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Gary Tischler • May 11, 2015

Every year, eventually, spring comes to Washington.

The long-awaited season is an outward-bound explosion, an effusion of nature, basking in our admiration and seemingly pleased with itself for making it all look so easy.

Spring is bulbs, petals, digging shears and gardening shovels, blossoming trees, snaking vines, perennials and tulips and the fluttering, scooting, climbing critters that gad about in this profusion of natural wealth.

Here in Georgetown, spring is again the season of the Georgetown Garden Tour – the 87th annual – presented by the Georgetown Garden Club, an affiliate of the Garden Club of America, on Saturday, May 9, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. A tea with light refreshments will be served by garden club members from 2 to 4 p.m. at Christ Church, 3116 O St. NW.

Every garden tour is an opportunity to engage with one of the aspects of Georgetown that make it special, and so attractive to visitors. The tour offers ticket holders the chance to see – and take in with deep breaths – eight gardens, four each on Georgetown’s west and east sides.

“I believe that the garden tour and the garden club have had a tremendous effect on Georgetown. It’s very important to the community,” said Barbara Downs, a member and former president of the Georgetown Garden Club. “The proceeds alone have gone a long way to help preserve the natural quality of Georgetown, not just gardens, but foliage, trees, parks, places where we gather.”

Over the years, the Georgetown Garden Club, with proceeds of the tour and other fundraising efforts, has contributed to what it describes as “the greening of Georgetown, the tree-lined streets and the public parks.” Beneficiaries include Book Hill Park, the Georgetown Public Library, Montrose Park, Volta Park, Rose Park, Tudor Place Historic House and Garden, Trees for Georgetown, Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy and the Student Conservation Association.

This is about natural beauty, aided and abetted by particular people’s penchants for digging, growing, designing and beautifying, sometimes with the help of professional designers. Right here on earth, gardens mingle soil, trees, flowers, vegetation, pathways and works of sculptural art into an infinite variety of singular places.

This is not for just for show, but for civilized comfort, a way of living and looking. Here is where you can sit in an artful patio, to read, to commune, to dine, to enjoy a glass of wine in a space of one’s own.

Downs’s own garden has “a Japanese, Asian feel,” she said, and includes a bubbly fountain for birds, dogwoods and spring flowers, including irises and tulips.

To some extent, the annual garden tour always carries with it elements of mystery and serendipity. The yearly trek to homes and gardens in Georgetown reveals more than one secret of Georgetown living, not only the gardens themselves but the actual size and depth of the residences. This is revealed in the house tour, too, but the experience of patios and gardens adds to it.

From the view of a passerby, Georgetown’s homes always hide themselves a little. It’s hard to apprehend the actual size, the spaces, the depth and length of a house, not to mention its close proximity to others. (This does not include most mansions, which are very bold and rarely hidden.)

Tour sites range across Georgetown: 1248 30th St., 2824 O St., 1642 29th St., 3025 P St., 3413 P St., 3417 P St., 3314 O St. and 3327 N St.

On the east side, you’ll find a garden with pavement patterns in brick and limestone and columns of small bamboo. In another garden (a wrap-around) are fig trees, crepe myrtles, oakleaf hydrangeas, Italian pots. Yet another has a contemporary design, with grass steps, crepe myrtles in tubs and modern sculpture. In a large, historic garden in the center of the village, by a sweeping lawn with a pool, stand a large wall clock from a church tower in Provence and a marker showing Georgetown’s old boundary line.

On the west side, you’ll find a curvilinear, multilevel garden, with niches, an armillary sphere and a fishpond with aquatic plants. Nearby is a brick-paved garden with a French touch, including an aerial hedge, water features, hornbeams and espaliered camellias, all framed by a lattice fence. Elsewhere, a former carriage house offers an arched entrance with a wooden gate (once for horses), a tap pool and a hot tub. Another home features walks, gravel and a terrace. The owner’s love of plants is evident in three beds showcasing perennials, ferns and knockout yellow roses, as well as in the mature trees.

This year, the Georgetown Garden Club has published a book that not only serves as a companion to the tour but stands on its own. “Gardens of Georgetown: Exploring Urban Treasures” was written with great, understated grace by Georgetown author Edith Nalle Schafer.

