Robert Devaney • October 5, 2015

One of Georgetown’s most enduring and popular events is upon us and helps to kick the fall season into gear. The 22nd Annual Taste of Georgetown will be ready for sampling this Saturday, Oct. 3, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The gourmet day offers more than 60 tastes from more than 30 Georgetown restaurants as well as a Craft Beer & Wine Garden. The foodie scene will be set along K Street, right next to the Georgetown waterfront, between Wisconsin Avenue and Thomas Jefferson Street.

Presented and sponsored by the Georgetown Business Improvement District, the Taste of Georgetown was started by Grace Episcopal Church and its rector David Bird, more than 20 years ago, and one of its congregant Robert Egger, who later founded D.C. Central Kitchen. The event benefits the services for the homeless of the Georgetown Ministry Center, which is headquartered at the church.

There was a media tour last week to set the scene with visits to five Georgetown eateries. Food writers sampled the perfectly sweet Olivia Macaron (next to Dean & Deluca on M Street), the about-to-arrive Chaia on Grace Street with locally sourced food for its tacos and juices from Misfit Juicery, the classic Tony and Joe’s Seafood Place (oysters and lobsters, baby, from chef David Stein; fish tacos for the Taste) at Washington Harbour, the almost year-old Chez Billy Sud, with its delicious pastries, sausages or sauteed trout, on 31st Street and the bright Eno Wine Bar, next to the Four Seasons Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue, with easy flights of wine and charcuterie from Stachowski’s and other spots nearby.

With kid attractions and other tables to check out as well, Saturday’s event is free to attend with tickets at $5 for one tasting or $20 for five tastings (online presale only), according to the Georgetown BID. Craft Beer and Wine Garden tickets are $4 for one tasting or $10 for three (also available day-of). Tickets are available onsite at the event for $5 per tasting and $4 per Craft Beer & Wine Garden tasting and will be cash only.

Presale early bird ticket deals are available at www.tasteofgeorgetown.com. Check out the Taste of Georgetown on Facebook as well as using #TasteofGeorgetown across social media. Also, visiting Parking Panda for parking reservations for a discount. For general information on getting to Georgetown, D.C., visit www.georgetowndc.com/gettinghere.

With the Taste of Georgetown, gourmands can get a great sense of each place in a matter of hours. Think of it as an early and long lunch or a very early dinner.
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Robert Devaney • October 1, 2015

The District of Columbia is turning at least 35 parking spaces into mini-parks for the annual parking-place-to-public-space event, known as Park(ing) Day, held on the third Friday of September.

With the help of the Georgetown Business Improvement Development, Georgetown has taken on the parklet project, allowing residents, designers and businesses alike to construct their very own public space. Throughout D.C.’s neighborhoods, other BIDs and businesses are involved.

Georgetown businesses are in with the neighborhood’s BID to set up a temporary space outside: Baked & Wired, 1052 Thomas Jefferson St. NW; Luke’s Lobster, 1211 Potomac St. NW; the Urban Land Institute along with the Foundry Building, 1055 Thomas Jefferson St. NW.

According to the Georgetown BID, here’s what happening Friday at Georgetown’s one-day-only parkets:

“Popular local bakery and coffeehouse Baked & Wired plans an interactive parklet, designed to encourage community gathering and conversation. The space will include reclaimed railroad tracks as well as fresh plants and grass; buckets filled with chalk encourage visitors to draw or write messages in the ‘park.’  

“The Foundry Building, owned by JBG, will host complimentary refreshments from Canal Cafe and short yoga demonstartions from CorePower Yoga from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 

“The Urban Land Institute parklet will encourage visitors to relax and have fun, while learning about ULI and our mission to ‘create better places.’ The parklet design is inspired by ULI’s Building Healthy Places Toolkit, and is constructed of modular shipping palettes configured into living ‘green’ walls, recycled carpet tiles, a one-hole mini-golf course, and unique site furniture for lounging and working.

