Just Say No: to the Large Retailer Act and the Visitor Parking Pass
• August 22, 2013

Two issues of varying governmental “help” deserve further discussion and action, because we find that they — while well-intended — do not translate well into the real world.

We have previously called for Mayor Vincent Gray to veto the Large Retailer Accountability Act–which forces large retailers like Walmart with more than a billion in annual sales and stores larger than 74,000 square feet to pay a minimum (or liveable) wage of $12.50 an hour — when he finally receives it from the District Council. After the council voted for the bill which is patently anti-business and, in effect, anti-job, it delayed sending it to the mayor because of the vacationing council members and fearing a lack of votes. We repeat: Mr. Mayor, when you get it, veto this bill.

We have reported that free visitor passes will now be available on request for D.C. residents from the D.C. Department of Transportation. No going to the police station each time a visitor will be staying with you. Also reported: While not all details regarding the new passes have been released, DDOT has said that they will be valid from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, 2014. They must be used inside the boundaries of the passholder’s advisory neighborhood commission.

This could set the stage for deceit, even as the pass require the parking to be in one’s ANC district — not that most residents know which one it is. These visitor passes look ripe for unfair trading of some kind — let’s take another take on this surprise gift. (We’ll leave it at a “maybe.”)

Ev Shorey: Georgetown?s ?Great Friend, Great Citizen?August 21, 2013
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The obituary in the Washington Post for Clyde Everett ?Ev? Shorey, who died July 23 of congestive heart failure at his home in Georgetown, tells a story of a career and a passion for the March of Dimes, the charitable organization for which he had been a top lobbyist for a number of years.

The interview with him in the Citizens Association of Georgetown?s Oral History Project in April 2010 tells the story of Ev Shorey, resident of West Lane Keys in Georgetown, where he lived with his wife of 63 years, Joan Burgess Shorey. It?s the story of Shorey, the concerned citizen of Georgetown, who committed to active service and participation in CAG and became its president for a time.

Neither story gives you a sense of the kind of impression Shorey, who was 91, could make if you met him or watched him preside over CAG meetings.

His professional life of which a significant portion was his eight-year role as a lobbyist for the March of Dimes was surely sparked when his wife contracted Polio in 1953 at a time just before the breakthrough work of Jonas Salk bore practical results. A Yale graduate, Shorey had served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and was a graduate of Columbia Law School. He had been an attorney in his father?s Chicago law firm and came to Washington where he was deputy general counsel of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

He helped in his role as lobbyist to widen the role of the March of Dimes to include a focus on comprehensive maternal and child health care and was on the organization?s board from 1962 to 1974. He was the first head of the organization?s government affairs office. He had lobbied for such programs as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.

In Georgetown, where he and his had moved after raising their children in Cleveland Park, Shorey soon became involved in the community life of the village, his neighbors and CAG. He helped with the creation of watch and guard programs and many other issues but his contributions were more subtly evidenced in his leadership style, which was to grow the organization, persuade other Georgetown residents to take part and lead on various issues.

Both his career on the national stage and his service on CAG were about substance and style, the cheerful and graceful embrace of principled duty. Talking about the people who participated in the block captain program, he called them ?great friends and great citizens.? Called a ?great motivator? during his interview, he said that ?you have to be convinced yourself that you can make a difference. And that it is important to get people to work together to make things happen. ?

It?s fair to say if you met Shorey, you were not likely to forget him. He had a certain cheerful dignity about him, a friendly curiosity. CAG meetings sometimes?not often?could get volatile or bogged down. Shorey was a great defuser, and persuader a champion of people joining and working together. He was one of those disappearing types of men?he was a gentleman. The description he made of others fits him: for Georgetown and Georgetowners, Everett ?Ev? Shorey, was ?a great friend, great citizen.”

Shorey is survived by his wife, Joan Burgess Shorey, four children, C. Everett Shorey III and Katherine Herold, David Shorey and Alden Lattu and seven grandchildren.

Barking Around Book Hill
• August 15, 2013

It’s no secret that Book Hill is an amazing spot for shopping, but what is the ingredient in the special sauce that sets it apart? The answer may be some of the stores’ best salespeople, the dogs who inhabit many of the stores in the neighborhood. We visited shops from Reservoir Road to P Street. Tom Vogt of Marston Luce may have put it best: “To be able to bring a dog to work every day brings a great deal of character to a store.”

