The Georgetown Metropolitan

Photo by Paul Goddin.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• GU ricin-making student going away for a year.
• How temporarily widened sidewalks are a success and will be more a part of Georgetown’s future.

3000 block of R St.

Last week GM passed along the news he heard at the CAG meeting last week: that the Neam’s Market building (aka the Marvelous Market building) was in the process of being sold. He speculated that the likely purchaser would be a bank, namely because it seems like banks are willing to pay unreasonable sums to acquire highly visible buildings like this.

Well friend of GM, Carol Joynt, reached out to George Neam-whose family has owned the property for generations-and asked whether a bank was a likely tenant. “That’s not on my radar screen” was the answer.

That’s somewhat nebulous, but hopefully it nonetheless means no bank. Continue reading →

Photo by Ehpien.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Alice and Olivia now open in the old Qdoba space.
• Much more detailed write-up than GM’s of the fascinating talk from Anthony Lanier and Joe Sternlieb.

3100 block of Dumbarton St.

Wednesday night, the Citizens Association of Georgetown hosted a fascinating evening talk with Eastbanc’s Anthony Lanier and the BID’s Joe Sternlieb. Honestly it was so packed with information and tidbits, that GM could hardly keep track. But here are some of the major take aways:

The reason Georgetowners are often disappointed in the state of Georgetown’s retail options is the Georgetown’s retail doesn’t need Georgetowners.

Sternlieb drew a comparison between Georgetown in 1990 and today. One of the starkest differences is that in 1990, Georgetown retail was equally dependent on Georgetown residents to be customers as it was dependent on DC residents generally, people from the DC region, and tourists.

Nowadays those first two categories are relatively insignificant to Georgetown retailers. Georgetowners don’t spend money at local stores like they used to. And DC residents have many more neighborhoods now to spend their money (and they also have shifted to online spending like Georgetowners). Georgetown retail still gets a healthy amount of money from regional customers (mostly Arlington residents, according to Sternlieb). But by far the largest category now is tourists.

This is a problem for many reasons. The first is that restaurants that target tourists don’t have to be very good. There will be a new crop of tourists next week. That turnover presents another problem. Georgetown has to constantly market itself if its primary customer base is brand new every single weekend.

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom. Continue reading →

Photo by Olli Thompson.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Alexander Graham Bell lived here.
• Chez Billy Sud already getting good reviews.

3200 block of O St.

Photo by Jacquesofalltrades.

Well DC only took a small part of GM’s advice on Election Day (yay Elissa Silverman!) but how did Georgetown vote?

Mayor: David Catania

The city didn’t agree with GM, but Georgetown did. It went for Catania 53% versus 36% for Bowser (which is almost the exact reverse of how the citywide results stacked up). Carol Schwartz picked up 6%.

At Large Councilmember: Anita Bonds and Elissa Silverman

Hey, Georgetown agreed with GM here too! Bonds, the only (identified) Democrat took 17% of Georgetown’s vote, but Silverman rode that GM bump to 14% of the vote. The next closest vote getter was Marc Morgan, the Republican, with 10%, because yeah, we’ve got just about the only Republicans in the city living here. Continue reading →

Photo by Ehpien.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• History of the one wood Queen Anne Victorian in Georgetown.
• “Washington Marriott Georgetown” is not in Georgetown.