Latest News

Robert Devaney • September 29, 2014

The District Department of Transportation has begun off-peak single-lane closures on eastbound Canal Road, NW, between Foxhall Road and the Whitehurst Freeway, weather permitting.

These single-lane closures on eastbound Canal Road, NW, will occur on weekdays from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.

These closures will allow DDOT crews to repair a wall area along Canal Road, NW, and install a guardrail along the corridor. DDOT expects the project and associated lane closures to be completed in July 2015.

DDOT advises all motorists to be alert, while traveling through this location and be observant of the work personnel. Traffic controls will be in place to warn motorists as they approach the area.

For more information, please contact Project Manager James Sellars at 202-391-8207.

Dana Farrior •

Fret not because you forgot to feed the meter, you have a spot at the annual Park(ing) Day, Friday, Sept. 19.

In the last couple of years with the help of the Georgetown Business Improvement Development, Georgetown have taken on the parklet project, allowing residents, designers and businesses alike to construct their very own public space. Also, involved are the Downtown and Golden Triangle BIDs for their neighborhoods.

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

“The Georgetown BID is excited to see the neighborhood enthusiasm for parklets – a concept that is outlined as an important tool for improving public space in the BID’s Georgetown 2028 Plan,” said the BID’s William Handsfield.

The Georgetown businesses participating are Luke’s Lobsters at 1211 Potomac St., NW, and Baked and Wired at 1052 Thomas Jefferson St., NW, and Flor at 1037 33rd St., NW, near Cady’s Alley.

Patrons of Luke’s will be able to take advantage of food and drink specials that will debut its beer, wine and cocktails offerings. Baked & Wired chose to take a slightly different approach, making their space more interactive by including buckets filled with chalk. Visitors will be able to draw and write messages in the park, allowing the green space to be a forum to bring the community together.

For more information, visit the Park(ing) Day project at www.parkingday.org.

Gary Tischler •

In Washington, a company town of a very special sort, lobbyists and lawyers have a very special place.

In the rest of the great wide country outside Washington, lobbyists and lawyers are the epitome of Washington insiders—the fixers and wheeler dealers who control policy and money.

Thomas Hale Boggs, Jr.—he was called “Tommy” in his youth, and the nickname survived into his adulthood—was the kind of man who carried the aura of an insider, while having an outsider’s outsized personality. He was a warm man who knew politics better than any politician, who came from a time-honored political family, a man of the South (Louisiana) who wore his Washington persona (Georgetown University graduate) like a really good suit that fit him well. He was a big supporter of the Georgetown Senior Center. Unpretentious, friendly, a talker, he headed the firm of Patton-Boggs, a legal firm which took its lobbying duties to high levels.

Boggs, who died unexpectedly at 73 this week, was the kind of man who could probably convince the anti-lobbying and lawyer-joke people in the world that he was an honorable man working in an honorable profession, because that’s exactly what he was and what he believed.

“Tommy was a terrific guy, a very smart guy and a quintessential Washington person in the best sense of the word,” said Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans, who has been of counsel with Patton-Boggs for the past 13 years.

“He was always willing to help out.” Evans said. “He had the personal touch and this gift for bringing people who disagreed with each other together. He wasn’t an ideologue. He worked with Republicans and with Democrats, although he was a lifelong Democrat. He was a classy man, who gave lobbyists a good name by example.”

At the Palms, where Boggs frequently squired clients and friends—and those things seemed to follow one another, they set his table in black, out of courtesy and as a way of celebrating the man.

Given his family and background, it’s a wonder Boggs didn’t become an elected official, a senator or governor. His father, Hale Boggs, was the House Majority Leader, his mother Lindy was a nine-term congresswoman, and his sister Cokie Roberts was a national television journalist. The man he worked for on his first sojourn to Washington was none other than Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn. Young Boggs worked the Speaker’s elevator.

Hale Boggs was killed in a plane crash in Alaska in 1972. His mother, in addition to winning a special election to succeed her husband in the House of Representatives, was named as President Bill Clinton’s ambassador to the Vatican. She died last year at the age of 97.

