Photo by M.V. Jantzen.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- So it’s a store that just dries your hair? What?
- Hey, water your street trees!
The Morning Metropolitan
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
People Worth Knowing Right Now
GM ran this article last year during a heat wave, and with the onset of another stretch of unbearable heat, he decided to run it again.
It’s incredibly hot outside already. And there’s no better way to cool off than a dip in a pool. But what if you don’t have a pool, and the public pools aren’t open? What you do is get to know someone with a pool. And it turns out that the city helps you identify whom to befriend.
Among many other data sets, the city keeps a record of all the pools in the city. And better yet, they keep the data in mapable form. So a couple quick clicks on Google, and voila, a map of all the pools in Georgetown. All the blue squares above are pools. Now you just need to figure out how to chat these neighbors up. Or just jump their fence when you know they’re not around (kidding!)
Filed under Around Town
The Morning Metropolitan
Photo by Jim Malone.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- Last chance to get an engraved brick for Rose Park.
- Ah, Bill Dean parties….
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
ANC Round Up: West Heating Plant Edition
Last night the ANC met for its July session, the last call for the summer. With a “vanilla” agenda, as one commissioner called it, the night held few surprises.
West Heating Plant
GM has covered this multiple times before, but if you’re just catching up, here’s a primer: Way back in the 40s, the federal government took land at the confluence of the C & O Canal and Rock Creek from the National Park Service and built a large heating plant on the property. The plant was used to provide building heat to the federal government’s properties on the west side of downtown (primarily the State department). It burned coal for a heat source.
The plant was converted to natural gas at some point and then about ten years ago it was shut down for good. Since then it has sat unused. GSA is finally in the process of selling the property.
The neighbors of the property are nervous about this. They want the south half of the property returned to its previous use as park land. (And some would like the plant itself torn down, but they acknowledge that that is an unlikely outcome). To do so they initially suggested that GSA could either give the property back to NPS or sell the property with restrictions on the use of the south half of the property. GSA doesn’t want to do that. They just want to sell it as soon as possible for the highest price, and that was even before Congressional Republicans started making political hay over the ten years the property sat unused.
So the neighbor’s attention shifted to the city. The property is currently unzoned. If the Office of Planning zones the south half of the property as parkland, then that’s how it would get used. Fait accompli.
They key is that the zoning would have to be in place before the auction. If it’s not, then some very deep pockets will be emptying large portions of those pockets to purchase the property. Once they have the property, they will spend even more to make sure they receive the most lenient zoning category.
So to prevent this from coming to pass, the Friends of the Georgetown Waterfront Park, CAG (disclosure: GM is CAG’s secretary), and now the ANC have formally asked OP to act fast to zone the property in a way to restore and preserve the public’s access to this historic site. Continue reading
Filed under ANC
The Morning Metropolitan
Photo by afagen.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest;
- Best real estate agent? Easy one: Nancy Taylor Bubes.
- The Post interviews some neighborhood bloggers, including GM.
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
Now and a Long Time Ago: M and Potomac
This week on Now and Long Time Ago, GM swings on by M St. Specifically he’s checking out 3251 M St.
These days, this small shop is being converted from Shoe Gallery to a Sunglass Hut. But in 1966, when the old shot was taken, this address housed the Coniglio Barber Shop.
Frank Coniglio moved to DC from Palermo, Sicily, in 1911. He opened a barber shop at 3251 M St. in 1913. He ran the shop until he died in 1948. His son Phillip, who started working in the shop in his teens, took over the shop after his father’s death. He then ran the shop until his own death in 1969.
Here’s another photo from the Library of Congress from inside the shop:
You can practically smell the Barbasol.
James Randolph took over the shop until he closed the shop in 1970 after the building was sold.
Next door appears to have been a liquor store called Lew’s Shoppe.
Filed under Now and a Long Time Ago
The Morning Metropolitan
Photo by M.V. Jantzen.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
- There were trees down all over Georgetown after Friday’s big storm. The tree GM particularly noticed was the tree right outside of Wingo’s that was covered with beads.
- Still no news on the Georgetown mall tenants.
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
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