Latest News

Georgetowner • October 22, 2015

While the Republicans have had two candidate debates already for the 2016 presidential campaign, Democrats hold their first presidential primary debate Oct. 13. The debate will feature Democratic presidential candidates former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), former Gov. Lincoln Chafee (D-R.I.), former Gov. Martin O’Malley (D-Md.) and former Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.).

CNN will begin its coverage of the debate at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time. Anderson Cooper will be the moderator of the two-hour debate; Dana Bash and Juan Carlos Lopez will also ask questions. Don Lemon will present questions via Facebook.

The following events include some of the debate watch parties in and around the nation’s capital.

= The National Press Club hosts a watch party for the debate at 7:30 p.m. Check out these six-dollar, candidate-appropriate cocktails: “The Hillary, Brooklyn Lager brought to you by a remote server”; “The Bernie, Stolichnaya, with a drop of Vermont Maple Syrup”; “The O’Malley, Irish Coffee (decaf)”; “The Webb, Old Dominion Pale Ale”; and “The Chafee, Sea Breeze.” National Press Club, 14th and F Streets NW, conference rooms. Contact Ruth Mohamed, rmohamed@press.org (Tickets are $15 for non-members and $10 for members.)

= D.C. Democratic State Committee Presidential Debate Watch Party, hosted by Anita Bonds and other Democratic leaders, 8:30 p.m., Barcode, 1101 17th Street NW (free); contact dcdemocraticparty@gmail.com.

= D.C. Young Democrats hosts a watch party at 8 p.m. Local 16, 1602 U St. NW; 202-607-3367 or info@dcyds.org.

= The Rye Bar at the Capella Hotel on 31st Street in Georgetown will be serving an appropriately themed “Pin the Tail” cocktail, which is similar to a Jack Rose. (The cocktail is priced at $16.) Starting at 8 p.m., the bar will be live streaming the Democratic debate.

= Two meetings, one place, one night: 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., the D.C. Latino Caucus host representatives from the new Cuban Embassy on 16th Street for a neighborhood discussion as well as a debate watch party afterwards. (Tickets are $25.) Haydee’s Restaurant, 3102 Mt. Pleasant St. NW.

= Yes You Can Movement Mixer and Democratic Debate Watch, 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m., at Open Gov Hub, 1110 Vermont Ave. NW Suite 500. Contact: https://www.facebook.com/events/899780323391029/.

= Democratic Action 2016 (supporters of Hillary Clinton) hosts a watch party at 8 p.m. and asks for a $20.16 donation to the Democratic Action 2016 political action committee. Hotel Harrington, Harriet’s Restaurant, 436 11th St. NW (202-628-8140) Contact John Zottoli at 703-343-5186 or john.zottoli@gmail.com or Sterling Henry, 202-460-2439 or sterlinghenry52@gmail.com.

= Supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders will hold a watch party at 8 p.m. and say, “D.C.-area Bernie supporters to cheer our guy on and listen to what he and the other representatives of the non-crazy party have to say.” The Manor D.C., 1327 Connecticut Ave. NW; 202-506-7776.

= Supporters of former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley will host a watch party at 8 p.m. at Stetson’s Bar, 1610 U St. NW, upstairs, Blue Sky room. Contact Haley Morris at 301-221-5005.

= Hillary for America Debate Watch Party, 8 p.m., Black Finn, 1620 I St. NW; free.

= The Fairfax County Democratic Committee hosts a party 8 p.m. at Walker’s Grille, 6909 Metro Park Drive, Alexandria, Va. Contacts: info@LeeDems.org or 571-969-2079 or FairfaxDemocrats.org.

= The Democratic Party of Virginia hosts a watch party at T.J. Stone’s, 608 Montgomery St., Alexandria, Va. Contact Morgan Finkelstein at 804-335-0967 or morgan@vademocrats.org.
 

Gary Tischler •

Sunny Sumter, the executive director of the DC Jazz Festival, kicked off the Georgetowner’s second season of its Cultural Leadership Breakfast programs at the George Town Club on Oct. 8.

She came. She talked.

She sang.

A singing speaker is a first for this cultural speaker’s event, but it’s not a rare event for Sumter.  She started out as a singer, although  been with the festival, now in its 10th year,  almost from its beginning with founder Charles Fishman, who was Dizzy Gillespie’s manager for many years. Fishman noticed that Washington, D.C., which had a rich tapestry of jazz history to its name and an abundance of talented jazz musicians and singers, didn’t have a jazz festival worthy of the name and did something about it.  He founded the festival in 2005, and Sumter came on board three years later in 2008.

“Somebody said it might be a good idea if I sang something,” she said with a slight coy note to her voice on Oct. 8. As if somebody would have said no.  “All right then.”

She sang “Better Than Anything,” an upbeat—in tempo and feeling—1963 song by David Buckwheat and lyricist Bill Loughborough, and suddenly Sumter put on her jazz singer mantle, and with casual vibrancy waltzed through a song that, after many witty comparisons, comes up with the not unfamiliar notion that it’s love that’s better than anything.  The song has been sung and recorded by many legends, Lena Horne and Natalie Cole—with Diane Krall—among them, but for a small part of a sunny Thursday morning with sunlight streaming through the window, Sunny Sumter owned it.  She was better than anything.

Her singing revealed that this Washington lady once had aspirations to be a jazz singer and became one—and a very good one at that, moving from Visitation Prep to Duke Ellington School of the Arts to begin a career as a singer.  It’s worth talking about a little. In 1997, Washington Post jazz writer Mike Joyce, writing about her debut album “Getting to Know You” said that Sumter had “impressive interpretative gifts” and that her rendition of the Hoagy Carmichael song “Skylark” was “tender and lovely, very much the dreamy reverie it was intended to be.”

Sumter set out to be a singer much to the dismay of her father, but the pleasure of her mother, who always came to hear her sing. Yet it was obvious that Sumter wanted more and wasn’t content to live the life of a jazz singer alone, with all of its uncertainties that don’t always reward pure talent the way they should. She got a degree from Howard University in the business of music, focusing on jazz, and she worked at the Aspen Institute, the National for Teaching Entrepreneurship, the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, the Smithsonian Associates, the Rhythm and Blues Foundation and the Trellis Fund. She’s been executive director of the DC Jazz Festival since 2010.  She lives in Kensington, which she “absolutely loves,” and she’s raising two young children, a daughter Layla, 14, and a son, Kobi, 9.

“Sarah Vaughn was my idol,” she said. “Hearing her sing made me want to be that person.  I’ve never really stopped singing, and maybe one day, you never know.”

The singing thing gives her persona an authentic jazzy gloss, as well as an outgoing, attractive and appealing persona.  It seeps into the way Sumter talks about jazz, by way of  intimate experience. During what seemed like the relatively short time she spoke, she talked about the importance of jazz as a Washington cultural contribution, about the many venues and players, the musicians, how big the world of jazz really was all over the world.  “This is our music, this city’s music,”  she said.  “And we as a festival are trying to make it a part of the regular, day-to-day life of the city.  Education is a key component to everything we try to do.  We have the Charles Fishman Young Artists Series, we have the afternoon school program at Jazz at Sitar and we have our own education program with the public school system.”

