Latest News

Robert Devaney • May 5, 2014

The Georgetown service office of the Department of Motor Vehicles will open for business on Tuesday, April 29.

Closed since May 19, 2012, for the reconstruction of the Georgetown Park retail spaces, DMV’s office is twice the area as the old center. As it was previously, the office is located in Georgetown Park at 3222 M St., NW.

The new 12,000-square-foot space has 150 seats. On average, the Georgetown DMV has handled 500 persons per day; the new center will be able to handle at least 600 per day.

Entry for the DMV center is at the western M Street entrance of Georgetown Park for DSW and Washington Sports Club. It is on the lower level; hours are 8:15 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.

Robert Devaney • May 1, 2014

The May meeting for Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E is 6:30 p.m., April 28, at Georgetown Visitation Prep, 35th Street and Volta Place, NW, Heritage Room, Founders Hall.

The following is this evening’s agenda, as provided by ANC 2E.

Approval of the Agenda

Approval of April 28, 2014, ANC 2E Public Meeting Agenda

Administrative

Approval of March 31, 2014, Meeting Minutes

Public Safety and Police Report

Financial Report

Transportation Report

Commendation for Peter Prindiville

Community Comment

DPW Director William Howland joins us for a community conversation about the Department of Public Works functions, options for residents regarding the new trash and recycling containers, and other timely topics.

New Business

Georgetown Presbyterian Church picnic in Volta Park on Sunday, Sept. 28

WMATA proposal to remove the northbound bus stop for 30’s buses at
Wisconsin Avenue and Dumbarton Street, NW

DDOT proposal to add 40 feet of No Parking School Days on the east side of 35th
Street, NW, next to Hardy School

Application to remove a gingko tree at 1312 27th St., NW

Old Georgetown Board

MAJOR AND PUBLIC PROJECTS

SMD 07, National Park Service / DDOT / Cultural Tourism DC Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail
Way-finding signs on lampposts, Interpretive signs at Tudor Place and Dumbarton House, Concept/Final

SMD 05, 3601-3607 M Street, NW, OG 14-113 (HPA 14-220) Residential, New building, Concept

SMD 06, 2709-2715 N Street NW, OG 14-143 (HPA 14-283), Alexander Memorial Baptist Church, New construction, alterations, Concept

PRIVATE PROJECTS

1. SMD 02, 1552 33rd Street, NW, OG 14-150 (HPA 14-319) Residence, Replacement metal fence on areaway, metal gate, Permit

2. SMD 02, 1686 34th Street, NW, OG 14-155 (HPA 14-325) Residence, Alterations: chimney, porch, replacement windows, Concept

3. SMD 02, 3336 Dent Place, NW, OG 14-175 (HPA 14-346) Residence, 3- story rear addition, alterations to front, Concept

4. SMD 02, 1622 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, OG 14-157 (HPA 14-327) Mixed-use, 2-story in-fill rear addition plus basement, alterations, Permit

5. SMD 03, 3332 O Street, NW, OG 14-171 (HPA 14-342) Residence, Metal fence on brick wall in front yard, Concept

6. SMD 03, 1357 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, OG 14-084 (HPA 14-158) Commercial, Three-story rear addition, Revised Concept

7. SMD 05, 3600 M Street, NW, OG 14-120 (HPA 14-234) Office building, Demo and reconstruct brick walls, alterations to roof terraces for waterproofing work, Permit

8. SMD 06, 3015 P Street, NW, OG 14-172 (HPA 14-343) Residence, One- story rear addition, dormer, Concept

No Review At This Time by ANC 2E: The following additional projects, which are on the upcoming May 1, 2014, agenda of the Old Georgetown Board, have not been added to the ANC meeting agenda for OGB-related design review and we do not propose to adopt a resolution on them at this time. If there are concerns about any of these projects, please contact the ANC office by Friday, April 25.

