Latest News

Gwendolyn Shearman • April 11, 2013

The power of a good book and the kindness of others come together with Grace Church’s first ever Little Free Library.

The first Little Free Library in Washington D.C., located outside of Grace Church and Georgetown Ministry Center, was created in an effort to promote literacy, give people easy access to new reading material, and build a stronger sense of community.

Opened on April 3, the effort was coordinated by Georgetown Ministry Center, Grace Church, and the AARP of District Columbia State Office.

The book exchange allows guests of Georgetown Ministry Center, people attending church services or the school, as well as guests and community members that visit the church grounds, to drop off books they want to donate and pick up new books that others have donated.

You can drop by the Little Free Library outdoor kiosk at Grace Church at 1041 Wisconsin Avenue NW. For more information on Georgetown Ministry Center at http://georgetownministrycenter.org or Grace Church of Georgetown at www.gracedc.org. If you have a good idea of another location for a Little Free Library, contact the AARP Foundation at (202) 434-3203 or email pdeloach@aarp.org.

Robert Devaney • April 10, 2013

A manhole cover exploded on 33rd Street near the C&O Canal and flamed briefly mid-morning March 25. As a Pepco crew attended to short-circuited wires, the smell moved up the street. At 33rd and M Streets, a customer at Georgetown Cupcake smelled smoke. D.C. Fire & EMS responded to the report with a show of force, calling out trucks from Georgetown, the West End and U Street. More than 10 fire department trucks, SUVs and a hook-and-ladder lined M Street. Police closed one lane to traffic.

“Maybe they burned the cupcakes,” said one passer-by at the intersection. A fire department official said neither smoke nor any gas leak had come from the bakery or buildings at the corner but was from the blown-out manhole down 33rd Street. Adding to the momentary excitement was NBC4 News’s Pat Collins, who was on the scene, looking for a story to tell. Meanwhile, a small line waited near the entrance of Georgetown Cupcake, where, by the way, Passover macaroons are available through April 2. Soon enough, it was all over, and the shop reopened.
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Robert Devaney •

After Mayor Vincent Gray introduced his Fiscal Year 2014 Proposed Budget and Financial Plan March 28, he was seen around Washington at such places as Georgetown’s new Capella Hotel for a blossom ribbon cutting and Nationals Park for baseball’s opening day. Gray’s view? “D.C. is the place to be,” he said at the Capella.

“This proposal is the District of Columbia’s 18th consecutive balanced budget,” according to the mayor. “As you know, the District’s economy is growing rapidly, with more than 28,000 private sector jobs created over the past two years and an unemployment rate that has fallen nearly three percentage points. To support our growing population and to continue building a more prosperous, equitable, safe and sustainable city for all, my proposed budget makes important investments in three key strategies: (1) growing and diversifying the District’s economy; (2) educating children and preparing the workforce for the new economy; and (3) improving the quality of life for all residents. . . . The $10.1 billion budget leverages the District’s strong financial position to make major investments in expanding affordable housing, strengthening education and workforce development, and safeguarding public safety without raising new taxes or fees.”

While the budget centers on education, housing and public safety, it looks to revamp the main public library, the Martin Luther King, Jr., branch, and expand library hours. Also, within the budget’s fiscal 2014 to fiscal 2019 Capital Improvements Plan, streetcar lines get $400 million. The first one slated to be from Georgetown to Minnesota Avenue for this year. Others include an Anacostia line and a line along Georgia Avenue. Amid other line items: $10.7 million for bike lanes and trails. The new budget also funds 10 new Capital Bikeshare stations beyond the more than 50 DDOT has already funded.

Gray also announced a series of town-hall-style meetings — for each ward — to introduce District residents to, and receive feedback from them on, his proposed fiscal 2014 budget. These meetings include:

Youth Town Hall Meeting: Saturday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., April 20, Sumner School and Archives, 1201 17th St., NW.

Ward 2 Town Hall Meeting: Saturday, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., April 20, Sumner School and Archives, 1201 17th St., NW.

Gary Tischler •

What befits a baseball opening day the most? Well, if you’re a Washington Nationals fan, a perfect opening day would consist of the two young faces of the franchise doing what they do best.

