The Georgetown Metropolitan

3200 block of P St.

Vision Zero is a popular government initiative under which cities or countries pledge to eliminate all roadway fatalities. More than just lofty goal-setting, a successful Vision Zero initiative identifies what conditions lead to fatalities and eliminates those conditions.

Mayor Bowser has signed on in concept with Vision Zero, setting 2024 as the deadline to achieve zero fatalities. Some have questioned the city’s dedication to make the tough decisions to achieve zero deaths regardless of the inconvenience to drivers. But it’s still early, and GM is willing to give it a chance. Continue reading →

Photo by Ehpien.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Nice piece on the future of the Georgetown theater building.
• Why GU students do or do not do odd things.

Rock Creek

This “notice” is posted in the window of the former Marvelous Market. It is complete and splendid jibberish.

There is no such thing as the “Right of Way Authority”. Or the Federal Registry System. 40 Mass Ave. is Union Station, which is where the “Railroad Police” might be expected to locate, if they were real too. There are such people as railroad police officers, but they work under the banner of their specific organization, like the Amtrak Police or the Union Pacific Police. There’s no federal “Railroad Police” agency. 425 1/2 North Broad St., Philadelphia is the address of a “RR Reading Railroad”, which was formed in 2014 and has two employees. This presumably has nothing to do with the famous Reading Railroad, which went bankrupt in the 1970s. Continue reading →

Photo by Ehpien.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Students successfully lobby for more representation on the Georgetown Community Partnership.
• Parklets in Georgetown held up over red tape.

1100 block of 31st St.

Last week GM reveled his much delayed State of Georgetown 2015. GM’s proud of his efforts and all, but the fact is that the BID’s State of Georgetown 2015 is a million times better. Check it out here.

Here are some of the fascinating data points that their report contains:

Stuff is Busy:

There’s a lot going on in the commercial corridors of Georgetown. There was a net gain of 19 stores (which differs from GM’s count, but that’s because the time frame and geographies are different). The office vacancy is low at 7.1%. Hotel occupancies rose to 72%. There are 13,000 people employed in the BID zone. And additional 15,000 work in Georgetown outside of the BID zone (one assumes that mostly includes GU and hospital employees).

As for job sectors, the biggest increase in Georgetown jobs was in education, with a 14% jump over the previous year. The biggest drop was a tie between retail trade jobs and information at -13%.

Commercial rents raised slightly with Class A space demanding $44/sqf on average and Class B/C demanding $39/sqf. Here’s all the commercial space in map form: Continue reading →

Photo by Alan Kotok.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Did you know there were once sections of Georgetown called Frogtown and Philadelphia?
• GU hospital turning away transgender patients.

1200 block of 34th St.