Georgetown Biz Group Honors Achievers, Affirms New Officers
• January 16, 2013

The Georgetown Business Association held its Annual Meeting and Holiday Soiree at Dumbarton House Dec. 12, affirming its 2013 officers and board and honoring individuals and businesses. The 2013 GBA officers are Riyad Said, president (Wells Fargo); Janine Schoonover, vice president ( JSW Group); Karen Ohri, treasurer (Georgetown Floorcovers); Molly Quigley, secretary (Clyde’s Restaurant Group).

Proud to be thanking the crowd was one of the communitarians of the year, Terry Bell of Salon Ilo, whose latest charitable effort was a Dec. 5 Kitty Kelley booksigning, a fundraiser for the D.C. Public Library Foundation and Friends of the Georgetown Public Library. Business person of the year Zubair Popal, whose Malmaison at 34th and K Streets will open in January, recalled his journey from Afghanistan to the D.C. area and noted that his children went to Georgetown University and George Washington University. Popal assured that his new restaurant would exude “traditional Afghan hospitality.” Said called Linda Greenan’s lifetime achievement award a “half-life award,” as he expected she had a lot more to do beyond her retirement from Georgetown University and her last GBA board meeting.

Last Edition of This Third Edition
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The Third Edition, part of Capital Restaurant Concepts which includes J. Paul’s, Paolo’s, Neyla’s and Old Glory, will celebrate the end of an era at a Jan. 24 bang-out party. The legendary bar and restaurant near the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street will close only to re-open under a new management arrangement with Richard Sandoval Restaurants, which owns a string of eateries, including Masa 14 in D.C.

Opened 1969, “the Third” has always been a player on the college-bar scene. It was shown in the 1980s classic, “Saint Elmo’s Fire.” Since 1982, Greg Talcott has owned the bar and restaurant and will continue as an owner. This year, the Third will undergo “a major renovation,” he said.

“It’s been a great run, and it has a great history,” Talcott said of Third Edition. “But it’s time to put a new face on it.” Sandoval has come on as partner to help make the 2013 upgrade. “We signed a 20-year lease four years ago,” Talcott said. “I hope we continue as a Georgetown institution.”

The Jan. 24 party will see many who met their future spouses at the place. Check the Facebook page, “The Last Edition of Third Edition,” for details.

Georgetown Stops for Karzai, Who Sees Afghanistan ?Moving Forward? January 16, 2013
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Afghan President Hamid Karzai visited Georgetown University Jan. 11 to give a speech, entitled ?Afghanistan Beyond 2014: A Perspective on Afghan-U.S. Relations,? at Gaston Hall.

Before the speech, Karzai?s motorcade got presidential treatment and caused temporary roadblocks on the west side of Georgetown, leaving motorists stopped on 34th and 35th street and other streets that intersected with M Street. One woman who lives on the 3600 block of Prospect Street, part of the motorcade route, was ordered by police not to drive to her nearby home, which has a garage, but in the opposite direction into the campus. A block away, she left her car with its lights flashing to gather items from her home and then travel with her two children back to her car to pick a third child. She and most affected motorists were halted for at least 25 minutes, as the university awaited the Afghan president.

Karzai met President Barack Obama earlier that Friday at the White House to discuss the withdrawal of most U.S. troops in Afghanistan in the months and year ahead and the transition of Afghan troops as U.S. troops take on a supporting and training role by the end of 2014.

Karzai reminded all that his country and the U.S. had come together after the September 11 attacks in 2001 ?for a great cause?: to free the world of terrorists, liberate Afghanistan and take down the Taliban.

Georgetown Stops for Karzai, Who Sees Afghanistan ‘Moving Forward’
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Afghan President Hamid Karzai visited Georgetown University Jan. 11 to give a speech, entitled “Afghanistan Beyond 2014: A Perspective on Afghan-U.S. Relations,” at Gaston Hall.