It would be Stephen Strasburg pitching seven innings of shutout, three-hit ball.

It would be Bryce Harper, after picking up his NL rookie of the year award, showing why he got it by hitting not one but two home runs, providing the winning margin of a 2-0 victory opening day victory over the Miami Marlins who floundered at the plate like beached—well, you know—fish.

“He hit that one straight and up,” a Nats employee on the second level told us. “I heard it went straight over center field.”

That it did. Straight, like a Tell arrow through an apple, so sudden you barely had time to wonder if that really happened.

That was in the first inning, on a one-ball count and it happened so fast that it took a second for the roar of the crowd to build to an even bigger roar. My thought was more like “Holy s—” but the guy waving his jacket like a toreador was speechlessly grinning. A smile formed on the face of a white-haired fan up here, spreading out to his beard stubble. He was wearing a Harper jacket.

But even before the Harper fireworks, the methodical Strasburg bearing and pitching, the day was a gift to everyone—fans, officials, players, and, okay, maybe not the Marlin players in their grayish uniforms taking batting practice. But they didn’t know that then.

The Marlins, like everyone else and ourselves, basked in God’s green acres of baseball turf, in outfield and infield, in blues skies and throw and catch warm-ups, and in walking side by side fathers and sons and grandfathers and granddaughters. “I’m being grandpop today,” the grandpop from Fairfax said. “Only thing is, I can’t keep up with her.”

You could see the difference in the air and on the Metro—if somebody wasn’t coming from the zoo on a Monday late morning, they were for sure going to the Nationals game, surging a lot out of Virginia in a sea of red and white, Zimmermans, Strasbergs, Harpers and Desmonds and worthy Werths, boyfriends and girlfriends, and a 14-month-old boy with his dad behind home plate. “First time,” his dad said. At least he wasn’t trading stocks on eBay or selling them to us.

Opening day is the opening of sacred ground and as yet untarnished hopes and the laying to rest of the year before. It was, after all, the grandest of years and the suddenly worst kind of year that had the Nationals, once the losingest team in baseball, rising to the heights of baseball’s best record, only to lose a game they had in hand, a strike away from advancing to the National League playoffs.

The scoreboard celebrated for us—Jason Werth’s walk-off home run was seen again, Strasburg’s easy motions and Harper’s dirty uniform derring-do.

Now, the Washington Nationals are being picked as World Series by Sports Illustrated, a curse in some quarters with historical examples of being so, or just an embellishment of the notion that we have a pretty damn good team here.

We all, we happy few gathered at home plate to see Adam LaRoche, who looks like a ballplayer personified, a grown up still playing a man-child game and Harper, a man child playing like a gutsy grownup. They—and ageless manager Davey Johnson and general manager Mike Rizzo, were all honored with various awards at home plate.

In April in spring, a baseball stadium is a kind of holy place before the grass gets torn up, the dust scattered, —the temples are home plate, first base, second base and third base, the fields of play are green and pristine, and now, before someone hollers the sacred beginnings of ball playing—which is to say “Play ball”—the uniforms, especially the Nats’ white with red names and numbers, seem blindingly washed, like the togas of senators on a stroll—Washington senators. In his uniform, Davey Johnson looked like he was going to the prom.

The bald eagle Screech—who still looks like a chicken by another name—wandered, well, like some other kind of bird, among the gathered folks, television reporters, the odd writer, the photographers, the U.S. Army Chorus, the veteran throwing out the first ball, the ball girls and ball boys. Mayor Vincent Gray, a ballplayer of some renown, showed up to deliver the lineup and when we asked him if he was still playing he said, “You bet.” He sounded so confident that we almost asked him if he was running again for mayor, but we refrained. Because Gray was today like the rest of us a fan glad to be here and politics in Washington stayed outside the gates with no tickets to the game.

Children ran out into the field at one point taking up the position. “America the Beautiful” was heard and country songs and songs I never heard before. They could have been the theme from “Field of Dreams”, or “The Natural”, and why not.

The announcer called out everyone’s name on both team and so many job-holders among the Nats—even the assistant massage therapist got to trout out on to the field—that I started to wait for my name to be called but in vain.

