2025 Year in Review in Georgetown
By • January 12, 2026 0 174
Perusal of the 2025 Year in Review leads to one conclusion …
“Georgetown is hot!” Mayor Muriel Bowser said it, city organizations said it, savvy observers said it. Even the Washingtonian wrote that Georgetown was “cool again” (meaning hot).
More than any other neighborhood in Washington, D.C., Georgetown is lined with businesses both long-established and brand-new. High-profile stores such as IKEA, Google and Tesla have chosen Georgetown. The sidewalks and crosswalks of M Street and Wisconsin Avenue are crowded with pedestrians — many toting readily identifiable bags filled with purchases.
While some favorites have closed, there are new eateries offering, for instance, Greek ice cream (Yala) and Italian gelato (Amorino). New restaurants with eager owners from around the globe offer casual meals, both sit-down and takeout — think Yellow or 7th Street Burger. Most are busy day and night.
Cozy restaurant Apéro on P Street — which serves a sumptuous selection of caviars in special trays with mother-of-pearl spoons — is frequented by residents and visiting foodies alike. At CUT by Wolfgang Puck, one finds delectables like grilled bone marrow served in bones and single plates of saffron rice with cheese.
Residents step from well-tended homes on newly replaced brick sidewalks with new streetlights, trimmed trees and cleaned curbs. Georgetown’s major parks have seen additions and improvements — underway if not yet complete — monitored and pushed by neighborhood volunteer organizations in conjunction with city departments.
Speaking of which, a review of 2025 in Georgetown must include recognition of the Georgetown-Burleith-Hillandale Advisory Neighborhood Commission, made up of nine civil, dedicated, reliable and fair elected commissioners — volunteers who are not paid by District government. They meet publicly every month and spend many hours between meetings with various neighbors, spokespersons and bureaucrats. Georgetown business owners, organization heads and residents take their ideas and grievances to ANC 2E. Some say that Georgetown has the best ANC in the city. So a grateful shout-out is due.
Of the hundreds of issues handled by ANC 2E this year, several stand out.
One is streateries, the expanded dining areas occupying sidewalks and parking spots. Supporters credit the streateries with an enlivened dining life in Georgetown. Opponents justly criticize the disappearance of business-front parking for customers and suppliers, as well as the increasing dishevelment of some of the traffic barriers and tent-like overhangs. New citywide and community regulations are being implemented.
Naturally, the old and new issue of parking on residential blocks is another. How to accommodate the desire of residents to park near their homes is an ongoing topic, as is the need for more consistent ticketing of illegally parked vehicles.
A messy, uninviting streatery. Courtesy Georgetown Coalition for Public Spaces.
In October, the Citizens Association of Georgetown held a town hall meeting about the perennial rat problem. Appeals for better garbage storage and collection have now extended to Georgetown’s popular parks, where the best new disposal units cost hundreds of dollars. Plus, how does one enforce the mandated pet poop pickup?
Crime remained a major topic in 2025. Georgetown is especially afflicted with thefts from autos. But there is not a neighborhood that isn’t free of theft of packages from home stoops, tire and car window slashing and sometimes the outright removal of all tires, leaving the car sitting on bricks. Also of continued concern: auto thefts and assaults on pedestrians.
IKEA. Pexels photo by Alexander Isreb.
At the start of the year, if you asked Georgetown residents if they felt safe or felt that their property was safe, you were likely to get a negative reply. But things changed by the end of 2025 for several reasons, including stepped up policing and the (controversial) presence of the National Guard.
There’s other good news. Georgetown’s public schools, including the new high school on MacArthur Boulevard, are full. Student attendance, attention in class and retention are all apparently up, due in part to the no-phones-in-classrooms policy.
The new year will mark a Georgetown milestone: the town’s 275th birthday. Of course, we’ll also be celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence — and the U.S.A. — which will bring millions of visitors to D.C., many of them to Georgetown.
With the embassies of, among others, Ukraine and Venezuela in Georgetown, we will no doubt witness activity in the coming year by supporters and protesters of international developments. On top of that, the upcoming District government elections — the most open in D.C. history — will actively engage many neighborhood residents.
Georgetown, get ready. You are going to be busy.