“We’re still growing—the first festival had something like 12 concerts, now we have 125,” Sumter continued. “Our Jazz in the Hoods program is now in 16 neighborhoods, and we’re doing cooperative things with all sort of venues.

“The thing is, we want people to come to D.C. for this festival, for the jazz, all the year around.  Jazz is always changing. It’s built for change, in all of its numbers and songs.  The heart of jazz is improvisation, but it’s open to almost any kind of music.  We had Common, the rapper last year. We are doing the same thing everybody is thinking about—finding out what the new audiences wants.  They like Esperanza Spalding, who was a big hit last year. They love Trombone Shorty.”

It’s clear that Sumter wants the festival to be an identifier of the city, jazz as a city’s heart and soul. Fishman once noted that every city of note had a jazz festival—why not here?  “Look at the history here—the Lincoln Theater, Howard, Duke Ellington and others,” she said. “We had our own stars, like Shirley Horn, who were respected everywhere, but in some ways it didn’t resonate the way it should.”

Sumter presents well, reflective of the time when jazz stars were sent out into the world as jazz ambassadors—Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Ellington out and about in Europe and Africa and Moscow.

“It’s our own invented, purely American music,” she said. “I think we all recognize now how international jazz has become. I know we know this at the festival, and we will reflect that, for sure.  Jazz has become an incredibly diverse experience.”

Listening to her talk, you hear her connect the dots into making Washington a jazz town every bit as jazzy as New Orleans, which still lives on its musical reputation.  “We can do that,” she said. The festival is assembling—the schools, the neighborhoods, places like the stellar Bohemian Caverns,  the Hamilton, Blues Alley, Twins, the new performance site for the last two years at the bustling waterfront site.

She’s got all the talking points for a shining city on a hill that also swings.  But underneath the talking points and drawing plans, there remains Sunny Sumter, scatting, taking wing at a note’s notice.  Better than anything. [gallery ids="102326,125962,125973,125968" nav="thumbs"]

Gary Tischler •

He looked every inch the man who was executive editor of the Washington Post, the powerful newspaper which brought down Richard Nixon, the President of the United States.

There are a myriad of photographs of Ben Bradlee in the newsroom—sometimes feet up on a table, the high-end striped shirt, the suspenders, the aristocratic-but-craggy handsome face, the gray hair, the kinetic look—that document the years of Watergate, when Bradlee, backed up by publisher Katharine Graham, trusting and pushing the work and harried investigation of young reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, snared the Watergate scandal and rode it all the way to the president’s resignation and beyond. Jason Robards, who played Bradlee in the film version of “All The President’s Men,” had nothing on him.

Born on Aug. 26, 1921, Benjamin Crowninshield “Ben” Bradlee, who had gone into hospice in the past few weeks, died at his home Oct. 21 at the age of 93.

The images and what he and the Washington Post accomplished in those times will endure just about forever for as long as there are newspapers, or in the future, files and folders of newspapers on the internet.

His memory endures in Georgetown, where he and his wife Sally Quinn and son Quinn Bradlee made their home, where they graced the covers of our publication, and where they were large presences in the village at their N Street residence.

Like Graham, Bradlee died on The Georgetowner’s deadline night, Tuesday, prompting editors to change pages at the last moment before sending final pages to the printer.

His wife was a star reporter, often for the Style section, an innovation which Bradlee turned from the women’s pages to a lively, readable section, full of lively, stylized writing by gifted writers.

In many ways, he had some of the quality and back story of his friend, John F. Kennedy, both Boston-raised, U.S. Navy heroes and combatants in World War II in the Pacific. Both had aristocratic style, mixed in with sometimes profane Hemingway-style manly and intellectual cool. Both lived in Georgetown—on N Street. They had a way about them. Women found them more than attractive. Men wanted to work with and for them, and to be like them.

When Bradlee became top editor, he and Graham — by hiring well, hanging tough, and pursuing their goals as journalistic holy grails — pushed the Washington Post into the forefront of national newspapers alongside the New York Times.

He called his autobiography “A Good Life: Newspapering and Other Adventures.” Bradlee could have called it a wonderful life, but we can be sure that goes without saying. He had style and gravitas, and he was loved by friends and family and respected in the village and honored by his peers. A good life, indeed. [gallery ids="101890,136732" nav="thumbs"]

Robert Devaney • October 21, 2015

As we waited in line a little before 10 a.m., Oct. 29, the sky-blotting western facade of the Washington National Cathedral seemed eager to hold inside the out-sized personality of the Washington Post’s Ben Bradlee, whose life was about to be celebrated by and in music, prayer, song, poetry, oration and personages. It seemed all of the great newsman’s surviving friends were here, and there was about to be a service that smartly and seamlessly balanced all the parts of Bradlee’s life.

The Post’s executive editor from 1968 to 1991, Bradlee died Oct. 21 of natural causes at the age of 93, having suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.

Yes, the VIPs of Washington, D.C. — from Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and Secretary of State John Kerry, Sen. Patrick Leahy, Rep. Steny Hoyer et alii — were there. Perhaps more importantly, here was the ultimate Washington Post-Newsweek reunion and then some, which shall never be repeated.

Outside the cathedral, as he moved pass the waiting line waiting to enter, former Washington Post publisher Don Graham joked, “They said we’re big shots,” and were allowed to skip ahead to the front. Later, inside at the lectern, the son of Katharine Graham, the Post publisher who hired Bradlee, said of the editor: “He was our hero … and he will be always.”

Before the Introit, Aaron Copland’s “Simple Gifts” was heard, later followed by “Evergreen,” written by Barbra Streisand and Paul Williams, which was a love song for Bradlee and his wife Sally Quinn.

Readings included Ecclesiastes 3 — “For everything there is a season . . . ” — Psalm 23 — “The Lord is my shepherd . . .” — St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians on love — Second Timothy — “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith . . .”

Watergate reporter for the Post, Carl Bernstein spoke of the fearless Ben and the well known John Mitchell story during the Watergate investigations when the former attorney general warned about Katharine Graham injuring her breast. Bernstein criticized the current media and political climate and office holders. He recalled Bradlee’s 93rd and last birthday party, where they savored some memories and such Georgetown legends as Harry “Doc” Dalinksy who ran a pharmacy and Sunday morning breakfast club for pals Bradlee, Art Buchwald, David Brinkley and others.

The other half of the famed Watergate reporting team, Bob Woodward said, “I loved this man,” and he was happy to be part of “Club Bradlee.” “Ben prowled the newsroom,” he said, looking to talk to reporters about unreported or missed stories, and knew “no boundaries.”