And what better opportunity to meet all of these furry friends than the Georgetown French Market? The French Market is Book Hill’s signature European open air and sidewalk sale, which features up to 75 percent off at more than 35 shops and cafes. The event will take place April 19 and 20, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, visit GeorgetownDC.com. Remember to bring treats.

STELLA OF CATHERINE ROBERTS
Age: 9 years
?Breed: Yellow Labrador
?Stella has worked as a therapy dog at Georgetown University Hospital?for four years now. She previously worked in pediatric oncology and now works in the emergency room. Her favorite things include treats, going out in the garden behind the store and men. She is a huge flirt.

ASPEN OF PATISSERIE POUPON?
Age: 5 months?
Breed: Gold Retriever?
Aspen is perhaps the newest dog on Book Hill. At only 5 months old, he is still a puppy. Ruth, his owner, says his favorite things include food, toys, mud, playing and children. He is afraid of walking down stairs but is a great jumper. He is very cuddly.

KONA OF ELLA RUE?
Age: 4 years?
Breed: Mountain Mastiff (Burmese Mountain and English Mastiff mix)?
Kona is a lovely doggie. Her owner, Lauren Amons, says Kona’s favorite things are snuggles, belly rubs and babies. “She goes nuts
for the snow,” says Amons. Kona is very stylish, shown here wearing a necklace by Stella Dot.

HANNAH OF HEINER CONTEMPORARY?
Age: 10 years?
Breed: Mixed?
Hannah is very food-focused and loves balls, sticks and chicken soup. She is very much a window dog. People walking by often think she is a statue because she sits so still.

BRINCA OF THE PHOENIX
?Age: 11 years?
Breed: Boxer?
Brinca was born in Mexico City. She is a cancer survivor, who had a tumor removed from her shoulder. She loves shopping, dog biscuits, greeting and waiting on customers and jumping. Her name means “jump” in Spanish.

MOLLY AND PHOEBE OF COMER & CO.?
Ages: 6 years
?Molly and Phoebe belong to Fred Comer and Mark Manoff. They spend most of their time living in the countryside.

LATTE OF SUSAN CALLOWAY FINE ART?
Age: 12 years
?Breed: Maltese?
Latte is the very energetic Maltese who lives at the Susan Calloway Gallery. He was supposed to be named Cappuccino, but Susan Calloway thought Latte was more appropriate because of his white coat. His full name is Latte Bianca. Latte loves treats, and the mailman brings him one every day. Here he is seen with a portrait of himself.

PENNY OF MARSTON LUCE?
Age: 11 years
?Breed: Miniature Schnauzer
?Penny is the very cute Miniature Schnauzer at Marston Luce. Her owner, Tom Vogt, found her on the website for a Schnauzer Rescue League. Her favorite things include coming to work, riding in the car and cookies. Vogt says Penny has a “very sweet disposition” and that she “gets along with all other dogs and people.”

MISTY OF JUST PAPER & TEA
Age: 8 years
?Breed: German Shepherd?
Misty is a German Shepherd with a German bloodline. She loves visiting Volta Park and being with her owner Nick. According to him, she is a “ball-head” and loves chasing balls and Frisbees.

VALENTINE, PET OF JOY BLAIR?
Age: 13 years?
Valentine loves to play with Stella and Latte, who live at Catherine Roberts and Susan Calloway, respectively. Her favorite things are Gerber chicken sticks and riding in the car. “People love him,” said Blair. “I do, too.”

SHERMAN OF SHERMAN PICKEY (DECEASED)
Age: Lived to 16 years?
Breed: Mixed?
Sherman was adopted by Sherman Pickey own- er Ethan Drath from the Washington Humane Society. “He had an amazing run,” says Drath. His favorite thing was to sit in the doorway of the store in the sun. Sherman died in 2010, but other dogs are welcomed to the store, which gives complimentary treats to visitors.
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The 1960s Bring Us Years of 50th Anniversaries in This Century
• August 7, 2013

If you read the cover story of the Downtowner on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington—for which 250,000 showed up in our fair city to demonstrate for jobs, justice and freedom, among other things and to hear Martin Luther King, Jr., tell us, repeatedly and with passion, that “I have a dream”—you will see that 1963 is the year of anniversaries.

For those of us who were alive back then, we must have been also unaware and too young to notice we were living in history’s stream or as Bob Dylan sings “ Ah, but I was so much older then. I’m that much younger now”, or cryptic words to that effect.

Those of who can remember, commemorate—there will be lots to do, these being 50th anniversaries: images from history in beginning Vietnam, the death of four young girls in the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Ala., the Beatles’ first number-one hit in the United States.