Schafer, a genuine Georgetown citizen and treasure herself, has been a chronicler of Georgetown life for many years, through books, stories and essays. She has a gift for getting to the heart of what makes the village special. Her egalitarian style celebrates the village’s permanent things: buildings, churches and art, sidewalks and steeples, temperature and weather and the way all those things endure amid changes great and small.

Last week, the Georgetown Garden Club held a reception and book signing at the home of Jerry and June Libin on P Street. The evening, the place and the people there were a kind of reflection in miniature of what house and garden tours are about. After a slight drizzle during the evening, Libin, a noted tax attorney, stood in his own garden of trees, foliage, space and a covered pool and said, “I always love it out here after the rain. Everything feels fresh and new.”

“Gardens of Georgetown,” with spectacular, detailed photographs by Jenny Gorman, is a broadly painted but sharply detailed view of Georgetown as reflected in its gardens. In the book, Schafer defines our need for gardens, their purposefulness.

There is philosophy in this book. Sights are described directly with an economy of words that never lack impact. This goes for narrative text and for the photo captions that Schafer has helped along with quotes from philosophers and literary types (from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Virginia Woolf and the always astute “Unknown”).

Yet amid the pages, Schafer is her own best philosopher. She doesn’t need much help to describe what the photographs reveal. Her writing manages the difficult feat of being both pragmatic and entirely, hauntingly lovely.

Gardens are like that, too – having the all-at-once qualities of the necessary and the truly priceless. In digging up dirt, planting and contemplating the results, we manage to make art and gain a satisfaction properly enjoyed under trees, by a fountain, at night with the air fresh from rain and memory.
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Caitlin Franz •

Former D.C. Council member Jim Graham is taking on a new career. He is now special events director at the House, a strip club on Georgia Avenue NW. A supporter of adult entertainment during his time on the Council, Graham proposed legislation to make it easier for strip clubs to open.

The club’s gay-night series debuted Sunday, April 19, with a show called “Rock Hard Sunday.” Cover for the debut was $15, a third of which was donated to Whitman-Walker Health, which provides primary-care services to the LGBT community. The Washington Blade reported that the male dancers were going to make good use of Graham’s signature accessory, the bow tie.

“They are going to put them on and at some point they will dispose of the bow ties in the audience,” Graham was quoted as saying. “It’s going to be a lot of fun.” Graham is also in charge of the Thursday night series, which features nude male dancing for women.

“I wanted something that was fun, and quite honestly, I want to make a buck or two,” he said in an interview with NBC Washington about his new job. (Once upon a time, Graham attempted to get his current employer’s liquor license revoked.) In addition, Graham is working as a consultant for Clean and Sober, a nonprofit that aims to help those recovering from substance abuse.

Caitlin Franz •

Bacchus Wine Cellar (1635 Wisconsin Ave. NW) has the perfect bottle to lift Mom’s spirits this Mother’s Day. The wine cellar is helping you celebrate by offering 15% off all weekend, plus in-store tastings of white, red and rosé wines Thursday through Saturday, 5 to 8 p.m., and Sunday, 1 to 6 p.m.

Treat mom to a sparkling brunch buffet at Café Milano (3251 Prospect St. NW) from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. The brunch costs $95 per adult and $35 per child (12 years and under), which includes endless Prosecco for adults, tax and gratuity. Make a reservation at 202-333-6183.

Daily Grill (1310 Wisconsin Ave. NW) is featuring a special Mother’s Day brunch menu on Sunday. Specialties will include bottomless brunch cocktails, Texas French toast with fresh berry compote and lobster pot pie. All egg dishes include Daily Grill’s special Aunt Ronda’s Monkey Bread. Make a reservation at 202-337-4900.

The Grill Room at the Capella Hotel (1050 31st St. NW) is giving away a pair of vouchers for brunch at the Grill Room for Mother’s Day. To be entered to win, follow these steps: “like” the Capella Facebook page and the contest post, leave a comment about why your mom (or a mom in your life) is special and share it on your Facebook page.

Mothers boat for free with the purchase of another boat rental at Key Bridge Boat House (3500 Water St. NW).