1. SMD 02, 3205 R Street, NW, OG 14-166 (HPA 14-337) Residence, Alterations to pool house, Permit

2. SMD 02, 3314 Dent Place, NW, OG 14-158 (HPA 14-328) Residence, Alterations to rear, Permit

3. SMD 02, 3520 Reservoir Road, NW, OG 14 -122 (HPA 14-239) Residence, Replacement windows and door, Permit

4. SMD 03, 3310 N Street, NW, OG 14-161 (HPA 14-332) Alterations to stoop, Permit

5. SMD 03, 3106 P Street, NW, OG 14-165 (HPA 14-336) Residence, Rear addition at second floor, Permit

6. SMD 03, 3238 P Street, NW, OG 14-103 (HPA 14-206) Residence, Two- story rear addition, Revised Concept

7. SMD 03, 3306 R Street, NW, OG 14-177 (HPA 14-348) Residence, Dormers, Permit

8. SMD 03, 1236 Potomac Street, NW, OG 14-162 (HPA 14-333) Residence, Replacement windows, Permit

9. SMD 03, 1242 Potomac Street, NW, OG 14-148 (HPA 14-309) Residence, Replacement fence, Permit

10. SMD 05, 1101 30th Street, NW, OG 14-15 (HPA 14-323) Commercial, Back-lit sign – Georgetown Workspaces, Permit

11. SMD 05, 3060 M Street, NW, OG 14-149 (HPA 14-318) Commercial, Replacement windows at rear, Permit

12. SMD 05, 3256 M Street, NW, OG 14-035 (HPA 14-057) Commercial, Rooftop antennas Permit

13. SMD 05, 3286 M Street, NW, OG 14-034 (HPA 14-051) Commercial, Signs, alterations to parking lot, Permit

14. SMD 05, 3314 M Street, NW, OG 14-111 (HPA 14-217) Commercial, Alterations to Cady’s Alley: green screens, lighting, speeding tables, landscaping, Revised Concept

15. SMD 05, 3106 N Street, NW, OG 14-167 (HPA 14-338) Residence, Replace light fixtures – options, Permit

16. SMD 05, 3121 N Street, NW, OG 14-151 (HPA 14-320) Residence, Rooftop solar panels, Permit

17. SMD 05, 1209-1211 Potomac Street, NW, OG 14-070 (HPA 14-112) Commercial, Alteration to first floor window, 2nd floor replacement windows – existing, Permit

18. SMD 05, 3508 Prospect Street, NW, OG 14-169 (HPA 14-340) Residence, Replacement windows and French door, Permit

19. SMD 06, 1521 29th Street, NW, OG 14-164 (HPA 14-335) Residence, Replace metal fence with wood fence, terraces, Permit

20. SMD 06, 1409 30th Street, NW, OG 14-163 (HPA 14-334) Residence, Alterations to rear, rebuild garden wall, Permit – revised design

21. SMD 06, 1231-1235 31st Street, NW, OG 14-137 (HPA 14-277) Front windows, rear additions, alterations, roof terrace, Revised Concept

22. SMD 06, 1409 31st Street, NW, OG 14-168 (HPA 14-339) Residence, Alterations to rear for basement entrance areaway, Permit

23. SMD 06, 2903 M Street, NW, OG 14-147 (HPA 14-307) Commercial, Awnings and sign – Izzy Salon, Permit

24. SMD 06, 2722 P Street, NW, OG 14-124 (HPA 14-263) Residence, Replacement windows, door, shutters, Permit

25. SMD 06, 3011 P Street, NW, OG 14-173 (HPA 14-344) Residence, Garage, Concept

26. SMD 07, 3021 Q Street, NW, OG 14-174 (HPA 14-345) Residence, Alterations to window openings at rear, Permit

27. SMD 08, 3700 O Street, NW, OG 14-159 (HPA 14-330) Georgetown University – Dahlgren Chapel, Installation of Healy Hall crosses in berm, landscaping, Concept

28. SMD 08, 3700 O Street, NW, OG 14-160 (HPA 14-331) Georgetown University – Ryan and Mulledy Hall, Alterations and replacement windows, Concept

Agenda is of noon, April 21. Contact info: 202-724-7098 — anc2e@dc.gov — www.anc2e.com.