While advancing and looking out for the interests of a varied group of clients, which included all manners of industries from oil, to drug and insurance companies, he managed always to be something more than K Street royalty. He was the kind of man who didn’t let politics per se get in the way of business or friendships maintained and new acquaintenances made and kept.

That kind of approach would be well suited today to the politics of the times, and it’s sadly lacking, a time where impasse and deadlock seem to prevail more often than not. Politicians are called by that name: because with politicians these days, it’s always about politics.

Boggs succeeded precisely because—although his stock and trade was to ease the path to the doorways of influence,which included knowing whom to call, have for lunch, and having his calls answered—he hardly ever let politics be the deciding factor of his life. Lobbyists, it seemed, on K Street were about knowing politicians, without necessarily embracing politics.

Anders Kristofer Ohm •

The Georgetown Piano Bar plans to open its doors Sept. 12 and will be located at 3287 M St., NW, where the lounge bar Modern was.

The team creating the bar is composed of piano player Hunter Lang, former Mr. Smith’s manager Gene McGrath, former Mr. Smith’s employee Morgan Williams and Bill Thoet, according to the Washington Business Journal

The idea for the piano bar started three months ago when the employees heard that Mr. Smith’s – known for its piano bar — was closing its doors, the Journal reported. What they didn’t know then was that another manager from Mr. Smith’s, Juan Andino, was working to reopen the place at a new location. Mr. Smith’s is relocating to 3205 K St., NW, where Chadwick’s once stood for many years.

Georgetown Piano Bar plans to separate itself from the rest by having the piano be the main attraction. The bar will be “built around live piano entertainment,” the new business stated on its website. “The first thing you will notice as you walk down the stairs is our bright red piano.”

There will be no food at Georgetown Piano Bar, only drinks to keep the main focus on the piano and the music. However, the bar acquired Modern’s tavern license and its settlement agreement with the community, which, according to the Georgetown Metropolitan, requires the holder to receive 15 percent of its revenues to come from food and that the holder will not have live music.

There will be lyric books on all of the tables to promote singing along with the piano to keep music as the main attraction on the M Street establishment.

Gary Tischler • September 19, 2014

Finally, there was a debate, and just in the nick of time, what with only a little more than a month left before voters decide who is going to be the next Mayor of the District of Columbia.

You might cherish the memories you have of this debate, held at a Katzen Hall auditorium at American University, given that front-runner in the polls Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser, who won the Democratic  Primary and has a hefty lead in the polls over challengers has said flatly that she will participate in only four debates, including Thursday’s affair at AU.

She is being challenged by Independents David Catania, a prominent at-large District councilmember, and former councilmember and frequent mayoral candidate Carol Schwartz, bidding to be back all the way after a six-year absence from the political and electoral scene.

It’s been months since Bowser won the primary over incumbent Mayor Vincent Gray—still under the shadow of suspicion for his 2010 campaign—and other challengers including Ward 2 councilmember Jack Evans and Ward 6 councilmember Tommy Wells. During that in-between time, there have been no candidate forums, a lot of posturing and position statements, the arrival of Schwartz bidding for a political comeback, Bowser going hither and yon throughout the community—and sometimes the country—and Catania delivering position statements and being a very active councilmember and producing a 126-pages position booklet, detailing his proposals for how he would govern the city.

There’s been a great deal of anticipation about the first debate, and the possibility that it might be a volatile affair. 

Bowser was buoyed by the news of a hefty lead over her rivals in a Washington Post-NBC News-Marist poll which came out the day before and had 43 percent of likely D.C. voters favoring Bowser, with 26 percent for Catania and 16 percent for Schwartz. Catania has questioned the poll, saying an in-house poll of his campaign showed the race to be much closer.

The so-called debate—billed as a conversation with the candidates—was moderated by NBC newsman Tom Sherwood, a veteran of such affairs and included a panel of Washington Post political writer Clinton Yates and WAMU reporters Patrick Madden and Kavitha Cardozo.