Woodward told a classic Washington sketch. Not too long ago, Ben and he were at National Airport waiting in line, about to go through TSA screening. Bradlee only had a AARP card to present at which the TSA agent balked. Back in the line boomed a voice as loud and disconcerting as Bradlee’s could be: “This is Ben Bradlee. Let him through.” The booming voice belonged to Vernon Jordan. The two made the flight.

For Woodward, the passing of Ben Bradlee marks the end of the 20th century — and makes the world smaller.

Known for his novels on espionage, David Ignatius, Post writer and editor, said Bradlee combined the attitude of the two main characters in the movie, “Casablanca,” Rick Blaine and Captain Renault. To touch upon Bradlee’s use of salty language, Ignatius recalled an account of a secretary, who was typing a letter for her boss, and asked, “Mr. Bradlee, is ‘dickhead’ one or two words?”

Among those mentioning Bradlee’s signature Turnbull & Asser shirts, Tom Brokaw of NBC News let everyone know that it was wife Sally Quinn, who upped the executive editor’s style.

Ben Bradlee, Jr., said his father gave lie to the Greek philosophical phrase, “An unexamined life is not worth living.” Everyone seemed to smile or snicker at that remark.

As for the youngest son, Quinn Bradlee, he gave the most heart-tugging tribute to his father: The “huge man . . . was the simplest man I knew.” He said the song, “Happy,” described his dad’s demeanor. “I can’t see him anymore,” the young Bradlee said. “I can’t hear him. But I get the message: ‘Hey, buddy, it’s your turn. Get it right, kid.’ ”

The Cathedral Dean, Gary Hall, ascended to the main pulpit and summed up Bradlee by saying, “He was a blizzard of one,” referring to a poem by Mark Strand.

Solemn music and song was heard throughout the two-hour service. Fittingly at the end, as the casket was wheeled out of the cathedral, “The Washington Post March,” written by John Philip Sousa, was played. It seemed a joyful, appropriate relief.

Also fitting the day was the lunch get-together or repast at the home of Ben and Sally on N Street. The mood lightened, as old friends met after scurrying down to Georgetown. A photo of Bradlee from his book, “A Good Life: Newspapering and Other Adventures,” welcomed all at the foyer.

Out in the back yard, guests thanked widow Sally Quinn for her hospitality — and she remained composed and in full command of this affair. Indeed, the flawless sequence of the day was owed to her knowledge and genius at party planning, plain and not so simple.

Nearby stood new owner of the Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, a man not quite as social as Ben or Sally. He was greeted by the many media types, who walked under the tent that covered the tennis court and protected them from the afternoon’s light rain.

Of course, yet another great story — big or small — about Bradlee was heard amid the hundreds of guests. Everyone seems to have one.

Meanwhile, only a few blocks north of the N Street house rest the remains of Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee in Oak Hill Cemetery on R Street. He may have left us, but he is in Georgetown — and in many a heart — forever.

Peter Murray • October 19, 2015

The Georgetown Business Improvement District said it will take its GroupMe account offline following an August investigative report by The Georgetowner and a follow-up piece by the Washington Post that identified a man who was wrongfully arrested because he resembled a known thief flagged by users of GroupMe.

BID chief executive Joe Sternlieb wrote last night:

“Georgetown is one of the most diverse retail districts in the region, and its merchants work hard every day to welcome visitors — regardless of race, ethnicity or income.

Over the last several days Georgetown has received a great deal of attention stemming from a news story that evaluated the use of a smartphone app called GroupMe that the BID, Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), and retail merchant community launched as a pilot in 2014. The intent was to provide real-time communication as part of a public safety partnership to reduce shoplifting.

While the app has been effective in deterring shoplifting, the news stories and the dialogue that followed have brought up legitimate concerns about the use of the app and its potential to wrongfully identify shoppers as shoplifters. The overriding goal of our retail community is to ensure that everyone who visits Georgetown feels welcomed, comfortable, safe, and that their civil rights and individual dignity are protected and respected. So long as there are questions about how this app is being used, this goal cannot be met.

The BID’s Executive Committee and staff have decided to take the app off-line in order to do a top to bottom review of the public safety communication program associated with it. Our mission going forward will be to develop a new set of rules and protocols for use of real-time communication tools that may help us meet our mission; to develop a robust anti-racial-profiling training program that would be required to be completed before anyone gets access to a future version of such a tool; and an analysis of the appropriate size and membership criteria of the group. Only after this work has been completed, and we can determine that a tool like the GroupMe app can be deployed to effectively meet the highest standards of professionalism and protection of all Georgetown’s customers, will we revisit putting it back on line.”

After the decision was announced in the messaging thread, users defended the app and raised the possibility of starting an unofficial “shadow” group to continue monitoring public safety and shoplifting in Georgetown. One user writes, “The beauty of this app is the instantaneous nature of it – where within minutes, we can protect one another not only from theft & monetary loss but also of danger from individuals likely to use a form of violence,” while another posts, “Really unfortunate. I hope it’s up and running again soon. Thank you for helping to keep our neighborhood safe.”

MPD Officer Antonial Atkins, one of the figures instrumental in setting up the app, wrote in GroupMe, “This app have enabled to have the residents, Businesses and Officers to foster better relationships with each other and strengthen ties in the community by building trusting relationship with each other.”

A neighborhood resident upset with the decision asked, “Is there a way to informally create a new group for those of us in this chat/community who would like to use & continue it – even if it is “unofficial” or unrecognized/unauthorized by the BID?” before stating, “My suggestion is for an interim list from this community/group.”

Another resident, a new GroupMe user, asks, “What resource will fill the breach when this ap [sic] is shut down?” The same user goes on to say, “As long as members first describe suspicious action and then follow up with the person’s description, we will avoid profiling,” adding, “Participants, let’s not let this resource die” and a rally call for users to contact elected officials about the issue.

BID chief operating officer John Wiebenson replies, “All, please recognize that while many of you have positive feelings about this app it has caused some controversy in the community that is reflecting poorly on Georgetown. This is not a chat group and is not the forum to discuss how to proceed. The BID will be organizing community meetings in the very near future to discuss all of the issues that have been raised. Please bring your comments and ideas to that forum.”

The resident who proposed a new group in “the interim” replies saying that members of the group “will be left with no alternative but to create an unauthorized/unofficial ‘shadow’ group.”

Robert Devaney •

In case you missed it over the summer, here are some of the recent entries for Business Ins & Outs as well as other business updates.

IN: Boho Chic Clothing Store, Free People, Opens

Free People, a Bohemian chic-inspired apparel and retail store that sells women’s clothing and accessories, opened its first store in Washington, D.C. – at 3009 M St., NW – on Aug. 21. The airy four-level store (an addition was built in the back alley) offers free-flowing dresses, shoes and other accessories. 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.

