1300 block of 31st St.
DDOT Adopts Idiotic Visitor Parking Policy
Photo by Matt Hurst.
Those of you who read the Georgetown Metropolitan regularly may remember a series of meetings held earlier this year about parking. The intent of these meetings was to suss out what problems Georgetowners have with parking and to then design possible solutions.
Some ideas were batted around. They included requiring visitors to Georgetown to pay to park even on the side streets. The idea was that people drive up and down our streets looking for street parking because its free. Put a price on it, and people may choose garages instead, thus cutting down on traffic and making it easier for residents to find parking. Other proposals wouldn’t require any payment to park on the side streets, but would require visitors to use a system like Park Mobile to “check in” so that ticket enforcement for time would be easier.
One key element to any proposal like this was the need for some sort of a visitor parking permit. This way the guests of residents would not be subject to the new fees or restrictions.
Other parts of the city, like Ward 3, already have a system like this. Every year, every resident with their own residential parking permit gets a visitor parking pass (VPP). When displayed in a car, that car gets treated like a resident’s car. So far, so good for residents, right? In less dense neighborhoods, that’s probably true. But in a neighborhood like Georgetown, that is a recipe for widespread abuse.
Filed under Parking
The Morning Metropolitan
Photo by Alyson Hurt.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Georgetown’s recently fired mascot could be yours! (If GM were a Syracuse fan, which he’s not, he’d be tempted to adopt J.J. and parade him around in orange.)
- Shophouse opening August 19th.
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
Proposed Zoning Rules Published
As reported in the Current this week, the DC Office of Planning has issued the latest draft for the zoning code rewrite. It contains rules specifically tailored for Georgetown. While the changes are modest in scope, they have the potential to change a lot of things in Georgetown for the better, or at the very least keep around much of what we love about Georgetown.
Full disclosure, GM in his capacity as member of the CAG board participated in the discussions that went into the proposed draft. This gave him a close up view to see how much the end product was a result of genuine and open discussion between different viewpoints. It is a true compromise that everyone involved felt comfortable getting behind, whether they are radical urbanists like GM, or more conservative.
The most important changes, at least in GM’s opinion, relate to corner stores and accessory dwellings (i.e. apartments).
Corner Stores
Corner stores like Scheele’s and Sara’s are a critical part of the appeal of living in Georgetown. But the thing is, they only exist where they are due to grandfathering. The current zoning code would consider them illegal if they hadn’t existed for as long as they have. And consequently, if any of them closed, unless a new store were opened there shortly after, the grandfathering would expire and no new store would be allowed.
This potentially has real consequences. When the future of Scheele’s was in doubt due to the Scheele family putting the building up for sale, it was never an option for the store to simply pick up and move across the street. The grandfathering isn’t portable. So if a store loses its lease, it cannot simply move to another building unless that building is already zoned commercial. There are only a few small pockets in the side streets of Georgetown that are zoned commercial.
The new rules would loosen the general prohibition on commercial activity in residential zones. You could open a corner store in any property literally on a corner. Some conditions apply, but the main one is that there cannot be more than three other corner stores within 500 feet and it cannot be within 750 feet of M and Wisconsin.
That last condition is a little odd, but the idea is that corner stores are supposed to be neighborhood serving and not simply be an extension of the existing commercial areas. Continue reading
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The Morning Metropolitan
Photo by Beyond DC.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Lock your garage.
- A bizarre animation of Katharine Graham spinning in her grave from the notorious Taiwanese animators.
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
Georgetown Circa 1999
![IMG_2217[1]](https://georgetownmetropolitan.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/img_22171.jpg)
GM moved to DC in 1999, a couple months after graduating from college. A child of the pre-Internet world, GM looked to the bookstore for information about his new home. With the magic of time, this dog-eared book is now a time capsule for turn-of-this-century Washington.
And what does this time capsule have to say about Georgetown? Most of what was open is no more. Of the nineteen restaurants it recommends, only five remain open. Here’s how it describes some of the dearly departed:
- Hibiscus Cafe ($$) – 3401 K St.”Nouvelle Caribbean cuisine with unusual mints, spices, and sauces” with “a 3 ft. can opener hanging from the ceiling” [You could still see the mural for Hibiscus Cafe until relatively recently, when Malmaison painted over it]
- Furin’s ($$) – “You could make most of the food yourself, if you had the inclination to whip up pancakes, breakfast sandwiches, salads, or spoil-the-kids-rotten slabs of cake.” [Soon to be Chophouse]
- The Little Cafe ($) – “Small cafe with Mediterranean flavor” [Now Waterworks in Cady’s Alley]
Filed under Restaurants
The Morning Metropolitan
Photo by Richard Ricciardi.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Pirates come to the Potomac.
- What lovely weather, perfect for watching Pride and Prejudice in the garden at Dumbarton House tonight.
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The Georgetown Metropolitan 
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