I was in my second year of service in the U.S. Army then, far from harm in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, but always aware of the tension of world affairs—officers being called out of movie theaters, units forming up. Some things there hardly touched us, but I remember this: one of my friends was a guy named Liam O’Keefe and he would be at my wedding a year or so later, but when I remember him most, he was crying, watching the news of the death of President John F. Kennedy, shot in Dallas.

The murder sent alarm bells through the army post, but unlike anything else—besides the chill of fears that went through all of us quasi-soldier—we were heart-broken in some sense or another because of all the images, the flickering stuff out of Dallas, Cronkite’s somber voice, Oswald shot in front of us on a Sunday morning when we should have been in church, the bloody coat, the widow, John John’s salute.

That’s an anniversary that’s coming up and here among the residents of our village in Georgetown, the residue of his presence remains like a cobblestone that has a place of honor, never to be removed. He was so older then in our young minds, and that much younger now.

All Things Media Addendum
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For Washington to say this has been the week that changed everything would be an understatement. Arguably, the two more significant players in Washington media for decades have been the Allbrittons and the Grahams. Individually and simultaneously, they have both walked away from their legacy media – in the same week. It might be a bit extreme to say, but it is like the communist authorities in Czechoslovakia walking into the negotiations with reformers and saying, as they did, “Okay, you know what – it’s all yours. We’re done. Good luck!”

What will happen to the Washington Post is going to be fascinating. The Post faced a number of huge questions and challenges. And now it gets really interesting. New owner Jeff Bezos is playing the “nothing will change” game, but everything will change. Post publisher Katharine Weymouth may or may not step aside, as she is part of the former ownership. The Post is still struggling to unify its print, video and web personas, Now, with an internet pioneer owning it, does that help? Will the new building, wherever it is, force more than define the future? And those are only two of the most obvious questions. If you are media watcher – you just hit the jackpot. Buckle in: Washington media just got really interesting.

The Graham family did more than run and develop the Post and Washington journalism. They protected it. The Grahams along with the Sulzbergers of the New York Times were the grand families of American journalism. They have given some explanations of why they did it. Yet another question persists: what really happened? Why did they really decide to walk away?

The Week That Was Media, Especially in Washington
•

The late Monday afternoon bombshell hit Washingtonians like a vengeful Washington Star. The Washington Post, an icon of print journalism and of the nation’s capital, is to be sold for $250 million to one of the Internet’s first and biggest digital innovators, billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com.

In an interview with his own newspaper, the Washington Post Co.’s chief executive Donald Graham said Aug. 5: “Every member of my family started out with the same emotion—shock—in even thinking about [selling The Post]. But when the idea of a transaction with Jeff Bezos came up, it altered my feelings. The Post could have survived under the company’s ownership and been profitable for the foreseeable future. But we wanted to do more than survive. I’m not saying this guarantees success but it gives us a much greater chance of success.”

For Georgetown, the sale of its big and influential hometown national newspaper that arrives — or did arrive — on its homes’ steps early in the morning is more personal. Some of the top editors or writers who worked at the Post lived or live here: the Grahams for years, Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, Bob Woodward, to name but the more famous. We also would like to think we have some extra knowledge of what’s going on. Like everyone else, we were stunned. For Post employees, present and former, the sale brings forth the emotion of loss.

Yet for those of us in the media for decades, we should not be surprised. We experienced the rise of computers in the workplace earlier than most, jumping to a full digitally environment fairly quickly — even as early as the 1980s. We first saw the consolidation of jobs. Did we know what impact the digital world would have on print journalism? We might have sensed it, but it seems we looked away. Then, all those new news websites popped up. After all, we write about many different things, but it is safe to say that economics and the future is not at the top of the list. The Internet turned everything upside.

Another media sale with a Georgetown connection: Allbritton Communications TV holdings’ purchase for almost $1 billion. Its chairman, Robert Allbritton lives here and wants to focus on the company’s web businesses, especially Politico.com.

Elsewhere, we saw the Boston Globe purchased last week for $70 million — and a year or two ago, the sale of Newsweek and the Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News.

So, where does that leave a hometown newspaper and website like The Georgetowner? It is nearing its 60th anniversary. It has felt that same pressures, albeit on a smaller scale. It has changed with the times — and benefits, in part, by its hyperlocal news and influence. This week, its Downtowner website — DowntownerDC.com — had its debut. The always exciting world of journalism is also always changing. We’ve gotten used to that.