IN: Little Birdies Flies to Wisconsin Avenue

Little Birdies Boutique, which made its debut on P Street in 2014, has moved its children’s clothing store just around the corner to a smaller space (700 square feet) at 1526 Wisconsin Ave. NW. “We are thrilled to be moved into our new Wisconsin Avenue location,” owner Shanlee Johnson tells us. “Our new space offers in house custom monogramming by the local favorite, Whyte House Monograms, and we are looking forward to all the fun events we have planned for fall.  Join us in October for our grand opening party and enjoy discounts, swag bags and celebration.”

IN: Mad Fox Taproom Opens in Glover Park

Mad Fox Breweries opened its D.C. gastropub, Max Fox Taproom, at 2218 Wisconsin Ave. NW on Aug. 12. Mad Fox CEO and executive brewer Bill Madden and business partner Rick Garvin started Mad Fox in 2007 and since have become very active in the craft beer and brewpub community. Falls Church will remain the hub of the whole operation, as all of the beers will be brewed there in its 16-barrel brewery. The new location will showcase Mad Fox’s award-winning handcrafted beers with draught and English-style cast service, including up to 24 draught and cask options.

IN: West End Cinema Re-opens as Landmark Theatre

West End Cinema, the independent movie theater at 23rd and M Streets NW that closed March 31 after four years of operation, re-opened July 17 as part of Landmark Theatres. Headquartered in Los Angeles, Landmark Theatres is known for showing documentaries, independent and foreign films and operates 50 theaters — 229 screens in 21 markets — across the U.S. Its first spot in D.C. was E Street Cinema at 555 11th St. NW in Penn Quarter, and it also operates Bethesda Row Cinema. In 2016, Landmark’s footprint in D.C. will expand with new screens in the old Atlantic Plumbing building at 8th and V streets NW later this year and at the Capitol Point project at New York Avenue and N Street NE, one block from the NoMa/Gallaudet U Metro station.

Previously known as the Inner Circle triplex before Josh Levin revived the place as West End Cinema, the new theater in the West End neighborhood will have two screens, and its lobby service will include alcoholic beverages.
Landmark President Ted Mundorff said that the new venue with “bring even more films and events to the Dupont Circle, Foggy Bottom and Georgetown neighborhoods.”

IN: Baco Juice & Taco Bar

Baco Juice & Taco Bar is coming to 1614 Wisconsin Ave. NW. Owner Christopher Luceri promises healthful juices and smoothies as well as tacos, burritos and breakfast foods with a Mexican twist. He also wants to use the front of the property for a patio and outdoor seating, as the entrance is set back from the street. Baco’s other business location is in Pennsylvania.

IN: Belgian Restaurant, the Sovereign, to Move Into Former Champions, Blue Gin Space

The Sovereign, a bar and bistro to be located at 1206 Wisconsin Ave. NW in Georgetown, will open in the late fall, according to owner Neighborhood Restaurant Group. The restaurant will be in the building which once housed the famed Champions Sports Bar and later Blue Gin in an alley on Wisconsin Avenue, just north of M Street. The space has been vacant for almost four years.

“The two-story bar and bistro will be comprised of an 84-seat first floor dining room and 47-seat bar on the second floor,” according to the restaurateurs. “Known for his award-winning beer lists at Birch & Barley, ChurchKey, Rustico and more, beer director Greg Engert is curating and creating a Belgian beer list unlike any other at the Sovereign alongside a menu of classic Belgian cuisine from executive chef Peter Smith.”

“There is substantial talent behind this operation,” said investor and business partner Greg Talcott, who has been a Georgetown restaurateur for decades and was involved with Blue Gin and the Third Edition. Working with Mike Babin of NRG on some of the details to finalize plans for the bar and bistro, Talcott said, “Getting the process completed has taken a long time.”

The company noted its serious authenticity: “The Sovereign will showcase the widest array of drafts and bottles from the very best Belgian brewers. With 50 drafts and 200+ bottles, the beer program will feature the work of Belgian brewers who embody the standards, techniques, and innovative spirit that underpins the fabled Belgian brewing culture.”

IN: Peet’s Coffee Coming to 33rd & M Streets

Be on the lookout for Peetniks on M Street. Peet’s Coffee & Tea, a specialty coffee and tea company that started the artisan coffee movement in Berkeley, Calif., in 1966, plans to expand to Georgetown, landing at the busy intersection of 33rd and M Streets NW. The new location will be the seventh shop in the greater Washington, D.C., area in addition to the restaurants and retailers that carry the coffee to brew and sell. Plans call for an October opening.

Last year, Peet’s said it was opening 23 new stores in a phased rollout across the D.C. market. Its D.C. flagship store opened in April 2014 at 1701 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, steps from the White House. According to the company, its “entry into D.C.will become the company’s second largest retail market outside of California and its biggest East Coast retail footprint.” Peet’s is the official coffee of the Washington Nationals.

Next to the now-shuttered Rhino Bar and across from Georgetown Cupcake, the corner spot at 3299 M St. NW previously housed Red Fire Grill Kabob, which closed in 2013. It looked like the building might become a clothing store, but Sandro, a Paris-based fashion label for women and men, pulled out of its lease on the property a few months ago. Before its closing four years ago, the Indian restaurant Aditi was there for 23 years. The building has stood empty for two years.

IN: Club Monaco Returning to Georgetown

Club Monaco is on its way to coming back to Georgetown. Four years after the Ralph Lauren-owned retailer left town, Club Monaco will return to 3295 M St. NW, an address which once held Rhino Bar & Pumphouse, which closed Feb. 28 after 18 years. The building for decades held a bar, more or less for college kids, such as Rhino or Winston’s.

The two-level store is aiming to open by early 2016. The new Club Monaco will mark the brand’s return to greater Washington. The company used to have stores in Georgetown and at Pentagon City. Also arriving at the block will be Peet’s Coffee & Tea next door.

IN: Riccardi Clothier Opens on M Street

Riccardi Clothier, formerly on Connecticut Avenue near Dupont Circle, has re-emerged at 1363 Wisconsin Ave. NW, next to BB&T Bank. The store specializes in Italian design — business attire and formal wear. There is a grand-opening sale on suits and sports jackets.

IN: Bar A Vin by Chez Billy Sud by Thanksgiving

Bar A Vin is scheduled to open in November on 31st Street NW, south of the C&O Canal.  The wine bar comes from Ian and Eric Hilton, the duo behind Chez Billy Sud and a number of other successful bars and restaurants in the area. The bar, to be located next door to Chez Billy Sud, will offer a range of French wines and cheeses in addition to beers and cocktails.  The space accommodates up to 50 patrons and includes a wraparound bar and a wood-burning fireplace.

IN: Dancing Goats Coffee on N Street at Mashburn

Dancing Goats Coffee Bar will move into 3206 N St. NW in partnership with Mashburn. The Washington State-based Batdorf & Bronson Coffee Roasters plans to set up the shop in November. Mashburn, a clothing store out of Atlanta with a Sid (men’s) and an Ann (women’s) section, will be coming to 3206 N St., NW, which is part of the Georgetown Court complex and in the former space of Neyla Restaurant and a long-closed Chinese restaurant. The store will stretch from Prospect to N Street. The coffee shop will be on the west side of the store, facing the courtyard. “Think L.L. Bean meets Starsbuck’s,” said an architect for Mashburn of its plans last year at a Georgetown-Burleith advisory neighborhood commission meeting.

