Editorials and Opinions

the Georgetowner Editorial Board • August 1, 2015

Leslie Buhler will be stepping down as executive director of Tudor Place after 15 years of what the historic house and garden non-profit called, “transformational leadership.” Buhler arrived in 2000 and set on making sure one of Georgetown’s crown-jewel historic properties was maintained to the highest standards and included a master preservation plan of restoration and upkeep. She also made the home at 31st and Q Streets more accessible to everyone — designing a modern museum program that included a digital presence.

Tudor Place was completed in 1816 by Thomas Peter and his wife Martha Custis Peter, a granddaughter of Martha Washington, and is noted for its architecture, archive, and extensive collections, including more than 200 items owned by Martha and George Washington. Now a National Historic Landmark on five and a half acres in Georgetown, the estate had been open to the public 12 years when Buhler took the helm.

Buhler expanded Tudor Place programs and tours for young and old, alike, newcomer and longtime Georgetown supporters. Her educational efforts benefit 3,000 children each year. She has maintained a great relationship with her Georgetown neighbors.

As for maintaining the National Historic Landmark house, Buhler and Tudor Place made good use of a $3.5-million campaign funded in part by awards from Save America’s Treasures and the D.C. government. The house, the grounds and the collection have never been in better shape. Of course, the need for adequate funding continues.

“Tudor Place has benefited enormously from Leslie’s outstanding leadership and engagement with the community,” said Geoffrey B. Baker, president of Tudor Place’s board of trustees. “She has led the institution through a major assessment and planning process and developed an educational component that engages young and old with the powerful lessons of American history and culture. It is with profound gratitude that we wish Leslie well.”

“I’ve experienced great professional and personal satisfaction in advancing one of the greatest house museums in the nation’s capital, bringing attention to the extraordinary collection and archive it holds, and engaging the public with wonderful historic and cultural resources unique to Tudor Place,” Buhler said. “I look forward to the next chapter in my life knowing that the museum is stronger and poised to successfully complete a capital campaign to ensure its future as a 21st-century museum.”

Georgetown is indeed fortunate to have had Buhler at Tudor Place. The town is immensely grateful to her for all for her work in ensuring that one of its treasures is not only is cared for but shines as it is enjoyed by so many and will be for years to come. She has been and remains our friend.

the Georgetowner Editorial Board • July 16, 2015

It is an issue as old as the town itself: where did all the traffic come from? Why is it totally stopped, moving too slowly or too quickly? Why is it in front of my house?

The Citizens Association of Georgetown tackled these topics less than three months ago with its meeting, “Talking Traffic, Transportation & Bridges,” in hope of answering such questions as: Can traffic congestion ever be reduced in Georgetown? Is there a solution to the nightmarish rush-hour backups on 34th Street? How will repairs on the Pennsylvania Avenue and Key bridges affect us?

Similarly, at the June Advisory Neighborhood Commission meeting, discussions with representatives from the D.C. Department of Transportation honed in on the 34th Street traffic blues.

The CAG meeting had the time to discuss many topics — from the Metro to taxi and buses to traffic congestion — and proved informative and illuminating. It did hear from neighbors about the change in the traffic patterns for 34th and M Streets.

One 34th Street resident, Ann Satterthwaite, and her neighbor complained about traffic on 34th Street that is snarled from M Street north to Q Street and sometimes farther. Traffic used to back up later in the week, she said. Now, it is four days, at least. A neighbor said his house vibrates with the increased traffic: “I wake up every morning at 5:30 to 7 a.m. with the house shaking.”
DDOT reps said at both meetings said they would look into the matter at 34 and M, as if it were vaguely recurring and dimly seen. Why was this back-up going up to Reservior Road? What happened? DDOT said simply: “We don’t know.”

But this negative change did start about four months ago, the same time that the Key Bridge intersection was repainted and re-drawn, so to speak.

The ANC talk did get specific. DDOT heard from residents and commissioners about traffic saturation directly due to traffic-light time, a change in sequence and those dividing poles that designate each lane.

Along with this discussion came the obvious, known for more than a century: there is heavy pedestrian traffic at the corner of Wisconsin and M. That slows car traffic. Add to the traffic mix an illegally parked car blocking a rush-hour parking lane, and you’ve got a lane out — one third of the traffic flow jammed by one car. With that, let us reiterate our request: bring back a traffic control officer to Washington’s busiest corner.

Commissioner Ed Solomon suggested a simple solution: take away some of these plastic poles that make the cars turn more tightly — and thus more slowly — onto the bridge. Yes, this might definitely help.

And, yes, frustrations abound, and at least neighbors are speaking up more often, and DDOT is listening better. To this end, ANC chair Ron Lewis expressed a certain resignation: “Traffic will go where it wants to go.”

Jack Evans •

Many of you have read about the troubled financial state of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, also known as Metro.

I rejoined the Metro board of directors in January because I could see that system wasn’t running as well as in the past. (I previously served on the board from 1993 to 1999 and as chairman in 1994 and 1997.) It soon became clear that WMATA was in much worse shape than I had imagined.

In addition to January’s fatal Yellow Line incident and numerous operational challenges, there has been a continued delay of WMATA’s independent audit for fiscal 2014 and a downgrade in the agency’s credit rating. These problems make it more expensive and difficult to pay for necessary system improvements and maintenance.

