Peter Murray • December 5, 2014

The United Nations recognized innovators and policymakers with the organization’s “highest environmental accolade,” the Champions of the Earth Award, at the Smithsonian American Art Museum & National Portrait Gallery. Winners included President Tommy Remengesau, Jr. of Palau, President of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, environmental scientist Robert Watson, founder of the Ocean Clean-up Initiative Boyan Slat, founder of Adeso Fatima Jibrell, conservationist Sylvia Earle, Nobel laureate and ozone scientist Mario Molina and the U.S. Green Building Council. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UN Goodwill Ambassador Gisele Bündchen were on sight to congratulate award winners and bring awareness to environmental issues. [gallery ids="101939,136000,135987,135992,135996,136004" nav="thumbs"]

Peter Murray • November 19, 2014

Charlottesville, Va., is a natural and cultural small-town treasure that is best enjoyed in the fall. The Charlottesville fall experience begins with the journey, a drive straight down Route 29. As you escape D.C.’s suburbs, 29 opens onto lush meadows, rolling farmland – now framed in fall colors – and, eventually, views of blue mountains.

Be sure to book a hotel near the historic downtown mall. The charming strip features a movie theater, an ice rink, countless trendy bars and restaurants and a large pavilion for free concerts. Maybe you’ll be lucky and cross paths with a big name like Bruce Springsteen, Passion Pit or Phoenix, all of whom have played the pavilion in recent years.

Best of all, Charlottesville’s downtown mall is open to pedestrian traffic only, making it a good destination for simply hanging out and enjoying the passing scene.

When you get to town, head for the University of Virginia. Take a self-guided tour and get lost in a maze of Thomas Jefferson’s wondrous neoclassical architecture, marked by white columns and red Virginia brick. With a Frisbee, you can make the most of the majestic Lawn, bordered by rustic dorm rooms constructed in the early 1800s. The rooms have fireplaces, but no restrooms or showers, so look out for students rushing back from the bathroom in the cold in their towels.

If you’re in Charlottesville on a Saturday this fall, check out the university’s prepsters in their coats and ties and their Lilly Pulitzer sundresses – which come out no matter the temperature – on Scott Stadium’s grass hill. UVA’s team has a so-so record this season, but the game is as much about people-watching as sport.

From there, you can take a quick drive up to Jefferson’s home, Monticello, a beautiful estate that overlooks the entire town, inspiring Charlottesville’s cult of the third president. The property offers lessons in history, mechanics, architecture and more, with a sumptuous mansion, slave quarters and exhibits featuring some of Jefferson’s self-made gadgets.

After learning about one of the country’s founding farmers, visitors can follow the Monticello Wine Trail, a string of vineyards and wineries that leads to the Blue Ridge Mountains. Taste some of the best reds and whites on the east coast with stops at Pippin Hill Farm and Winery, Blenheim Vineyards and even Trump Winery.

If you’re traveling to Charlottesville between Nov. 14 and 23, seek out the Cider Week specials, including cider cocktails at the Petit Pois restaurant, free tastings at the Market Street Wineshop and a workshop on making cider at home at Fifth Season Gardening. More information is available at www.ciderweekva.com.

Get down to Charlottesville before winter’s chill takes hold. For only a two-hour trip, there is much to behold in this charming and historic university town.

Peter Murray •

Washington Harbour resident Nancy Pelosi was spotted in her purple velour jumpsuit on Nov. 5. No doubt the House Minority Leader, who has lived in Washington Harbour for more than a decade, was blowing off some post-election steam after the Democrats got collectively drubbed in Senate and House races. Regardless, we appreciate a woman who can still rock a velour jumpsuit.

Georgetowner John Fahey moved from the National Geographic Society to become a member of the Board of Regents at the Smithsonian. Fahey lives on Dent Street between 33rd and 34th Streets, the block where a tree crashed into a derelict house a couple summers ago. He led National Geographic’s television ventures and extended the magazine internationally and into the digital age. We wish him luck as he settles in at a somewhat older (1846 vs. 1888) and inherently more bureaucratic institution.

A puppy named Olive has moved into a home on Olive Street in Georgetown. The yellow lab pup moved in with Doug and Laura Stone a few weeks ago and is already making waves in the neighborhood. Olive can be seen taking long walks with dad Doug, frolicking at Rose Park and getting petted by strangers amid the commercial bustle of M Street. She’s a happy little pup who is still getting through the tough parts of puppyhood, chewing on furniture and fingers and going piddle in the house. Her parents assure us she’ll turn out fine.

Peter Murray • November 13, 2014

Italian notebook maker Moleskine is moving in to Georgetown at 3029 M St., NW, in the lead up to the holiday season. The store will open its doors as a pop-up shop until January, when it will close to begin a permanent build out. The Moleskine brand began in 1997, when a small Italian company reintroduced a small leather-bound notebook popularized in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Since then, the company has expanded to sell planners, diaries, sketchbooks, bags, pens and pencils, and other reading and travel accessories. Moleskine products are already sold in the District at outlets like Target, Staples and Barnes & Noble, but this will be the brand’s first brick-and-mortar location in Washington, D.C.