“Visitors will also have the opportunity to play Urban Plan, ULI’s innovative city planning and development game, which captures the complex trade-offs and challenging issues of land-use decisions via an engaging game of Legos.”

Also significant for this day-only event is the full participation by the District Council for the first time. In a release, the Council stated: “This year, spearheaded by the Maryland-D.C. Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, Washington Parks & People, and the D.C. Council, the event will convert all 13 Councilmember parking spots in front of the John A. Wilson Building (1350 Pennsylvania Ave. NW) to temporary parks on Friday, Sept.18, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.”
 
The Council will host the Nature Conservancy, Washington Parks & People and other participating organizations, including D.C. UrbanGreens, Living Classrooms Foundation, the Anacostia Watershed Society and the Washington Area Bicyclist Association to make Friday the District’s largest involvement in PARK(ing) Day yet. 

 Park(ing) Day’s inception in San Francisco 2005, originated with Rebar Art Studios desire to inspire people to reimagine the environment and their place in it. Its vision is to convert meter (or zone-restricted) spaces temporarily into public parks, thus generating new forms of communal space. What started as a single locale has launched into a global movement with more than 100 cities on over four continents involved. Visitors can learn more about the Park(ing) Day project at www.parkingday.org.

Here is the list of all Washington, D.C., participants, according to the District Department of Transportation:

American Public Health Association, 720 I St. NW

American Society of Landscape Architects, 636 I St. NW

BicycleSPACE, 2424 18th St. NW

D.C. Council-Nature Conservancy-Washington Parks & People, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave. NW

Department of Parks and Recreation, 1250 U St. NW

Gensler/Golden Triangle BID, 2020 K St. NW

Georgetown BID/Baked & Wired, 1052 Thomas Jefferson St. NW

Georgetown BID/Luke’s Lobster, 1211 Potomac St. NW

GoDCgo, 1201 G St. NW

HKS Architects Inc., 1200 K St. NW

Island Press, 2000 M St. NW

JBG, 1055 Thomas Jefferson St. NW

JBG, 1200 New Jersey Ave. SE

JBG, 955 L’Enfant Plaza SW

Lee and Associates, 638 I St. NW

Mayor’s Office on Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs, 500 I St. NW

NoMa BID/Ayers Saint Gross, 1200 First St. NE

NoMa BID/Carpe Librum, 1551 First St. NE

NoMa BID/DoTankDC, 1200 First St. NE

NoMA BID/JBG/Washington Animal Rescue League, 1222 First St. NE

NoMa BID/REI, 1151 First St. NE

NoMa BID/Senate Square, 2001 I St. NE

Oculus, 1440 P St. NW

Office of Planning, 1100 4th St. SW

Office of the State Superintendent of Education, 810 First St. NE

Project for Public Spaces, 1612 K St. NW

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, 1400 New Hampshire Ave. NW

The Trust for Public Land, 204 3rd St. SE

Urban Land Institute, 1025 Thomas Jefferson St. NW

Washington Area Bicyclist Association, 3407 14th St. NW

Washington Area Bicyclist Association, 605 Division Ave. NE

Woolly Mammoth Theater Company, 641 D St. NW

ZGF Architects, 1830 K St. NW

Zipcar, 2221 I St. NW

Robert Devaney •

“Light the City — Georgetown,” a community celebration of unity and faith, was held the evening of Sept. 12, beginning with a Vigil Mass at Holy Trinity Catholic Church. Afterwards, “human luminaries” with candles walked from the west side of Georgetown to a gathering at Epiphany Catholic Church on the east side of town, praying at or visiting churches along the way.

Participating churches included Christ Church, Dumbarton United Methodist Church, Epiphany Catholic Church, First Baptist, Georgetown Lutheran, Georgetown Presbyterian, Georgetown Visitation Monastery Chapel, Grace Episcopal, Holy Trinity, Jerusalem Baptist, National Community Church and St. John’s Episcopal.