I went to Easter Mass on Sunday—and opening day today. For different reasons, each occasion had the effect of turning me for a second into a small boy again—awed with memory in the first case, happy in the sun in the second.

Happy day. The Washington Nationals are in first place and undefeated. What befits a baseball opening day more than that?
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Nico Dodd • April 8, 2013

Residents gathered Oct. 17 for a ribbon-cutting inaugurating the recent improvements to Rose Park at 26th and O Streets. Georgetown advisory neighborhood commissioner Tom Birch emceed the event.

The new improvements include a new brick walkway, an improved “tot lot,” a new fence and new benches. The benches have been ordered but were not installed at the time of the ribbon cutting. The project began 18 months ago and was finished on time and under budget three weeks after ground was broken. All improvements were paid for by community donations. The new brick walkway includes bricks inscribed with the names of people who donated money to the project. The work was completed by Perez Landscaping & Stonework.

The Georgetown Garden Club donated new sycamore and cherry trees as well as new rose bushes.

David Abrams, who lives across the street from Rose Park, was awarded with a plaque for “15 years of service” to the park. Pamla Moore, founder of Friends of Rose Park Foundation, was also awarded for her service to the park. Abrams is pleased with the improvements, as they make the park “safer” and “cleaner.”

Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans also gave remarks and joked that Birch had been at Rose Park to greet Pierre L’Enfant and George Washington to Georgetown. ANC2E commissioners Jeff Jones and Bill Starrels were also present at the event.

On Oct. 31, a pumpkin festival will be celebrated at Rose Park. A pumpkin parade will begin at 4:30 p.m.
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Robert Devaney • April 3, 2013

The Hoya basketball team–the No. 2 seed in the South Regional of the 2013 NCAA Tournament–is set to play Friday in Philadelphia against Florida Gulf Coast University.

For this March Madness, the Georgetown University men’s basketball team looks strong with coach John Thompson III and star player Otto Porter leading the way.

And, for good measure, there’s a “Jack the Bulldog” inflatable on top of the Prospect Street house of Jack Davies, who has placed Santa Claus and a hockey player atop his river view deck before.

“Yesterday afternoon with the assistance of three young men from Georgetown’s athletic department and my nephew Clarke Williams, we put up the bulldog,” said Davies, businessman and philanthropist, who is a founder of AOL International and part owner of the Washington Capitals and other sports teams. “We were nearly foiled by strong winds but Jack the Bulldog prevailed.”

At first unaware that he and the Georgetown mascot share a first name, Davies said of the high-sitting inflatable — which was provided by the university — “It’s better than an inflatable Jesuit.”

“The Hoyas are my neighborhood team,” Davies said. “I am a big fan of John Thompson III and his wife Monica and of the way Georgetown runs its program. I would like to see Coach Larranaga do well with Miami, but Jack the Bulldog shows my true favorite.”

It seems everyone has a favorite, religiously filling in their NCAA brackets. As he has done since his first year in office, President Barack Obama shared his picks with ESPN: Louisville, Ohio State, Florida and Indiana in the Final Four; Indiana beating Louisville in the April 8 national championship game.

Retired Georgetowner publisher Dave Roffman chimed in from Alabama: “My Final Four, Ohio State, Miami, Louisville and Georgetown.” Roffman commented: “Well, since I spent 42 plus years in Georgetown, I have to root for the Hoyas. But Michigan is definitely tough. I like Miami and Ohio State to reach the finals. They have the best point guards.”

Looking at the brackets, the coverage and marketing of the tournament, the conferences and the number of schools (not even counting play-in schools) and their often obscure names, you realize a lot has changed since March Madness officially became March Madness.

One thing you can practically say with certainty is that there is no clear-cut favorite this year. Indiana, for instance, has a number-one seed in this tournament, but hardly any hoops nut is picking them to win it all—except POTUS.

“Those great upset years with the great oddball schools forging into the regionals and NCAA finals by whooping up on the likes of Duke, Kansas or, yes, sad to say, Georgetown in early rounds may be over,” said Georgetowner arts & entertainment editor Gary Tischler, who began his career as a sports writer years ago in northern California.

