Old postcard of Dumbarton House by Streets of Washington.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
Monday night, the ANC met for its September session. This is normally an extremely long meeting due to the backlog of projects that builds up due to the July ANC break (or does it count as a recess?)
The room was packed, which normally means there’s one particular issue that has riled people up. And on Monday, that issue was redistricting.
GM has covered this issue already. In short: students want 3 seats on the ANC, and the non-students in charge want no non-students represented by students (if you want a more nuanced take than that, click the link).
Monday night was not about arguing over numbers or lines. It was a chance, primarily, for students to stand up and say that they don’t think this is right or fair. And several did just that. (And quite well GM might add). Mike Meany, president of the GU Student Association, did a particularly fine job making the case that this plan would be a violation of DC law and is against basic democratic principles.
But a chance to stand up and speak is about all it was. The ANC didn’t take a vote and the committee already chose the co-chairs’ plan. Nothing that happened Monday night will change that. The co-chairs’ plan will be sent to Tom Birch, he’ll approve it, and Jack Evans will submit it to the Council, where it will be approved (despite a Hail Mary from the students to make noise at the Council).
Obviously the non-student neighbors didn’t realize they already won. If they did, then somebody like Ed Russell from Burleith, who stood up and argued that people who pay property taxes should have more rights, wouldn’t have said something so stupid like that. Continue reading
As mentioned briefly the other day, a commission of volunteers has been putting together a plan for how to redraw the ANC district boundaries to reflect the new census numbers (those districts are called “single member districts” or “SMDs”). Two competing plans have emerged from the committee, although only one has gained a majority of support.
The Co-Chairs’ Plan:
The plan that received majority support on the commission has been dubbed the “co-chairs’ plan” since it was produced by the co-chairs of the commission, Ron Lewis (chair of the ANC), Jennifer Altemus (President of CAG), and Lenore Rubino (President of the Burleith Citizens Association).
Their plan makes only a couple significant changes to the current map:
The biggest change to the old map in the co-chairs’ proposal is that all the dorms will be put into two districts. Currently, the dorms are spread out across four different districts, only one of which is “student only” (SMD 4). By putting all the dorms into two districts, the plan would guarantee two student commissioners. (Both plans call for a new eighth commissioner to account for the fact that the ANC population grew about 800 people.)
The co-chairs’ plan has one glaring flaw: the population numbers are completely out of whack. According to the redistricting law, SMDs are supposed to contain 2,000 people and should not deviate by more than 200. Here’s what the population numbers of the co-chairs’ plan are:
Filed under ANC
Next week, ANC2E returns to action for its September session (yes, it will still be August, go with it). The first meeting after the August layoff is always long and painful, and this year is no different.
ANC Redistricting
GM will probably write something about this this week, but in short: the lines of the ANC’s individual districts (the Single Member Districts, or “SMDs”) need to be redrawn to reflect the new census numbers. The committee formed to recommend a new map has made its initial decision. The proposed map is mostly similar to the old one except that all the students who live on campus would be in two student-only district. The only other significant change would be to stretch SMD 5 (which is mostly Georgetown below M St.) up into the East Village.
An alternative plan has also gained support on the committee, but failed to win a majority of support. It was drafted by Georgetown Voice blog editor John Flanagan. It also creates two student-only districts, but then takes some of the dorms that are outside the gates and joins them with homes in the West Village. This would result in mixed district that would have the potential to result in a third student commissioner. (Both plans call for the addition of a new eighth commissioner.)
Each plan has it’s strengths and weaknesses, and as mentioned, GM will go into them a bit more later this week. But either way, the ANC will present the draft plan (i.e. the first one) for public comment. It does not plan to propose any resolution on the plan, however.
The Streets of Georgetown
A new concept store called “The Streets of Georgetown” is coming in to the space recently vacated by Reiss. Here’s how the Post described it:
Housed in the former Reiss clothing store at 1254 Wisconsin Ave. NW, the Streets of Georgetown is to feature the assorted collections of brands such as Hickey Freeman, Hart Schaffner Marx and Bobby Jones.
