The Georgetown Metropolitan

3000 block of M St.

(Ed. Note: GM wrote and scheduled this post last night before this morning’s storm. Watering is now probably optional for this week. But the underlying message is still the same: one heavy and quick rain storm isn’t enough for trees.)

It rained Tuesday night. It rained a lot. But despite the fact that the streets were flooded, we still need to water our young street trees.

Young trees need 25 gallons a week. While an inch of rain is a lot of water. That’s 2/3 of a gallon falling in every square foot. But most of it washes right down the storm drains. The ground only absorbs a fraction of that.

So this weekend, if you have a young tree outside your home, run a trickle of water from a hose for about 20 minutes. That should be enough.

A little love now will be returned to you in spades by a healthy thriving tree.

Photo by John Sonderman.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Some more details of what the BID is floating for possible improvements to K St.
• Some progress on the Sundevich/Grace St. Coffee/Juice Bar millennial magnet.

Georgetown Waterfront Park

K St. and Water St. underneath the Whitehurst is pretty bad. It’s poorly designed, way too wide at parts, and too many users don’t follow the laws when on it. It could be so much better. And a BID-organized working group of representatives from the Citizens Association, the ANC, the various affected condominiums, and the boathouses has been formed to help come up with a plan that can help the street reach its potential. (Disclaimer: GM is on this group as a representative of CAG). And now the group wants your input too.

There will be a public meeting this Saturday at 10:00 am at the Waterfront Park. There will be a Q & A session, and a walking tour of the street to discuss the problems and potential solutions. Continue reading →

Photo by Marc Andre.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• There have been three proposals at the cat cafe, and other slightly alarming statistics.
• The Peeping Rabbi thinks his sentence was too harsh.

1000 block of 31st St.

As noted by the great Old Time D.C., the even greater Polly Shackleton was born 106 years ago on Monday. Shackleton was a Georgetowner and long term councilmember from Ward Three.

If you don’t know DC political history, it might come as a surprise that Georgetown was in Ward Three. It was. Most of it was transferred to Ward Two after the 1980 census. But not all of it was transferred. And that’s the story of the “Shackleton Sliver”. But that geographic oddity came about with a background of dramatic change for Ward Two. Due to the rezoning, it became majority white, and hasn’t looked back since. 

Shackleton Goes to Washington

Polly Shackleton, a Brookline, Massachusetts native, got into politics during the FDR era, working on his third presidential campaign. Later she got involved in the leadership of the Democratic party. 

Maintaining that participation through to the late 60s, Shackleton was one of the appointees to the newly created unelected DC Council in 1967. The appointed position became an elected position with Home Rule in 1972, and she won the first election for Ward Three in 1974. She was reelected in 1978.

The Shackleton Sliver

When the 1980 Decennial Census was completed in 1980, it found that Ward Three (which was at that time essentially what it is today, plus Burleith and Georgetown) had grown the most since 1970. When a ward grows faster than the others, it generally has to geographically shrink after the next census. And that’s just what the legislators set out to do.

Ultimately the plan that was proposed moved the shaded part of the map above (i.e. most of Georgetown) from Ward Three to Ward Two. But one little part was left out. And that little part just happened to contain Polly Shackleton’s house on Reservoir St., between 32nd and Wisconsin Ave. This enabled Shackleton to continue representing Ward Three, even though most of the neighborhood around her house had been transferred to her colleague, John Wilson’s, ward.

This was obviously not a coincidence, and the press reports of the time don’t even pretend that it was anything but a naked favor to Shackleton from Council Chair Arrington Dixon. Yet it still faced opposition, by none other than Shackleton herself, but also many others. Continue reading →

Photo by Lauren Rauk.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The last party for Yolande Fox.
• Speaking of losses, Frida Burling passed away last month at 100.

The Key Bridge