The Georgetown Metropolitan

1200 block of 30th St.

Last Friday, the Deputy Mayor of Education released a revised proposal to overhaul the District’s school zones and feeder patterns. The first version of the proposal was released in April, and drew immediate negative responses regarding the inclusion of “choice sets”, which would remove the guarantee that children could attend their local school. The new proposal removes that concept, and makes a few adjustments to the map changes earlier released.

The concept behind “choice sets” was this: you’re not guaranteed a spot at your local school. You are assigned to one of three nearby schools. You could express a preference for one over the others, but assignment was to be decided by lottery. Not surprisingly this was strongly disliked in neighborhoods with solid schools due to the possibility that it would bar kids from attending the sought after neighborhood school.

To be fair, only one of the three scenarios originally proposed contained choice sets for elementary school, but it became the immediate focus, with both major mayoral candidates rejecting it. (Actually, Bowser initially issued a release praising the choice sets as a good idea, but she quickly backtracked once she saw the furor.)

The new proposal scotches choice sets entirely. It would maintain the traditional system of a guaranteed spot at a designated sequence of elementary, middle, and high schools. Thus Georgetowners would retain rights to attend Hyde, Hardy, and Wilson.

The original proposal also called for Burleith, Foxhall Village, and parts of east Palisades to be rezoned into Hyde. This drew protests from Burleith (as GM covered here). The revised proposal, however, only tweaks the original proposal slightly by removing the Palisades portion from the move. So under the new proposal, Burleith and Foxhall Village (the part east of Foxhall) would still be rezoned into Hyde.

Will any of this come to fruition? Who knows? Catania and Bowser both have stated that should they win that they’ll scrap the plans and start from scratch. GM, however, somewhat doubts that the winner will really do this. It would be a waste of a huge amount of time and energy. Moreover, these are tough decisions that nonetheless have to be made. It would be politically smart for the new mayor to enact the final proposal and shift the political heat to the outgoing Mayor Gray rather than start from scratch and be responsible for all of it.

Photo by Joe Newman.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• $11 million mansion for sale on Prospect.
• Oh by the way, last week GM mentioned that Eno Wine Bar had World Cup specials, but didn’t think that they were actually showing the games. Turns out they brought in tvs to show the games.

Georgetown Waterfront

Photo by Peter Dutton.

The World Cup is finally here. GM doesn’t have any fake doctor’s slips to use in order to help you play hooky from work to catch a game. But with the help of the Citypaper, he can help direct to spots in Georgetown that are showing the game.

According to their helpful chart, two places in Georgetown have World Cup specials: Pinstripes and Eno Wine Bar. From the article:

Pinstripes: As World Cup fever sweeps the globe, Pinstripes Bocce, Bowling & Bistro is offering soccer fanatics and food-lovers alike an ideal World Cup viewing spot with 1/2 price flatbreads, complimentary gelato, a plush bar and a festive, spirited environment unmatched by any other venue of its kind…Pinstripes will be rooting for team USA and team Italia by offering half-price wood oven flatbreads while Team USA or Team Italia are playing. Additionally, anytime either team scores a goal, everyone in the Pinstripes venue will receive a scoop of complimentary, housemade gelato.

Eno Wine Bar: Fancify your World Cup experience at this Georgetown wine bar, which will feature a “Group of Death” wine flight with offerings from the U.S., Germany, and Ghana, as well as two offerings from Argentine forward Leo Messi’s vineyard.

Continue reading →

Photo by Mathoov.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Fiola Mare scores three stars with the stingy Tom Sietsema.
• GU breaks ground on new athletic center.

1500 block of 35th St.

The Georgetown Current reported this week that Burleith and Glover Park families are urging the city to step in and purchase the historic Fillmore School, which will soon be put on the market due to the dissolution of the Corcoran.

Brian Cohen, a former Stoddert and current Hardy parent, argued to the Current that since it’s already a school building it could address the overcrowding issues at Stoddert. Hmm, if only there were some other building that’s already a school that the city already owns that could be used to relieve Stoddert overcrowding.

Wait a tick! There already is an existing school building that the city already owns that could be used to address overcrowding at Stoddert: Hyde-Addison! And in fact that is exactly what the Deputy Mayor for Education was thinking when she recommended Burleith be rezoned into the Hyde-Addison district. Continue reading →

3200 block of O St.

Last September, as part of its ambitious agenda the Georgetown BID issued a monumental report on the state of Georgetown. As GM wrote then, the report: “GM has only started to absorb it, but it is an incredibly dense report with data GM could only dream about pulling together. And it’s beautifully presented as well.”

The BID is quickly back with an updated report for 2014, and it’s even better. The report would be notable enough for its glossy and professional design, but it’s much deeper than that. Like the previous report, it contains fascinating data on the state of Georgetown. GM invites you to read it below, but in the meantime, here are some of the more eye-popping data-points from the report: Continue reading →