Starrels, Groszyk, Steingasser, BID, Starks Honored by CAG
• June 27, 2014

Mayor Vincent Gray and Councilmember Jack Evans spoke at the Citizens Association of Georgetown’s annual awards and elections meeting at Dumbarton House May 29. CAG’s annual round of awards had an especially excellent mix of individuals, noted CAG president Pamla Moore.

The prestigious Belin Award was presented to Bill Starrels for his expert and dedicated work in preserving the historic character of Georgetown.

Walter Groszyk was honored with the William A. Cochran Award for “exceptional efforts to protect and enhance the community’s parkland and architectural resources.”

The Charles Atherton Award was given to Jennifer Steingasser, deputy director of the Historic Preservation Office, for “exceptional service by a dedicated public-sector professional for outstanding work preserving and protecting historic Georgetown.”

The Martin-Davidson Award for business persons was presented to Georgetown Business Improvement CEO Joe Sternlieb and BID staff.

A special appreciation award was given to Parking Officer Steven Starks for dedicated and distinguished Service to the Georgetown community. Starks got the biggest applause of the evening.

CAG officers and directors were re-elected by acclamation: Pamla Moore, president; Bob vom Eigen, vice president; Barbara Downs, secretary; John Richardson, treasurer; and directors Karen Cruse, Hazel Denton, Hannah Isles and Luca Pivato. Treasurer Bob Laycock reported on the annual budget, which adds up to about $600,000.
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Actress Tea Leoni Makes Powerful Plea for Syrian Refugee Children
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Actress Tea Leoni — a UNICEF ambassador and star of the upcoming CBS drama, “Madam Secretary” — headlined a June 5 fundraiser, hosted by Samar and Will Langhorne at their Georgetown home to benefit UNICEF’s education programs for Syrian children.

Leoni spoke movingly of her visit to the Za’atari camp — the world’s second-largest refugee camp — in Jordan during an interview with Lynn Stratford of U.S. Fund for UNICEF at the Langhorne home.

For Samar Langhorne, the benefit was personal. Her father was in a Palestinian refugee camp, she told the crowd, and got an education through UNICEF. She, herself, lived in a refugee camp for a time.

Displaced by the civil war in Syria, many Syrians have gone from a well-to-do life to living in a box on the street, Leoni said. At the refugee camp in Jordan, she was struck by the amount of children — “70 percent under the age of 11.” There, “the teenage boys are angry,” she said. “There is no life.”

“Getting kids back in school is urgent,” she said. “There has to be a safe place for children. … We are looking at the potential for a lost generation. … These children may grow up without a country.”

As the humanitarian crisis in Syria enters its fourth year, children continue to be the most vulnerable. According to UNICEF, “the conflict has affected 5.5 million Syrian children, including 1.4 million children living as refugees in the surrounding countries of Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt.”

The one uplifting about the crisis is that “the partnerships are wholly impressive,” Leoni said. She was including, of course, UNICEF — her grandmother was one of the co-founders of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF. Leoni has been a UNICEF Ambassador since 2001 and a national board member of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF since 2006. UNICEF stands for United Nations Children’s Fund, formerly United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund.

We will be seeing a lot more of Leoni in D.C. this fall — at least on television. As a actress, Leoni will be in a lead role that is decidedly Washingtonian. She plays the Secretary of State in “Madam Secretary,” a new CBS drama, set for a September debut.
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D.C. Capella Hotel Loses Chef Jakob Esko to Barcelona
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Just when things were humming along, executive chef Jakob Esko at the Washington Capella Hotel has announced that he is leaving the hotel July 1.

One should not surprised, however, as Esko — who is from Sweden and had his first job in Zurich — has been something of a globe-trotting chef. The company said Esko’s decision to depart was a personal one.

Esko runs the Capella’s Grill Room and Rye Bar. He has been at the Georgtown hotel — which made its debut in March 2013– about one-and-a-half years. Esko has worked at other Capella properties in Singapore, Mexico and Ireland. He also worked for the Ritz-Carlton in Barcelona between 2005 and 2008, where both of his sons were born. His wife Jodi is from Silver Spring, Md., and the couple met in Washington in 1994.

The 49-room boutique hotel on 31st Street next to the C&O Canal and its Grill Room and Rye Bar are a hit with visitors and neighbors alike. It regularly hosts culinary events with the community. Founded by former Ritz Carlton COO Horst Schulze, the company has other Capella hotels and resorts in Singapore, Dusseldorf, Ixtapa and Cabo San Lucas. The company has plans for hotel openings in such places as Bangkok and Russia.

