The Georgetown Metropolitan

2900 block of O St.

Yesterday, GM discussed the success story that is the sycamore down his block. But today he’s here with some more depressing news: we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us to restore the canopy.

Above is an aerial photo of GM’s block today. You can see it’s got a decent canopy of trees on it and the connecting blocks. But compare it with this aerial photo of the same block taken in 1951 (curtesy of the fascinating historicaerials.com):

Just look at those trees! It’s like a rain forest compared with today. Browse other blocks on the site, you’ll see it’s mostly the same story: there were simply way more trees back then.

There are some possible reasons for why it was so great back then and not so great now. First of all, much of Georgetown (particularly north Georgetown like this block) didn’t get built out until the 1880s to 1890s. By the 1950s, the original generation of trees planted along the new houses would all be mature and quite big. It’s sort of like the first blooms of a rose bush in the spring: they all burst at once. Eventually this generation of trees gets sick and dies off at different points. Either they get replaced with new trees, or they don’t get replaced at all. Either way, it leaves gaps in the canopy. Continue reading →

Home of Henry Foxall by Internetarchiveimages.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• From Dunbar to GU.
• Once he gets there, he might want to check out these hidden food options.

Perhaps one of the largest contributors to Georgetown’s beauty are the stately trees that line our sidewalks. But as you may have noticed, we lose a good number of these trees each year to the stresses of drought or blight. We need to constantly replenish our stock simply to maintain the status quo. And the tree you see above is a testament to what can be nurtured in a short amount of time if care is taken.

Skip back in time to the middle of 2011, this is how this stretch of 33rd St. looked:

There’s barely a tree box there, let alone a tree. This was the state of affairs just before GM moved into a house just down the block. That winter Trees for Georgetown fixed up the tree box and planted a sycamore. Continue reading →

Photo by Don Bohowiak.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Sweet Green, among others, profiled in New York Times as part of “farm-to-counter” movement. Also reminds us that the three Hoya alums who founded it in 2007 are still all under 30.
• One of the more substance-less articles on the issue of parking in Georgetown.

3100 block of N St.

In this week’s Georgetown Current, friend of GM Carol Joynt was quoted in an article about neighbors complaining about the proliferation of long term dumpsters on the street. What she said caused a bit of consternation with some people GM happened to chat with yesterday:

“There’s no reason to have dumpsters in a small scenic village like Georgetown,” resident Carol Joynt said in an interview. “This is a neighborhood with very rich people. They can afford to have dump trucks come in and out on a daily basis.”

The consternation was over the assertion that Georgetowners are rich. This got GM wondering, are all Georgetowners rich?

While it cannot answer this definitively, data from the Census Bureau can shed some light on the topic.

Here is the breakdown of household income in Georgetown (excluding the University). As you can see, the largest single category of incomes for Georgetown is over $200,000 (the highest category the Census Bureau data captures). But it’s still only about 34% of households. An even larger number of households in Georgetown (37%) earn $75,000 or less. So, no not all people in Georgetown are rich.

Continue reading →

Photo by BKL.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Nice profile on Dent Place.
• Next month you can commemorate the burning of Washington (or celebrate it if your a dastardly Brit) including at Dumbarton House, where Dolly Madison initially escaped to.

3400 block of Q St.