The Georgetown Metropolitan

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Smith Point for sale.
• If you have a lot of money and hate color, this might be the place for you.

1300 block of 33rd St.

Just as a follow-up to the earlier linked article about freezing the canal for skating, GM wanted to republish his article from 2012 about how skating on the canal is legal. Of course the canal will be dry for the next two years as some of the locks in Georgetown are repaired. So you won’t actually get a chance to practice this right. But keep it in mind come 2018!

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. 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:

• Could we ensure that the canal is always skatable over the winter?
• GM missed this over the holidays, but Qatar is taking up in the old Corcoran school on 28th.

1500 block of 33rd St.

GM documented how a beautiful catalpa tree right by the canal needed to be cut down to restore the lock. It was, according to NPS, an essential loss for the project to go forward. GM was somewhat skeptical, but ultimately willing to believe the decision was correct.

Well jump ahead a bit and work has significantly progressed on the canal. But as far as GM can tell, the earth that previously held the tree’s roots so far looks basically untouched. Did the tree really have to be cut down, or was it just more convenient to do so? Continue reading →

Photo by Darian Glover.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Georgetown’s own Golden Girls.
• The Q&A Cafe has Andrew Sullivan on January 27th.

36th St.

In what seems to be an annual event, GM forgot once more to mark the anniversary of the restoration of the historic Georgetown Metropolitan publication. His very first post was back on December 8, 2008, so that makes it eight years that he’s been prattling on like this. That’s easily at least five more years than he expected. One of these days he’ll come up with a good excuse to finally give it a rest, but until then, onward.

As is his tradition, GM likes to review what were the top five most read articles published over the past year. They are:

#5 – The Missed Opportunity of the Social Safeway

Here GM argues that Safeway made a mistake back when it tore down the old “Social Safeway” and constructed a new one without building residential units. The upper Georgetown commercial corridor seems to suffer for lack of foot traffic and more residents could have helped. This theory may get a test in the future as the former Days Inn just up Wisconsin Ave. gets converted to a mixed use project.

#4 – Laduree Almost Certainly Coming

Here GM correctly predicted that the fancy French macaron shop, Laduree, was coming to Georgetown. It still hasn’t opened though…

#3 – Five Guys to Close

The Five Guys closed. That’s about all the information this article communicated, but people sure love articles about stores opening or closing.

#2 – How to Make Another Georgetown

This article was a response to an article in the New York Times arguing against redevelopment in Harlem. GM’s basic point is that fighting development won’t prevent it from coming, and all that will happen is that poor residents will get pushed out even faster, as happened here in Georgetown.

#1 – The Mandate to Remember Black Georgetown

In this article, GM makes the argument that Georgetown’s history of preservation and its history of pushing out Black residents were not unconnected phenomenons. It’s an article that GM is especially proud of, and he would love it if you gave it a read. That it was the most read article he wrote last year is a bright spot in an otherwise dreary twelve months.

Final note:

These were the most read newly written articles. Some of GM’s old articles were even more. For some reason the 2011 version of his article on osage oranges is by far the most popular article from the last year. It was read five times more than his article on Black Georgetown. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Photo by Darian Glover.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Baked and Wired makes list of best bakeries in the world.
• That huge house that Rose and Joe Kennedy lived in (briefly) is for sale again for, like, the 10th time in the last couple years.