Tony and Joe’s Fetes Tony on His 77th Birthday
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Tony Cibel celebrated his 77th birthday with a couple hundred of his closest friends June 5 at his waterfront restaurant at Washington Harbour, Tony and Joe’s Seafood Place, which marked its 25th year in 2012. Cibel is a native Washingtonian.

Tony Cibel founded Tony and Joe’s with Joe Rinaldi in October 1987 at the newly constructed Washington Harbour. His business projects have expanded since then. Cibel is the patriarch of the Oceanside Management Family of restaurants, which has included the Dancing Crab, Tony & Joe’s Seafood Place, Nick’s Riverside Grille, Kaufmann’s Tavern, Cabanas and the Rockfish. Tony and Joe’s survived the April 2011 flooding at the waterfront that damaged it and several other places. With a re-design, it emerged better than ever.

Party-goers were treated to oysters, shrimp, lamb chops, sauteed soft-shell crabs, split lobster, prime rib and drinks, of course — and, yes, there was dancing.
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Friends of Volta Park Close to $50K Goal
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The Friends of Volta Park completed its annual festive get-together at Georgetown Visitation Prep June 6 with food and drink from 1789 Restaurant and the added fun of a live auction, called by Griff Jenkins of Fox News. It is one of the best neighborly parties in town. Local politicians stopped by as well, including Mayor Vincent Gray and councilman Jack Evans. The group is near its annual goal of $50,000 for Volta Park maintenance and improvement. [gallery ids="141064,141068,141059,141075,141073" nav="thumbs"]

Marion Barry, His Book Tour and a Unique Media Dinner
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“Read the book first,” said Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry, better known as “Mayor For Life,” the title of his autobiography, written with Omar Tyree. Barry was Mayor of Washington, D.C., from 1979 to 1991 and 1995 to 1999, and he was talking about the story of his life and his side of the story.

The colorful and controversial Barry is on a book tour and said of his “Mayor For Life”: “It’s an honest book — with the good, the bad and the ugly — more good than anything else.”

About 20 journalists attended a unique media “on-the-record” dinner with Barry June 20 at Look Supper Club on K Street. It was hosted by proprietor Michael Kosmides and Janet Donovan of Hollywood on the Potomac, and writers and editors got a chance to ask the former mayor questions about his political and personal life.

The 78-year-old Barry displayed the different sides of his personality, saying he was an overcomer and a people person and saw himself as someone fighting to give “help and hope.” He also said he saw himself “as a example to others,” displaying “courage, tenacity and vision.” “That’s Marion Barry in a nutshell,” he said.

As quickly as Barry would note that he has always been a champion for black America, he said: “I should not have gone to that hotel.” He was referring to his January 1990 arrest at the Vista Hotel by the FBI on drug charges. Barry served six months in jail. This is the part of the Barry story the nation recalls and laughs about. Nevertheless, a few years after that, he was re-elected as mayor. Barry’s commitment to the black community runs deep, and it has forgiven him because of his support.

Barry’s answers to the news publications or websites ranged from talking about Christian forgiveness — “70 times 70 times” — to not eating beef and other advice about nutrition. (Barry is a diabetic and was hospitalized last year for a blood infection.)

He gave advice to Bill Clinton, Barry said. “Bill is a overcomer.” There’s no time for “a pity party,” he added. “Correct your mistakes.”

While Barry can offer opinions on reparations (yes, but “not enough support”) or the Washington Redskins (“They should change that name.”), he remembers where he came from. His mother was the strongest influence during his early life. “She gave me stick-to-it-ness,” he said. As for today, of his son Christopher, he said: “I want to be a grandfather before I die.”

Toward the end of the dinner, if we did not already know, he told the media: D.C. will never have “another mayor like Marion Barry.”
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ANC, OGB on N Street, ‘Exorcist’ Steps Condos, Latham Apartments
• June 19, 2014

The Georgetown-Burleith Advisory Neighborhood Commission and the Old Georgetown Board have chimed in over the last two weeks on construction/reconstruction projects that include the old Latham Hotel, set to become apartments or “micro-units”; the old Alexander Memorial Church property at 2709-17 N St., NW, where a conversion and an additional house on the lot are planned; and the new EastBanc condominiums on the site of the Key Bridge Exxon on M Street, next to the “Exorcist” steps and the Car Barn.

ANC 2E opposed an additional house at the N Street church property and increasing the number of units in the old church, though it welcomed the property’s use as residences, adding life to an empty middle-of-the-block. The OGB saw no problem with the church containing three condo units, while the parish hall would become a single-family home. It did not necessarily oppose the addition of another house, but wanted it to be smaller to fit with the historical openness of the lot.