Earlier this year, I steered the WMATA board to reject a proposed fare increase and service reduction. People are switching from using Metro to other forms of transit, in part because they are no longer willing to ride a system that is inconvenient and costly. We can’t make it more expensive and less convenient and expect anything other than a further loss of ridership.

Those are just some of the reasons why I have agreed to become chairman of the Finance and Administration Committee at Metro.
I’ve written frequently to you over the years about my service as the District Council’s Finance Committee chair. In my opinion, fiscal management is the chief responsibility of any legislative or governance body. I now feel compelled to bring the same fiscal scrutiny to Metro that I’ve brought to the District government.

Last week, at my first Finance Committee meeting as chair, we authorized the purchase of new railcars that will significantly improve safety, reliability and capacity. The purchase will replace older 5000-series cars with new 7000-series cars. This will help increase the number of eight-car trains in the system, replacing six-car trains.

Additionally, we approved the elimination of paper farecards beginning in December. Paper farecards might seem like a small matter, but they create a huge environmental waste and a lot of wear-and-tear on the magnetic-stripe readers.

In the coming months, I’ll continue to keep you updated about the state of Metro. My role as finance chair will require me to spend significant time on WMATA financial affairs, but I will also be advocating for safety and service improvements. We’ve worked hard to make the District the most dynamic city in the country and a transit system to match is long overdue.

I will also continue as chairman of the Finance Committee here at the council. We are on the cusp of our 20th consecutive balanced budget; our audits are completed on time, giving us a clean bill-of-health; and our credit rating has received seven increases since I’ve led the committee. I have every intention of keeping us on the same fiscal course until our credit rating is AAA.

*Jack Evans is the District Council member for Ward 2, representing Georgetown and other neighborhoods since 1991.*

Georgetowner •

Georgetown University’s board of directors passed a resolution June 4 — upon a recommendation by the university’s Committee on Investing and Social Responsibility — to divest “from companies whose principal business is mining coal for use in energy production.”

In a statement about the divestment, Georgetown University President John DeGioia said: “As a Catholic and Jesuit university, we are called to powerfully engage the world, human culture, and the environment — bringing to bear the intellectual and spiritual resources that our community is built upon. The work of understanding and responding to the demands of climate change is urgent and complex. It requires our most serious attention. As a university community, we can best respond to this evolving and ongoing challenge when we acknowledge the tensions embedded in this work — and the variety of perspectives that are present in this moment.”

The tensions which DeGioia mentions refer to G.U. Fossil Free, a student-run campaign, that called for further divestment from oil and gas companies in meetings with CISR and DeGioia last year.

GUFF is pushing for complete university divestment from the fossil fuels industry and argued that the board’s move was “insubstantial” and “morally indefensible,” because coal investments make up a “miniscule” part (less than 2 percent) of the school’s $1.5-billion endowment and all fossil fuels contribute to climate change. The group also argued that the divestment matters little as the coal industry has been in sharp decline over the past few years.

In an effort to blunt GUFF’s criticisms, the university’s statement on the divestment touted the school’s environmental achievements, including its use of renewable energy (100 percent of power on the main campus comes from renewable sources), a number of LEED-certified buildings on campus, a $5-million grant “designed to foster innovative approaches to energy efficiency in cities and counties throughout the U.S.” called the Georgetown University Energy Prize and more.

The issue is sure to rise again as GUFF has indicated that it will continue to fight for the university’s full divestment from the fossil fuels industry.

Georgetowner • May 31, 2015

The parents and supporters of Hyde-Addison Elementary School on O Street are to be commended for their unwavering commitment to the best education possible for their children and everyone’s – and for their patience.

Hyde-Addison stands for excellence. It is a point of pride for Georgetown, its only public elementary school. The school is over capacity, with 59 percent of its students attending from outside its boundaries. Indeed, Hyde-Addison has students from all eight wards of the District.

The school also desperately needs a real gymnasium, more classroom and meeting space and a connection between the two buildings. The time for delay is over.

We agree with Council member Jack Evans, with the Georgetown-Burleith Advisory Neighborhood Commission and, most importantly, with the parents and teachers of Hyde-Addison. The construction needs to get underway by this time next year.

Here is what an online petition by Hyde supporters argues: “Our Hyde-Addison E.S. community is grateful the Mayor’s FY16 Budget Proposal includes $22.8 million for the completion of our campus modernization. However, our community was stunned to see the proposed budget delays the funding and construction start date for our Hyde-Addison Addition until 2017 despite being assured on March 26, 2015, that construction would begin in May-June 2016.

“Without this re-allocation of the funding into FY16, our campus modernization –which Department of General Services has been working on since fall 2012 – will be stopped mid-way and our children will suffer. Our modernization has already been delayed three times. It was originally scheduled to start in 2013, then 2014 and most recently in 2015.

“Simply put, our children and community must not be expected to wait three more years before having access to a fully resourced campus – complete with sorely needed athletic space, additional classroom space, an updated media center, all-school meeting and performance space and ADA-compliant fixtures.”

We couldn’t agree more. Contact the Office of the Mayor, District Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, At-large Council member David Grosso as well as Chancellor Kaya Henderson and make your voice heard. To support Hyde, for the sake of our children, visit www.gopetition.com/petitions/mayjune-2016-start-for-hyde-addison-es-addition.html.