We Need a Traffic Cop at Wisc. & M
• April 30, 2015

We miss you, Joe. It has been just about 10 years since reserve police officer Joe Pozell was struck by a distracted driver as he was directing traffic in the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street and later died of his injuries at the hospital. Joe was a true master at his job, and the traffic flow was the better for his efforts. No, driving through Georgetown back then was not a breeze, but it was a bit more manageable. Today, it is safe to call the intersection an absolute nightmare that is damaging the local business community as well as squeezing every drop of joy from commuters and tourists, whether they are behind the wheel of a car, on a bus, bike or on foot.

Traversing this intersection – recognized as one of the best dangerous in the city — can sometimes mean as many as five full light cycles to move a block or so to clear the intersection. It matters little if the driver is going straight, making a left or right turn.

The “why” of the situation is clear. Traffic flow through the intersection is constantly hampered by selfish and inconsiderate drivers blocking the box, distracted pedestrians walking against lights, taxis slowing to a crawl before making a turn as they hunt for customers, buses making their wide turns while everyone works to navigate around double-parked cars and trucks.

A fix that works can be seen the few times a year when traffic cops are on-hand to guide the throngs through this vital intersection. Their presence makes a real difference. A whistle blow and stern look from these traffic officers has the effect of stopping even the aggressive driver from trying to muck things up. Finding a way to fund those cops on a daily basis – at least at the busiest times – must be found, and quickly. It is an all too easy to simply throw in the towel and say traffic in the District is just bad. There’s no argument there; it is bad. But looking back to Joe Pozell with his arms out and directing traffic, as if conducting an orchestra proves that the traffic cop in the street makes all of the difference.

Make All of the Corcoran a Landmark
• April 28, 2015

The college entrance to the Corcoran, on New York Avenue just in from 17th Street, leads to the semicircular Frances and Armand Hammer Auditorium. With its Doric-columned perimeter, it is one of the loveliest small auditoriums in the District.

Above the Hammer, sharing its D-shaped plan, is an inviting exhibition space -– for some years the Corcoran’s art library -– known as the Hemicycle Gallery. A longer climb up the New York Avenue stairs takes you to painting studios under the roof, with copper-framed skylights. It could easily be late-19th-century Paris.

Which makes sense, because Ernest Flagg (1857-1947), architect of the 1897 Corcoran Gallery of Art, knew late-19th-century Paris well. Based on his École des Beaux-Arts training, he designed sequences of amazingly inventive, sometimes breathtaking spaces behind the Corcoran’s formidable marble façade.

Only the most obviously ceremonial of these spaces, and those in the 1925 addition by Charles Platt (1861-1933) –- not the Hammer Auditorium, not the Hemicycle Gallery, not the rooftop painting studios, not the progression of galleries that National Gallery of Art Director Earl “Rusty” Powell famously called “arguably the most beautiful galleries of any museum in the United States” -– are marked in blue on the floor plan that the George Washington University submitted on March 26 to the D.C. Historic Preservation Review Board.

Blue shading indicated the spaces that the university considers acceptable for historic designation. At the March meeting, the nine-member board, chaired by Gretchen Pfaehler, postponed until April 23 the decision whether to extend the designation to part or all of the Corcoran’s interior. (The building’s exterior is already landmarked.)

The Corcoran gave up its independence last year in the face of long-standing financial challenges. GW acquired the 17th Street and Fillmore School buildings and assumed the operations of the Corcoran College of Art and Design (It was announced this week that Fillmore, in Georgetown, is under contract to be purchased by S&R Foundation).

The National Gallery of Art took control of the collection. In the Corcoran’s galleries, it plans to show both contemporary art and works representative of the Corcoran legacy.

This Solomonic division of an important cultural institution was tragic, but not as tragic as if the Corcoran’s landmark building had been sold for commercial development and its collection entirely dispersed. GW and the National Gallery have the potential to be outstanding stewards of the Corcoran’s treasures: the art collection, the 17th Street building and the scholars, studio faculty, art educators and others who made the college a uniquely stimulating place to study art.

