Town Topics: Year in Review 2023
By • January 2, 2024 0 544
What a difference a year makes — even in Georgetown. The top Town Topics of 2023 are quite different from those of 2022 — except for one.
Crime in Washington and Georgetown
The 2022 Town Topics Review ended with the report that crime was down in Georgetown except for some incidents of “shoplifting and theft from autos, and more bizarre kinds of criminal behavior (an odd kidnapping attempt for instance). Unfortunately, in 2023 that report has been turned around. Crime especially mass daytime robberies at local stores, such as CVS and Safeway, and carjacking by masked youths was top local and national news in 2023. Ward Two Council member Brooke Pinto is a key figure to finding a solution. As head of the District Council’s Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety, she has organized numerous town hall meetings with police and public safety officials in every ward to hear what local community residents and leaders want to be done. Most businesses in Georgetown are asking for increased police presence in the form of regular neighborhood visits and stop-ins.
Georgetown, City’s Top Commercial District
There is no refuting that Georgetown is back commercially. It was named the top destination for all of Washington, D.C., for shoppers and diners and family outings. Most all of the empty stores along M Street and Wisconsin Avenue NW have either been filled with new stores and eateries or are contracted to be so.
Construction projects especially on Prospect Street — a burgeoning French bistro, coffee and ice cream destination, just off of Wisconsin Avenue are open or about to open with luxurious new condos and other shopping offerings. The big news of December 2023 was that Barnes and Noble will return to its highly popular former three-story store location at Thomas Jefferson and M Streets.
Aside from attractive businesses, commercial real estate owners and agents, and the Georgetown Business Improvement District, credit for the comeback of Georgetown certainly can also be given to the work of the volunteer-led non-profits of Georgetown. These include the Citizens Association of Georgetown and the Friends groups of Georgetown parks: Rose, Montrose, Volta and the Waterfront.
CAG is focused on public safety, historic preservation and zoning, urban landscaping and public health and manages a block-by-clock neighborhood captains crime watch network.
Georgetown Main Street’s Executive Director Rachel Shank is a driver of numerous new Wisconsin Avenue marketing events, improvement grants for small businesses and welcoming parties for new businesses.
On top of that, some of our favorite hangouts celebrated landmark birthdays. Happy 90th anniversary to Martin’s Tavern!
Streatery and Transportation Flow Studies
Of course, all the new attention to Georgetown means the now years-long concerns about parking and safe and easy accessibility to Georgetown’s businesses amenities and highly desirable walkable residential blocks have only grown.
The expanded sidewalks that saved so many small Georgetown eateries with accessible outdoor eating areas during the pandemic, in 2023 faced growing complaints that they had become unsightly, dangerous and unnecessary — occupying greatly needed street parking. Traffic gridlocks on both main and side streets were also becoming unbearable.
So, Georgetown bowing to its wonky governmental side, commissioned two studies to decide what to do. The Georgetown Business Improvement District was granted funds for a two-year study on streateries and expanded sidewalks that a group of former Georgetown advisory neighborhood commissioners (ANC2E) opposed. In addition, the D.C. Department of Transportation announced a year-long transportation study to identify and improve problematic traffic flows including stop signs and one-way streets exclusively in Georgetown residential areas.
MacArthur Public High School
In the 2022 Georgetowner Town Topics year-end review, we reported that not only had plans for the development of a new comprehensive D.C. Public high school been announced mid-year, but that it was expected to be completed and open by Fall of 2023. And that’s exactly what happened. It is the first comprehensive public high school in 50 years.
On Aug. 28, 2023, D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Lewis Ferebee joined inaugural Principal Harold McCray, Jr. and his all-new faculty to welcome some 200 ninth-graders to the first class of the high school rebuilt on the grounds of the old Georgetown Day School at 4530 MacArthur Blvd. NW. Students ,who almost all graduated from Hardy Middle School on 35th Street, decided they would keep the default name MacArthur High School and chose an imposing mammoth as its mascot. Most students ride local busses to the campus (no student cars allowed) with an average half-hour commute.
Georgetown Involved in International Affairs
Georgetown plays a unique role in U.S. international affairs due to the presence of several embassies within Georgetown itself and the engagement of their ambassadors in Georgetown enterprises, projects and events. Last year’s report mentioned the intimate presence of the Ukrainian Embassy. Sweden’s embassy at the waterfront is always a source of events, art exhibits, rooftop movies in the summer, the Christmas St. Lucia carols at Christmastime and debates on European defense and NATO as Sweden becomes its latest member.
The poignant mural of life-size photos of over a dozen wrongfully detained Americans in the alleyway between 31st and 30 streets on the north side of M St. was the 2023 site of three ceremonies celebrating the return of several detainees, including pro basketball star player Brittney Griner. By year’s end, the mural had faded — as the artist intended — and was being removed as planned. In December, Georgetown University after some initial negative incidents, turned the debate between Jewish and Muslim students and professors into a model of campus civil free speech.
3 Slowed-Down Recreation Projects: Jelleff, Ellington Field and Volta Park
Three surprise disappointments of 2023 were the sudden slow-down of funded and largely anticipated recreation projects by the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation: Jelleff Recreation Center’s long-planned rejuvenation from a handicap-users upgrade project of $7 million to a full-on renovation project funded at $28.8 million in 2022. But suddenly, plans for the two-court, three-story community recreation center with a renovated swimming pool seem to have been put on hold in 2023. Same with the renovation of the two old field houses plus track and stadium improvements at Ellington Field. Only the $700,000 project to redo drainage and the diamond at Volta Park and add a path to the north end of the park (“Is it a playing field or a park?” was DPR’s big question at its last meeting) seems to be happening on time, on budget and maybe done by autumn of 2024.
New Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners
Almost all the highly engaged commissioners of Georgetown’s ANC 2E — that usually meets on the first Monday of every month — were new in 2023. The only veterans from 2022 were Chairperson Gwen Lohse and Kishan Putta. The other commissioners — all male except for one — are terrific including two very engaged student representatives from Georgetown University. Their names and contact numbers can be found at https://anc.dc.gov/page/advisory-neighborhood-commission-2e.
So, Happy New Year! We are no doubt looking forward to an intensely interesting and active 2024 in Georgetown and Washington, D.C. — and the upcoming presidential election.