Still, changes can be personal. For Washington, D.C., and its Washington Post, this week is personal. It hit home.
We salute the Graham family for its 80 years of service — and beyond. This family knows something about newspapers and other media that we also know: you may own it, but it doesn’t belong to you alone. That’s the magic of journalism, and that’s how we feel this week.

Summer in Town
• July 31, 2013

Is it summer yet? I think that with the arrival of July 4th and high temperatures reaching 100 degrees we have removed all doubt. Take a moment to check in with your elderly or ill neighbors who might need a little assistance. Weather like this can effect even the healthiest of us.

This 4th of July, I began my celebration as I always do at the annual Palisades 4th of July Parade. This was the parade’s 46th year. For those of you unfamiliar with the parade, this is a throwback to another time – a real small town parade. It usually begins at 11 a.m. at the corner of Whitehaven Parkway and MacArthur Boulevard, NW. It continues along MacArthur Boulevard for about a mile before turning left to end at the Palisades Park. As an elected official, I always enjoy the opportunity to participate in local parades with family and friends. While I walked, others rode in the car or joined me walking and threw candy to all those watching and cheering along the parade route.

This year, what with all the elections going on, there seemed to be even more politicians than usual. But what would the 4th of July be without politicians? After the parade, we joined hundreds of others at the Palisades Park for hot dogs, drinks and ice cream – kudos to the organizers for a great event.

After we cooled off and caught our breath, we headed to another park, this time a ballpark. Yes, the Nationals were in town, so off to Nationals Park we went. It was a gorgeous day for a baseball game, though a bit hot. In light of the 11:05 am start time, I missed about half of the game. There was still plenty of action from the Nationals’ hitters in the later innings, though, with the Nationals beating San Francisco 9 to 4. The Nationals always seem to shine on the 4th of July – I read that Ryan Zimmerman is now 10 for 20 with four homers and 13 RBIs in six Independence Day games.

The next step in this great day was a trip home for a break and then off to watch the fireworks. What a terrific 20-minute fireworks display!

Neighborhood parades, Major League Baseball, world class fireworks – where else can you stay home and get all that? ?

Walking the Dog
•

Tuesday morning, as I accompanied Bailey on his daily constitutional around the two square blocks of Lanier Place, you could see only a few signs indicating that anything special happened there the night before.

Here and there were wispy spider webs on trees and doorways, a hank of web, scattered bones, two skeletons and hooded ghosts hanging from a tree. All the pumpkins survived the night and the glorious scarecrow lay sprawled over hay as before.

But it wasn’t the same. People were going to work as if nothing had happened. The only true signs were the periodic wrappings of M&M’s candies, of Snickers and Mars Bars and Three Musketeers, Nestles and Hershey bar wrappers on the sidewalks – all that was left of last night’s candy land.

Then you could say it was Halloween night at Lanier Place.

Once again, we took Bailey, our long-legged fifteen-year-old Bichon, trick or treating. He wore his festive, seasonal and decorative plastic collar full of little pumpkins and bats. It’s called, appropriately, a “ruff.” He looked at the occasion like any of the myriad bumblebees we encountered along the way.

The two blocks of Lanier Place are a change-resistant, residential area in Adams Morgan making up Lanier Heights, which stretches out to Adams Mill Road, Quarry, Harvard and Ontario. The Lanier block consists mostly of old three-story and basement homes where ownership has often been a lifelong thing. It includes several unobtrusive apartment houses, a fire station—one small truck and EMS vehicle—that dates back to the turn of last century, the Adams Inn, a hidden-away bed and breakfast, good-to-go fully decorated and Joseph’s House, a non-profit hospice serving homeless people with terminal illnesses.

We have lived here for almost all of Bailey’s life span so far, and taking Bailey trick or treating in his ruff has become a tradition with us, and, we like to think, a tradition in the neighborhood. I managed to cop some chocolate candy for myself on the basis of his presence.

I don’t know when the Lanier Halloween festivities actually started—I seem to remember that it was a smallish neighborhood thing for a previous generation of neighborhood young children and their parents. Every year, it seemed to get bigger and better—streets were blocked off and children from all over the city and their folks showed up. It must have begun as a rumor that was passed along the 42 Metrobus line to points east, west, and northwest and southeast and so on.

