
• Sports Zone filed for bankruptcy and is look to sell its assets. (GM believes they only rent the M St. space).