OUT: Benetton Closes Its Georgetown Doors

Benetton, the fashion retailer that expanded across the U.S. during the 1980s and 1990s, has now dwindled down to one American store, following the sudden closing of its Washington, D.C., store in Georgetown. At the end of July, the store, located on the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street NW, was abruptly boarded up with no explanation of its closing. The brand’s name has also been removed from the building’s exterior wall.

Though the Italian-based company still has an international presence—particularly across Europe and South America–the Georgetown closing signals the end of Benetton’s era in the American fashion industry, as its New York City store is now its lone retailer in the country. The dwindling number of American stores can be attributed to popularity of competing retailers such as J. Crew and Abercrombie & Fitch.

Benetton was a giant of children’s fashion, largely in part to its United Colors of Benetton clothing line. The collection boasts vibrant, colorful pieces and had garnered attention through the use of eye-catching yet somewhat controversial advertising, which aimed to promote social awareness. At its peak, the brand had more than 500 stores in the U.S.

The Georgetown Benetton was one of the first to be opened in the U.S. by retailer Iraklis Karabassis, who brought the clothing giant to White Flint Mall, its first ever spot in America. Head of IK Retail Group in Georgetown, Karabassis opened more than 100 Benetton stores in the U.S. and Canada. He sold his Benetton operation to the Benetton Group in 2008.

It is speculation that the Japanese retailer Uniqlo, which will open a Tyson’s Corner location next year, could become the next occupant of the three-story space, which was once the National Bank of Washington.

OUT: Georgetown’s Makeup Artist Carl Ray Splits for Downtown

Carl Ray, makeup artist to first lady Michelle Obama and other Washington, D.C., luminaries, has left George, the beauty salon for VIPs at the Four Season Hotel, for One80 Salon on K Street. Ray had worked at George for 16 years and told the staff at beginning of August of his departure.

Besides the first lady, Ray’s client list includes the famous and powerful in politics and entertainment: Nancy Pelosi, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagen, Valerie Jarrett and Bill Clinton as well as Queen Noor and Princess Hussein along with Natalie Portman, Claire Danes, Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder.

“I want to be a part of this new wave of renaissance in fashion and beauty taking place in the city right now,”
Ray told the Washington Post. “There is a resurgence and energy that is downtown. I have watched this area grow, and I want to be a part of this movement.”

OUT: Bandolero Closes After 3-Year Run

Bandolero, the Mexican restaurant at 3241 M St. NW, closed July 20 after opening three years to great fanfare under the direction of celebrity chef Mike Isabella. Not much later, Isabella left Bandolero and continued his work at Graffiato, Kapnos, G Sandwich Shop and other restaurants. He was succeeded by chef Tony Starr, who has worked at Zaytinya, Neyla and Georgia Brown’s. The previous restaurant in that space was the well-regarded Hook. Owners Jonathan and Bethany Umbel left this message for fans: “Dear friends, neighbors, and customers, Bandolero is officially closed. We’d like to thank all of our loyal patrons who have come to Bando and supported us over the past few years. It has been an amazing three years serving everyone! Gracias por su apollo, hasta que nos encontremos de nuevo. Sigan comiendo TACOS y bebiendo TEQUILA.” [Translation: Thanks for your support. Until we meet again, keep eating tacos and drinking tequila.]

OUT: Developer Drops Latham Hotel ‘Micro-Unit’ Project

Local developer SB-Urban has dropped its plan to convert the Latham Hotel at 3000 M St. NW in to a “micro-unit” apartment complex. The Latham Hotel micro-unit project was one of three that SB-Urban is developing in Northwest Washington targeting affluent young people with small but well-furnished apartments located in desirable neighborhoods. The company’s two other developments, slated for Blagden Alley in Shaw and at 15 Dupont Circle in the historic Patterson Mansion, are still ongoing, with plans to begin construction on both this year.

SB-Urban bought the Latham Hotel building in November 2013 for $45.4 million. After the purchase, the company went through a number of hoops, gaining the approval of the Old Georgetown Board and the Board of Zoning Adjustment to renovate the space into a development consisting of 140 units with 330 square-foot floor plans.

OUT: Hudson Trail Outfitters Rides Into the Sunset

Hudson Trail Outfitters, a retailer of outdoor gear and clothing, will close within weeks, as sales begin for the remaining Tenleytown, Arlington, Fairfax and Rockville stores. A pioneer in active outdoor sportswear, the business stated in 1971.

OUT: All We Art Goes Online

The innovative art gallery, All We Art, at 33rd Street and Wisconsin Avenue has ended its retail presence after a year. It will maintain its online business — AllWeArtStudio.com — and gave its friends and patrons a unique valediction for its retail venture: “Wanderer, your footsteps are the road. Art is an everchanging way of expression, and so is the art market in our ever-changing world. All We Art, following its mission and its destiny, is going forward. We are moving online. Our Art Space will no longer be open to the public for walk-in purchases in Georgetown. Soon, you will able to shop art and handicrafts at our renewed website. We thank you all for your support, and we hope we’ll see you soon over the cloud. We art keeping you posted as always. Thanks, gracias, mercy!”

OUT: Crime Museum Receives Death Sentence

National Museum of Crime & Punishment has lost its lease and will close its doors at 575 7th St. NW after more than seven years on Oct. 1. The museum of crime-related exhibits, at once hands-on and eye-catching, could ask an admission price of $20. “We are incredibly disappointed that we were asked to leave our building and did everything possible to try and work with our landlords to stay,” stated Janine Vaccarello, chief operating officer of the Crime Museum. The museum will continue its walking tours and other educational programs.

BUSINESS NOTES

TAA’s New Digs on M

TAA PR, formerly known as the Aba Agency, has moved around the corner from 30th Street to 3112 M St. NW. The public relations firm, working in strategic communications, experiential marketing, branding and other services, has clients which include the Smithsonian, Cirque du Soleil, Shake Shack, DBGB Kitchen and Bar, Fiola Mare, Mazza Gallerie, Tyson Galleria and Mercedes Benz. Congratulations to Aba Kwawu and her associates for choosing an office on Georgetown’s busiest street.

Beasley Opens in Palm Beach

Beasley Real Estate, a luxury real estate leader in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, has now moved beyond being solely a regional firm and opened an office in Palm Beach, Florida, at 515 North Flagler Drive. “The Palm Beach market has always been synergistic with our core client base, and we are excited to be present in this vibrant marketplace,” said managing partner Jim Bell.