As for the Latham property, the OGB again called for scaling back – specifically, of large windows, a new tower and signage – of the project at 3000 M St., NW. The retail corner in front of the 150-unit building will be demolished, with a new one built to fit in with the commercial space and sidewalk.

Both projects also will come under the purview of the zoning board, which may call for other changes.

At 3601-3607 M St., NW, EastBanc’s Hillside condos, next to the “Exorcist” steps, appear to be reaching the final-refinement stage with the OGB, which did not like the blocky, monolithic design and preferred more pleasing breaks in the design. The concerns of neighbors on Prospect Street, above the gas station site, about the stability of the hill where their homes sit and better coverage of the condo’s rooftop equipment, were heard by EastBanc.

America Salutes the Flag
• June 13, 2014

“. . . May the heaven-rescued land praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation,” wrote Georgetown lawyer Francis Scott Key on Sept. 14, 1814. America had dodged a bullet, bombs bursting in air and the rocket’s red glare 200 years ago.

Key exalted at the sight of the huge American flag, the Star-Spangled Banner, waving at Fort McHenry, Maryland. Unable to pass the fort and attack Baltimore, the British Royal Navy ceased its bombardment and withdrew. Within five months, the War of 1812 was over, and America re-ignited its growth to greatness.

The exaltation of Key and America at the time — which cannot be overestimated — guaranteed Americans’ love of the flag and of the national anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

For Georgetowners, it is personal — Francis Scott Key was a Georgetowner who left his house and large family on M Street, as instructed by the White House, to negotiate the release of William Beanes, who was held by the British. In meeting with navy officers, Key was detained on a British ship near Fort McHenry, because the bombardment was soon to begin. Key witnessed the pounding and shaking the fort took and Baltimore felt.

The plan was to cut the very young nation in half. Remarkably, it was America that declared war on Britain, seen as preventing westward expansion, blocking trade and harassing on the high seas. The war was not going well. Key, a member of the Georgetown Artillery, commanded by Major George Peter of Tudor Place, was at the Battle of Bladensburg– and later witnessed the burning of Washington in August 1814. The morning of Sept. 14, 1814, shone as an amazing reversal of fortune.

Key’s lyrics for the defense of Fort McHenry, printed in a Baltimore newspaper two days after the September confrontation, “went viral” — to use a 21st-century phrase — up and down the East Coast. Immediately popular, “The Star-Spangled Banner” has never lagged in its ability to move Americans.

That flag from 200 years ago is less than three miles away at the Museum of American History from where Key lived in Georgetown.

While the song can take a beating from anyone who sings it, the flag cannot. The museum embarked on a conservation of the flag in 1998. It finally re-emerged in 2008 in a new display and renovated museum. It is one of those things considered sacred by Americans.

Why is the flag supremely important to Americans? Its image over the decades across the nation and the world, across voyages and wars, can move the toughest of us to tears — it is a unifying force for all Americans. More recently, such energy was felt after the September 11 attacks.

“Two hundred years ago, Francis Scott Key, inspired by the sight of the flag’s ‘broad stripes and bright stars,’ wrote a song that gave new significance to a national symbol and started a tradition through which Americans have invested the flag with their own meaning and memories,” said John L. Gray, director of the museum. “It is an honor for the museum to be the home of the Star-Spangled Banner and to preserve it for future generations.”

To observe the time 200 years ago, when the flag and the song proved one of America’s greatest moments, the museum announced that from Flag Day, June 14, through July 6, “the Maryland Historical Society is lending Francis Scott Key’s original manuscript of the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ lyrics, uniting it for the first time with the flag Key saw at ‘dawn’s early light.’ Visitors will be able to see the 30-by-34-foot flag and the manuscript, side-by-side in the banner’s environmentally controlled chamber at the museum.”

One of the citizens who helped with the Star-Spangled Banner conservation in a huge way was fashion designer Ralph Lauren. He and his company donated more that $13 million to complete the work on the tattered, fragile flag, which originally measured 30 by 42 feet. Lauren, whose designs are inspired by Americana and the flag, considers the Star-Spangled Banner “our greatest American treasure.”

For his work, the Smithsonian will honor Lauren three days after Flag Day festivities. On June 17, the Smithsonian noted that “it will present designer Ralph Lauren, son of immigrants, with the James Smithson Bicentennial Medal during a naturalization ceremony welcoming 15 new Americans. The medal recognizes Lauren’s lifetime contributions to American artistry, entrepreneurship, creativity and vision. Lauren also played a leadership role in the preservation of the Star-Spangled Banner.”

