The Georgetown Metropolitan

Welcome to the November Northwest Georgetown ANC update!

Happy Halloween! Remember this week to be extra careful with lots of little kiddies about late at night. Georgetown is back to its pre-pandemic peak in terms of crowds of trick-or-treaters, so get ready with your candy.

ANC Meeting

Much less festively, Monday night the ANC will be meeting for its November session. It will be at its normal time, 6:30 pm, and fully virtual. I have faith, however, that this will be the last fully virtual ANC meeting for quite a while. I believe that the hybrid meetings that we have held this year were a success and I would like to see that be the model going forward. Stay tuned!

As for the meeting itself, the notable items include a follow up on the BID’s public space application for the streateries and extended sidewalks. The Public Space Committee will hold a hearing on the application later this month. The ANC will hear an updated from the BID on changes they’ve made to their application and plans after their first Old Georgetown Board meeting. Last month we adopted a resolution supporting the application. Barring any radical changes, I believe that position will remain the same following this meeting.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Georgetown GLOW returning again this year.
• Should it take a marathon to make our streets so enjoyable?

Next Monday night, the ANC will meet for its November session. It will be back on zoom and starting at 6:30 pm.

I believe this will be the last fully zoom ANC meeting we will hold for the foreseeable future. After a few successful hybrid meetings, there is a sense that that is the best of both worlds. Additionally, we may be looking to hold the meetings at other locations throughout the neighborhood other than just Visitation.

As for this final virtual meeting, there are some hopefully interesting items on the agenda, such as:

• Crime update. There have been a few alarming crimes in the neighborhood over the past month and I expect we will get updates on those.
• Streateries: As mentioned last month, the BID’s extended sidewalk application will be heard by the Public Space Committee this month. The ANC will hear about any updates to the application and program from the BID and will likely consider a further resolution specifically for the Public Space Committee.
• We will also hear about a PUD for a project behind the British School which will result in a lot of funds being directed to local causes.

Here is the full agenda:

The Friends of Montrose Park reported that the historic white oak that stood next to the playground was taken down. Visitors to the park could see for a while now that the tree was struggling. The Friends stated that it was ill with “Hypoxylon, a fungal disease that rapidly affects oaks when they are already under stress from other factors including drought and root injury.”

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Scofflaw parking truly has a deep history in Georgetown.
• What you can find at Baker’s Daughter.

Yesterday I celebrated the return of leaf peeping season. Today I’m, well, not celebrating, but announcing the far less glamorous leaf picking up season.

The city did a fairly poor job of collection leaves last year. Some of this can be chalked up to weather, but the long and the short of it was that people followed the city’s instructions when to put out leaves, the city was extremely late, and the piles and bags of leaves turned into a giant mess in the meantime. In some cases the bags broke open, frozen solid and created a genuinely dangerous tripping hazard.

The city acknowledged its shortcomings and is trying a different approach this year. Instead of giving a far off window for when the crews plan to service a particular neighborhood, the city is waiting until much closer to the date before alerting residents. So there’s no target date for when leaves will be collected in Georgetown as of right now. But we will get a notification the week before our collection. That way the leaves will be out on the sidewalk a much shorter time-frame. The notifications will come a variety of ways, including from door hangers and from the website. I will try to spread the word as it comes in as well. The collections begin October 30th. There will be (at least) two passes through each neighborhood.

Will this work better than last year? We’ll see! It’s hard to imaging it working worse.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Madeleine Albright’s former house sells.
• Georgetown Women’s Basketball coach dies.

Fall foliage is a little late this year in Georgetown due to the warmer days. But it’s right around the corner. And when it arrives, there are plenty places to take it in right here without hopping off for the country.

In 2013, Casey Trees pulled together some recommended walking routes around the city to take in the brightly changing leaves. In Georgetown it recommended a meandering trail through the heart of the village to enjoy its sugar maples:

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Former Capitol Police officer pleads guilty to unauthorized high speed chase and a hit-and-run that left a cyclist injured on Wisconsin Ave. in 2020.
• How a 1949 Washington Post article reportedly inspired the Exorcist.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Help Black cemeteries in Georgetown by securing your holiday wreath now!
• What Metro could mean for Georgetown.