The Georgetown Metropolitan

Photo by Steven Vance.

Water, water everywhere and not a sufficient sewer system to handle it in an environmentally sound manner. That’s not just an excerpt from the world’s worst sailor’s poem; it’s a good description of Georgetown when it rains heavily. As GM will explain, that causes some serious problems that DC Water is under a court order to remedy. And to remedy the problem in Georgetown, they’re considering the creation of “Green Infrastructure” (“GI”). A lot of GI. So much that you might wake up one day with trucks outside your house ripping up the street and sidewalks, and you’ll shout “Nobody told me about this?!” Well, here’s your opportunity to be told before the trucks arrive (and possibly forestall those trucks from coming in the first place).

As GM has written about a (surprising) bunch of times before: our water agency (DC Water) is under a court order to remedy the pollution created when it rains too much. Here’s why: the pipes that take our rain also takes our, ahem, “waste” (i.e. poop). On a normal day, those pipes bring everything to the Blue Plains treatment plant and clean it up. But when they get overloaded, they dump the excess right into the Potomac.

DC Water is addressing this problem with a city-wide effort. They’ve already dug a couple fabulous tunnels to act as massive underground reservoirs, holding the rain water until Blue Plains can work through the backlog without dumping the excess into the river.

The existing tunnels are on the east side of town, focused on the Anacostia watershed. DC Water is also contemplating a tunnel along the Potomac. Originally it was to stretch approximately from the Kennedy Center all the way up past the Georgetown Waterfront park. But tunneling is expensive, and DC water is exploring whether a cheaper alternative can’t be used to supplement a smaller Potomac tunnel.

And that alternative is GI. The idea is that by capturing the rain before it even hits the storm drains, it will limit the need for a huge tunnel. So DC Water is going to focus its GI effort squarely on west Georgetown.

But what that means is still anybody’s guess.

Some hazy details, however, have emerged from meetings with DC Water: Continue reading →

Photo by Urban Bohemian.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• TD Bank robbed. (Funny(?) note: GM once participated in a fundraiser at the bank with a robbery theme. Can it be “too soon” when it’s three years before?)
• Story of GU’s Jester Kings.

1400 block of Wisconsin Ave.

Just a reminder: The rescheduled Volta Park Day will take place this Sunday from 1pm-4pm. Wear you’re costume on and keep the Halloween party rocking through the weekend! The annual East v. West softball game will take place at 12 pm. See you there!

Photo by Urban Bohemian.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Some more info on that “technical cashmere” shop that’s coming. (Which, by the way, GM reported on back in September).
• The search for the missing partner to the famous Yarrow Mamout painting hanging in the Georgetown library.

3200 block of O St.

In this week’s Georgetown Current there is a note from the publisher, Davis Kennedy, asking for donations for the newspaper. As he explains in the letter, with the closing of the Gazette Newspapers (by the Post) it took with it a regional advertising syndicate. And the Current Newspapers relied on that syndicate.

Seven years ago, the Washington City Paper wrote admiringly about the Current’s intentionally anti-modern business model. In a world where most other papers were strugglingly to keep afloat as they expanded into online news sources, the Current refused to do much more than dip a toe in the world wide web. And it worked.

At least it did. Continue reading →

Photo by Wendy Huff.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Hear some smart thinking on good drinks tonight with Derek Brown at the Q & A Cafe.
• Don’t forget the Rose Park tennis court dedication to the Peters Sisters tomorrow at 3 pm.

Dumbarton Oaks

As GM discussed yesterday, a mausoleum is being constructed in Oak Hill Cemetery for Ben Bradlee. This has alarmed preservationists, particularly those focused on landscape architecture. But was there anything to stop it?

Bureaucracy finds a way. After hearing some complaints about the construction, DCRA took a look and yesterday decided that a building permit is required after all.

For much of the city, that wouldn’t be a particularly big deal. Work would have to stop–perhaps for as little as a few hours–while someone ran down to the permitting office in  SW and get the permit.

But in Georgetown it awakens a long, patient beast who will slowly sit up and squint his eyes, and stroke his chin, and perhaps go back to sleep for a few months, then wake up again, squint his eyes, and stroke his chin, and open his giant maw and announce “too big”, and go back to sleep.

The giant, in this tortured metaphor, is the Old Georgetown Board. And once a building permit is applied for that affects an external structure in Georgetown, the application is routed to the OGB for approval.

It is not a fast procedure. Continue reading →