Olivia Macaron (3222 M St. NW) is offering a chance to win a gift box of 24 macarons for Mom. To participate, you must “like” the Olivia Macaron Facebook page and contest post, then comment, mentioning two lovely ladies you’d like to honor this Mother’s Day (they must be on Facebook). The winner must pick up their macarons at the store May 8 through May 10.

Visit the DIY station at Paper Source (1019 M St. NW) on May 9 and create a special card for Mom. The store will provide materials and instruct you in the techniques to make the design of your choice. The Make-and-Take experience comes with a 10% discount applicable to your other in-store purchases that day. You can also take 25% off each additional Mother’s Day Card Make-and-Take purchase.

Rí Rá Irish Pub (3125 M St. NW) is hosting a special Mother’s Day brunch. Reservations for large groups will be accepted from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Each reservation will receive complimentary Baileys Buns, a sticky and sweet homemade indulgence. You can make a reservation via email by contacting marycatherinecorson@rira.com.

Tudor Place (1644 31 St. NW) is offering 10% off plant purchases at the Tudor Place Plant Sale from May 8 to May 10.

Linnea Kristiansson •

The District Department of Transportation has announced that it will implement new traffic signal timing plans for almost 650 intersections in the greater downtown Washington, D.C., area. The so-called timing optimization will be start 8 p.m., Friday, April 24, and continue throughout May.

This is expected to reduce motorist travel times and reduce emissions and fuel consumption, DDOT says. It will improve traffic flow, reduce transit running times and optimize pedestrian crossing times. The citywide signal optimization initiative started in 2012, and it will enhance D.C.’s entire traffic signal network of more than 1,650 signals by the end of 2016.

The project will be done in various downtown areas. A few intersections in Georgetown along M Street and Wisconsin Avenue are included in the effort. The project area boundary also includes 23rd Street NW to the west, North Capitol Street to the east, U Street and Florida Avenue NW to the north and I-395 to the south.

DDOT says it will be monitoring and making adjustments to the traffic signal timing operations, throughout April and May. DDOT advises motorists to use caution in these areas as drivers become acquainted with the new signal timing patterns.

Visit goDCgo.com

Caitlin Franz •

Melvin Gresham was promoted to commander of the Second District on April 6. He formerly served as a captain in also in the Second District under Commander Michael Reese.

Gresham has previously served in the Third, Fourth, Fifth and Seventh Patrol Districts, as well as the Narcotics Branch and the Special Operations Divisions.

He joined the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department in October 1984. Commander Gresham is originally from Prince George County, Maryland and attended the University of Maryland’s University College, where he majored in Criminal Justice.

“I am an advocate of community policing and believe that the police should know the citizens in the community that they serve,” Gresham said. “It is the only way for the police to become part of the fabric of the community.”

The Second District neighborhoods include Chevy Chase, Cleveland Park, Foggy Bottom, Georgetown, Palisades and Spring Valley. Several embassies are also locating in this region.

While total violent crime has decreased in the last year, Commander Gresham faces increased levels of other crime, including burglary and theft as he begins his new role.

“I believe that the Georgetown area will continue to be a very vibrant community,” he said.  “The police have to work with the community in problem solving and working together to make the community safer. I have always believed that the citizens are the eyes and ears of law enforcement.”

Gary Tischler • May 7, 2015

You never forget the songs of your youth—that time in life somewhere between sixth grade and the junior prom and the end of football season—when everything in the air fills you with longing, sadness and a kind of simmering something.

For the baby boomers that time ranged from the 1950s through the harrowing and sublime sixties—which went from Elvis through the Beatles and every song was a kind of earthquake of revelation.  The music was the background and foreground in a time in which young people went from being emotionally and sexually ignorant to learning way too much way too quickly and soon.  And the music punctuated that dizzy journey. 

You forget most of the songs—what did “The Purple People Eater” ever do for anybody anyway? If I never hear “Candy Man” again it will be too soon.

But Ben E. King and the Drifters. They had some songs you never forgot, not then, not now, not ever.   This is where white kids from the Midwest met the safer aspects of black pop rock music which would eventually lead some of us to the blues and beyond.  This was the time of Fats Domino, Sam Cooke, the Platters, even Jimmy Reed and Little Richard and Chuck Berry.   Wild stuff and soaring sweet stuff.