“I love this country. I love being an American. My earliest memories of the Star-Spangled Banner was the flag that flew from the flagpole in the school across the street from my childhood home in the Bronx where we played baseball and basketball. I remember pledging allegiance to the flag each morning in school. It was a simpler time, after a world war, when those broad stripes and bright stars stood for our homeland and the freedom and hope it brought to every American,” wrote Lauren in the forward to “The Star-Spangled Banner: The Making of an American Icon.” Such enthusiasm for the flag will continue this Flag Day, as the National Museum of American History celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Star-Spangled Banner with “Raise it Up! Anthem for America.”

––According to the museum, “Artists such as Aloe Blacc, Renée Fleming, Angie Johnson and Brian McKnight are encouraging Americans to take part in the museum’s coast-to-coast celebration in a national sing-a-long event for people to come together and sing their anthem at 4 p.m. EDT. Details are at anthemforamerica.si.edu.”

Across America, many groups are coming together for the celebration — the National Park Service, Little League, Girl Scouts and the Kennedy Center. On the museum’s Mall terrace, Grammy-winning composer Eric Whitacre will conducts a 500-person choir in performance of “America the Beautiful;” MacArthur fellow Francisco J. Núñez will conduct “Lift Every Voice,” with commander and conductor Col. Larry Lang directing the U.S. Air Force Band and Singing Sergeants.

To continue this Star-Spangled summer, this newspaper — which helped to start the foundation which completed the Francis Scott Key Park on M Street in 1993 — invites its readers to send impressions of and moments with the flag to Editorial@Georgetowner.com.

There will also be more stories about the events of the summer of 1814, whether it is the British attack on Washington, the story of James and Dolley Madison, the loss of Key’s house on M Street in 1947 and the ultimate meaning of America’s Second War of Independence, which has led to centuries of peace between the U.S., Great Britain and Canada.

We recommend and will review Steve Vogel’s remarkable book, “Through the Perilous Fight: From the Burning of Washington to the Star-Spangled Banner: The Six Weeks That Saved the Nation.”

Meanwhile, appreciate the ultimate fabric from the War of 1812, our flag, and its song — “The Star-Spangled Banner” — ?”Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’ And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!” [gallery ids="101751,141594,141597" nav="thumbs"]

Graduation Weekend Is Upon Us: Gates, Lew, Case at G.U.; Andres, Milken at G.W.
• June 9, 2014

Graduation ceremonies have just begun for Georgetown University and George Washington University, after American and Howard universities celebrated last weekend with main speakers Katie Couric and Sean “Puff Daddy” Combs, respectively.

Proud parents and graduates can be seen out and about in Georgetown, the West End and Foggy Bottom. Also, about are speakers at the two schools: some famous, others not yet.
At Georgetown, there are former defense secretary Robert Gates and current Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew as well as internet visionary and philanthropist Steve Case. At George Washington, they have chef Jose Andres at main commencement on the National Mall. Andres is known for his restaurants in D.C. as his work on television and advocacy work. Reformed financier Michael Milken will speak at the Milken School, Kurt Newman, M.D., will speak at the medical school.

At Georgetown University, This Weekend: Commencement Speakers, Honorary Degree Recipients

Jacob J. Lew (L’83)
Secretary of the Treasury
Honorary Degree: Doctor of Humane Letters
McCourt School of Public Policy
Thursday, May 15, Healy Lawn, 5 p.m.

Seyla Benhabib
Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy, Yale University
Honorary Degree: Doctor of Humane Letters
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Friday, May 16, Healy Lawn, 9 a.m.

Roger W. Ferguson
President, CEO of TIAA-CREF
Honorary Degree: Doctor of Humane Letters
McDonough School of Business, MBA
Friday, May 16, Healy Lawn, 12:30 p.m.

Marilyn Jordan Taylor
Dean, University of Pennsylvania School of Design
Honorary Degree: Doctor of Humane Letters
School of Continuing Studies
Friday, May 16, Healy Lawn 3:30 p.m.

Guy Consolmagno, S.J.
Astronomer, The Vatican Observatory
Honorary Degree: Doctor of Humane Letters
Georgetown College
Saturday, May 17, Healy Lawn, 9 a.m.

Alan I. Leshner
CEO, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Honorary Degree: Doctor of Science
School of Nursing & Health Studies
Saturday, May 17, Healy Lawn, 12 p.m.

Robert Gates (G’74)
Former Secretary of Defense
Honorary Degree: Doctor of Humane Letters
School of Foreign Service
Saturday, May 17, Healy Lawn, 3 p.m.

