Latest News

Georgetowner •

Executive Director Martin Wollesen came to the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in Sept. 2013 from the University of California, San Diego. From 8 to 9:3 a.m. at the March 12 Cultural Leadership Breakfast, he will share his plans and goals for The Clarice: the six-venue centerpiece of the University of Maryland’s College of Arts and Humanities in College Park.

$15 for George Town Club members

$20 for non-members

To RSVP email richard@georgetowner.com or call 202 338 4833

Peter Murray •

As if anyone needed another reminder about how expensive housing is in the District of Columbia, apartment rental site Zumper mapped the cost of a month’s rent in a one-bedroom apartment in D.C. neighborhoods.

Subsequently, the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute released a report showing, among other things, that rent has increased in D.C. most for low- and middle-income renters and that the number of apartments in the area where monthly rent is below $800 has decreased from 58,000 in 2002 to 33,000 in 2013.

There are few surprises in the Zumper report. Georgetown is the most expensive place to live ($2,600), with Downtown-Penn Quarter-Chinatown ranking in a close second ($2,510). Arlington is more expensive than living in a lot of neighborhoods in D.C. but with a lot less urban character. Ditto on SW Ballpark – Navy Yard, where rent averages are $2,104, hundreds of dollars more than in LeDroit Park – Bloomingdale ($1,550), Capitol Hill ($1,795), Glover Park ($1,760), Petworth ($1,610), Mount Pleasant ($1,650) and a couple of other neighborhoods. The main point here is that it’s not worth living in big-ass, expensive apartment building in a neighborhood with no personality, when there are lower prices in a number of charming (though sometimes in-transition) areas in D.C.

Speaking of charming, in-transition neighborhoods: Zumper’s map shows that despite continued sketchiness and crime, H Street-NOMA and Columbia Heights have officially become expensive places to live with rents for a one-bedroom apartment averaging out at $2,100 per month.

Rents are actually down slightly in Columbia Heights though there is this story from DCist about a building owner increasing monthly rents by more than $900.

The map also reaffirms Logan Circle-Shaw as an incredibly popular, in-demand neighborhood akin to Dupont Circle. What sets the area apart from others with high rent price points like Foggy Bottom, Mount Vernon Square, Woodley Park and Downtown is that the neighborhood currently is not home to massive buildings with market rate — read “costly” — rents. As more of these complexes, including buildings around the Shaw metro station, adjacent to City Market at O and near Logan Circle come online, the median one-bedroom monthly rent will likely shoot up even further. (This seems to defy common sense with regard to supply and demand, but that’s D.C.’s rental market in certain neighborhoods for you.)

So, what does this all mean for you and finding affordable housing in Washington? As D.C.’s real estate market becomes increasingly like those in New York City and San Francisco, finding affordable housing will progressively become a more daunting task but it’s possible, if you’re a savvy shopper. Try living with people — as many as you can — if affordability is your top concern. One-bedrooms might be expensive in Columbia Heights but there are plenty of large, multi-bedroom houses with rents around $1,000 per person in the neighborhood.

Look outside the box in terms of neighborhoods. If you want to live in near Dupont Circle but can’t afford rent there, don’t mosey over defeated to Arlington, check out a group house in Adams Morgan, Mount Pleasant or Bloomingdale. If those hoods are still too pricey, check out Petworth, Brookland, Trinidad, Eckington or Capitol Hill.

If real estate trends in D.C., New York and San Francisco illustrate anything, it’s that rundown, crime-ridden areas can quickly become hot, up-and-coming, appealing neighborhoods.

Robert Devaney • March 13, 2015

Supporters and friends of Dumbarton Oaks Park celebrated the opening of the gates to the park at Lovers’ Lane April 12, the day that the park opened to the public for the first time in 1941.