Robert Devaney • September 22, 2015

As far as real estate agent Jamie Connelly is concerned, the property for sale at M Street and Potomac Street is a “beautiful, hidden gem.” It sits across from Dean & Deluca an other prime Georgetown spots, one block from the historic Washington intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street.

Connelly is right, of course, as the property units sit atop a corner of Eton Court and have an unobstructed of the M Street bustle below. And, as the owner Lincoln Property Company makes clear, “this commercial property is centrally located in Georgetown’s prime business on the west side and a very short walk to all the fine restaurants and boutiques of Georgetown.”

The units in question — 1200 Potomac St., NW, as well as 3277 M St., NW — are three floors of office space, totaling 7,800 square feet, with one unit sporting windows on three sides.

There may be bigger, newer spots in town, but these Eton Court units provide proof to the real estate adage: “Location, location, loca- tion.” After all, the new occupants will get a chance to check out all the new retail along M Street, including the new stores at the former Georgetown Park, and also go to Prospect Street for a taste of Peacock Cafe, Morton’s Steakhouse, Cafe Milano or even Booeymonger’s.

“Currently used as executive offices for 30 to 35 staff persons, this property is an incredible opportunity to reconvert the office spaces back into four luxury townhouses with parking in the heart of Georgetown,” Connelly says. “Built in 1980, this building has wonderful light-filled interior spaces ready for your business or live- work, in-town retreat.”

Whether the units at 1200 Potomac St., NW, are sold or leased, someone or business could get a very nice Christmas bonus this year and a new place to move into in 2013.

To add to his seasonal appeal, Connelly and his colleagues at Lincoln Property Company are hosting a Dec. 6 reception, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., at the property to benefit Georgetown Ministry Center, led by Gunther Stern. (GMC is located at 1041 Wisconsin Ave., NW.)

For more information, call Lincoln Property Company and Jamie Connelly at 202-491-5300.

Robert Devaney • September 18, 2015

Concern about excessive airplane noise over Georgetown, the Palisades and other neighborhoods on the northern bank of the Potomac River has united sometimes disagreeing groups to the point of going to court.

Over the past year, complaints have mounted as with more airplane flights have gone in and out of Reagan National Airport. Some airplanes’ routes have shifted north over Northwest Washington instead of flying straight along the river to and from National Airport — and “NextGen” flight paths are proposed to shift north.

Neighborhood groups and Georgetown University petitioned the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Aug. 24 “for review of final decisions by the Federal Aviation Administration (‘FAA’) to permanently implement certain flight arrival and departure routes at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (‘DCA’) in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (‘NEPA’) and with addressing — and, in some cases, without even responding to — significant concerns raised by Petitioners and their members,” according to a Petition for Review, obtained by The Georgetowner.

Petitioners include Georgetown University, the Citizens Association of Georgetown, Burleith Citizens Association, Foxhall Citizens Association, Hillandale Citizens Association, Colony Hill Citizens Association, Palisades Citizens Association, Foogy Bottom Citizens Association and Georgetown University Student Association.

Respondents include the FAA and its administrator Michael Huerta.

The petition continues: “The University, its resident students and the Neighborhoods and their residents have suffered — and will continue to suffer — significant, adverse impacts as a result of the FAA’s flight arrival and departure routes. FAA’s decision with respect to the flight arrival and departure routes was finalized, published and implemented by the FAA on June 25, 2015, as reflected on the list of route decisions on FAA’s online flight procedures data portal.”

According to some neighborhood leaders, “Since the summer of 2013, some of the communities started noticing increased noise and vibrations from flights going in and out of Reagan over their homes. It has become intolerable since then and well into what used to be regarded as ‘curfew hours’ in D.C. from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Because Reagan National Airport (DCA) is no longer deemed a regional airport and because of multiple exceptions to the perimeter rule, it has available slots 24/7, which are starting to be used by multiple airlines. Flights now start as early as 5:20 am and arrivals are well past midnight with greater frequency.”

