The Georgetown Metropolitan

Lead poisoning is a phrase that all parents fear. It can significantly impact a child’s longterm mental health. (Some even argue that the sharp reduction in the crime rate experienced across the world can be explained by the reduction in lead exposure.)  WASA, DC’s water utility (which goes by DC Water these days), has had it’s own troubled past with led poisoning. In 2001, it was disclosed that the use of chloramine to clean pipes had increased the lead levels in the water to as much as 83 times the acceptable levels.

WASA switched the chemicals it uses to clean the pipes every spring, and they believe that has eliminated the risk. Nonetheless, you may still be exposed to lead that you don’t need to be. Specifically, the pipes that bring the water in from the main pipe in the street and the pipes in your house may be made of lead. And WASA has released a new map that identifies whether its own database has information about whether those pipes are lead or not for each house. Continue reading →

Photo by Henrique Pinto.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Another quick summary of the Duke Ellington School audit.
• Rosewood Hotel (née Cappella), is allowing non-guests on the roof now. But there’s no mention about how Cappella promised they wouldn’t when they got permission to build the rooftop pool in the first place. Probably won’t be a big deal, but goes to show how promises made during the approval process aren’t actually enforceable.

3200 block of Volta Pl.

For this week of Now and a Long Time Ago, GM returns to the Willard R. Ross Postcard Collection for a postcard of the famous Key Mansion. It shows the former home of Francis Scott Key as it appeared in 1913 where it stood across M St. from the Car Barn.

Rather than try to recount the speckled history of this building, GM will recommend you read this fantastic piece instead. Continue reading →

Photo by Matthew Peoples.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The old Kate Spade location was taken over by a women’s version of Rag and Bone.
• Obama is running out of time to keep the tradition alive of sitting presidents eating at Martins.

3100 block of O St.

Photo by Lauren Rauk.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• It’s a rerun, but here’s an article GM wrote a while ago about how Georgetown got its street grid.
• Mod Cloth pop-up opens today.

1500 block of 33rd St.

As GM read the new GU proposed campus plan, he was particularly struck by two things when considering the last campus plan process. The first is just how much smoother this plan’s process has been and how easy the final approval will come. The second is about how much has happened between now and then in the lives of the students who covered the plan alongside GM those scant years ago.

GM started the Georgetown Metropolitan in 2008, near the beginning of the last plan’s process. He joined a small group of primarily students who were also writing about the issue. And the students who wrote about the plan the most were at the Georgetown Voice.

Over the years since that process, GM has kept track of many of those former students as they’ve become successful journalists, and he’s always been thrilled to see the success they’ve had. 

So while he’s still here covering the same old beat they’re off conquering the world. You don’t always think of Georgetown as a big journalism school but as this group shows, it definitely punches above its weight class in this regard. 

Here are they are:

Molly Redden

Molly was in charge of the Georgetown Voice’s blog, Vox Populi, when GM started this site. And there was probably nobody who put in more hours covering the story from a student’s perspective (or really any perspective) than Molly.

She graduated in 2011 and after successful stints at the New Republic and Mother Jones, Molly is now at the Guardian. She writes primarily about gender equality and women’s health issues. Her work was recognized with an award just last month by the National Women’s Political Caucus. 

She generally kicks ass. 
Will Sommer

Will manned Vox Populi before Molly, but he was still writing for the Voice for the first year that GM wrote the Georgetown Metropolitan.

Will graduated in 2010 and after paying his dues writing for the Kingstowne Patch, Will made a name for himself writing about the DC media market under the pen name DC Porcupine. He revealed himself once he had parlayed his writing into a job with the Washington Citypaper. After a few years writing the City Desk blog, Will took over the hallowed mantle of Loose Lips, the Citypaper’s politics writer. 

He still has this high profile job and upholds its tradition of getting under the skin of DC’s local politicos.

Chris Heller

Chris took over Vox Populi after Molly. Whether it was for his own sanity, or the fact that the process was less active during his gig, Chris didn’t write quite as much about the plan as Molly or Will. Nonetheless it was a common topic of his.

He graduated in 2011. He worked for a while as a writer and senior editor at the Atlantic before moving to New York Magazine, where he works today.

(Oh yeah, he and Molly are engaged.)

Kara Brandeisky

Kara came along a few years after the crew above. But she was around for some of the more contentious periods.

She graduated in 2013. Afterwards she had stints at NPR and ProPublica. She now works at Money Magazine.

Photo by Mike Maguire.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• 3244 bicyclists came through Georgetown from the Capital Crescent Trail on Monday.
• S&R Foundation chooses an architect for the redevelopment of the Fillmore School property.