With work completed by the springtime, members of the National Park Service and the Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy gathered to enjoy the day and Georgetown’s renewed treasure of parkland. Among the crowd were Tara Morrison and Rebecca Karcher of NPS as well as landscape architect Mike McMahon — and conservancy members: board president Rebecca Trafton, restoration director Ann Aldrich, Liza Gilbert, Lindsey Milstein and Cecile Warnock.

Later in the month, Trafton had a special Earth Day message for friends of the park: “Two years ago, when Betsy Rogers of the Central Park Conservancy was speaking on our behalf at the Embassy of Italy, she challenged us to announce a first phase of Restoration.”

“We did: I announced the two-acre Signature Project at the entrance to the park, and on Earth Day 2012, we appealed to the public for the first time, asking for support to begin restoration.”

“Now, two years later, we are completing this $250,000 project, thanks to $50,000 from the National Park Foundation matched by our donors, $50,000 from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and more than $100,000 worth of contributed trees and volunteer labor.”

“It has been a remarkable success — and suddenly from the bridge, one can look up, over erosion control matting, to Cherry Hill at Dumbarton Oaks and sense a connection between the Upper Gardens and the Lower Gardens, long lost and now regained. Sincere thanks are due to Rock Creek Park National Park Service staff, Signature Project Committee chair Liza Gilbert, Restoration Director Ann Aldrich, and the whole wonderful team of board members, friends and volunteers.”

The Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy is a non-profit organization established in 2010 that seeks to restore the bulk of one of America’s ten greatest garden landscape designs, namely 27-acre Dumbarton Oaks Park, formerly part of the Dumbarton Oaks estate in Georgetown. The estate is a milestone in the history of American landscape architecture and a landmark in our social history since it is the finest work of Beatrix Farrand, America’s first female professional landscape architect.
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Robert Devaney • March 11, 2015

The Georgetown Business Association held its monthly reception Feb. 25 at Malmaison down on K Street at the waterfront and was expecting to have Mayor Muriel Bowser stop by. Because of an afternoon press conference on the new Marijuana law and scheduling issues, Bowser could not attend.

Nevertheless, GBA president Charles Camp introduced Beverly Perry, senior advisor to the mayor. Perry noted that it has been “an exciting day . . . an exhausting day.” Posing the question, “What can Georgetown do for the city,” Perry said, “Spend more money . . . It looks like there is a lot of money in this room.”

In the spirit of transparency and getting everyone involved, Camp asked other local politicians and community leaders to address the lively crowd, which then continued to enjoy the hospitality of host Zubair Popal.
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Georgetowner •

House Mountain Horse Show

MARCH 7TH, 2015 AT 12:00 AM | EVENT WEBSITE

Named after the Lexington-area mountain, this two-day regional schooling horse show for hunter and jumper riders is owned and operated by the Virginia Horse Center Foundation and managed by Keedie Leonard & L. M. ”Sandy” Gerald.

Address

Anderson Coliseum, Virginia Horse Center, 487 Maury River Rd., Lexington, Va.

40th Annual Washington Antiquarian Book Fair

MARCH 7TH, 2015 AT 10:00 AM | $8-$14 | EHELPERN@SCOTTCIRCLE.COM | EVENT WEBSITE

It’s time to put down your e-readers and experience a bit of history! Have you ever seen a $30,000 book? Or a book that is hundreds of years old? Now is your chance when the 40th annual Washington Antiquarian Book Fair returns to the nation’s capital from March 6-7, 2015.

Address

Holiday Inn Rosslyn at Key Bridge; Rosslyn Ballroom, Shenandoah Suite & Dogwood Room;1900 North Fort Myer Drive; Arlington, VA 22209

Washington, DC Travel & Adventure Show

MARCH 7TH, 2015 AT 10:00 AM | $11-16 | INFO@TRAVELSHOWS.COM | TEL: 202-249-3000 | EVENT WEBSITE

Discover dream destinations at the Washington, DC Travel & Adventure Show, March 7 & 8. Roster of Celebrity Travel Speakers Includes Rick Steves, Pauline Frommer, Samantha Brown, Patricia Schultz and Josh Gates, offering travel expertise and inspiration. Savor world cuisines on the Taste of Travel Stage, watch the world come alive on the Global Beats Stage, and the brand new Savvy Traveler Stage will focus on insider travel tips and practical advice.