Steve Case
Chair, The Case Foundation
Honorary Degree: Doctor of Humane Letters
McDonough School of Business, Undergraduate
Saturday, May 17, Healy Lawn, 6 p.m.

Dr. George Thibault
President, Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation
Honorary Degree: Doctor of Science
School of Medicine
Sunday, May 18, Warner Theater, 11 a.m.

Kenneth Feinberg
Georgetown Law Center Adjunct Professor
Honorary Degree: Doctor of Laws

Joan Biskupic (not speaking), Journalist, Author, “American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia”
Honorary Degree: Doctor of Laws
Law Center
Sunday, May 18, Healy Lawn, 2 p.m.

At George Washington University, This Weekend: Commencement Speakers, Honorary Degree Recipients

Friday, May 16

8:30 a.m. – Columbian College of Arts and Sciences Master’s and Doctoral Programs Celebration
Charles E. Smith Center, 600 22nd Street NW
Student speaker: Margaret Goddard (American studies)
Faculty speaker: David Karpf, assistant professor of media and public affairs

11:30 a.m. – Elliott School of International Affairs Celebration
Charles E. Smith Center, 600 22nd Street NW
David Shambaugh (B.A. ’78), professor of political science and international affairs

3:30 p.m. – School of Business Undergraduate, Master of Business Administration and Doctoral Celebration
Charles E. Smith Center, 600 22nd Street NW
Barry Salzberg,chief executive officer of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (Deloitte Global)

6:30 p.m. – School of Nursing Celebration
Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st Street NW
Maureen P. McCausland, president and chief nursing officer, MedStar Health

7:30 p.m. – School of Engineering and Applied Science Celebration
Charles E. Smith Center, 600 22nd St NW
Kevin L. Kelly, chief executive officer of LGS Innovations

Saturday, May 17

8:00 a.m. – Graduate School of Education and Human Development Celebration
Charles E. Smith Center, 600 22nd Street NW
Carrie Morgridge, Vice President of the Morgridge Family Foudation, and Dr. Cora B. Marrett, Deputy Director, National Science Foundation

12:00 p.m. – Columbian College of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Degree Programs Celebration #1
Charles E. Smith Center, 600 22nd Street NW
Distinguished scholar speaker: Brandon Aversano (American studies)
Faculty speaker: Irene R. Foster, assistant professor of economics

12:00 p.m. – Milken Institute School of Public Health Celebration
Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st Street NW
Michael Milken, chairman of the Milken Institute and Milken Family Foundation

3:30 p.m. – Columbian College of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Degree Programs Celebration #2
Charles E. Smith Center, 600 22nd Street NW
Distinguished scholar speaker: Alexandra Kralick (biological anthropology)
Faculty speaker: Melani McAlister, associate professor of American studies and international affairs

4:00 p.m. – School of Medicine and Health Sciences – Health Sciences Celebration
Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st Street NW
Student speaker

7:30 p.m. – College of Professional Studies Celebration
Charles E. Smith Center, 600 22nd Street NW
Student speaker: Megumi Voight (GSPM’s Strategic Public Relations)
Faculty speaker: Dennis W. Johnson, professor of political management

Sunday, May 18

2:30 p.m. – School of Medicine and Health Sciences – M.D. Celebration
Lisner Auditorium, 730 21st Street NW
Kurt Newman, president and chief executive officer, Children’s National Medical Center

2:30 p.m. – Law School Celebration
Charles E. Smith Center, 600 22nd Street NW
Bruce Sewell (JD ’86), general counsel and senior vice president of legal and government affairs, Apple

Honorary Degree Recipients

• Maudine Cooper is the former president and CEO of Greater Washington Urban League.nbsp; She serves on numerous boards and commissions and has received many awards for her tireless commitment to helping minorities gain employment, education and opportunities for business ownership.

• W. Russell Ramsey (B.B.A. ’81) is chairman emeritus of the GW Board of Trustees, and founder, chairman and CEO of Ramsey Asset Management.

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Potomac Overflows Its Banks at Georgetown, Too
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Great Falls on the Potomac River was at flood stage May 17 and looked wilder than usual. Streams on both side of the river broke their banks, and there were fatalities during the flood.

In Georgetown, the flood gates were up at Washington Harbour over the weekend.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Potomac River at K Street in Georgetown crested around midnight, May 18. On Sunday morning, the river was at 8.8 feet, which is 2.8 feet above flood levels.

In April 2011, flood gates at Washington Harbour during springtime flooding. Water from the Potomac flowed into the riverside complex, shutting down businesses for months. The complex was renovated and upgraded and is more popular than ever.

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