The Georgetown Metropolitan

This week on Old Georgetown in Color, GM tries to bring a little pink to Herman Hollerith: Georgetown resident and one of the founders of IBM.

Didn’t realize that IBM was founded (in part) here in Georgetown? It’s true.

GM wrote about this fun fact a few years ago:

It’s true. It all started with the 1890 Census. The prior census almost took an entire decade to compile. Thus to complete the 1890 census on time, the Census Bureau realized that they needed to turn to technology. Serendipitously, just one year earlier, a Buffalo inventor, Herman Hollerith, received a patent on the great-great-great-grandfather of the computer hard-drive: the punched card. Recognizing the benefit of Hollerith’s invention, the Census Bureau hired him. Continue reading →

Photo by Ehpien.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• How much for a top floor duplex on the canal?
• Rhino Bar hosting Phillip Seymour Hoffman marathon.

Potomac River

DC Urban Turf has a great article on the arrival of the short term rental service AirBNB in DC and what legal obstacles homeowners face to use the service. In short, there are rules that apply, which are largely not being followed although even the regulators admit the rules aren’t keeping up with the times.

For those not familiar with AirBNB: it is essentially a service that permits people to list rooms, apartments or whole houses for nightly rental. You can essentially turn your house into a hotel.

GM was fascinated to see how many properties (at least 18) in Georgetown avail themselves of this service. The properties range from full houses to English basement apartments to rooms in a shared house. The prices range from $500 a night for a spacious house to $48 for a couch in what appears to be a basement apartment. Continue reading →

Photo by BKL.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• It got delayed a few months, but Pinstripes is set to open February 8th.
• Speaking of delayed openings, Fiola Mare is aiming for the spring, but they don’t sound too confident about it.

Potomac River

As a nice token of appreciation for his participation in the Georgetown 2028 project, the BID gave GM a framed map of what Georgetown will (hopefully) look like in 15 years.

Things to spy on the map:

• A Metro stop
• Gondola
• Bridge to Roosevelt Island
• Ferry Continue reading →

Photo by H Tarar.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Gypsy Sally’s listed as a place to see bands before they start playing in amphitheaters.
• Second 7-11 to open any day now.

2900 block of R St.

While the report was finalized back in December, yesterday was the officially unveiling day for the critically important Georgetown 2028 recommendations.

This morning, GM linked to a few initial takes on the report. The initial focus is, as expected, on some of the bigger ticket recommendations, including the aerial gondola and the Metro, but the report is so much more than the flashier items.

In case you missed it during the holidays, GM will reprint his own summary of the vast report below:

Transportation Elements:

Clang Clang Clang Goes the Trolley

The District government is planning on building a 37 mile streetcar network. The first line is currently being constructed on H St. (in fact a car was just brought to the tracks the other day to begin testing). This line will ultimately snake through downtown and terminate in Georgetown.

The city considered different routes, but appears to have settled on having the streetcar come in to Georgetown on K St. The plan calls for the streetcar to travel on a new transit-only lane down K St. between Mt. Vernon Square to Washington Circle. Unfortunately the current plan calls for the streetcar to return to mixed traffic between Washington Circle and Georgetown.

The Georgetown 2028 transportation working group decided that this would cause unacceptable delays. Thus they concluded that the streetcar should continue to have its own lane west of Washington Circle. This would ensure that the streetcar offered fast and reliable service to and from Georgetown.

Georgetown University has also expressed an interest in the alignment of this line. They would like the line to ultimately connect to the campus. But if it comes in on K St., that goal will be tough to achieve without the demolition of the Whitehurst and the construction of a ramp from Canal down to Water St.

Alternatively, the streetcar could come in on the Whitehurst itself. Pedestrian access could be created via ramps or elevators. Then the streetcar could more easily continue on to the campus.

Either way, the recommendation from the report is just to make sure that the streetcar is fast and reliable all the way to Georgetown. Continue reading →