Before the speech, Karzai’s motorcade got presidential treatment and caused temporary roadblocks on the west side of Georgetown, leaving motorists stopped on 34th and 35th street and other streets that intersected with M Street. One woman who lives on the 3600 block of Prospect Street, part of the motorcade route, was ordered by police not to drive to her nearby home, which has a garage, but in the opposite direction into the campus. A block away, she left her car with its lights flashing to gather items from her home and then travel with her two children back to her car to pick a third child. She and most affected motorists were halted for at least 25 minutes, as the university awaited the Afghan president.

Karzai met President Barack Obama earlier that Friday at the White House to discuss the withdrawal of most U.S. troops in Afghanistan in the months and year ahead and the transition of Afghan troops as U.S. troops take on a supporting and training role by the end of 2014.

It was a time for reflection, and Karzai appeared relaxed during his third visit Georgetown. He recalled his previous visit for an honorary degree from the university, “when I was popular,” he said. Karzai smiled and added that he expected his son “will be studying here.”

Setting the tone, John DeGioia, president of Georgetown University, introduced Karzai and said that 2014 would be a new era for the U.S. and Afghanistan, while explaining that the speech was an example of “Catholic, Jesuit discourse.”

Karzai reminded all that his country and the U.S. had come together after the September 11 attacks in 2001 “for a great cause”: to free the world of terrorists, liberate Afghanistan and take down the Taliban. Within one-and-half months, Karzai’s country was free, he said, “with the help of the United States and allies.”

There have been “serious bumps,” Karzai said, as he listed the improvements of everyday life in Afghanistan, including the education of girls and increased use of mobile phones, as one woman’s phone buzzed within her purse in the back of the hall.

“The war on terror has been costly,” Karzai said, to the U.S., allies and Afghanistan. “Tens of thousands of civilians have been lost,” he said. “There is blame on both sides. I am aware of your complaints in the media . . . and of me.”

“The relationship continued out of a reality that Afghanistan would always be better off in close contact and partnership with the United States,” he said. “Is the future certainly good for us? Does it have dangers on its way? Are we certain to move forward? Will this partnership work? Yes.”

And Karzai’s prediction for Afghanistan’s future? There would be improvements but still violence, but the sweep of progress will not stop. He used the same phrase Obama had used for the U.S.-Afghan relationship: “moving forward.” Gain would be consolidated with most of the “suffering behind us.” The Afghan president closed his talk with the words of poet Robert Frost: “promises to keep . . . and miles to go.”

After the speech, Karzai did not take questions directly from the audience. Questions from student groups were asked by professor Phyllis Magrab, vice chair of the U.S.-Afghan Women’s Council, which is headquartered at the university. One question was from the Lecture Fund which cited a New York Times article about Taliban members who turned in their weapons and had not yet gotten their promised employment. Karzai seemed surprised and said he would check out the Times story.

Student Thomas Gibbons-Neff, president of the student veterans group, who was twice deployed to Afghanistan, asked what Karzai would “say to an American family that has lost a son or daughter in Afghanistan and what would you say they died for.”

“The United States came to Afghanistan for the security of the United States and by extension the rest of the world and also for Afghans,” Karzai answered. “Those unfortunate incidents of lives lost in Afghanistan were for the safety and security of the United States for the American people and also by extension for the rest of us in the international community.”

ANC Opposes Bowling Alley If Agreement Not Made
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Agreeing with residents who live in the Georgetown Park condominiums, Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E voted at its Jan. 2 monthly meeting to oppose the construction of a bowling alley in the former Shops at Georgetown Park if an enforceable agreement is not made.

The request by new tenant, Pinstripes, a Illinois-based Italian bistro with bowling and bocce as well as banquet space, caught flak from condo residents, who fear more noise from the proposed bowling alley.

It came down to ANC chair Ron Lewis to offer a resolution that would oppose the bowling alley before the Board of Zoning Adjustment at its Jan. 15 meeting — if the condominium association and Pinstripes cannot strike an agreement on vibration and noise control with an “enforceable mechanism for securing that assurance.” The ANC also opposed an outdoor patio, also proposed by Pinstripes.