“I’m not making a prediction here—bad enough that I filled out the bracket minus the eventual champion—but it looks impossible to try,” Tischler said. “Everybody’s a crap shooter these days even those who think it’s a game where you say crap(s) all of the time. Talk about the old, long-shot guys. Look who’s got a number-one seed—Gonzaga, a small school with a great basketball program which became so consistently good that it became a so-called mid-major.  VCU and Butler, giant killers of yore, are now legitimate contenders right up there with Georgetown, which is playing a school that beat another top seed, Miami, whose coach led George Mason to the Final Four in 2006.”

Tischler’s take-away? “Hate to go against the president: Georgetown and St. Louis in the final in a nail biter.  Don’t know who; just know when.”

Whatever the pick, Georgetown–and the entire Washington area–is enjoying the national attention of being a top seed in the NCAA basketball tournament. And Jack the Bulldog is staring down on D.C. and Virginia. Let’s hope he gets to sit and stay for a couple of weeks.
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Gary Tischler •

One of the really, really swell things about living where I do in the Lanier Heights of Adams Morgan is that I can walk to the National Zoo. Which meant that today, even though it was bitter cold on a day that is supposed to be a part of spring, I could walk over to the zoo to the press opening for the National Zoo’s new state-of-the-art Elephant Community Center, part of its Elephant Trail program that also includes an Elephant Barn which opened in September.

Walking over we ran into National Zoo Director Dennis Kelly who was headed in the same direction. “This is about saving the Asian elephant,” Kelly said. “Wait until you see. It’s not just an exhibit. It’s something we all care about passionately. There is a real threat here. This is about research, observation and study. It’s a great opportunity for us.” The Asian elephant is on the endangered species list.

“I know some people who remember this from way back,” he said. “I used to live near National Cathedral. I could walk here all the time. Sure, it’s a great thing to have as part of your neighborhood.”

The zoo’s chief veterinarian Suzan Murray is obviously passionate about the elephants. They number three now, although the zoo wants to build a functioning, familial herd of “maybe seven to ten elephants,” she said

Once you get in the new center—the former elephant house, which housed, back in the day not just elephants but rhinoceros, hippos and giraffes—you get an real sense of space and excitement about the future. And that’s before the three elephants Ambika, Shanti and Kandula actually arrive—well, two, because Kandula, who is Shanti’s son—has opted to stay outside. Kids are making elephant noises on an exhibit that lets them do it. There are press persons and parents and elephant keepers milling around with each other, looking at the new center, which has the look of something bigger, plenty of light, a sand (and heated) floor, lots of straw and branches and toys, which lets the elephant keep their minds bus and a pedal which lets the elephant turn on the shower.

If you want to talk about elephant passion—it’s hard to pick among Murray, Marie Galloway, the elephant keeper at the zoo for the past 26 years, or the three children who were the winners of the Washingtonian Magazine’s letter writing contest, Ethan Schipper, a kindergarten student at Westbriar Elementary School in Vienna, Sarah Price, a third grader at Woodacre Elementary School in Bethesda, and Tony Phonemany, a fifth grader at Crestwood Elementary School in Springfield.

The children were there with their families, high energy as you expect but when Shanti and Ambika ambled in, they—and everybody else—got quiet. Elephants of all ages and stages remain mysterious, proud animals. They’re tool users but also playful, slow and big—their weight runs into tonnage. Unlike, say, Pandas, who get by on unworldly cuteness, elephants get respect wherever they might appear—they’ve got majestic mojo, no question.

Maybe the most passionate and most excited person in the room was Galloway who tells you that Ambika was actually very shy about entering the new space, while Shanti raced toward it the minute the doors opened and her son opted for the cautious way. “He backed in,” she told the gathered press. “So, yes, elephants do walk backward.”

“I could talk about elephants all day if you let me. Elephant stories,” she said. “They are so very, very smart. So, we do things all over the enclosure—hide treats or food, let them figure things out. You’ll never get to the end of everything there is to know about them.”

Ethan Schipper wants to work with elephants. “I want to save your family,” he wrote in his letter. “He gave all the contents in piggy bank—$1.85—to help the elephants. “This is the woman who helped when Kandula was born. She caught him.” Ethan stood silent, one of those best-day-of-your-life moments difficult to articulate whether you’re five or 85.

