The Georgetown Metropolitan

1700 block of 32nd St.

There’s a new cafe open in the East Village on P St., just east of 27th. It’s called After Peacock Room. It is filling the long vacant space that the Consignment shop used to occupy. According to the cafe’s website:

AFTER PEACOCK ROOM is a fine dining cafe located in Georgetown, Washington DC. We provide excellent coffees and teas with fine pastries and savory light meals.

The design is a modern interpretation ofPeacock Room: Harmony of Blue and Gold, created by James McNeal Whistler in 1877.

This is the original Peacock Room: Continue reading →

Photo by Sofia Bustamente.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Georgetown resident kept dutiful weather records during the Civil War, providing a reliable historic climate record.
• GM saw this last weekend and hopes it doesn’t portend a downward spiral: Capitol Prague is under new management and is closed. That space is just damned.

3400 block of Q St.

This week in Old Georgetown in Color, GM travels to the days after World War I and visits a dog named Stubby. As the Smithsonian explains:

Stubby the dog, known to many as “Sgt. Stubby”…was the mascot of the 102 Infantry 26th Yankee Division in World War I. He showed up at training camp one day on the grounds of Yale University, and was such a hit with the soldiers that he was allowed to stay (he would drill with them, and even learned to salute). When it was time to ship off for Europe, Stubby went along for the ride to Newport News, Virginia, and was smuggled by Private J. Robert Conroy aboard the SS Minnesota. Upon discovery by Conroy’s Commanding Officer, the story goes, Stubby saluted him, and the CO was so impressed he allowed Stubby to remain with the troops. Stubby took to soldiering quite well, joining the men in the trenches. He was gassed once, and wounded by shrapnel another time, and once he disappeared for a while, only to resurface with the French forces who returned him to his unit. Stubby even captured a Hun (that’s WWI slang for a German soldier)!

After the war, Stubby’s caretaker enrolled at Georgetown University. Stubby, already a celebrity, became the mascot for the Hoyas. Stubby passed away in 1926 and was the subject of multiple newspaper obituaries. He was stuffed and eventually donated to the Smithsonian, where you can see him today, draped in about a dozen medals.

In the photo above, Stubby is being inspected by none other than the great Gen. John “Black Jack” Pershing.

Photo by Ulises Juarez Polanco.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Well we won’t be having a Georgetown mayor, but at least we’ll still have a Georgetown Ward 2 councilmember for the foreseeable future?
• Mmmm, homemade peeps at Pinstripes.

1600 block of 31st St.

Last night, the ANC met for its April session. Unfortunately, as has been the case for a while, GM could only attend the first half of the meeting. Nonetheless, that’s often where the juicier topics are discussed. So here’s what GM caught:

Crime Wave

As anyone who receives MPD email alerts could tell you, there’s seems to be a startling increase in robberies in Georgetown this year. Lieutenant Hedgecock of PSA 206 discussed the perceived spike in his monthly update at the beginning of the meeting.

He stated that there have been eight robberies reported in Georgetown so far this year. However, one of those reported robberies actually turned out to be fraudulently filed by an individual who apparently had money issues and wanted to file a false claim with the insurance company.

Nonetheless, seven seems like a lot for just three months right? Well not necessarily. GM used to track and report periodic crime totals, but stopped once he started to lose confidence in the reported stats. (It didn’t seem like conscious juking of the stats, but it was clear that some categories of crime were simply not captured in the public reports). But comparing this latest trend with the historic numbers he has, it doesn’t seem so unusual.

In the first half of 2010, there were 27 robberies. Or 4 1/2 a month. In 2011 it dropped to 18, or 3 a month. In the first half of 2012, it was 16, or 2 2/3. Last year it was 11, or 1 5/6. Seven robberies over three months is a rate of 2 1/3 a month. So while the frequency is higher than last year at this time, it’s in line with prior years, albeit against a clear trend-line.

The descriptions of the muggings have been alarming in that four of them have involved guns, and at least one involved a physical assault. And it is certainly the case that it is awful for the victim when this happens. But let’s keep things in perspective. MPD has done a fabulous job reducing the incidences of robbery in Georgetown over the last several years, and this flare up is all the more noticeable because of MPD’s success in recent years.

Either way, Lt. Hedgecock indicated that his team is taking the matter seriously, and is directing more resources to the problem (specifically he indicated that there appears to be a concentration of the incidents in the East Village, which implies that that is where they will focus their enforcement efforts). Continue reading →

Photo by Sofia DeBustamente.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Ricin-making Georgetown student forced to remain in jail for now.
• Sprinkles still thinks that they’re going to install a cupcake ATM, and GM still thinks they won’t be allowed to install something so stupid and unnecessary.

Dumbarton Oaks Park