Hop, Cask & Barrel Seeks Extended Hours

Hop, Cask & Barrel, the liquor store at 1717 Wisconsin Ave. NW that replaced Wagner’s Liquors, asked the Georgetown-Burleith advisory neighborhood commission for the opportunity to extend its hours past 10 p.m. on select dates. Business co-owner Ankit Desai and lawyer Andrew Kline spoke at the Aug. 31 meeting. Kline argued the Hop, Cask & Barrel was a good neighbor and had poured $400,000 into renovation work at the store. (The business group also owns Sherry’s on Connecticut Avenue and Metro Wine & Spirits on Columbia Road.) Desai thanked the neighborhood for its welcome. He is working with community groups on mutual events.

Halcyon Incubator Honored by the SBA

The U.S. Small Business Administration named Halcyon Incubator — part of the S&R Foundation at 3400 Prospect St. NW — a winner of the National Growth Accelerator Fund Competition Aug. 24. “The Halcyon Incubator is designed to support social entrepreneurs with big game-changing ideas to critical 21st-century challenges,” the SBA wrote. “Social entrepreneurs are an absolutely essential piece. They develop radical new business modules and approaches to solving today’s major social issues throughout the nation and world. By helping social entrepreneurs transform audacious ideas into scalable and sustainable ventures, the Halcyon Incubator acts as a catalyst for measurable social outcomes.” Recently, the SBA recently announced a total award of $4.4 million to startup accelerators representing 39 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, including those that fill geographic gaps and also foster entrepreneurship among women and other underrepresented groups.

Robert Devaney • October 18, 2015

We’ve all heard of a slow boat to China. Well, this is the story of a long ride to Brazil.

Chen Guanming, a 58-year-old from Jiangsu Province in eastern China, was seen bicycling Oct. 8 on Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown. He stopped briefly to look at the footwear at Comfort One and Mephisto Shoes and show his press clips. His ultimate goal? The Rio de Janeiro Olympic Summer Games in 2016.

The farmer—who had never traveled beyond his village—become so inspired by his nation’s 2008 Olympic Summer Games in Beijing that he began pedaling his tricycle rickshaw, at first around China, and then he decided to ride across Asia and Europe to London in May 2010.

With just his tented rickshaw and his belongings stored behind his seat, Chen biked through Vietnam, Laos, Tibet, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Italy, France and to England in time for the 2012 London Olympics. By that time, his journey for the Olympic spirit had gotten noticed. Well-wishers chipped in and bought him a ticket for the opening ceremony of the London Summer Games.

The smiling, energetic Chen has no sponsors to speak of and accepts the kindness of strangers all around the world. He gives rides on his bike and does little jobs to keep his trip going. He speaks Mandarin only and knows a few English words like “email” (he thinks that includes “press clips” in his folder), “toilet” (good to know), “thanks” and “good luck” (which surprised and delighted people say to him).

After taking time out to care for his father back home, Chen returned to his global quest, leaving Liverpool in June 2013 for Halifax, Nova Scotia, with his bike in a cargo ship (another simple gift from some he met). In Canada, he biked to Vancouver, then entered the U.S., going from Washington to California, and then he turned east for New York City and then turned again south for Washington, D.C. Soon enough, he will be traveling through Mexico and Central America for his destination in South America: Brazil. Chen’s way of mapping his trek is not along a straight line. Shunning GPS, he uses traditional road guides and maps.

Chen was last seen biking north up Wisconsin Avenue. Hmm, Rio is south, the other way. Not to worry: after thousands upon thousands of miles, Chen will no doubt attend the Aug. 5 opening of the Games of the XXXI Olympiad. The slogan for the 2016 Summer Games are—appropriately enough—”Live your passion.”
[gallery ids="102324,126257,126271,126265" nav="thumbs"]

Chuck Baldwin •

The tennis courts at the Rose Parks Recreation Center will be dedicated as the Margaret Peters and Roumania Peters Walker Rose Park Tennis Courts on Oct. 24. “Pete” and “Repeat,” as the African American sisters were nicknamed, respectively, were trailblazers for black women in professional tennis, having won a record 14 American Tennis Association doubles championships from the 1930s to the 1950s. Roumania won two singles titles as well, including one against legendary Althea Gibson in 1946, the only black woman to beat her in a major tournament.

The Peters sisters grew up in Georgetown around the corner from the courts and played their growing up. They played together at Tuskegee University and both earned master’s degrees from New York University. They both taught in D.C. public schools and Roumania also taught at Howard University.

Georgetowner •

Georgetown University received a $50 million gift that “will support an innovative leadership program for the university’s 750 student-athletes and fund the completion of the sports field situated in the heart of campus,” the university announced last week.
The record donation for the athletics program is one of the biggest ever for the school and comes from Peter and Susan Cooper of Newport Beach, California, parents of five children, all of whom are Georgetown alumni. The Coopers’s son-in-law also went to Georgetown.

“Georgetown is deeply grateful to Peter and Sue for their commitment to our students and their ongoing dedication to our campus community,” said John DeGioia, president of Georgetown University, “This investment will allow us to provide extraordinary opportunities for students engaged in intercollegiate athletics, preparing these young people for success both on and off the field.”

According to the university, “the historic gift will underwrite a pioneering, academically based program that develops leadership skills and opportunities for students involved in one or more of Georgetown’s 29 Division I sports and teams.

“The gift also will enable the university to further develop the centrally located Multi-Sport Field that is currently home to Georgetown’s football, field hockey and lacrosse teams, as well as club sports and university-wide events.

“As permanent recognition of the Coopers’ generosity, the three-year-old student-athlete leadership initiative will be named the Cooper Athletics Leadership Program and the existing Multi-Sport Field will be renamed Cooper Field when it is completed in an estimated 12 to 18 months.”

Peter Murray • October 17, 2015

A special investigative report on technology and profiling in Georgetown.

The rapid recent pace of technological innovation has triggered a new era of policing, one in which crime fighting is based almost entirely on data — captured, analyzed and communicated using the latest digital tools.

Last year, the Georgetown Business Improvement District began using the Microsoft-owned mass-messaging application GroupMe to bolster communication between local businesses and Metropolitan Police Department officers. As John Wiebenson, the BID’s operations director, noted, “Criminals move so quickly, we needed real-time communication.”

MPD Officer Antonial Atkins spearheaded the effort on the police side, glad to replace an endless stream of text messages from merchants and Georgetown citizens with a single, centralized messaging app. Yet Atkins — MPD Officer of the Year in 2013 — was quick to point out that GroupMe “is not a police app,” although he’s proud to call it “my idea.”

The results of that idea, cataloged in more than a thousand messages on the app beginning in March 2014, show a vigilant community working to identify threats and prevent crime. However, the posts as a whole also illustrate a stark racial disparity in how crime and suspicious behavior are reported in the community, raising hard questions about the relationship between community policing and civil rights.