Address

Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Place, NW

Fauré Requiem – Cathedral Choral Society

MARCH 8TH, 2015 AT 04:00 PM | $15-75 | LSHERIDAN@CATHEDRAL.ORG | TEL: 202-537-2228 | EVENT WEBSITE

Stunningly luscious music on an all-French program. Written following personal spiritual transformation, Poulenc’s Organ Concerto exudes heartfelt directness. Dictated to her sister at the end of her young life, the Pie Jesu was Lili Boulanger’s requiem for herself. Intimate and profoundly beautiful, Fauré’s Requiem is one of the most beloved pieces in the choral repertoire. Featuring Music Director J. Reilly Lewis as organ soloist.

Address

3101 Wisconsin Ave. NW

Cultural Leadership Breakfast: Martin Wollesen

MARCH 12TH, 2015 AT 08:00 AM | RICHARD@GEORGETOWNER.COM | EVENT WEBSITE

As part of the series presented by Georgetown Media Group and sponsored by Long & Foster, Martin Wollesen, executive director of the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, will share his plans and goals for The Clarice, the six-venue centerpiece of the University of Maryland’s College of Arts and Humanities. Admission is $20 ($15 for George Town Club members). RSVP via email.

Address

George Town Club, 1530 Wisconsin Ave. NW.

CAG Concerts Kick-off Party?

MARCH 12TH, 2015 AT 06:30 PM | $60 | EVENT WEBSITE

The kick-off party will be at The George Town Club on March 12 from 6:30 – 8:30 PM.
Concerts in the Parks is Georgetown’s favorite summer concerts series that is free and open to the public in beautiful Volt and Rose parks. Proceeds from this event help underwrite the cost of putting on the concerts. 2015 Concerts will take place Sunday evenings from 5:30 to 7:00 PM on May 17th, June 14th and July 12th.

Address

The George Town Club; 1530 Wisconsin Ave.

Gary Tischler •

For a man who had just gotten back from New York at two in the morning, and who was in the midst of starting up a new theater company just a little bit above from the ground up,  Ari Roth was remarkably chipper, succinct, eloquent and upbeat, as he addressed a hardy group of audience members who had gathered the morning of Feb. 19 at the George Town Club for the year’s first Cultural Leadership Breakfast, presented by the Georgetown Media Group.

There were no signs of a lack of sleep syndrome, no lack of ideas and debating points, no lack of charm, no lack of energy.   Soft-spoken and articulate, Roth was looking ahead to the future with a fistful of thoughts and ideas about not only the future of his new Mosaic Theater Company of D.C. but about his 18-year tenure as artistic director of Theater J—part of the D.C.  (Jewish Community Center) on 16th Street,  its accomplishments and the abrupt end of his stay there In December when he was fired for what the JCC’s chief executive Carole Sawatsky had called “insubordination.”  Roth himself at the time said he was “terminated abruptly.”

The firing was highly publicized in the press, which detailed battles that seemed to be as much about international politics and Israel as it was about theater and plays, including controversial offerings like “Return to Haifa” and the Voices of a Changing Middle East Festival, which the JCC had cancelled.

“I have never been through a divorce,” Roth said.  “But that’s what the experience of leaving Theater J felt like.  There’s shock. There’s the fact, there’s loss—leaving behind a great group of staff members who were caught in the middle, leaving behind, in a way, all the years there, and what we—all of the people who worked on the plays, our initiatives there and starting over.

“But you know, while things got a little acrimonious, I think it’s also an opportunity,” Roth said. “That’s what you do after a divorce, you move on.  They’re actively conducting a national search for a new artistic director. I’ve got an office at the Atlas Arts Center, where our new theater will be situated. We’re fund raising. We’re looking for new plays, which is why I was in New York, among other things.  I think both parties have moved on.  We’re dating.”

