Big Wheel Bike’s big bike by Kevin H.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
Liechtenstein: Actual Size
Last night the ANC made good on GM’s prediction and held what is likely to be its shortest meeting of the year. This was mostly as a result of the fact that the Old Georgetown Board took a powder for January, and that cuts out about half the items from the agenda. Or as Commissioner Birch said “we learned tonight what it’s like to be a commissioner on an ANC that doesn’t have to send 15 projects to the Old Georgetown Board every month.” Although according to what GM’s heard about other ANC’s, like the notorious Foggy Bottom ANC, lacking Old Georgetown Board items is no impediment to interminable meetings.
While the meeting was short on OGB applications, it was still long on interesting items.
Crime Report
Lieutenant Hedgecock gave a presentation on crime and MPD’s efforts in Georgetown. One item at the top of the list was the probable resurfacing of the Georgetown Sexual Assaulter. On early Sunday morning a woman on Calvert St. in Glover Park was awoken with a man hugging her. After he started to make thrusting moves against her she screamed and he ran. As with all the other similar occurences she was unable to give a description of the offender.
Lieutenant Hedgecock gave a little more information on the series of attacks. He stated that years ago a man was arrested for similar offenses. He stated, however, that they do not believe the crimes are connected. He did add, though, that they believe these assaults are being perpetrated by multiple assailants.
One more sad bit: the individual who was found dead underneath the M St. bridge on Thursday was not simply a victim of the cold, as many suspected. He appears to have jumped or fallen off the bridge. Hedgecock could provide no more information on the case. Continue reading
Filed under ANC
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
Filed under ANC
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
Filed under ANC
Sunset on Potomac by Brownpau.
Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:
Filed under The Morning Metropolitan
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
Filed under ANC
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:
Filed under ANC
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
You must be logged in to post a comment.