King and his Drifters, and later by his lonesome—had a voice that was clear and soaring,  he sang inspirational song and  breaking up songs—“There Goes My Baby—moving on down the line.” That word “on” connoted that she was moving miles down the road, and she wasn’t coming back—“I wonder why she left me,” he sang, punctuated by violins before Freddy Mercury and Queen put the strings into anthem rock.

King’s songs and the songs of the Drifters—all were the same white jackets, snapping their fingers like streetcorner singers were the songs of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and they were great songs—part of rock’s great American songbook, like “Spanish Harlem,” “Up on the Roof,” “This Magic Moment,” “I Count the Tears” and “Save the Last Dance For Me.”

Then, there was “Stand By Me,” surely one of the greatest inspirational anthems ever sung or written—it ran through the same-titled Rob Reiner-directed movie in in 1986.   It’s one of those pop songs—“Sweet Caroline” comes to mind”—that you might want to karaoke even with only two beers under your belt, because you loved it so.: “When the night has come/and the land is dark/and the moon is the only light we’ll see/No, I won’t be afraid/Oh, I won’t be afraid/just as long as you stand, stand by me.”

King was working at his father’s luncheonette, where he would often sing to himself.  A fellow by the name of Lover Patterson heard him and got him to sing in a group called “The Crowns.” They played at the Apollo. So did a group called the Drifters, led by Clyde McPhatter who joined the army. Patterson reformed the Drifters with King as a lead singer, and Stoller and Leiber writing songs. The rest is history.

With all the hits, King kept on singing, and sometimes touring—the past is hard to shake, but he also lived a life.  He was married, had two daughters, a son, four sisters, three brothers and six grandchildren.

King died at the age of 76 in Hackensack, New Jersey, at a hospital not far from Teaneck, where he lived.

Linnea Kristiansson •

April 16 was the 153rd anniversary of the abolition of slavery in Washington, D.C. More than 3,000 enslaved persons were freed in the District on that date in 1862, eight months before the Emancipation Proclamation called for the end of slavery on Jan. 1, 1863. To mark the anniversary, a fundraising event dedicated to preventing child trafficking was held in Georgetown at M29 Lifestyle.

Human trafficking – the trade in human beings, mostly for the purpose of sexual slavery, forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation for the trafficker or others – is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world today. It may encompass providing a spouse in the context of forced marriage or the extraction of organs or tissues, including for surrogacy.

Every day, young women and children are being bought and sold, used and tortured. In Washington, D.C., alone, trafficking innocent children is a $100,000 business. Two individuals, and the organizations they founded to help prevent human trafficking, are described below.

Deborah Sigmund
Founder, Innocents at Risk

Deborah Sigmund is the founder and director of Innocents at Risk, a nonprofit organization established to help stop the trafficking of women and children. Its mission is to educate citizens about the issue of global and local human trafficking. “We are dedicated to protecting children from all forms of abuse, and work to end child exploitation and child trafficking everywhere,” Sigmund says.

Officially launched in 2005, Innocents at Risk has been working since then to raise awareness about child trafficking in America. The organization regularly presents at seminars nationwide. Sigmund believes that people need to know that children are being targeted, kidnapped and abused.

In addition to their seminars, Innocents at Risk launched a Flight Attendant Initiative program in 2008. “Through this program, many lives have been saved,” Sigmund said.

Because many people don’t know what actions they can take – some aren’t even familiar with the term human trafficking – Innocents at Risk has partnered with the Department of State and Homeland Security to make the public aware of this issue. “In every single aspect, we need people to create awareness,” Sigmund said.

Dr. Ludy Green
Founder, Second Chance Employment Services

Dr. Ludy Green is an expert on U.S. domestic violence and human trafficking issues, as well as an internationally acclaimed speaker. Green founded Second Chance Employment Services (SCES) to help women at risk find stable employment and assist them in achieving financial independence.

SCES was founded in February 2001. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the organization educates, trains and places women in meaningful long-term careers, providing them with the financial independence and confidence they need to take care of themselves and their children.