Paulina Phelps •

A time of year in Washington unlike any other, Easter Sunday is upon us. With the cherry blossoms past full bloom and the sound of birds chirping, the stage is set. With its rich history, D.C. has an abundance of churches, thus making the decision of which church to attend for Easter Sunday Mass or service a difficult one. For downtown, the first is Easter mass at St. Matthews Cathedral, which was founded in 1840, and resembles a Renaissance and Romanesque design.

How about a very special Washington tradition? At 6:30 a.m., Easter morning, more than 6,000 people gather annually at the Lincoln Memorial to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The event is coordinated by Capital Church of Vienna, Va., whose host and Pastor Amos Dodge writes: “As the sun rises over the Capitol dome, the mall rings with sounds of joyful celebration as we proclaim together that Christ is risen!”?The pastor has this additional advice: “Dress comfortably. We suggest a coat or blanket for the often brisk morning. Directed parking provided.  Service happens rain or shine.”

For Georgetown, one stand-out is Holy Trinity Catholic Church on 36th Street. Founded in 1794, Holy Trinity is the oldest Catholic parish in Washington and is frequented by many notables, such as Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. It was John F. Kennedy’s church, when he lived in Georgetown.

St. John’s Episcopal Church on O Street is also a classic for Easter. Among its historical churchgoers are Thomas Jefferson and Francis Scott Key, who also attended another Episcopal church: Christ Church, also on O Street on Georgetown’s east side.

Georgetown Lutheran Church at Wisconsin Avenue and Volta Place is celebrating its 245th anniversary. Between services, there will be an Easter egg hunt at 9:15 a.m. At Rose Park on Dumbarton Street sits the First Baptist Church of Georgetown. Its congregation celebrated 150 years last year. Farther west on the street near Wisconsin Avenue is Dumbarton United Methodist Church, the oldest Methodist church in D.C. Besides its 11 a.m. Sunday service, the church will have an open house on April 26, the same day as the Georgetown House Tour.

For some, Easter isn’t complete without a brunch get-together. D.C. offers a wide choice. For some at the Georgetowner, the list includes – but is an exclusive to – 1789 Restaurant, Billy Martin’ Tavern, Brasserie Beck, Fiola Mare, Teddy & the Bully Bar, Tony & Joe’s Seafood Place and Malmaison. Call right now, if you want to go.

For those staying at home, Dean & Deluca and Whole Foods offer several Easter meals to go. Order online, if you wish.

The day after Easter Sunday, Washington also hosts one of the quintessential Easter events in our country, hosted at the most recognizable house in our country, the White House. The 136th White House Easter Egg Roll will occur Monday, April 21. The event will feature live music, sports courts, storytelling and, most importantly, Easter Egg Rolling on the south lawn of the White House. It is one of the hardest tickets in town to get.

Hosted by the first family, the event’s theme this year “Hop into Healthy, Swing into Shape” reflects first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! Initiative, which promotes healthy eating in hopes of solving the epidemic of childhood obesity. As the inspiration for most of the events NBC Washington reported on Monday, April 14, that there will be an “Eggtivity Zone Obstacle Course,” yoga garden, basketball and tennis on the presidential courts and Hop to It! — an instructional dance party. This year’s special guests include Jim Carrey, Ariana Grande, Miss America 2014 Nina Davuluri and the Cookie Monster, according to the first lady’s Let’s Move blog. It is a wonderful, all-American way to take part in Easter joy.

Paulina Phelps •

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is asking for the public’s assistance in finding the man wanted for a series of bank robberies in Washington, D.C., and suburban Maryland. The three incidents occurred on Jan. 29, Jan. 13, and March 28 at the following banks: the Bank of America in Chevy Chase, Md., Capital One Bank on Connecticut Avenue in D.C. and Bank of America in D.C.’s Mt. Pleasant neighborhood.

The FBI’s Wanted Poster announced: “In each of the robberies the subject entered the bank, approached the counter and handed the victim teller a note that demanded money and implied that he had a weapon. After receiving the money, the subject fled the bank on foot.”