The Elephant Community Center is part of Elephant Trails project, a $56-million effort which began several years ago and which now which totals 8,984 square meters. The community center features state of the art animal care facilities, space for socializing, training and playing, has climate control a wading pool and shower, and it is a complete green building.

Robert Devaney •

According to the National Park Service and DDOT Trees, Canal Road will close between Foxhall Road and Arizona Avenue, NW, beginning tomorrow, March 26, through Thursday, March 28, between 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., for scheduled road work.

A longer project is also slated to begin this week, closing Canal Road between 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., Sundays through Thursdays: repairs at the trail bridge over the C&O Canal and Canal Road at Arizona Avenue, NW, by the NPS. Reconstruction of the bridge will also close the Capital Crescent Trail at times; bicycle traffic will be detoured over a temporary bridge. The NPS reported to cyclists and other users of the trail: “The contractor is working during a night time road closure of Canal Road from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Traffic is re-routed around this closure. If all progresses well, the contract should be complete with all repairs in June. The CCT trail is slated to remain open during most of this process. We required the contractor to install a temporary bridge to serve the commuting public. . . . It is our intention for the daily CCT commuter not to be impacted from 5 a.m. through 9 p.m. time frame.”

Gary Tischler •

The Conservative Political Action Conference — also known as CPAC — was held at National Harbor in Maryland, just south of Washington, D.C., March 14 through 16, instead of the Washington Marriott Wardman Park near my Adams Morgan neighborhood where it was last year. That was a bit of downer, as I couldn’t simply walk into the conservative political lion’s den as I had last year.

I probably shouldn’t be writing about this although I don’t work for MSNBC nor am I a big fan of Bill Maher. But if liberal Democratic strategist Paul Begala and conservative pundit Tucker Carlson can spar more or less good naturedly in CPAC’s popular “Fight Night” event, I can’t resist making a few observations.

In this CPAC, the annual Washington Times Straw Poll—a sort of heated popularity contest for in-the-moment political prom king bragging rights among conservatives—seemed to matter only a little, adding as it did a little more luster to the suddenly red-hot conservative darling Rand Paul, the new senator from Kentucky, and son of eternally and perpetual Libertarian presidential candidate Ron Paul. Rand finished ahead of youthful Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who only a few weeks ago was anointed the savior of the Republican Party in a Time Magazine cover. Although Pope Francis I is currently the cover boy of Time Magazine, don’t be surprised to see Rand on Time’s cover soon. This can be a mixed blessing, of course, somewhere between making the cover of Sports Illustrated and being Playmate of the Year. Look what happened to the first GOP hero of the year to make the Time cover, New Jersey GOP Governor Chris Christie, who not only did not receive a speaking offer from CPAC, but was the butt of a fat joke from still thin-and-mean pundit-author-of-many-many-books Ann Coulter, who also chose to call former President Bill Clinton a “forcible rapist” during her speech.

But I digress, which wasn’t difficult to do during the course of this three-day nearly love fest among conservatives, where defiance, quips, anti-Obama snarks and intramural spats were the order of the day. If you’re a conservative at a thing like this, it’s natural given today’s political climate—or as we call it around here, the eternal frost or the ice age—to express your disagreement with, defiance of, and outright contempt for President Barack Obama, and say things about him that you might not say about your worst enemy or Bill Maher or the North Korean ruler for life, as the ever popular, funny and zinger queen (sit down, Michele Bachman), Sarah Palin did when she called the president a liar in the manner of the infamous shout-out from a GOP congressman during a State of the Union address.

That happened often. But we were also treated to some rumblings in the ranks. Senator John McCain, who must by now feel like a GOP dinosaur or just sour, got so exasperated that he called Sen. Paul and fire-breathing Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, “wacko birds.” McCain later apologized and said “he respected them both.”

Social conservatives who passionately oppose gay marriage rights got a stinging surprise at the convention when Ohio Sen. Rob Portman who once shared their opposition said he was for it after his son came out. Both liberal and conservative pundits piled on.

Possible presidential candidate and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush said that the GOP “can’t be seen as the anti-everything party” and urged for more inclusionary stances. In this crowd, that sounded almost liberal in tone.