Green has created an alternative approach to survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking and other forms of extreme oppression. In her book ”Ending Domestic Violence Captivity: A Guide to Economic Freedom,” the link between financial independence and freedom is drawn. A tool to help victims of domestic abuse, the book details Green’s volunteer experience at My Sister’s Place, which led her to a better understanding of the importance of economic independence. Her next goal is to have the book included in university curricula.

SCES’s placement program specializes in helping clients from shelters, faith-based organizations and other nonprofits. The organization works with companies that are interested in offering priority placement to SCES’s clients, such as Booz Allen Hamilton, Macy’s, SunTrust Bank and IBM. SCES also provides comprehensive employment services throughout the community.

Caitlin Franz •

On April 29, DC Ferguson led a rally for Freddie Gray, the unarmed black man who died after his spine was severed while in police custody in Baltimore.

The march began on the corner of H and 7th Streets NW around 7 p.m. Protestors gathered around the Friendship Archway and the Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro entrance, where they listened to Bridzette Lane speak. Lane is the mother of Rafael Briscoe, an 18-year-old who was shot and killed by Metropolitan Police Department officers in April 2011.

The group, which grew to about 500 people, continued on to the John A. Wilson District Building, chanting “No justice. No peace. No more racist police.”

Other mantras were “Black lives matter. All lives matter” and “All night, all day, I will fight for Freddie Gray.” The march caused several street closures throughout the city. D.C. police were along the marchers’ route, ending at the White House, from start to finish. The peaceful protest was allowed to go on without interruption.

Protests took place all around the country on Wednesday night to show solidarity with Baltimore, including New York City, Boston, Houston, Albuquerque and Indianapolis. Several demonstrators in New York City were arrested.

Thirty-four D.C. police officers were deployed to Baltimore to provide assistance during the protests and rioting that began on April 27 after Gray’s funeral. D.C. protestors demanded the recall of these officers.

A city-wide curfew has been lifted in Baltimore and the National Guard is developing a plan to withdraw from the city as of May 1.

Robert Devaney • May 6, 2015

In a 4 to 3 vote, the D.C. Historic Preservation Review Board voted April 23 not to grant the West Heating Plant on 29th Street extra landmark status.

The D.C. Preservation League had nominated the building for landmark status within the Historic District of Georgetown, arguing that the 1940s heating plant deserved such protection. League representatives made a presentation to the Georgetown Advisory Neighborhood Commission in March. The commission disagreed with the league and said it believed that the building at 1051-1055 29th St. NW did not warrant landmark status. Even, the Citizens Association of Georgetown — known for its advocacy of historic preservation — held that the building was undeserving of special protection.

While Georgetown is a federally protected neighborhood in terms of historic preservation, the board vote makes its easier for the owners of the one-time government property to alter it, including partial demolition. (Most residents of 29th Street agree with this approach.) There are many more reviews and approvals the owners must obtain for the project.

The developers of the heating plant property, the Levy Group, the Four Season Hotel and the Georgetown Company of New York plan to make the structure into Four Seasons condominiums and dedicate some of the land as public space. The property is due south of the Four Seasons and adjacent to the C&O Canal and Rock Creek.

Caitlin Franz •

D.C. Ferguson led a rally on April 29 evening for Freddie Gray, the unarmed black man who died after his spine was severed while he was in police custody in Baltimore.

Last night’s march in Chinatown began on the corner of H and 7th Streets NW around 7 p.m. Protestors gathered around the Friendship Archway and the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metro entrance, where they listened to Bridzette Lane speak. Lane is the mother of Rafael Briscoe, an 18-year-old who was shot and killed by the Metropolitan Police Department in April 2011.

The group, which grew to include around 500 people, continued on to the Wilson Building, D.C.’s equivalent of city hall, chanting “No justice. No peace. No more racist police.”

Demonstrators had multiple mantras: “Black lives matter. All lives matter” and “All night, all day, I will fight for Freddie Gray.”
D.C. Ferguson led the group toward the final location on the path, the White House.

The march caused several street closures throughout the city. D.C. police were along the marchers’ route the whole time. The peaceful protest was allowed to go on without interruptions and with no arrests.

Protests took place all around the country on Wednesday night to show solidarity with Baltimore, including New York City, Boston, Houston, Albuquerque and Indianapolis. Several demonstrators in New York City have reportedly been arrested.
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