Tag Archives: ANC

December 1, 2009 · 10:01 am

ANC Round Up: Let There Be Neon Light

The ANC met last night for the final time in 2009. After a year of contentious fights over topics from the Apple store to drunken alumni parades, the final meeting last night seemed a bit anti-climatic. But that’s not to say there were no interesting developments.

Fiat Neon Lux

The most exciting item on the agenda was the proposed renovation of the Georgetown theater sign. The iconic sign at 1351 Wisconsin has not lit up in many years and has slowly rusted away. The plan discussed last night would fix that.

The BID is kicking in $50,000 to restore the landmark. There’s a bit of deja vu with this since several years ago another plan was floated to renovate the sign, but never got off the ground. Let’s hope this time is different.

The sign will be repainted in its original black color and the neon lights will be their original “rose” color.

When (jokingly) asked whether this meant the theater was coming back too, the architect laughed and said he couldn’t say. (Translation: no).

GM is thrilled that this sign will be returned to its former glory. A little more clarification on what is going to happen to the building it’s attached to would be even better. Continue reading →

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November 30, 2009 · 10:00 am

Reminder: ANC Meeting Tonight

No rest for the weary: the ANC jumps right back into action tonight at 6:30 at Visitation. They’ll cover the possible repair of the Georgetown Theater sign, Philadelphia Pizza, and another cupcake joint, among other topics.

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November 24, 2009 · 10:00 am

ANC Preview

While your belt may still be a few notches too tight from Thanksgiving, the ANC will still be back and open for business next Monday night. The agenda was released yesterday, and while it’s not quite the cornucopia that last month’s was, it’s still got some interesting topics.

Georgetown Theater Sign

Apparently there is an application pending with the Old Georgetown Board regarding the, well, old Georgetown Theater neon sign. Hopefully it means that the owners, the Heon family, are planning on restoring the iconic sign to its former glory. As reported here, the building was put up for sale this summer. GM wonders where this application fits into that plan. Continue reading →

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November 3, 2009 · 11:30 am

ANC Roundup: 2012 Edition

In just over two year’s time, several pockets of Georgetown will have made significant changes from today. That was the theme of last night’s ANC meeting. The Future. Which is an odd theme for a historic district, but there you go.

The heart of last night’s meeting revolved around three projects that will probably seem to take an eternity to finish, but once done will hopefully be great additions to the neighborhood. These are the trolley tracks on O and P, and the conversion of two historic buildings into residential units: the Hurt Home and the Georgetown Post Office. Continue reading →

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October 27, 2009 · 10:00 am

ANC Preview: When It Rains It Pours

ANC Agenda Released

While the ground may still be soaked with Saturday’s rain, ANC watchers know that we’ve been under a severe drought of boring ANC agendas since at least March.

Well there are rain clouds on the horizon.

The agenda for next week’s ANC meeting was released and among all the normal boring stuff it’s got three fascinating items on the menu. Check them out after the jump: Continue reading →

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October 23, 2009 · 8:00 am

The Morning Metropolitan

Whitehurst Freeway by Kevin H.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

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September 30, 2009 · 10:00 am

ANC Round-Up: That Lighty Airy Feeling

As basic chemistry tells us, gas seeks an equilibrium. You cannot long have a single space filled half with high-density gas and half with low-density gas. The high density gas would rush to the other side and even out the pressure in the room. Thus it is with the ANC. You might write up a tight two hour agenda, but that high-density schedule is bound to spread out and take up the full three hours the space will allow.

And the theme of air, density and equilibrium is a pretty good place to start the discussion today. The agenda last night had seven projects that included rear additions to the buildings in question. Whenever a project like that comes before the commission, it’s just a matter of time before the words “open space” and “light” are evoked to reject the proposal. However, last night it was Commissioner Birch who boiled all these concerns down to a single word: air.

What the word air really means is the right to look out through other people’s properties. Actually, in England they have an appropriately fussy name for it: Ancient Lights. It’s a quasi-right over other people’s “air” that in some circumstances enables you to block construction that will block the sunlight.

And GM is fine with that. Continue reading →

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September 28, 2009 · 8:00 am

The Morning Metropolitan

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

  • Apparently the Merriment of Georgetown decorations were “controversial“, according to the Georgetowner.
  • Don’t forget that the ANC meeting is tomorrow night, not tonight.
Photo by Flickr user Nil:) used under Creative Commons.

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September 23, 2009 · 10:00 am

ANC Preview: Almost October Edition

The ANC2E will be meeting next Tuesday night for their October session. This is weird for two reasons: it’ll still be September and they normally meet on Mondays (at least these days). So if you’ve got business before the ANC or are a glutton for punishment, like GM, then remember the new date (which was changed to accommodate Yom Kippur).

So what’s on the agenda? Not much, which will be relief after last month’s brutal marathon. But here are the highlights:

  • The ANC apparently will chime in on the unfair and short-sighted Circulator cut;
  • The Merriment in Georgetown festival, which last year had the unluck to land on one of the coldest and windy days of the winter, will be back;
  • Georgetown Cupcake will be back with revised designs for their new flagship store on M St. Last month the plans were criticized for the incongruity between the elegant storefront and the ugly 80’s building above. Short of redesigning the whole building, it’s not clear how they get around that problem.
  • Speaking of Potomac St. stores, Philadelphia Pizza (or “Philly P’s” as the kids call it) is back. They’ve gotten a series of pretty severe tongue lashings in the past for being a bad neighbor (namely for being a good neighbor, so to speak, to those aforementioned kids). This will be a good chance to see whether they’ve shaped up or not.

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September 14, 2009 · 8:00 am

The Morning Metropolitan

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

  • The story of Louisa May Alcott’s 1863 visit to Georgetown.
  • G.U. student who uses a wheelchair is suing Mr. Smith’s for kicking him out.
  • October ANC meeting will now be Tuesday the 29th not Monday the 28th. Two more days and they could’ve actually had the October meeting in October.
Photo of a shop-lifter getting apprehended by Flickr user Roebot used under Creative Commons.

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