Each label has its own unique style and price point to appeal to a broad audience. Whereas a Hickey Freeman suit can run anywhere from $1,300 to $3,000, shoppers can pick one up by Hart Schaffner Marx for $700 to $900. And for those men who only wear suits to funerals and weddings, there will be an array of polos and chinos.
It’s a silly name and GM’s not so sure about the concept, but it could work well as it tries to cash in on the growing men’s fashion market in Georgetown. Along those lines, Jack Spade is going to move in to where the atrocious Ed Hardy store used to be.
Cecil Place
As reported by GM, a new building is planned for the corner of Cecil Place and Grace St. The neighbors are concerned about the size and the blank wall it would present to the street. This project will receive its first ANC consideration this meeting.
Photo by Jim Malone.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
Photo by Jim_Malone.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
To assist in the necessary redistricting of the ANCs, the city released a raft of data. All of the source data is from the Census and was released a while ago. In fact, GM already has had his say on the implications of the new data. But the city has put it all in one handy place. And the data confirms that ANC2E will need to add a new commissioner.
Here are the final pre-redistricting populations (GM had it a little off in his earlier post due to misestimating the dorm populations):
While GM had the individual districts a little off, the overall numbers were right. Under the law, each district (called an “SMD”) needs to have 2,000 residents, plus or minus 100. The Georgetown districts currently average 2,352, which means it’s impossible to redistribute the population amongst them in such a way to have them all below 2100.
The City added approximately 30,000 residents since 2000. So it should be adding approximately 15 ANC commissioners across the city, including one for ANC2E (which added the ninth most new residents of any ANC).
Where to put it? With so much of the population concentrated on the campus, the focus needs to start there. GM’s suggested that simply adding another “student only” district is one option. According to the Census (which is the only count that matters) there are 3,900 residents behind the gates, so they could easily fill two districts. The other districts could easily shift around to get them up or down to the right level.
Photo by Daquella Manera.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
Photo by Kidmissile.
Next week, the ANC meets for its July session before it knocks off for two months. GM is actually going to be out of town, so it will be the first ANC meeting in almost three years that he’s missed. Hopefully nothing terribly exciting will happen in his absence.
Bakery Proposed
One item that jumped right out at GM is the proposal to bring a bakery to 34th St. Specifically 1227 34th St., which, last time GM checked, is where Govinda Gallery is. And GM’s not heard anything about them closing, but maybe this is the first sign.
A new bakery could be a nice addition, but it probably wouldn’t be worth losing Govinda Gallery to get.
Accessory Dwelling
Back on the agenda is 1679 35th St., where the owner is requesting permission to build an accessory dwelling unit in his house. What this is is essentially an apartment within the house, that the owner plans to rent out in order to allow him to continue living in the house. These are quite common in Georgetown, but many of them are illegal. There is an effort underway by the city to make it easier to get permission for these units, based upon certain conditions. The most significant condition is that the owner has to live in the house and the accessory dwelling must not be too large.
But those rules won’t come into effect for a while. So the owner is requesting permission under the current rules, which make it difficult to obtain the permission. Last month the ANC cited the possibility of the new rules and the “uncertainty” caused by the Campus Plan hearings, and requested that the application be delayed. Neither of these reasons are particularly valid. The new rules may not come into effect for a year, and the possible impact of the Campus Plan on this property is remote and speculative. Continue reading
Filed under ANC
In April, GM forecasted the possible changes to the ANC boundaries that could come as a result of the redistricting process now underway. Well, yesterday the Subcommittee on Redistricting issued guidelines for ANC and SMD redistricting that put more meat on the bones and can start to color in what changes Georgetown could see.
According to the guidelines, each SMD (that’s single member district, or practically speaking the district of each commissioner) ideally must contain 2,000 residents. The SMDs can vary from this ideal measure by 100 residents in either direction. So in other words, each SMD must have between 1,900 and 2,100 residents.
By GM’s calculations, after the last Census, the SMD populations stack up like this:
Note, SMDs 3 and 1 include several GU dorms, but there is no Census data broken out by dorm. So GM used the dorms’ capacities, which is actually how they did in ten years ago. Continue reading
Filed under Government
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