At CPAC, the GOP and its conservative members seemed to return to its more intransigent stance of being in opposition—they liked Paul’s filibuster on drones not because they agreed with him but because he was defying the president—and they witnessed a bravura performance by former Alaska governor and McCain vice-presidential running mate Sarah Palin. There seemed to be an attitude that Obama and the Democrats shouldn’t actually act like they won the election and that the GOP should stop soul-searching why they night have lost the election. Sen. Cruz said it was not a failure of conservative principles. More and more, the most conservative members there—and they were all there—acted as if an electoral anomaly had occurred (twice), some sort of glitch in the body politic that didn’t need addressing.

Palin was her usual dry, acerbic, one-liner self now that her daughter’s career on “Dancing with the Stars” appears to be at an end. A standup comedy career is an option. Witness her attack on New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s anti-“Big Gulp” campaign. She also took on Karl Rove, once considered the devil by liberals, but now, apparently, a target for the conservative wing of the party, after he questioned some of the tactics of ultra-conservatives.

If the atmosphere at the CPAC was an indicator—and, like polls, they rarely predict the political future so early on—the cold war between the administration and the House of Representatives, between the Republicans and the Democrats, and, between Republicans and Republicans, is bound to heat up. Nobody wins, except Mr. Stalemate, and maybe the future of the country.

Georgetowner • March 25, 2013

HUGE USED BOOK SALE

March 22nd, 2013 at 10:00 AM | $1 or 25 cents | FriendsofPalisadesLibrary@gmail.com | Tel: 202-966-3291 | Event Website

For the benefit of DC’s Palisades Library,
Fri. March 22 and Sat. March 23, 10 am – 4 pm. 20,000 titles. Most books $1 or 25 cents each, discounted by the bag on Sat.
FriendsOfPalisadesLibrary@gmail.com

Address

4901 V St. NW (corner MacArthur Blvd.)

Artini 2013 @ The Corcoran

March 22nd, 2013 at 07:30 PM | $125 – $200 (VIP) | membership@corcoran.org | Tel: (202) 639-1753 | Event Website

8:30 P.M. TO MIDNIGHT (VIP SPEAKEASY OPENS AT 7:30 P.M.)

Presented by the Corcoran’s 1869 Society, ARTINI is a vibrant evening of art, cocktails, entertainment, and dancing.

General Ticket, Member and Non-Member Price: $125

VIP Ticket, 1869 Society Price: $169

VIP Ticket, Non-Member Price: $200

All proceeds benefit the NOW at the Corcoran exhibition and performance series.

Address

Corcoran Gallery of Art; 500 17th St NW

Tea with the Easter Bunny

March 23rd, 2013 at 10:00 AM | Begin at $15.00 | Event Website

Enjoy a festive spring tea with the Easter Bunny! Families will sample spring tea blends, sandwiches, petite desserts, and scones, while visiting with the Easter Bunny. After tea, families will partake in a scavenger hunt through Tudor Place’s 5.5 acres of gardens in search of the Easter Bunny’s favorite flowers and animal friends.

Address

Tudor Place; 1644 31st St NW

Easter Eggstravaganza

March 23rd, 2013 at 10:00 AM | Event Website

One of the most EGGciting Easter events in the area, this is a time for kids and families to come out and enjoy a fun-filled event. Come on out and enjoy the festivities with us!

Two Easter Egg Hunts

Life-size Easter Bunny

Face Painting

Games

Prizes

Hosted by National Community Church-Georgetown. NCC strongly believes in kids and families! We put a lot of effort into investing in kids lives and having events where they can have fun and learn valuable lessons.

Address

Rose Park; 2600 O St NW

The Giving Tree Band at Hill Country Barbecue

March 29th, 2013 at 08:30 PM | Free | info@hillcountrywdc.com | Tel: (202) 556-2050 | Event Website

Where: Hill Country Barbecue Market in Washington D.C.

When: Friday, March 29th, 2013

Doors: 8:30 pm

Show: 9:30 pm

Set time: 9:30 pm

Ages: All Ages

Price: Free

Address

410 7th Street NW