The Georgetown Metropolitan

Book Hill

Photo curtesy of the City Paper.

The Washington City Paper reported earlier this week on the scene you see above: people camping out trying to snag a liquor license for Georgetown. As Perry Stein writes:

Yeroushalmie, a developer in D.C., is camping outside the government building in hope of snagging a coveted Georgetown liquor license. The Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration announced last month that it would be accepting applications this Thursday at 8:30 a.m. for a tavern and three restaurant liquor licenses. This is only the second time in almost 20 years, according to ABRA spokeswoman Jessie Cornelius, that a tavern license has become available in Georgetown.

Yeroushalmie pitched his $39 Walmart tent on Tuesday around 8 p.m. He needs a license for a high-end sushi restaurant he’s planning to open in a building he already owns along Wisconsin Avenue

GM predicted this last month when the city announced the release of the licenses. GM analogized to a gold rush, but it appears the more apt metaphor would be Led Zeppelin tickets.

This ridiculous first-come-first-served policy has the potential to lead to the exact same failure the last series of license releases led to: nothing. As GM wrote earlier, of the seven new licenses issued last time, five ended up going to establishments that either never opened or have since closed (or simply stopped using their license).

GM suggested already that one answer is to simply remove the moratorium just on M St. It appears that the economics might rule out new restaurants on M St. right now, but the moratorium certainly isn’t helping to keep restaurants opening on M St.

Continue reading →

Photo by Daniel Lobo.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Williams-Addison house sells for $16 million.
• Last month, GM predicted that Smith Point would be the first one at the door to get the new tavern license. This has literally come true. (More on this later).

3200 block of P St.

GM yesterday heard the sad news that former ANC rep Charlie Eason passed away over the weekend. As GM wrote last November, Charlie stepped down from the ANC after he moved to a home on the Chesapeake Bay. He had been struggling with a long term illness and had grown visibly weaker over the past year.

As GM wrote last fall, during Charlie’s farewell address to the ANC he contemplated his new bayside life and said his plans were to sit at the end of his pier, watch for crabs, and read some good books. GM sincerely hopes that in his final months, Charlie was afforded such transcendent pleasures. Continue reading →

Photo by Daniel Lobo.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• DSW now open, if that’s your thing.
• Which $700k rowhouse is better?

3400 block of Prospect St.

As discussed yesterday, the city is currently conducting a comprehensive evaluation of school boundaries and assignment policies. And GM specifically discussed how the initial proposals called for an expansion of the boundary for Georgetown’s elementary school, Hyde-Addison.

Today GM discusses the far more radical portions of the initial proposals. As announced by the Deputy Mayor of Education, Abigail Smith, the proposal is organized into three potential policies. GM will discuss each separately and how it would impact Georgetown below:

Policy Example A

This first proposal is by far the most radical and would, frankly, by far be the worse outcome for Georgetown. First of all, Georgetown kids would lose the guaranteed right to attend Hyde-Addison. That’s because under this scenarios, no one in the city would have the right to attend their local elementary school. Every elementary school would be grouped into a “choice set” of 3-4 schools. All children would enter a lottery that would assign them to one of the schools in the choice set.

Hyde would be placed in a choice set with Ross Elementary in Dupont and Francis-Stevens in the West End. Thus when a Georgetown family decides to send their child to elementary school they would enter a lottery and be assigned one of the three schools, even if you live across the street from Hyde.

Continue reading →

Photo by Thomas Vander Wal.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• A Georgetown urban legend is debunked (no, not that one).
• Speaking of Hoyas basketball, 30 years ago they won it all.

Dumbarton Oaks