“I can tell you this—we will, I believe—be in a position to start our first season in November—we’re looking at new plays, including a play about Rwanda.  I’ve been spending a lot of time the past few months finding the meaning in what happened. 

“You know, I think there was a time there, when you felt as if you were in a play, a kind of participatory melodrama, you were a character in a drama, sort of a meta-play,” Roth said.

“It’s not that easy, leaving people and things behind—I was, as director of Theater J, part of an institution, informed by artistic vision, but also being part of collaboration.  All art is collaboration, even novels and poems have editors and publishers.”

Roth recalled that Theater J had had its beginning  in a small, small space in a home that offered 25 seats. At that time, Roth considered himself a playwright, wondering what his next play was going to be about.

“When Theater J expanded into the JCC with a much, much large theater, they offered me the job, and I saw a potential there.  But being that makes you someone different,” he added. “You’re part of a much large creative eco-system—the theater itself, the center, the city theater community and establishment and even nationally.” 

What Roth accomplished there—theater with a decided Jewish viewpoint coming from a rich Jewish culture—was often remarkable in the sense that many of the productions which were specifically Jewish found a universal audience.

Roth added things, coming from his own views and growth.  “It’s funny, that  the Voices of the Middle East Festival was originally called Voice of a Changing Israel festival, but I saw that so much was going on in the Middle East, and the city as well.  The focus enlarged, became expansive.  We, with the help of Andy Shalal, who is from Iraq, a Peace Café component, and increasingly, the plays started to include  elements that were not purely confined to Israel. That is the way things are. It’s reflective of a debate going on among Israel supporters in the United States, and in Israel itself.”

The Mosaic Theater Company is not going to be Theater J, he said.  “It will still have a Jewish viewpoint and component, but it will be much more international in scope, reflecting what is going on in the world, but also  it will be be concerned with our own surroundings—our neighborhoods,  and the changes there, 14th and U, Northeast, Anacostia, Dupont Circle and so on. 

“I was very curious for instance, about who complains about parking,”  he said. “People in Georgetown complain about the lack of parking, or in Dupont, but not in Northeast.” He talked about playwrights he met, and discussed their work, some of which will likely find its way into a Mosaic season, ready or not.  “Some things need to be done and nurtured right away,” he said of plays that may not be quite ready, but need to find expression in the performance.”

Mosaic will reflect, it’s likely, and will be a theatrical mosaic of many forms, of the great mix of interests, and shifting landscapes and cultural and creative impulses.  

And who knows? The divorce may yet turn out to be amicable and mutually beneficial.

Upcoming cultural leadership breakfasts at the George Town Club  are March 13, Martin Wollesen, executive director of the Clarice Smith  Performing Arts Center; April 9, Kim Sajet, director of the National Portrait Gallery, and May 7, Steven Knapp, president of George Washington University.
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Linnea Kristiansson •

Former Seattle Fire Chief Gregory Dean was named to head Washington, D.C.’s Fire Department on March 2. He led the Seattle Fire Department for 10 years before he stepped down in December.

Mayor Bowser made the announcement at a press conference, where she said she emphasized the importance of appointing someone with a strong EMS background to the position.

“The safety and well-being of District residents is my top priority and FEMS is at the frontlines of this effort. Chief Dean is a proven, collaborative leader who led a department with an international reputation for its fire-based EMS performance. I am certain that he will work with our emergency first responders and the community to move the department forward in exciting ways,” said Mayor Bowser.

Dean will replace Eugene Jones, who last took over as interim chief. Jones took over the job from Fire Chief Kenneth Ellerbe, whose tenure was marked by complaints of poor service that endangered lives by firefighters and medical personnel. Bowser says Acting Assistant Fire and Emergency Medical Services Chief Edward R. Mills III will serve as Interim Chief during the transition.

