The Georgetown Metropolitan

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Bike to Work Day at Georgetown had both a giant water drop and a giant shad!
• Hardy Middle School principal leaves after parents’ complaints.

On May 25th, the City Tavern Club will be host to an event to kick off an effort to construct a memorial in DC to the middle passage. The evening will feature Congresswomen Eleanor Holmes Norton and the director of the Georgetown African American Historical Landmark Project, Adrena Crockett. It will start at 6:30 pm; sign up by emailing the club at Info@CityTaverndc.org.

This event continues an effort that the City Tavern has undertaken in recent years to reconcile with its past. The tavern was run for many years using enslaved labor, which did not come to an end until DC emancipation in 1862. Helping put a human face to that story, local historian Yvette LaGonterie has traced one particular family’s experience under bondage at the building. The club has installed a permanent display to honor one of that family’s member. Hosting this event is part of that ongoing effort.

Additionally, the City Tavern will host another event the night before at 6:30 pm. This will be a book talk and signing for Dr. Judith Reifsteck. Her book, Memoried and Storied, discusses the four lynchings in the South and how modern discussions of these events can help advance reconciliation and healing.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Bike to Work day this Friday! If you work from home, make it a Bike Around in a Loop to Work Day (that’s what I do a couple times a week at least…)
• Sara’s Market is back!

Monday night a lively group packed the community meeting room at the library to hear about the Georgetown Community Access and Circulation Study. The meeting was lead by the community engagement consultants, LINK, but DDOT representatives also spoke.

The main thrust of the first half of the meeting was to communicate what the study is, and isn’t. On the “is” side includes a list of possible changes to the way people travel to and from the neighborhood in the short and medium term. Short term items are things that can be installed in 1-3 years (or faster) that don’t need any specific budget authorization. This includes things like curb bulb outs or flex post installation. The medium term includes things that would take more like 2-4 years, and require more extensive design work, but not a full blown environmental review, for instance. That might include things like making certain streets one-way.

What the study is not going to address are projects on either end of short or medium term. In other words, extremely short term projects that already have a review process in place will not be included, simply because they can already be pursued. For instance, if you think an intersection without a stop sign could use one, you can already ask for one from DDOT (whether you’ll get it depends on the facts and circumstances). And on the flip side, long term items are also not included in the study simply because they are so big that they will need their own studies to be advanced. The obvious example for this is a Georgetown Metro station. We might all want it, but this study would have no power to bring it any closer to fruition so DDOT doesn’t want to waste time and money on the idea through the study.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• What you (may have) missed at the Garden Tour.
• I’m happy to report that the Volta pool fence is repaired, but the pool is still empty. I am pushing to get DPR to clean it up and fill it with water in time for Memorial Day weekend. (Separately, city crews cut through the iron fence on the north side of the park to get a truck out. Yet another thing at Volta Park the city needs to fix now!)

The time is here! Start watering those street trees!

It might feel like it’s rained a lot recently. And it has. But it’s already getting pretty hot. So you need to make sure every week that young trees have actually received at least 25 gallons of water a week. Heavy but brief rain showers don’t actually drop that much water on us. So it’s good to supplement it with water from a hose.

If it’s a new tree, hopefully it has an ooze tube, those large bags around the base of the tree that can be filled from a hole on the top. Fill them up once a week and you’re all set. If you don’t have one, you can just leave a hose dribbling out water for about 20-30 minutes, and that will suffice.

It is rewarding to see trees that were once meek become giants. I’ve lived on my current block for 11 years and I’ve already seen several trees make that transition. I’ve also seen several older trees cut down. It’s the inevitable end, but an end that can be softened by the presence of young and thriving trees. And keeping on top of watering them will ensure their future for many more years.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Great Georgetown-centric Q&A Cafe today as Carol interviews the man renovating Julia Child’s house.
• $4 million price drop for Jackie Kennedy’s old home. (Still crazy expensive…)

This week for Georgetown Time Machine, I’m dipping again into the 1993 photos, as I’ve done a lot recently. This one shows M St. just east of Potomac. And the photo really highlights something that has largely left M St.: cheap food.

From left to right, this stretch had a Subway shop, a Burrito Brothers, and a pizza shop (whose name escapes me). Nowadays this stretch includes Aesop (an expensive bodycare shop) and Dyptique (an expensive fragrance shop).

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Don’t forget the meeting tonight to discuss all things transportation for Georgetown. Your voice can shape how we’ll move in the future!
• The BID is experimenting with a different arrangement for streateries, with the tables on sidewalk adjacent to the restaurant, and the passageway directed where the tables were.

This Monday night, the first community meeting will be held as part of the important Georgetown transportation and access study. It will be held at the Georgetown Library from 6:30 to 8:00. It will also be available virtually, but you’ll need to sign up here to get the link for that.

This first meeting is incredibly important since it will be focused primarily on gathering every and all idea the public has to improve transportation to and through the neighborhood. No idea is a bad one! Want more bike lanes? Want fewer bike lanes? Want traffic cameras? Want more one-way streets? Want a six lane superhighway? Whatever the idea, just bring it. The point right now is to get every idea on the table, and the process moving forward will take those ideas and kick their tires to see what would actually make the neighborhood’s transportation system work better and safer.

Thankfully what this meeting will not be is an opportunity for a couple people to stand up on a soap box and monopolize the meeting with their pet grievances. It will be broken out into two main sections. The first will involve a series of boards around the room where people can meet with DDOT and the consultant staff to discuss their ideas and suggestions. Then later there will be breakout sessions where small groups will discuss in more depth their suggestions and ideas. The idea is to get more input from a wider population, not just the usual suspects.

So please do try to come, even if only for part of it! Your participation is crucial to getting the most out of this process!