Racial Bias on GroupMe

Most striking within the app is the frequency with which African Americans are reported for criminal and suspicious behavior. Of 330 people described in messages warning of suspicious or criminal activity posted between March 1, 2015, and July 5, 2015, 236 — or 72 percent — are identified as African Americans (often aa on the app).

Data about the percentage of African Americans among Georgetown shoppers is not available, but — given that only a quarter of the residents of the Washington metropolitan area are black or African American (2010 U.S. Census and 2011 American Community Survey) — it is likely to be much smaller than 72 percent. By way of comparison, GroupMe users in Georgetown flagged only 16 white people, less than half of 1 percent of the total, for committing some sort of crime or business disruption.

With regard to pictures distributed on GroupMe of suspects and “suspicious” characters over the study period, 19 photos of African Americans were circulated to the group, while only one photo of a white person was posted. Seventy-six people mentioned in the chat were not identified by race, while the group reported one Hispanic and one Asian man as suspicious.

“A racial bias is pretty apparent based just on the pictures and descriptions [in GroupMe],” says a Levi’s employee who wishes to remain anonymous. Isabel Savage at Hu’s Wear called certain posts on the app “racism at its greatest form,” adding, “the [retail] industry breeds it.”

Savage’s coworker at Hu’s Wear, Hannah Warren, initially agreed with Savage’s representation of racial bias on the Georgetown GroupMe account. But after being confronted with examples of posts labeling black men as suspicious without evidence, Warren explained that one of the men in question “was dismissive,” “standing very close to the racks” and “had a hat pulled down low.” “Better safe than sorry,” she said, before admitting, “a little bit of profiling, I do it.”

Based on The Georgetowner’s interviews with managers and messages on GroupMe, users here have a wide range of triggers when it comes to suspicion. Multiple GroupMe users in Georgetown said that one indication that a customer is likely to shoplift is the carrying of heavy or old bags. (H&M bags are particularly suspicious, according to interviews with store managers).

Sometimes users flag people as “suspicious” without giving a reason, noting “no confirmed theft.” Certain clothes and hairstyles can trip the alarm for a store employee and lead to a GroupMe message. People with dreadlocks, or “dreads,” are often flagged as “suspicious.”

Speaking off the cuff, Atkins, a middle-aged African American man, mentioned that a shopkeeper told him that without his uniform he could look like a shoplifter who was in the store last week.

While Atkins expressed concern over the racial disparities exhibited in GroupMe, he said that by and large he trusts the app’s users to call it like they see it without bias, in part because their posts “will be there for life.”

Joe Sternlieb, the president and CEO of Georgetown BID, offered a similar response. “The underlying assumption here is that people [GroupMe users] know what suspicious behavior is and they just report what they see,” he said, adding, “a lot of security officers at the stores are African American.” (D.C.-based lawyer and ethicist Jack Marshall used the black police officers in Baltimore that arrested Freddie Gray, who died in police custody, as an example that bias can affect anyone.) “It’s not like a law enforcement agency is targeting a specific group of people,” Sternlieb said.

According to statistics provided by MPD, theft is down 10 percent and crime overall is down 7.5 percent compared with year-to-date figures within the BID’s jurisdiction from last year. Atkins attributed those drops to “people getting involved” through GroupMe. When police do catch someone, users celebrate, writing messages like “I love this app” or congratulating police with “Good job!” He said that people thank police in Georgetown for their services, with waves on the street or messages on the app. Officers are “very happy” with how they’re treated by Georgetowners.

The Beginning

The BID, a nonprofit funded by a tax on property owners within its boundaries, launched the app, branding the new group “Georgetown Business Public Safety: Keeping Georgetown Safe,” in GroupMe. At first, most messages came from police officers, including Atkins, notifying store managers about things to look out for, such as thieves, protests and bad weather.

As use has expanded, more and more messages have come from store managers and other employees, reporting crimes to the police and warning one another about criminals in the area. Atkins estimated that, currently, 85 percent of messages “come from the stores.” The group count at press time is 340 people, including 30 police officers.

When downloaded on a phone (or, less often, a computer), the app allows users to communicate instantly with all the members of their particular group. Messages, which can include photos and other media, appear on users’ home screens instantly. All users then have a chance to respond to the entire group.

Almost every store in Georgetown has one or more employees on GroupMe, but the heaviest users are managers and loss-prevention employees at national retail outlets such as Zara, TJ Maxx, Levi’s, CVS, American Apparel, Abercrombie & Fitch, Dean & Deluca, All Saints, Banana Republic and Cusp.

Reviews Are In

When asked about the app, managers using it gave mostly positive reviews. Just after chiding a few employees for not joining the group, Brian Edmondson, manager of Sports Zone and a 14-year retail veteran, told The Georgetowner, “Shoplifting is a problem you can’t do much about because the penalties really aren’t that high.” He said GroupMe has helped prevent theft at Sports Zone by identifying known thieves in the area.

Similarly, Alex and Ani assistant manager Gaelle Taku said, “GroupMe is very helpful when shoplifters are headed our way.” A manager at Barbour said the app was “good for organized crime,” referring to group theft and flash mobs (not Tony Soprano’s crowd). A number of employees praised Officer Atkins and his involvement in GroupMe.

Other users gave the app mixed reviews. “[GroupMe] is helpful but I honestly stopped using it because it was just too much,” a manager at American Apparel said. Jillian Berman at Banana Republic concurred. “I had to get off it,” she said, despite it being a helpful communication tool, because she was receiving too many messages on her phone.

Paul Collins, a manager at Rag & Bone, called the app “hit or miss” in terms of getting a police response, and said he thought some users were “too quick” to report people for trivial, non-criminal things — smelling like marijuana, for instance. The Barbour manager said he had to take posts like that “with a grain of salt.”

Rules and Results

That’s not what users are supposed to be posting, according to BID officials. A closed group, “users have to be invited, they have to have a conversation with John [Wiebenson] about the rules,” Georgetown BID president and CEO Joe Sternlieb said. He explained that GroupMe is used “exclusively to report possible criminal activity and known criminals.” As for rules, both BID officials said that merchants are instructed to call 911 before reporting crime on GroupMe. Of particular importance, Sternlieb noted, is that users describe, “where they went, what they look like and what they’re wearing,” with regard to suspects.

In the process of writing hundreds of posts with these details, GroupMe users in Georgetown have developed a coded, text-friendly and abbreviation-heavy dialect. For example, “BOLO” means be on the look out, and is usually accompanied by a description of a crime or a known thief, or a suspicious activity such as carrying old bags or ignoring staff. Often, GroupMe users send out photos taken on security cameras or smartphones of known criminals or people acting suspiciously.

Stores frequently ask officers to perform a “walk thru” to scare off anyone suspicious, and police usually respond “omw” for “on my way.” (If an officer isn’t available, he or she will message back telling the user to call 911.)
Certain behaviors, like being quiet or curt, or looking over to the counter, are deemed suspicious in GroupMe. Walking around at too fast or too slow a pace is an alarm for other employees. Being part of a large group, especially of young people, can also lead to someone raising a flag on the app.