On Monday, Dean admitted to facing challenges in D.C. He told the crowd that he plans on spending the first six months of his new job learning how to do business in the District.

According to the Mayor’s office, “Dean has a proven track record of results. Under his leadership, Seattle and King County, Washington announced in 2014 that its overall cardiac arrest survival rate had reached an all- time high of 62 percent, up from 26 percent in 2002.”

Dean is also member of the International Association of Fire Chief’s Terrorism and Homeland Security Committee. He was chair of the Region 6, Homeland Security Administration and Policy Group and was selected for the Center for Homeland Defense and Security’s Master’s Program at the Naval Post Graduate School.

Peter Murray •

Smoke and power outages plagued Metrorail the weekend of Feb. 20, while on the H Street corridor, a flash fire ignited atop a streetcar during service simulation late Feb. 21.

Problems started for commuters Friday morning when the power went out at the L’Enfant Plaza station, leaving hundreds of commuters in near-pitch-black dark. The outage occurred around 8:45 a.m., and power was not restored fully until the early afternoon. The station remained open during the outage, but the entrance at 9th and D streets NW remained closed until the lights came back on. Metro said in a tweet that the outage was caused by a “commercial power problem.” Feb. 20 was the coldest day of the year so far, with temperatures reaching as low as 5 degrees at Reagan National Airport.

Then, smoke caused delays and evacuations at three Metro stations over the weekend. Woodley Park Station was taken out of service briefly after faulty brakes reportedly filled the station with smoke on the afternoon of Feb. 21. The station was evacuated, with commuters rushing to escape a potentially life-threatening situation akin to the one that occurred at the L’Enfant station on Jan. 12.

Smoke caused by faulty brakes was also reported at the L’Enfant station Sunday. A D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department spokesman confirmed the source of the cause in a statement on Feb. 22.

Fire struck a streetcar around 11:45 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 21. Officials said, “The sparks extinguished very quickly on their own and fire suppression was not required by the first responders on the scene.” No one was injured during the incident but Mayor Muriel Bowser said in a brief statement issued Sunday that D.C. Streetcar would not open to the public until “we know it’s safe, and not a moment sooner.” The as-of-yet not fully operational streetcar has had nine minor accidents since it began simulating service in Oct. 14, with the latest occurring in early January. No one has been harmed in any of the accidents.

Also on Sunday, smoke caused by an electrical arcing event in the third rail led emergency crews to the Foggy Bottom station around 6:30 p.m. A driver alerted authorities after noticing the smoke coming from the tunnel leading from Foggy Bottom to Rosslyn. Smoke did no reach surrounding stations, but officials instituted single-tracking by closing off the tunnel until 7:40 p.m.

A number of other smoke incidents have created problems on Metro in recent weeks, notably causing evacuations at the Dupont Circle and Court House stations in early February. However, Metro officials say that smoke incidents are on the decline, with 120 occurrences in 2012 to only 40 in 2014. There is no official count for 2015.

These safety problems for Metro come at a bad time, on the heels of reports by the Washington Post that Metro’s federally funded alarm system that contacts emergency response radio does not work properly in subway tunnels. Emergency response officials say Metro never notified them that about this critical flaw; they discovered it on their own in 2014 and pressured Metro to fix the problems to no avail. The radio defect held up D.C. firefighters’ rescue efforts at L’Enfant station when smoke killed one and injured more than 80 people on Jan. 12.

Peter Murray •

Glover Park Hardware owners Gina Schaefer and Marc Friedman announced on March 3 that the store is reopening at a new location at 2233 Wisconsin Ave. NW.

The old location at 2251 Wisconsin Ave. closed on Jan. 15, after Schaefer says lease negotiations fell apart when the space’s landlord made a “last-minute” decision to lease the location to another tenant.

Schaefer and Friedman are hoping to open the new store, housed in the same building as Einstein Bagels (and only a few doors down from the old store), sometime in April. They said in a press release, “We love our Glover Park Community and we were committed to reopening in this neighborhood.”