In addition to providing information on the location and date of the incidents, a short description of the robber is provided in the FBI’s wanted poster. He is a black male, who is estimated to be between 5’7” and 5’9”, medium build and between 25 to 30 years old.

If you see or hear of any information that can lead to the identification, arrest and conviction of this individual, contact the FBI — which is offering a reward of $5,000.
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Robert Devaney •

The District Department of Transportation will be conducting an inspection of the Whitehurst Freeway Bridge over K Street, NW, from Tuesday, April 22, to Wednesday, April 23. This will require single-lane closures and take place during off-peak hours between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., weather permitting.

The required lane closures and inspection activities are scheduled to occur as follows: Whitehurst Freeway over K Street, NW. On Tuesday, April 22, there will be a right-lane closure of eastbound K Street, NW, under the Whitehurst Freeway. On Wednesday, April 23, there will be a right-lane closure of westbound K Street, NW, under the Whitehurst Freeway.

Traffic controls will be in place to warn motorists as they approach these areas

Serafine George •

The U.S. Park Police have released a description of the suspect from the sexual assault in Glover Park on April 1.

According to a bulletin from the Park Police, it is looking for a black male with short hair, approximately six feet tall and weighing between 230 to 240 pounds. The suspect has a distinct tattoo of an “N” with stars through it on the back of his left hand.

If anyone has any information or believes they saw something that may relate to this incident, contact the USPP Tip Line at 202-610-8737.

Anonymous Tips can be left on the U.S. Park Police Tip Line 202-610-8737 or U.S. Park Police Communications Section 202-610-7500.

A woman was sexually assaulted in Glover-Archbold Park in the 3100 block of K Street, NW, just west of Georgetown University’s main campus April 1, said U.S. Park Police which is investigating the crime. The victim was walking alone when she was attacked from behind in the area of Foxhall Road and Canal Road around 8:50 p.m. The attacker then took her through the area of the Capital Crescent Trail. The attacker then fled toward Canal Road, NW, on foot after assaulting the victim. The park has a jogging and hiking trail.

During 2012, two sexual assaults took place near Canal Road and the C&O Canal. One woman was attacked on July 25, when jogging along the Capital Crescent trail at 9:15 p.m. Another woman was attacked on July 7, around 1 a.m. near 31st and M Streets, close to the canal.

In 1998, Christina Mirzayan was sexually assaulted and then beaten to death on Canal Road – near where the April 1 crime occurred — when walking home from a dinner with friends. Mirzayan was spending her summer on a science and technology fellowship, now named in her memory, at the National Academy of Sciences.

Her attacker was linked to the assault of nine other women. His attacks became increasingly more violent ending with the killing of Mirzayan. The case remains open.

Gary Tischler •

Gabriel Garcia Marquez passed on last week, leaving behind words and worlds of words and inventions that became books and stories that, if we read seriously and with care and joy, we will keep in our minds for as long as we live or as long as we are able.

He was a Colombian, but he came to personify all the great surging works of Latin American and Spanish-language literature of the latter part of the last century. It was encapsulated into a kind of genre called “magical realism,” of which he was neither the pioneer-inventor nor the lone practitioner, neither in Latin America or in the world. But it might be fair to say that his works brought something unique to the form—the writing was outsized, intoxicating, perfumed with roiling lyricism where reality in the form of sex, politics, and setting bumped up against magic, improbability, music and the whiff of both brimstone and heaven.

He grew up in varying circumstances, and worked in various jobs, and lived in various countries, and traveled and struggled, but, starting as a wordsmith, he ended up a word god in the form of his illustrious novels, “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” “The Autumn of the Patriarch,” “Love in the Time of Cholera,” “The General in His Labyrinth” and “Chronicles of a Death Foretold.”

In 1982, he won the Nobel Prize for literature for “for his novels and short stories, in which the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly composed world of imagination, reflecting a continent’s life and conflicts.” His response was a speech called “The Solitude of Latin America.” In truth, he was a Latin American writer, and he was not alone in that, only in the quality and size of his gifts. One thinks of Isabelle Allende from Chile, Carlos Fuentes from Mexico, the Brazilian Jorge Armado.