G2 Bus Resumes West Side Route
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With the completion of the O and P Streets Rehabilitation Project, Metro Rail’s G2 bus route on the west side of Georgetown was resumed the last week of 2012. Look to see the G2 making its usual rounds along O and P Street with a stop at main gates of Georgetown University at 37th Street. For about a year and a half, its route ended at Wisconsin Avenue.

Disgruntled ‘Vet’ Threatens to Jump, Causes Gridlock
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Just before 5 p.m., Key Bridge was completely shut down for at least three hours Jan. 8, as police dealt with a potential jumper who was clinging to the eastern railing of the bridge. According to several sources who requested anonymity, a 30-year black male who claimed to be a veteran was upset about his benefits or lack thereof. The incident brought out hundreds of police officers, who shut down streets from the West End, east of Georgetown, and shut down parts of Wisconsin Avenue. Traffic was snarled all the way to Arizona Avenue. No one could walk or drive over the bridge until 8 p.m. A swat team was dispatched with repellers ready to leap from the bridge to hook the men if he had jumped. He was talked out of a potential suicide by police, who took the uninjured man away in an ambulance.

Georgetowner Benefit Raises Thousands for Senior Center
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The Georgetowner’s Holiday Benefit and Bazaar, held at the George Town Club, Nov. 29, attracted a great crowd and garnered $5,574.50 for the Georgetown Senior Center, said Georgetowner publisher Sonya Bernhardt, who added that the Georgetown Media Group has also pledged $7,000 in in-kind donations for the center. The group meets three times a week at St. John’s parish hall on O Street.

Jack’s Boathouse Eviction Paused; Owner Fights to Stay
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The National Park Service has put on hold the termination of its lease with Jack’s Boathouse, the popular canoe and kayak renting facility on the Potomac River in the shadow of Key Bridge.

“In the last 24 hours, I have received hundreds of emails from citizens concerned with the future of Jack’s Boathouse,” said National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis in a Dec. 24 statement, according to the Washington Post. The Park Service director added that he had “directed the staff at the park and the Regional Office to withhold further action on the lease termination until I have conducted a thorough review and determined the best course of action.”

A Dec. 18 letter from the National Park Service to Paul Simkin, owner of Jack’s Canoes & Kayaks, LLC, informed him that his business had until the end of January to vacate the property.

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton’s office issued a statement on the situation Jan. 15:
“Congresswoman Norton is so concerned about the situation at Jack’s Boathouse that we are sending a letter to the National Park Service outlining her concerns. Paul Simkin has not only kept open this facility, he has invested significantly in it, for the greater good of the community despite the NPS’s failure to maintain it.”

A week ago, Simkin retained lawyer Charles Camp, who wrote to Park Service, citing a detail of September 1985 resolution by the District Council, concerning the transfer of D.C. public land in the area around Jack’s: “The National Park Service shall assume responsibility to repair, maintain, and protect all wharves, piers, bulkheads, and similar structures that are located on the transferred land or in the adjacent waters.”

Camp further wrote to the NPS: “Unless you believe jurisdiction over the land occupied by Jack’s Boathouse has reverted back to the District of Columbia, and given that my client needs to have Jack’s Boathouse fully up and ready for the next season by March 7, 2013, I ask that you promptly begin making necessary repairs and maintenance to ‘all wharves, piers, bulkheads, and similar structures that are located on’ the property occupied by Jack’s, including such structures ‘in the adjacent waters.’”
Simkin’s dilemma is that his business is only a few weeks from opening and he does not know “whether to order boats, bring back employees or even paint signs,” he said. He does not understand, he said, why the Park Service will not tell him what is going on.

