June 2, 2011 · 10:00 am

How to Care for Our Street Trees

Watering boy by Jon Hayes Photography.

With the onset of summer weather, GM thought it wise to reprint the “Dos” and “Don’ts” of tree care that he ran last year. So without further ado, all the things you ought to do to keep our street trees alive:

Do #1 – Water, Water, Water

There is one thing that trees, particularly young ones, need above all else: water. Yes, we’ve had a pretty rainy spring, but our summers can be brutal on trees. We can go weeks without a significant rainfall. And even when we get those typical summer flash storms, most of the water runs straight to the storm drains and fails to reach the trees.

That’s why it’s incumbent on us to keep our trees fully watered. The basic goal you should have is to water young trees at least once a week, so long as you get a good 20-25 gallons of water. You should start when the trees start leafing in the spring and continue all the way until they lose their leaves in the fall. Continue reading →

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June 2, 2011 · 8:00 am

The Morning Metropolitan

Wedding in Montrose Park by Valkyrieh116.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

  • Gas line rupture during O and P Streets construction. Routine, apparently.
  • Speaking of construction, the Q St. construction, which was originally supposed to be done by last September, and then was supposed to be done by March, is still going with no end in sight (although they did recently lay the concrete pads for the bus stops). It will be so nice once they finally wrap up and repave the road; it’s murder on bikers.

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June 1, 2011 · 2:00 pm

The Georgetown Metropolis

1000 block of Cecil Place

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June 1, 2011 · 10:00 am

ANC Round-Up: Summer’s Here Edition

Last night the ANC met for its June session. It retreaded on some familiar ground,  but there was enough new stuff to keep it from “Groundhog Day” territory.

Crime:

Sgt. Hedgecock gave his ordinary presentation on the state of MPD activity in Georgetown. It contained the normal reminders to keep your eyes open and to make sure not to keep your doors unlocked. But then he reported on a rather alarming crime. Apparently on May 22nd, a woman was picked up by a cab from the corner of Prospect and Wisconsin. But the cab driver drove the cab to somewhere other than where the woman wanted, and then proceeded to sexually assault her. This may be related to an earlier assault that originated in Dupont. Police have a lookout for a 30-40 year old middle eastern man driver a dark colored taxicab, not that that’s particularly helpful, but you ought to keep your eyes out for suspicious acting taxicab drivers.

O & P Streets:

The ANC gave a quick update on the O & P Streets construction. Apparently Washington Gas has had to extend its construction footprint due to the nature of their conversion to a high-pressure system. Also worth noting is that the project has its own PR firm and a website. So you don’t need to come to interminable community meetings to keep up to date. Finally, if you live along the construction and want the water pipe replaced between your house and the street, you need to reach out now.

Capital Bikeshare:

Chris Holben, DDOT’s CaBi director, spoke before the ANC about the two new proposed Georgetown stations: on P north of Rose Park and in the Long and Foster parking lot. The ANC is opposed to the north Rose Park location (they prefer the south end of Rose Park along M St.) and don’t necessarily oppose the Long & Foster location, but would prefer a station at Hyde-Addison. Holben said he’d take another look at those two locations, but made no promises.

Better news: Holben announced that on top of the 25 more stations that DC is adding soon, Tommy Wells has added $2 million to the budget for station expansion, which will result in 40 addition stations beyond the 25. This will mean a total of over 160 stations in the District (plus dozens more in Virginia). So even if Georgetown isn’t 100% happy with this next expansion, there will be more bites at the apple. Continue reading →

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June 1, 2011 · 8:00 am

The Morning Metropolitan

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

  • A report from inside the newly opened Serendipity.
  • GM reported on its opening a while back, but after monitoring its Twitter feed for a while, GM can report that the American River Taxi really is running service to and from Georgetown every day. GM’s going to try to take it to the ballgame soon. What a great addition.

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May 31, 2011 · 2:00 pm

The Georgetown Metropolis

2900 block of M St.

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May 31, 2011 · 10:00 am

Not So Long Ago: 31st and M

Vodpod videos no longer available.

This week on Not So Long Ago, GM picks up the music store thread from a couple weeks ago and takes a look at M and 31st. Now the north side of this block of dominated by Urban Outfitters. In 1993, where Urban Outfitters is now, a Sam Goody stood.

Sam Goody was a national music retailer. GM remembers going to one up in Connecticut where he grew up. It was your typical over-priced bloated mall-based music store that was absolutely torpedoed by the .mp3. GM’s not sure when the Georgetown location closed, but he believes that Urban Outfitters was open as early as 1997.

Where Steve Madden now is, there appears to be a sign that begins with “EARI”. GM has no idea what that was. Anyone remember?

Another interesting piece of street furniture in the old pictures is the old trash bin. It wasn’t terribly attractive, and the new black cast iron ones are much better. Continue reading →

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May 31, 2011 · 8:00 am

The Morning Metropolitan

Photo by Matt Dunn.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

  • Hardy has a new principal: Mary Stefanus.
  • GM hasn’t been by to verify, but he hears that Serendipity finally opened this weekend. He took a peek through the windows on Friday. It looked like something out of Epcot Center. It probably won’t ever be a locals’ spot, but it’ll probably do gangbusters with the suburbanites and tourists (see: Georgetown Cupcake, business model of).

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May 27, 2011 · 2:00 pm

The Georgetown Metropolis

3300 block of P St.

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May 27, 2011 · 10:00 am

Updates to Aren’t They Building

Photo by M.V. Jantzen

At the top of this page there’s a link to another page called “Aren’t They Building” where GM lists various proposed projects around town. He would love to keep it up to date, but he only gets around to it occasionally, like today. Today, however, there aren’t too many updates, but there are some.

Serendipity 3

GM predicted Summer 2010, then fall 2010, and then January 2011 (with a question mark). Well this week the store finally had a soft open, however, GM hears behind the scenes turmoil is still delaying a full-scale open. Notwithstanding this, it should finally be genuinely open next week or the week after, but you never know.

Sprinkles

GM last predicted it would open in February. They opened March 3. Close enough.

Brooks Brothers

GM predicted a most recently a fall 2011 opening.  That still is the smart pick (and GM hasn’t checked it recently, but he thinks that’s what the signs on the building say).

Paul Bakery

GM first predicted November 2010, and then spring 2011. Obviously neither came true. A rep left a comment saying that they hope to open by late summer. Continue reading →

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