Occasionally, officers make arrests, but Atkins says part of the purpose of GroupMe is to prevent crime. More often though, GroupMe users get it wrong. In most cases, this ends with little fanfare and no mention on the message board.
Here are a few examples:

At the beginning of March, “American Apparel (3025 M St NW) Ayesha Mgr” posted, “3 African american girls, one with curly red dreds, other has bangs and shoulder length hair, and the other.” The text breaks off and Officer DeRuvo responds, “Omw. Walking,” before Ayesha finishes the sentence with “acting suspicious…” The girls return later, Ayesha asks for another walk through and then the messages stop, with no word on the situation getting resolved.

In another post, “TJ Maxx (3222 M st) Carl” wrote “bolo 4 aa males and 1 aa females had a couple of small bags (solbta) came in selecting the same high end jeans and shirts. They did not steal anything. But did Leave the department a mess.” He also posted pictures of four of the men to the entire group, although no crime was observed.

Carl wrote, “Bolo we just had a man taking unusual interest in our front door and letting associates in so be aware about who is near your stores when unlocking the door.” He provided a photo in this instance as well, again without indication of a crime.

“Zara (1238 Wisc Ave NW) Derrick Loss Prev.” frequently posts about African Americans without observing criminal activity. On Feb. 24, he wrote only about “2 suspicious aa males,” providing descriptions and their direction. He then posted, “FYI. If they do steal they are driving in a grey Oldsmobile aroura.” Atkins asks for a tag number “incase a theft occurs,” saying the information will “provide detectives with information to conduct a follow-up investigation.” This exchange took place without any indication of any crime.

In some cases, though, users will correct each other and vindicate the suspicious person described or photographed. For example, earlier this year, “Hu’s Wear (2906 M st) Hannah” flagged a black man as suspicious, sending his picture, description and where he was headed around to the group. “About 6 foot. Tats [tattoos] on hands and neck. Very suspicious, looking everywhere but what was he asking about,” she wrote cryptically. Later on that day, an employee named Will at Suit Supply wrote, “He was just in Suitsupply. Made a purchase of several suits and some gloves.”

In another instance, in response to a photo of two black women sent by a user at American Apparel, an employee at Benetton wrote, “Those were the ones from our store as well. Good job on the pics! Only known thieves would smile for the camera” — in response to a photo of two black women sent through the app by the user at American Apparel. The woman smiling in the photo was a store employee. The other, non-smiling woman was the known thief.

Even disregarding the few users who repeatedly report African Americans without indications of criminal activity, the statistics within a roughly 90-day period suggest that there is more widespread bias at play.

‘I’ve Caught Every Type of Person Stealing’

All employees at the most active stores who talked to The Georgetowner acknowledged that users on the app predominantly report African-Americans. But they also all claimed to have caught people of all races stealing from their stores.

A manager at American Apparel who wishes to remain anonymous offered a different explanation. She said she’s witnessed “every type of person” stealing from her store, but that African Americans are “more loud about it” and “more obvious about it.”

Candice Stewart at Benetton offered yet another explanation of why black people are flagged so often in the GroupMe system. “A lot of the known thieves are black,” she said. “It’s the same people over and over again.”

Managers at CVS, Zara, Dean & Deluca and TJ Maxx declined to be interviewed for this article.

“There’s a common phenomenon of a black person showing up in a store, and just because they are black, they look suspicious,” Georgetown Law professor Anthony Cook said when presented with the BID’s GroupMe messaging board. “Now, they’ve basically automated that process by putting it on camera, and not just using that for internal purposes, but now distributing it en masse to other people so that whoever is identified in the chat is guilty to the rest of the group without any kind of interrogating or any benefit of the doubt,” Cook said. “It’s a digital mob mentality.”

According to a host of scholarly work compiled by Rutgers Business School Professor Jerome D. Williams, black people are no more likely to shoplift than members of any other race. Shoplifting comes “in all sizes, shapes and colors,” Williams writes.

Marshall doesn’t call what’s happening on GroupMe in Georgetown “profiling,” though. Instead, he says that bias, racial or otherwise, impairs judgment, and that it “is impossible to correct for” when you’re under the influence of it. “These people [on the app] aren’t bigots, they just need to recognize what’s happening [with regard to bias].”

Marshall says the ethicist in him has a problem with the fact that people who end up being flagged as suspicious or criminal on GroupMe have no way of knowing that they are under observation. Marshall and Cook both said that they could imagine someone flagged on GroupMe being violently confronted by an app user regardless of police warnings on the app not to engage. Without prompting, both experts used George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch coordinator who shot and killed Trayvon Martin, as an example of something that could happen in Georgetown because of GroupMe.

Customer Service, Please

However, interviews with store employees paint a far less dramatic picture. Edmondson from Sports Zone said his staff won’t do anything to a known thief in the store other than provide customer service. “Customer service is the best preventative for theft,” he said, a sentiment echoed by a handful of employees at other stores.

Still, Marshall said, “Apps create a lot of power in the hands of people who have not taken necessary steps to be competent enough to wield the power.” In that vein, he suggested training for GroupMe users as a potential solution that “wouldn’t be hard to do” to solve the app’s “bias problem.” When asked about training, Atkins said, “that’s on them,” referring to app users, “not the police.”

Sternlieb suggested that Atkins already trains users with in-person conversations and tips about reporting criminals on posts in the app when asked whether training could eliminate racial disparities presented in BID’s GroupMe account.

Wiebenson said he confronts users who have posted “inappropriate” messages, meaning those with rough language or marketing messages. He also said he removes repeat offenders from the group.

‘The App Should Go Global’

Atkins stands by his claim that the GroupMe model in Georgetown “should go global.” And in a way, it already has. As apps that can be used for mass messaging have proliferated, they have attracted billions of users with more and more communities adopting them to stay connected. It was only a matter of time before police joined the party.

A document released by the Obama Justice Department titled “Community Policing Defined” calls on police to do what MPD is doing in Georgetown by developing “two-way communication systems through the internet” with the public, among other recommendations.

In localities ranging from Odessa, Texas, to Gloucester Township, New Jersey, to Los Angeles, police, businesses and citizens are using the Nextdoor app in the same way that GroupMe is being used in Georgetown. (Nextdoor is also popular in Georgetown, but so far area users of the app have focused more on finding contractors, roommates and nannies than criminals.)

In Georgetown, the Citizens Association is getting involved, urging more area residents to join and use the app for public safety. And in the District as a whole, the idea is picking up steam. Atkins said that police use the app to keep in touch with residents in his neighborhood. He also said that he’s giving a presentation on GroupMe to an ANC commissioner in District 5 in an effort to build a public-private partnership around policing there.

“We are pioneers in starting this,” Atkins said.

This story originally ran in the August 5 issue of The Georgetowner.
[gallery ids="102163,132752,132784,132765,132771,132777,132759" nav="thumbs"]