The news that Jack’s Boathouse would be closed — first reported by the Georgetowner — launched a barrage of comments on various news websites as well as on Jack’s Boathouse Facebook page and a petition page for Jack’s on Change.org

Owner Paul Simkin found the comments “heartening” and responded in kind: “We are beyond overjoyed. While there is much work still to be done to ensure a future at the boathouse, we are hoping beyond hope that we will be able to be there for our customers and that our great staff will be able to hold on to their jobs.”

Despite remaining unsure of his business’s situation, Simkin praised Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans, whose 2010 wedding reception was at the boathouse. “He has been a guardian angel to us,” Simkin said. “He has made all the difference in the world, reaching out to the mayor and the Park Service.”

Inaugural Weekend, Always a Big Deal
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You might be hearing media chatter around town that the upcoming second-term inauguration of President Barack Obama is not as much excitement this time around, that there’s very little scuttlebutt surrounding the event on Monday, that it’s, well, no big deal.

For sure, this inauguration will not have any of the historic drama and precedent of Pres. Obama’s first inauguration four years ago when he became the first African American to be inaugurated as President of the United States and drew the largest crowds in the history of such events in Washington, D.C.

Don’t believe that blasé is king this time around. In this town, and in our country, and perhaps the world, the event itself has always been a big deal, a marker, an occasion full of certain kinds of majestic traditions and rituals, omens and portents, comings and goings, beginnings, endings and continuations, invocations and marching bands, cheers and cheerleaders. People always come by the thousands and people always remember.

If you have lived in Washington for any length of time, the presidential inauguration becomes a personal kind of occasion and memory, depending on the extent of your participation. There will be parades. There will be inaugural balls. There will be speeches and swearing in and perhaps even some swearing.

We live in an information age where we seem to know an awful lot about historic events, as if we’d been there and known the presidents personally—these days Ronald Reagan’s joke that “I knew Thomas Jefferson. He was a friend of mine,” seems not just a reference to an old campaign anecdote, but a state of mind.

For certain, the most romantic, most resonant, echoing imagery for almost any presidential inauguration was the one surrounding John F. Kennedy. The occasion—full of snow and cold and wintry weather and youthful optimism—spoke to just about everything in our political history and our feelings about our democracy. You could be forgiven if you think you remember just how cold it was, or still hear the stories of Kennedy’s resounding challenge to American citizens to “ask not what your country can do for you”, and the image of JFK and the older, serious Eisenhower riding together, top-hatted in the cold air. You think you remember the pre-eminent shaman poet of our times, Robert Frost, wintry hair, wintry voice, trying to remember the poem he wrote for the occasion, and you remember Jackie Kennedy, the first lady, fulfilling the promise of youthful, graceful, just plain high class beauty that was almost royal.

The longer I live in Washington, the more I can sometimes talk myself into thinking I was here for that cold January day in 1961. Watching Daniel Day Lewis in “Lincoln” makes me think I actually heard Lincoln’s second inauguration speech line that began “With malice toward none and charity toward all”. He opened his second term near the end of the war not far in time from his assassination.

These things matter, and not just if the president catches a cold. Until inaugurations were televised, people who did not attend, learned about them only through reportage. Now we know everything there is to know, but perhaps not as much as we should.
Let me be honest—I have never attended an inaugural ball, but I remember how they looked, the glow, the dresses, occasions where even presidents not known for their romantic images can look endearing. Here, we got to see that Richard loved Pat, and George loved Laura and Nancy was crazy about Ron, and Barack and Michelle locked eyes to “At Last”. That music, that dance, those balls are part of inaugural lore. It’s where we first saw Nancy Reagan’s utterly genuine and adoring look.

I remember the cheers at the news of the release of the hostages when Reagan took the oath, remember the jeers as crowds noted the helicopter departure of George W. Bush. I remember turning around near a press section in front of the podium last inauguration and seeing those multitudes stretching energetically to the Washington Monument.

That was a big deal.

This will be too, differently, smaller, perhaps, but all the same a big deal, because all the same history is present, on this Monday, the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., it’s present with this man who gets to say again, “I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear …”
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