“The petition for review filed on behalf non-profit neighborhood groups,” another leader continued, “seeks to overturn certain arrival and departure routes approved by the FAA for National Airport.  The basis for this claim is that the FAA relies upon an environmental assessment drafted in 2013 and a subsequent finding of no significant impact without any actual analysis of the recently published routes that have begun to be used this spring and summer or the cumulative effects of other decisions which have increased traffic and noise. Aircraft noise sensors were not moved to new alignments for arrival and departure routes.  The 2013 environmental assessment is not a valid basis on which to publish these new routes.”

One community activist told The Georgetowner, “The MWAA [Metropolitian Washington Airport Authority] and the FAA have not been good neighbors and we believe they have sought to obfuscate the issues we have presented to them since our first meeting. . . . Rather than listening to the community, the FAA has doubled down on its new routes. We understand that the agency plans to implement more routes over more parts of D.C. through the remainder of 2015. We are extremely concerned about this, and we hope other neighborhoods throughout the District will join us in seeking a resolution of this matter.”

Robert Devaney • September 17, 2015

Gtown Bites, the eatery on O Street near Wisconsin Avenue, will hold a benefit dinner on Wednesday, Aug. 26, for the Pawnee Nation and Kiowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma.

Nasser Zakikhani, owner of Gtown Bites, said that he knows some of the tribal leaders, whom he met during his information technology work at the National Park Service a few years ago, and is excited to stage the special event.

“Collected revenue excluding the cost will be donated to the tribes,” Zakikhani told the Georgetowner. “There will also be genuine native offering of arts and craft to purchase which will help to increase the donation for the cause.”

The cost of the unique dinner is $35 per person. Price includes the full courses, special wine, beverages and tax. Seating will begin 7 p.m. with dinner soon thereafter. Entertainment will include drummers performing through the night. Due to limited sitting, reservations are required. The dinner may already be sold out. Call 202-450-3320 for more information.

Below are some details of the menu as well as information about the tribes, as provided by Gtown Bites:

= American Indian Fry Bread, a deep fried native bread served at meals;

= American Indian Skillet Bread, a dry cooked bread cooked in a skillet served at meals;

= Kiowa Indian Tacos, a base of fried bread with taco dressings (a national favorite among Kiowas and other tribes in Oklahoma);

= Pawnee Corn Soup, buffalo soup cooked with dried corn from Pawnees in the Central Plains;

= Iroquois Corn Soup, a soup of New England natives consisting of beans and corn;

= Steam Fry, buffalo cooked to tenderness in a gravy cooked by many tribes;

= Lakota Wojape, a mixed berry dessert served following menus of the Lakota people in the areas of North and South Dakota.

= Beverages and wine will be served throughout the dinner.

The Pawnees and Kiowas were originally located in what would become the north Central Plains states, from Nebraska to the Canadian  border. To further develop the West to reach California with the locomotive and during the Gold Rush, the U.S. government fought and later removed the Pawnees and the Kiowas to Oklahoma, where they remain today. Many other tribes received the same treatment. Oklahoma is home to almost 40 federally recognized Indian tribes. Today, these tribes function under their own sovereign governments with the United States as authorized by treaties signed by their ancestors.

Gtown Bites, which has provided lunches for the Georgetown Senior Center at St. John’s Church and coffee and sweets for the cat cafe, Crumbs & Whiskers, is located at 3206 O St. NW.

Robert Devaney •

When a foreign dignitary comes to Washington, D.C., it is always kind of a big deal, depending on the nation and its ties to the United States. But when King Salman of Saudi Arabia came to the nation’s capital Thursday, Sept. 3, he arrived in a big way. He and his family along with the Saudi entourage of diplomats and other officials reportedly reserved all 222 rooms of the Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown through Saturday, Sept. 5.