Sherwood, at times, took on the aspects of a no-nonsense and sometimes frustrated cowboy, herding and snapping a whip, as he tried to make both the candidates and the audience behave. He had little patience for excessive clapping, candidates interrupting each other or breaking the time limit, although the candidates, as they are wont to do, did just that and often.

It’s fair to say that nobody won this affair, and that nobody was mortally wounded either.  Verbal shots were fired to be sure, and some of them even nicked their targets. Much of what happened was predictable, and the fresher aspects and revelations, while unexpected, were not of the “Stop the presses or put it on Twitter” kind.

Bowser, in basic black and pearls, came on strong and confident, offering to lead securely a changing city that was financially well off, promising that everyone would benefit and that in a boom town, nobody should and would be left behind.  Catania in quite the blue suit, stood up every time he talked, while Schwartz and Bowser sat. He presented himself as the man with the experience, the man who had done more for education and made more education legislation than anyone else, while painting Bowser as a legislative light weight, which she vehemently denied.  Schwartz in her own inimitable style—down to earth, warm, but also tough when need be—recalled that she was an education champion long before anyone else, that she was for the worker and took positions which in the end cost her her job. “I knew it wasn’t politic to do that, but I did it anyway,” Schwartz said.

Yet who knew Catania, for instance, has never gone to a Nationals baseball game, even though he was once a left-handed second baseman?  Catania fought the battle against the baseball team and stadium because “I didn’t think it was a good deal to have the owners pay nothing and the city everything.”  Bowser suggested that the reason Catania did not go to a game was that he was still angry about losing the fight.  “It kind of speaks to his temperament,”  she said.

Bowser complained that Catania was trying to take credit for everything. “Next thing you know he’ll take credit for the blue skies and rolling seas,” she said.

Other odd things came up. Yates asked in the interests of finding out something new: “If you had to give up your car, how would you travel in the city—Metro rail, bus or bicycle?”  Bowser said she loved and preferred to travel by bus, Catania and Schwartz would take the Metro.  “Let me get this straight,” Yates asked. “No bicycles?” 

It was a strange reaction, given that there’s been quite a bit of controversy about a veritable boom in bicycle use and rentals. “I think it’s a great thing, and I believe in a growing transportation system in which everyone obeys all the laws, stops for stop signs and red lights,” Schwartz said.

They were asked—by Yates again—what one book they would have students read.  Bowser suggested Barack Obama’s “The Audacity of Hope.” Catania said, “I wouldn’t want to tell  a student what to read. I’d want them to make their own choice.”   Schwartz chose Charles Dickens’s “A Tale of Two Cities,” which she felt resonated in this city, which has yet to become one city.  This is the book that begins with “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” which in this town is always true.

Round one of four rounds had its entertainment values and its informational rewards, but as a brawl, nobody walked out limping. [gallery ids="101859,138026" nav="thumbs"]

Robert Devaney • September 18, 2014

Yes, the flag is most definitely still here — and for 200 years.

The 200th anniversary of the writing of the song by Georgetowner Francis Scott Key that became the nation anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” was given the highest salute Sept. 13 and Sept. 14 at the place where it all came together, Fort McHenry and Baltimore, Md., during the War of 1812.

Penned after the British Navy stopped the bombardment of Fort McHenry, which guarded Baltimore and its harbor, and departed the Chesapeake region, “The Star-Spangled Banner” was an instant hit and aptly described the scene and feelings of onlookers on Sept. 13 and Sept. 14, 1814.

Over the weeklong celebrations, the Star-Spangled Spectacular in Baltimore told the history of Baltimore’s role in the war and how the city’s defenders stymied the British, as it hosted tall ships and navy vessels from the U.S. and other nations. The Inner Harbor was festooned with banners, full of vendors, events and visitors. Proud Baltimore rolled out the red-white-and-blue carpet for all and looked its very best.

