The Georgetown Metropolitan

This week for Know Your Trees, GM is exploring a lesser known tree that has started to be planted with a little more frequency around Georgetown: the black gum.

Black gum trees, otherwise known as black tupelos or simply tupelos, are medium sized deciduous trees that are native along almost the entire eastern seaboard. They can be identified by their relatively bright green medium sized leaves that have almost a stretched-out teardrop shape:

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Photo by Jingnan Huo.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Georgetown GLOW art festival starts later this week.
• Sipping wine while ice skating doesn’t seem like a great idea, to be honest.

1600 block of 31st St.

Back in August, it was announced that Capital One had bought the old Nathans building and would construct a “Capital One Cafe” in the space. The concept of a Bank/coffee shop is an odd one, so many didn’t know what to expect. GM just got back from a visit to San Francisco where he came upon a Capital One Cafe. And he can report that it is indeed odd.

As you can see above, the space was essentially open. About 15 to 20 people were sitting in the cafe doing whatever it is that people sitting around cafes do (shopping and reading Twitter, probably). There was a Peet’s Coffee stand inside providing the drinks. (It’s hard to walk two blocks in San Francisco without passing a Peet’s Coffee shop, by the way). Continue reading →

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Guapo’s restaurant replacing Orange Anchor at Washington Harbour.
• Multiple pop-ups in Georgetown this winter.

Potomac River

GM’s heading out of town for the rest of the week, but before he goes, he wanted to remind you about the annual Breakfast with Santa at Volta Park this Sunday. He’ll be working the photo ticket table, so stop by and say hi! See you there!

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Preview this year’s installment of Georgetown Glow.
• Great view of west Georgetown from before the turn of the 20th century.

Volta Park

The ANC meets next Monday for its December session. It should be an interesting meeting, but two items particularly jump to GM’s attention: the proposal for resident-only parking and refurbishment of the Montrose Park tennis courts.

The first issue is one GM discussed last week, namely to designate certain sides of certain blocks as resident-only. This would mean that during the effective hours, whatever they are, only people with Zone 2 parking permits (or valid visitors passes obtained from the police station) could park there. GM has laid out his concerns over this proposal but it is his understanding that this is likely to be approved by the Commission. What happens next is to be seen. Continue reading →