Marquez and the rest shared the luck and a quality that their translations into English often sounded and read like its true source, which doesn’t happen often in literature—think of Russian novels. They retained their liquidness, their clarity, the smoothness of rolling sentences.

You can get lost in “One Hundred Years of Solitude”—Marquez wasn’t easy—as in a maze and thicket of words as well as in the sheer grandiosity, the ambitions and the music and power of its ideas. It’s a rabbit hole of a book, challenging and not a little frightening, a place where you lose the threads and the memories.

Marquez reportedly suffered from dementia, which makes what he wrote and said all the more affecting: “What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it” or “It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams.”

“Love in the Time of Cholera” is one of the greatest novels on boy-girl, man-woman, old man-old woman enduring love ever written, in all of its facets, its beating hearts. Every man who has ever felt any sort of heart-stopping, sweat-inducing, ghostly, love will recognize it in this: “To him, she seemed so beautiful, so seductive, so different from ordinary people that he could not understand why no one was as disturbed as he by the clicking of her heels on the paving stones, why no one else’s heart was wild with the breeze stirred by the sighs of her veils, why everyone did not go mad with the movements of her braid, the flight of her hands, the gold of her laughter.”

I wish I’d said or written that sometime in my life.

Robert Devaney •

[UPDATED April 11 with list of applicants from ABRA.]

This morning, TV news crews reported on restauranteurs waiting overnight to submit their applications for a liquor license in Georgetown to the D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration at 8:30 a.m. The small line-up of tents in front of the Reeves Municipal Center at 14th and U Streets, NW, looked like people waiting to buy concert tickets or the latest electronic gadget. Applicants had to wait in line because of ABRA’s policy of “first come, first served.”

Here is the list of applicants from ABRA:

1. Restaurant Enterprises, Inc. trading as Smith Point (applied for a tavern license)

2. AN & JM (trade name is TBD) (applied for a restaurant license)

3. FR & LH, LLC (trade name is TBD) (applied for a restaurant license)

4. Ching, LLC trading as So MI (applied for a restaurant license)

5. Luke’s Lobster VIII, LLC trading as Luke’s Lobster (applied for a restaurant license)

6. Georgetown Restaurant Partners, LLC (trade name is TBD) (applied for a restaurant license)

7. Restaurants, LLC trading as Yummi Crawfish and Seafood Restaurant (applied for a restaurant license)

8. Prospect Dining, LLC trading as George (applied for a tavern license)

Within the Georgetown Historic District, there are three restaurant liquor licenses and one tavern liquor license available. D.C. law allows six tavern licenses and 68 restaurant liquor licenses in Georgetown. There has been a liquor license moratorium in Georgetown since the 1990s. A tavern license allows an establishment to have a smaller percentage of food to alcohol sales.

Ben Conniff, vice president of Luke’s Lobster, which has one of its seafood restaurants on Potomac Street, arrived yesterday to pick up the proper paperwork from ABRA and decided to stay at the Reeves Center in the line. “A co-worker brought me a tent for the evening,” said Conniff, who was fifth in line. One of those in front wanted a tavern license. So, being at least fourth in line, Conniff said he was hopeful of getting a restaurant liquor license.

Of the available licenses, Amir Yeroushalmie told a Fox5 reporter, “I believe we’re going to get one.” He wants to open an upscale sushi restaurant on Wisconsin Avenue. Another person on line wants to open a crayfish restaurant.

Liquor licenses rarely become available through ABRA in Georgetown. When Gypsy Sally’s recently obtained a tavern license, it had been 20 years since such an opening.

In an earlier Georgetowner report, advisory neighborhood commissioner Bill Starrels, who heads the Alcohol Beverage Committee, said the newly available licenses were “not performing” and said he was “absolutely appreciative of what ABRA is doing here. It showed due process.” Some licenses can sit for years before put back in circulation, so to speak.

“We have some serious restaurant people looking at Georgetown,” Starrels said. “We cannot have licenses sitting on the shelf.” Fox5 News described Georgetown in its April 9 report on the liquor licenses described Georgetown as “red-hot.”