We call upon GW, now moving on several fronts to expand its activity in the arts, to respect the 17th Street building as a great work of American architecture, inside and out, while investing in its future as a educational facility for its students and the public.

Get Rid of Greenwashing
• April 9, 2015

This Earth Day, let’s get rid of greenwashing. We’re fed up with companies pretending their products are green to dupe paying customers. Examples abound for all types of greenwashed products in the U.S., from shampoos and detergents, to meats and vegetables, to electronics and clothes, to cars and oil products, and even to plastics (water bottles and trash bags!) and paper products(!).

American consumers are all too eager to buy products with a green sheen, and companies are happy to serve the market with products that deceive with “green” or “natural” labels or packaging design. Consumers are being “greenmailed,” if you will, into buying products that claim to be more environmentally friendly than competitors. Well, they aren’t.

“Natural” and “all natural” mean nothing. Plastics aren’t green. Paper products, unless made primarily with recycled material, are not green. (For example, the super soft toilet paper increasingly found in grocery stores is so soft because it is made from ancient trees that are hundreds of years old.) Shampoos, conditioners, lotions and makeup made with petroleum or coal products are not “natural.” Laundry and dish detergents that contain countless toxic chemicals cannot be “green.” There’s not such thing as a “green” car. Even Priuses and electric cars run on fossil fuel and are manufactured with precious metals often ripped from the earth. Home appliances that save energy are better for the environment than clunker predecessors, but they still use substantial amounts of energy, usually made by burning fossil fuels. The list goes on and on.

As consumers, we expect more from these companies than the way they shamelessly hawk their environmentally degrading products. Companies, please drop the pretenses and be honest about your products’ impact on the environment. Show us a little transparency for the customers who spend millions on your products.

We know companies are hesitant to do this on their own because of American capitalism’s twisted incentives. So, let’s urge them on. Large companies are increasingly responsive through Twitter and other social media outlets. So, let’s call them out and tell them that their “all-natural” dish soaps and pesticides are ruining our waterways, that their paper products are crushing our most pristine forests, that their plastic is poisoning our sea life and that their appliances are burning up our atmosphere. It’s time to kill greenwashing.

Mt. Zion Cemetery Resurrection
• March 26, 2015

Last issue’s cover story about the desecration of Georgetown’s Mt. Zion Cemetery, near the corner of Q and 27th Streets, hit a collective nerve. Many readers sent in letters offering their thoughts.

There was a common theme to all who reached out to us: something needs to be done now and they want to help do it.

Many were shocked that the remains of as many as 4,000 slaves are buried in unmarked mass graves in the small burial ground. They were greatly concerned that so little has so far been done to bring honor to the African American dead who lived, suffered and died as property of their white masters.

As a slight correction to what we wrote in the article, the National Trust for Historic Preservation (not the Historic Preservation Office) has pledged to match Mt. Zion’s $5,000 contribution, bringing a total of $10,000 to the restoration process. While that is a wonderful start, those funds won’t go far. Much more money and loving attention will be needed to bring the site to a condition that the community can be proud of.

Time is an unceasing tyrant. The burial ground is sliding into further decay and what few remnants of the past are still visible will likely be unsalvageable before too many more winters pass.

The will to change is clear. Now a commitment to follow through is crucial for real change to happen. The community as a whole needs to take advantage of the present spirit and not allow these first efforts to become bogged down.

The memory of these Georgetown citizens has been done a great disservice. The dead should be honored, their lives be remembered and the disgrace of their servitude serve as a lesson in history. In the words of Abraham Lincoln: “Let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds.”

The Dumbarton House Headquarters and Museum has reached out and offered to become a point of contact for these efforts and spearhead the movement with staff for clean up of the property, a location for preservation meetings, fundraising opportunities and historical research. You can contact Karen Daly at karendaly@dumbartonhouse.org to get involved.