Traffic was completely halted for blocks in each direction along Pennsylvania Avenue and M Street for more than an hour Thursday evening. Pedestrians stopped and stared on the motorcade. Three protestors against the policies of King Salman and the Saudi government argued with supporters in front of the hotel. The D.C. police and Secret Service handled it all in stride.

The 79-year-old king was received at Joint Base Andrews by Secretary of State John Kerry, who accompanied him to the hotel, which is about seven blocks from his Georgetown home.

With on-again-off-again closures at intersections, traffic was congested around and beyond the hotel—all those black Mercedes sedans and SUVs parked nearby and on the residential streets did not help, either.

Salman met President Barack Obama at the White House Friday to talk over an array of international issues that affect the U.S. and Saudi Arabia: Iran, Syria, Yemen, terrorism and the oil market, for a start. Of late, America’s relationship with the oil-rich desert kingdom has been a little flat because of Obama’s criticism of some Mideast governments and his push for the nuclear deal with Iran. Salman, who assumed the throne in January, did not attend a conference of Gulf nations, held at Camp David in May.

However, an anticipated $1 billion arms deal with the Pentagon might make this historic, first-ever visit to the U.S. by Salman as the King of Saudi Arabia and Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques very nice indeed.

Also very nice indeed were the regal arrangements at the Four Seasons, known for its luxury accommodations and services, which hit a new high this week.

“Everything is gold. Gold mirrors, gold end tables, gold lamps, even gold hat racks,” a Four Seasons patron informed Politico’s Kate Bennett, who further wrote: “Red carpets have been laid down in hallways and even in the lower parking garage so that the king and his family never have to touch asphalt when departing their custom Mercedes caravan.”

Those in the hotel’s Bourbon Steak restaurant during the afternoon of Sept. 3 had their lunch disrupted by a Secret Service sweep. Security dogs were brought in, and patrons were wanded.

On Friday, a women, waiting to cross the blocked street as the king’s motorcade left for the White House, said she just wanted to get to her appointment at the hair salon George in the Four Seasons complex. On the same sidewalk, demonstrators for the Southern Movement in the Yemeni Civil War thanked the Saudi king for his support.

Meanwhile, the disruption with traffic and of small groups of supporters and protestors continued, and on the front of the Georgetown hotel, instead of the customary Canadian flag in the center between the U.S. and the D.C. flag, the Saudi Arabian flag was hoisted. That should come as little surprise as Al-Waleed bin Talal, a member of the Saudi royal family, is a co-owner of Four Seasons Hotels, Inc. [gallery ids="102303,127343,127330,127323,127313,127336,127349" nav="thumbs"]

Robert Devaney •

On Monday, August 29, 2005, at 6:10 a.m., Hurricane Katrina made landfall at Buras, Louisiana … But the greatest destruction to New Orleans, and the great loss of life, did not come directly from the storm.” So begins Georgetown University Associate Dean Bernie Cook in his book “Flood of Images: Media, Memory, and Hurricane Katrina.”

At the 10th anniversary of America’s costliest natural disaster, Katrina is remembered for leaving more 1,000 dead in the New Orleans area, flooding 80 percent of the City of New Orleans and captivating us with scenes of desperation and desolation. Yet there is even more to it than that: this great deluge would prove a breach of faith.

Last week, in his serene and simple office on the main campus of Georgetown University, Cook seemed worlds from the sorrow, damage and death that was Hurricane Katrina 10 years ago this month.

“Most remember Katrina from the TV news,” Cook says. “Ninety-nine percent saw it as a media event.” Finger-pointing began as soon as the storm hit — the levees breaking, government disorganization, press misinformation. He dismisses the blame game with a wave: “Everyone is culpable … at every level, people were squabbling.”

Cook sees his book as offering “both analyses and intervention into the remembering and forgetting of Katrina and the flooding of New Orleans.”

