The Georgetown Metropolitan

3000 block of R St.

Photo by Marc Andre.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Great story of the 63 year old woman who descends from a slave who was sold by Georgetown University, who has now enrolled at the school.
• Speaking of GU, student activists have successfully pushed for the school to sign a contract with Nike that attempts to ensure worker rights and safety through an outside monitor.

GM heard back in July that the incoming tenant for the old Georgetown theater was a Foot Locker spinoff. He didn’t report on it because he hoped it wasn’t true. But it looks like it was true. Signs are up in the window of the theater showing the proposed signage for the new store: a Footaction.

Footaction is, as mentioned above, a spinoff brand of Foot Locker. It is more about athletic style than genuine athletics. It sells fashion oriented sneakers and sports apparel. It is primarily a store you’d likely find in a mid-level mall in the suburbs, snug beside a Boost Mobile and an Orange Julius stand.

As GM has mentioned, athletic fashion is doing well in Georgetown. But it can’t help but feel like a disappointment that this store is taking over such an iconic property like this. This huge space could have hosted a great restaurant. Or perhaps a grocer or food market. Continue reading →

Cady’s Alley

After much discussion, the ANC will return for its September meeting next week and will consider the proposal to remake Water St. into a far more attractive and functional street. The plan would reconfigure the road, addressing issues of conflict between drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians. GM believes it will gain the support of the ANC, however some commissioners will likely express concern about the reduction in parking.

Part of the problem with this stretch is that there is too much parking. In particular there is too much free parking. This tempts drivers down a dead end looking to save some bucks. When they inevitably find all the spots taken, they have to u-turn and head back. This leads to far more congestion than there should be. And drivers trawling for parking spaces are some of the most dangerous drivers there are. With their eyes scanning the curb, they’re not paying attention to what’s directly ahead of them. And they tend to slam on the gas once they decide a block isn’t going to give them a space. Continue reading →

Photo by Marc Andre.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• A little more about the (second) attempt to landmark the West Heating Plant.
• Larger Sweet Green set to open Sept 10th.

Montrose Park

The New York Times published a lovely article last week about the benefits over losing your “tree blindness”.  In other words, it extolled the virtues of learning to distinguish between tree species, which would otherwise blend into the background.

The author, DC-resident Gabriel Popkin, wrote:

But here’s the good news: Tree blindness can be cured. A few years ago, I knew two types of native trees, oak and maple. I considered all conifers to be pines. Then in 2012, I took an ecology course in Wisconsin in which we learned to identify 14 tree species — which, in the chilly upper Midwest, actually gets you pretty far. Suddenly the largest, most conspicuous living beings in my environment were no longer strangers. The trees lining my street in Madison with the rough, saucer-size leaves were basswoods. The giant in my backyard with the diamond bark and opposing rows of leaflets neatly lined up like soldiers was an ash.

GM can attest that learning to distinguish between tree species has made him come to value and appreciate the trees we live with. So he’s starting a new series to help you to learn the common street trees in Georgetown. Today he’s discussing maples.

Sugar Maple

This is the star of the fall, when its leaves turn into an explosion of reds and oranges, contrasted with the remaining green. A maple leaf is easy to spot, it looks like this:

And you can tell it’s a sugar maple by the bark, which takes on a shaggy appearance, like this:

Sugar maples are spectacular trees, but they are really struggling with the heat in Georgetown. It’s only a matter of time before they are all dead here, victims of climate change. GM has a great sugar maple outside his house, but it’s showing signs of stress and probably won’t last more than five more years.

Norway Maples

Sugar maples are the most spectacular maples, but Georgetown has other types of maples. The most common other type of maple is the Norway maple. This species is considered invasive in the United States and it is not recommended for planting here. Nonetheless, many are around in Georgetown because it’s known to be a hardy urban tree.

Identifying the Norway maple is relatively easy, but not necessarily by its leaf. The leaf is fairly similar to the sugar maple, but the lobes are a bit thicker.

It’s easier to identify it by the tree’s bark. Unlike the sugar maple’s shaggy bark, the Norway maple has a tight pattern like this:

On top of being invasive, Norway maples also don’t produce the same spectacular fall fireworks that the sugar maple does. It mostly just turns yellow and falls. They are also struggling in Georgetown’s heat.

Red Maple

Less prevalent than the sugar or Norway maple, the red maple is nonetheless an impressive species.

A red maple is easily identified by its distinctive leaf, which has fewer lobes than either the sugar or Norway maple:

It’s easiest to identify red maples in the fall when they explode in red:

Red maples are generally more heat tolerant than sugar or Norway maples (hence they are also known as “swamp maples”) and their natural range spreads from the deep south all the way to Canada.

They grow fairly quickly to an impressive size, which also adds to their popularity. However, like most maples, they tend to have a very shallow root system. In an environment like Georgetown’s, this causes a problem both for the tree and the sidewalk. The roots can become easily damaged by routine utility maintenance, and they can cause the sidewalk to buckle and bend as they grow. Some sub-species of the red maple have deeper seeking roots, but nonetheless it doesn’t seem that the city is planting many, if any, of these trees in Georgetown anymore.

There are a couple of impressive red maples just north of the Safeway parking garage. In a month or so they will burst into a bright red. Keep an eye out for them. Continue reading →

Photo by Marc Andre.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Signs of progress for the new Amazon book store.
• In a bit of a Hail Mary attempt, the DC Preservation League is attempting to have the West Heating Plant designated a historic landmark. This is odd because the same request was denied in 2015.

1700 block of 32nd St.