Highlights of the bicentennial parties were the Sept. 13 evening show in front of Fort McHenry with fireworks as the finale and Sunday morning’s “By the Dawn’s Early Light Flag-Raising Ceremony,” performed to the moment when the Star-Spangled Banner was seen 200 years ago to the relief of defenders and Francis Scott Key.

The Sept. 13 events included a stamp release ceremony by the U.S. Postal Service — a “Forever” stamp which depicts the shelling of Fort McHenry in 1814 — and an air show by the U.S. Navy Blue Angels.

The evening’s program included a major performance by the U.S. Marine Band, the “President’s Own,” as well as singing by the Morgan State University Chorus. Local politicians welcomed the crowd, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, Gov. Martin O’Malley and Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who was hospitalized overnight due to a respiratory infection. “I pushed myself a bit too hard, given all the excitement around Star Spangled Spectacular and the tremendous opportunity the festivities presented to showcase the very best of Baltimore,” Rawlings-Blake said.

After spirited and witty remarks by the ambassadors of former enemies, Canada’s Gary Doer and Britain’s Peter Westmacott, the evening’s last speaker was Vice President Joe Biden, who gave a final, rousing address for the flag: “Does the Star-Spangled Banner still wave? Did it wave … at Normandy … at Ground Zero? … It will wave and not just wave … it is in our hearts.”

And, then, there were fireworks above the fort, the best ever in Baltimore, which one news photographer proclaimed as “the best I’ve ever seen.”

The next morning, with the Third U.S. Infantry, U.S. Army “Old Guard” howitzers, Fort McHenry Guard Field Music and the U.S. Navy Band on hand with former Secretary of State Colin Powell, also a retired general, a 30-foot-by-42-foot replica of the original Star-Spangled Banner garrison flag, was raised at the exact moment of its hoisting 200 years ago.

Yes, the flag was most definitely still there, thanks to the defenders of Fort McHenry — and their brave story, remembered to this day, recorded by and thanks to Washingtonian and Georgetowner Francis Scott Key and his “Star-Spangled Banner.”
[gallery ids="101853,138232,138228,138223,138219,138213,138241,138245,138249,138236" nav="thumbs"]

The Georgetowner •

Georgetown University broke ground Sept. 12 on a new state-of-the-art athletic facility, named after legendary Hoyas men’s basketball coach John R. Thompson Jr. Although the tennis courts next to McDonough Arena are gone, they will return in the four-story, 144,000-square-foot John R. Thompson Jr. Intercollegiate Athletics Center, slated for completion in August 2016.

The following are more details from Georgetown University about the groundbreaking.

Standing on the site where a building will be built bearing his name, former Georgetown University Head Men’s Basketball Coach John Thompson Jr. was joined by family, friends and many former players as ground was officially broken for the John R. Thompson Jr. Intercollegiate Athletics Center Sept. 12.

The $62-million project will be completely supported through philanthropy. The four-story, 144,000-square-foot Thompson Center will be constructed adjacent to McDonough Arena and include practice courts, team meeting rooms, men’s and women’s basketball coaches’ offices, and weight-training and sports medicine rooms for all varsity athletes. The new facility also includes a Student-Athlete Academic and Leadership Center, an auditorium, team meeting facilities for varsity programs and a new venue for the Georgetown Athletics Hall of Fame.

More than 500 people – including former players such as Patrick Ewing, Dikembe Mutombo, Alonzo Mourning and Allen Iverson, all of whom played for Thompson, Jr., and more recent players ranging from Jeff Green, Roy Hibbert, Otto Porter Jr. and Henry Sims, who played for current Head Coach John Thompson III – came to the site for the official groundbreaking of the facility.

The morning started with a welcome from the Hoyas’ current head coach, who introduced Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Lee Reed.

The invocation was conducted by Edward Glynn, S.J., the president emeritus at Gonzaga University, St. Peter’s College and John Carroll University. He was followed on the dais by William J. Doyle, the chair of the “For Generations to Come” campaign, Irene Shaw, member of the Board of Regents, Paul Tagliabue, Chair of the Board of Directors, Emily Hall (president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee) and Frank Rienzo, Intercollegiate Athletics Director Emeritus.

Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia introduced Thompson. “We are different and better than we were 42 years ago when John Thompson joined this community,” he said. “John provided us with a new way to imagine, to interpret our values and enabled all of us to see possibilities for what we could be that had not been realized before he joined this community.”

When Thompson stood to take the podium, the entire crowd came up for a standing ovation, finally sitting down after Thompson reminded them, “We can’t be here all day.”

He spoke about his relationship with President DeGioia, about many of his former players – “He shot everything he got in his hands,” Thompson said of Iverson – and some of his close co-workers, from men’s basketball trainer Lorry Michel to former academic advisor Mary Fenlon.

John Thompson Jr.’s name is synonymous with success. From 1972 to 1999, he compiled 596 wins, the most of any coach in the history of Georgetown University and the magnitude of his achievements is undeniable. On the court, he amassed league-leading records against all Big East Conference opponents (233-122) and captured 13 Big East Championships, seven regular season titles and six tournament championships. Thompson’s Hoya teams earned 24-consecutive invitations to postseason play, appeared in three NCAA Final Fours (1982, 1984 and 1985) and won the NCAA Championship in 1984.

“Without the help of a lot of people that are in here now, it would’ve been impossible to succeed,” he said.

Thompson talked about successes – from the 1984 NCAA title and Big East Championships – and losses – from the 1985 NCAA Championship game to the 1988 Olympics. However, he said he gains the most satisfaction in seeing the success that many of his players have had off of the court as well.

“It’s not the graduation rate, it’s what you do with the education that’s important,” Thompson said. “This school is defined by more than just victories. This is an educational institution.”

Robert Devaney •

The Georgetown Piano Bar opens Sept. 12 at 3287 M St., NW, where the nightclub Modern was. Piano player Hunter Lang, former Mr. Smith’s manager Gene McGrath, former Mr. Smith’s employee Morgan Williams and Bill Thoet, vice president of Booz Allen Hamilton, are the team behind the sing-along place.

Meanwhile, departing its longtime M Street, Mr. Smith’s has been reborn at 3205 K St., NW, where Chadwick’s once stood for many years. Another manager from Mr. Smith’s, Juan Andino, reopened the place at its new location under the Whitehurst Freeway with new fixtures and decor after auctioning off old Mr. Smith’s classic items.

Look for Orange Anchor, a nautically themed restaurant of seafood rolls and rum drinks by Reese Gardner, is set to open at Washington Harbour “within a couple of months,” according to one of its managers.

Chef Daniel Boulud returns to D.C. to open DBGB Kitchen and Bar, a companion to his bistro of the same name in New York’s East Village (in honor of the Bowery’s now-departed CBGB), is opening next week in D.C.’s newly developed CityCenter at the corner of 9th and H Streets, NW. It is around the block from David Chang’s Momofuku, which will arrive in a few months.

Also opening at CityCenter is Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse. The 18,000-square-foot restaurant at the corner of Ninth and Eye streets, NW.

The elite retail and residential center, spanning blocks around 8th Street and New York Avenue, NW, took the land from the old D.C. convention center and more is redefining and enhancing the streets of downtown D.C.

Even Georgetown’s Baked & Wired will be making the scene at CityCenter — along with such retail top-drawers as Hermès, Longchamp, Salvatore Ferragamo, Burberry, Hugo Boss and Kate Spade.

Peter Murray • September 15, 2014

Mr. Smith’s Restaurant closed at the end of August, but it’s just getting around to auctioning off its old stuff. The bar is relocating to the old Chadwicks location and is shedding its old décor in the process. Items for sale include small statues, beer signs, kitchen equipment, glassware and more. If you’re interested in checking out items for sale, visit Mr. Smith’s between noon and 4 p.m., Sept. 9. Rasmus Auctions is in charge of the online auction, which runs until Wednesday. Follow the link for more information. rasmus.com