The event and its stories hit the professor — an associate dean of Georgetown College and its director of film and media studies — on many levels. He is a native of New Orleans, he went to the Jesuit High School of New Orleans and his father is a retired professor at Loyola University. To complete the circle, Cook has a blog and has produced short films on social justice.

“Flood of Images” focuses first on CNN, Fox News and NBC News. Cook shows how TV news reporting can be pre-produced, as it were — pro-filmic or pro-televisual — ready for the latest information to be sent through its standard template. The TV crews went to the easiest places 10 years ago, the Business District and the French Quarter, neither of which were seriously flooded. “They followed their playbook at first, and then they saw the Ninth Ward,” he says.
Cook cites the work of Martin Savidge, Shepard Smith and Brian Williams — when it worked and when it was hyperbole or just plain wrong. He points out how correspondents might dress as if they were survivors, then simply return to their luxury hotel rooms. He repeats the phrase: “This is not Iraq. This is not Somalia. This is home.” America could not believe how bad things had gotten after the storm left and moved north.

The stick-to-it-ness of film and TV documentaries, which Cook calls “another way to see, more detailed, more personable,” is discussed in contrast to the TV news approach of hitting a story then quickly moving on. Examined are Spike Lee’s “When the Levees Broke” and “If God Is Willing and Da Creek Don’t Rise,” Tia Lessin’s and Carl Deal’s “Trouble the Water” and Dawn Logsdon and Lolis Elie’s “Faubourg Treme.” Cook also looks closely at the HBO drama “Treme.”

One of the most fascinating parts of the book is the chapter, “We Were Not on the Map,” which explores “A Village Called Versailles,” about the Vietnamese community of New Orleans East.

Ten years ago, Cook was on hand when Georgetown University accepted 55 students from Loyola University and Jesuit High School. His father — still a professor at Loyola in 2005 — was at Georgetown to help orient the transplanted students.

“We knew the hurricane was coming,” Cook recalls. “Registration was around Aug. 25. There was no access to records. We took them at their word.” Many students were sent to states far away from their homes, part of what has been called the largest migration in American history. “The very continuance of these institutions [in New Orleans] was in question,” Cook says.

A Georgetown student who majored in English — favoring Southern writing and loving film — and went on to get a Ph.D. from U.C.L.A., Cook wrote his dissertation on action-film heroes. Back on the Hilltop as head of film studies, he lists movies involving some of the school’s students: “The East,” “Rebirth,” “Jesus Camp” and “Another Earth.”

And his favorite movies? Well, that’s like asking … but Cook threw out a few: “Taxi Driver,” “Chinatown” and “Thelma and Louise.” In fact, Cook is editor of “Thelma & Louise Live! The Cultural Afterlife of an American Film.”

The professor and film lover continues his look at Katrina with a university symposium, “Katrina@10,” on Oct. 22 and 23, with “film screenings, musical performances and thoughtful panels.”

However one views the hurricane and its aftermath, it is a journey through images, sounds and intentions, mediated or not. And the engaging and incisive Cook — informed by his Jesuit education to question the meaningfulness of things and seek social justice — is an excellent guide for that journey.

Robert Devaney •

Free People, a Bohemian chic-inspired apparel and retail store that sells women’s clothing and accessories, will open its first store in D.C. – at 3009 M St., NW – on Friday, Aug. 21.

It is also throwing a grand opening party, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Aug. 21, with refreshments as well as free styling sessions in the new store, which sits between Sprinkles Cupcakes and Hu’s Shoes. The first 50 guests to arrive will get a free gift (we hear it will be a Free People tote bag).

Owned by Philadelphia-based Urban Outfitters, Free People has more than 81 boutiques in the U.S. and two in Canada. It has six stores in the Washington area. [gallery ids="102294,127655,127649,127667,127676,127660" nav="thumbs"]