EastBanc helped Moleskine make the move to Georgetown. EastBanc’s vice president, Philippe Lanier said, “Moleskine is a prominent lifestyle brand and will compliment the other lucury retailers in our Georgetown portfolio. Their arrival reinforces the neighborhood’s status as a premier retail destination.”

After the store moves in, Georgetowners will be able to get all their paper goods on one M Street block: Moleskine is moving next door at Paper Source.

Peter Murray • November 6, 2014

As larger and larger swaths of the city’s quadrants are torn down and rebuilt in the name of revitalization, D.C. Preservation League fights to maintain local architectural treasures. Since 1996, the organization has announced an annual list of “Most Endangered Places” to draw attention to sites of historical, cultural and architectural significance that are threatened with alteration and demolition or neglect and abandonment.

The group’s stances are widely publicized in the city, and the league has an outsized impact for its small size. For example, earlier this fall, the organization urged the Historic Preservation Review Board to block the International Spy Museum’s plans to expand the Carnegie Library. The board took the D.C. Preservation League’s advice, causing the Spy Museum to pull out of the site, an “Endangered Place,” altogether. The site is still on the list however, with the league pushing the city to fund preservation for the Beaux-Arts building across from the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

This year’s list also includes two homes on L Street in Shaw that are likely to get swept up in a proposal to build more hotels close to the near-completed Marriot Marquis convention center, a huge portion of relatively pastoral land at the St. Elizabeths East Agricultural Complex, and the Washington Canoe Club and West Heating Plant, both in Georgetown. Other than the boathouse, which is in such a state of disrepair that the National Park Service closed the building, the list consists of buildings that are facing off against gentrification.

It’s a battle that the D.C. Preservation League has seen before, and will see again, as it continues to fight a war on behalf of the city’s aged architecture. [gallery ids="101909,136324,136331,136328" nav="thumbs"]

Peter Murray • October 28, 2014

District residents should vote to legalize marijuana on Nov. 4. Marijuana’s prohibition has gone on for too long, flying in the face of undeniable facts about the drug, and its impact on individuals and society overall.

Alcohol is far more dangerous than marijuana. An alcohol overdose can kill while marijuana overdoses are unheard of. Alcohol use contributes to reckless, aggressive and violent behavior, including drunk driving, domestic violence and rape. Marijuana intoxication, on the other hand, has been shown to reduce the likelihood of violence of the user. Alcohol can be classified definitively as an addictive substance. Marijuana cannot.

In short, alcoholism poses a multitude of serious problems to society. Marijuana, on the other hand, affects mainly smokers, with use promoting voracious appetites for snacks and nature documentaries.

Opponents of legalization will claim that, by legalizing marijuana, the District will be endorsing the drug’s use to children. We argue the opposite. When law codifies a harmful drug like alcohol as legal and marijuana as illegal, people who have tried both drugs lose respect for the law. A loss of respect for the law cultivates more illegal behavior and, potentially, more drug use among teens.

Initiative 71 only legalizes the drug; it does not provide a regulatory framework for the substance’s sale. We urge D.C. Council to work carefully on such a framework as it has for the District’s medical marijuana program. The Council should ensure that marijuana does not fall into the hands of children, that it’s potency be strictly regulated, that drivers can be tested for being high behind the wheel and that the District collect ample tax revenue on this vice. In Colorado, Governor John Hickenlooper was initially opposed to his state’s legalization of the drug. He changed his tune when a state report came out stating that legalization lowered use, especially among teenagers, and has diverted monies that would have gone to gangs towards state coffers.

We should follow Colorado’s example and legalize marijuana.

Peter Murray • October 23, 2014

The District Department of Transportation will close lanes in and around Georgetown next week to conduct a series of bridge and tunnel safety inspections. On Oct. 6 and 7, DDOT will close the right lane of the on-ramp from I-66 to the Whitehurst Freeway. Also on Oct. 6, there will be alternating right lane closures on the Potomac Parkway, both southbound and northbound, under the I-66 ramp.

On Oct. 8, there will be alternating right and left lane closures on Massachusetts Ave. underneath Thomas Circle. DDOT will close lanes on Massachusetts Ave. eastbound before moving to the westbound side of the street.

Traffic controls will be in place to alert motorists as they approach these areas. DDOT is encouraging drivers to be mindful while traveling through these locations while they are under inspection.

Peter Murray •

The D.C. Department of Transportation is holding an open house from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Pinstripes in Georgetown tonight to review current operations, get input from riders and present information about the bus line’s draft transit development plan for the new year. The current draft would reduce overage in much of Georgetown. For example, under the plan the Union Station to Georgetown Circulator would no longer service Wisconsin Ave. north of M Street. DDOT encourages riders and community residents to participate in the meeting to provide feedback on the draft and on the existing system.