Forums to Prioritize Mayor’s Budget
• March 11, 2015

Back in the waning days of January, Mayor Muriel Bowser – after having to deal somewhat shakily with the aftermath of a L’Enfant Plaza Metro blaze that resulted in injuries and a fatality and revealed glaring communication problems between Metro and first-responders – proclaimed the following month Fresh Start February.

This might have been decided on one of those days when the sun came out and there weren’t constant dire predictions from the various local storm centers. Whether or not there was a meteorological (or astrological) trigger, the mayor announced that she and staff members would attend at least 30 events throughout the District over the course of the month. These included a successful open house and three Budget Engagement Forums, the first of which was held Feb. 19 at Woodrow Wilson High School. The scheduled Feb. 21 forum at Anacostia High School was moved to Feb. 28 due to the weather. Another meeting was held at Dunbar High School earlier this week.

The Wilson High School event was packed in spite of bitter cold, according to attendees, which says something about residents’ budget concerns. The meetings were intended to gather community input on priorities, with the comments aggregated by budget planners as part of the budgetary decision process. They seemed to be a small-scale version of the citywide community town halls initiated by Mayor Anthony Williams during his tenure.

On the face of things, the forums are a laudatory idea, though they have yet to reveal what’s really on the mayor’s mind when it comes to the budget or, for that matter, her ability to make tough calls on budget matters and on other nagging, won’t-go-away issues (such as affordable housing and homelessness, the continuing safety problems with Metro and the stop-and-go status of streetcars).

One of the decisions she did make – to drop plans to turn the former Franklin School into a contemporary art museum – has been met with anger from many cultural leaders.

We look forward to the results of the community budget meetings and applaud the effort. However, so far, the process seems to be presenting another face and version of Bowser the candidate. She’s handled weather, school closings and snow removal issues well, but when it comes to making other decisions, Mayor Bowser can stop running for the job. She already has it.

Panel Created to Celebrate Rock Creek Park’s 125th
• February 19, 2015

“Find Yourself in Rock Creek Park” is the new theme of Washington’s urban park, founded in September 1890. To help celebrate Rock Creek Park’s 125th birthday, a green-ribbon, 22-member panel of advisors has been formed, coordinated by Rock Creek Conservancy. On the panel are representatives of environmental organizations, such as Audubon Naturalist Society, Casey Trees and the Dumbarton Oaks Parks Conservancy; Tommy Wells of the D.C. Department of the Environment; and local politicians Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) and Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett.

Rock Creek Park is one of the largest urban forested areas in the world, twice the size of New York’s Central Park and the third oldest national park. Rock Creek itself runs 33 miles from Laytonville, Md., to Georgetown, D.C., and the Potomac River. Information on upcoming events will be available at RockCreekPark125.org, soon to go live. There is a mobile app, too.

2015 Challenges for Mayor Bowser
• January 29, 2015

There’s a lot on the plate for new District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser, who outlined some of her plans in a general way at her inauguration earlier this year.

One of he more optimistic expectations was “winning the Olympics in Washington DC  in 2024.” She won’t have to worry about or look forward to that one.  The U.S. Olympic Committee chose Boston to represent the United States as a possible host city.
That being said, Bowser has to grapple with the states of the city, which she accurately described as “both rich with prosperity and rife with inequality.”

She’ll have to deal with the dichotomy—how to spread the prosperity all over the city in terms of well-paying jobs, further improved schools,  affordable housing, protecting and improving the plight of the homeless.

Conversely, while the city is considered prosperous, not to mention hip, cool, and a destination place for not only new residents but visitors, it does have a budget deficit of around $200 million, a matter that will have to be resolved before it’s brought before a strongly GOP controlled  Congress  that’s not apt to be all that sympathetic to the city’s problems, and may not resist the temptation to fiddle with city legislation, even if passed by the council and approved by the mayor.  It’s happened before and there’s no reason to think it won’t again.

That’s why Bowser, who is personally popular, is already promising to work on the District’s relationship with Congress, alongside Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District’s only member of the House of Representative, albeit a non-voting one.
Getting further development into the city is one priority, especially in Ward 8 and Ward 7, both of which suffer from high unemployment.

She still seems, as do residents, lukewarm about the proposed focus on getting streetcars going in the District. So far, the existing project is behind schedule, and has proven unreliable in some ways in test runs, filled with accidents and delays.  Bowser has called Metro the fulcrum of any transportation plan, with a focus on buses.

Transportation is a challenge for a changing city—with an influx of over a thousand residents per month, it’s key to have a coordinated transportation plan to deal with the newcomers, and the resultant lack of parking, increased traffic density (in spite of a marked increase in bicycle use.

While crime statistics have improved under Police Chief Cathy Lanier, recent weeks have shown a marked increase in violence and homicide in the city. The murder rate for 2014 surpassed 2013. 

While every politician who’s run for something or is planning talks about affordable housing,  no one has yet to proffer a true definition of what that means.  Middle class residents are struggling to meet mortgages, or rent prices, while renting stock is becoming increasingly out of the reach of people who don’t make a six-figure salary, or are in the lower double digits in terms of income.

Bowser will also be dealing with a District Council that is headed by  veteran liberal Phil Mendelson, and is packed with a majority of members who have served only five years or less, with two seats still open for special elections this year.
Bowser has already shown that she’s a quick study in the arena of city-wide electoral politics.  School is, of course, out on her cabinet choices, who should be given a chance to show their stuff..

Ellington School Construction Over Budget
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The $139-million Duke Ellington School for the Arts Modernization Project is running over budget, according to the Department of General Services, and may also miss its deadline: the start of the historic high school’s 2016-17 academic year.

Ellington students have moved to Eugene Meyer Elementary School on 11th Street NW.

The construction will expand the 1898 school building at 3500 R St. NW – originally known as Western High School – to 294,900 square feet. The plans include a new atrium, an 850-seat theater and a classroom and limited-use space on the roof.

The school’s main portico will be preserved. Plans for exterior changes to the school still face scrutiny by the Historic Preservation Review Board.

The formal groundbreaking for the modernization project, by then mayor Vincent Gray, D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson, other local politicians and school officials, took place Dec. 19. [gallery ids="101967,135687" nav="thumbs"]

May Start for 2-Year, $21-Million Key Bridge Rehab
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A two-year rehabilitation of Key Bridge is set to begin in May, the D.C. Department of Transportation announced. Corrosive deterioration of the underside of the concrete deck has prompted this round of repairs to the oldest existing bridge across the Potomac River.

Most of the work will occur under the bridge. Other improvements include: new streetlights, strengthened guardrails and painting. According to DDOT, drivers should expect non-rush hour, single-lane closures and pedestrians should expect temporary sidewalk closings. The federal government will pay 90 percent of the cost.

The arched structure is termed “structurally deficient” and has been the backdrop for two speeches by President Barack Obama on the nation’s deteriorating infrastructure. It is named for Georgetowner Francis Scott Key, who wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner” and whose home, now demolished, was on M Street.

Tudor Place’s Buhler to Retire
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Leslie Buhler has announced she will retire at the end of June after 15 years as executive director of Tudor Place.

Since 2000, Buhler has overseen an expansion and updating of the museum’s educational programs, bringing more visitors to Tudor Place from around the District and the suburbs. While mindful of the need for historic preservation, she has directed archaeological investigation on the property and made the house and lawn available for selected events. She also coordinated a master plan.

“I’ve experienced great professional and personal satisfaction in advancing one of the greatest house museums in the nation’s capital, bringing attention to the extraordinary collection and archive it holds, and engaging the public with wonderful historic and cultural resources unique to Tudor Place,” Buhler said.

A national historic landmark on five-and-a-half acres, on Q Street between 31st and 32nd Streets, Tudor Place was completed in 1816 by Thomas Peter and his wife Martha Custis Peter, a granddaughter of Martha Washington. It is noted for its architecture, garden and historic collections, including more than 200 items owned by Martha and George Washington. The estate had only been open to the public for 12 years when Buhler became executive editor.