Over the past few years, Halloween at Lanier Place has become a big deal and it seems to get a little bigger every year. This year was no exception. More children and people showed up—hundreds is my guess. But there was another difference. First, there has been an influx over the past few years of younger residents who promptly had babies so that there are now young children, just old enough to become butterflies, superheroes and witches and princesses. Second, more people are participating. Houses have turned into ghost homes, pirate islands and cemeteries. For a few days, spider webs rule like ominous dew on the blocks.

There are, of course, always people who go all out—gravestones rise from the ground, there are a smoke machines and signs that pass as warnings for travelers and Trick or Treaters. This year, few people stayed locked up in their apartments, houses or whatever, although there are traditionally always a few of those, too.

The cool thing about Halloween on Lanier Place—unlike the gargantuan almost New Orleans style efforts at night in Georgetown and elsewhere—is that somehow the people who live on Lanier and nearby drift in and out as if at a small town market. Gossip gets retold, the presence of long-time neighborhood dogs like Bailey are duly noted by each other and by their owners, politics gets talked about, children are hailed for walking or getting bigger. All the daily life changes—growth, time, illness, death, pregnancy, school, births and jobs and the like are duly noted amid the festivities without the visitors, who come here just for the candy and the treating and tricking.

Bailey takes all of this in stride—it’s a little hard for a dog his age to deal with this many people, especially so many children. It was as if his regular walk had turned into a parade of chatter and music. But he makes it all the way around because in some ways, the dogs of Lanier are an essential part of this, not as much as the children, but still a part of it all.

This year, for reasons hard to decipher, amid the gloomy economic news, the occasion seemed more electric and eclectic, warmer and chummier, as if neighborhood values and virtues were worth celebrating this way after all. So the hospice created a kind of pirate island, complete with what could haves been a voodoo queen at the top of the stairs. And the old tombstone—the Republican Party, died 2008 nearly four years old now—gave you a clue as if you needed one that you were in a liberal neighborhood.

The grandfather down the street somehow morphed into one of the finest, most splendidly caped Count Draculas, a smiling Christopher Lee with white face, red lips and natural white hair. We met along the way, almost one right after another, the Marvel Comics pantheon: Iron Man, Spider Man and Captain America complete with shield. The little girls opted for the princess style or June bugs or bumblebees. There was a group in front of us, led by a princess speaking German, so naturally, being a landsman, I asked “Bist Du Deutch?” and they said “Nein, wier bien Franzosish,” meaning they were French folks speaking German. So there was a mystery here.

Children flocked to the firehouse and the red engines where the firemen were dressed as, surprise, firemen. A small boy came as a 19th-century New York cop and was asked if he was on the take. His father said “we’ll take some candy.” A brash alarm sounded, scattering Tricksters and Treaters and parents and kids alike as a fire engine wheeled out.

We saw a very tall green Leprechaun and monkeys and Thor and an adult Batman—but then Batman has never seemed anything less than adult. We met folks, as always, who knew the famous Bailey but alas knew not our names. It happens even or perhaps especially on Halloween.

There were ghosts everywhere; including the faces of people I hadn’t seen in a while.

It was a splendid night. Nobody got mad, nobody got hurt, nobody was robbed that we know of, nobody got sick or drunk that we know of. It was the night, as I do every year, I walked Bailey around the two blocks of Lanier on Halloween.

Well Done, Jennifer
• July 18, 2013

The Georgetown-Burleith Advisory Neighborhood Commission commended the past president of the Citizens Association of Georgetown earlier this month. The group recognized Altemus for “sustained contributions to the community,” not the least of which was the agreement between the neighborhood and Georgetown University on its 10-year campus plan. Meanwhile, the student newspaper, the Hoya, disapproved of the gesture. “GU Antagonist Unworthy of ANC Award,” its editorial headline read. All right, then. Regardless, Altemus — CAG president for four years — was also honored by the citizens group she led at its annual election meeting, where Ward 2 councilmember Jack Evans, presented Altemus with a proclamation from Mayor Vincent Gray, designating “May 29, 2013, as Jennifer Altemus Day.” Not bad. We know there are other projects to thank her for her, including jazzing up the Georgetown Gala, one of CAG’s big fundraisers.

Enjoy your status as president emerita, Jennifer, for a job very well done.

The Talk of ‘This Town’
• July 17, 2013

“This Town” by Mark Leibovich, chief national correspondent for the New York Times Magazine, has finally arrived, preceded by the kind of buzz the author would appreciate, since buzz, D.C. style, is one of the big subjects of this book, a florid, razzy, snarky, funny, book which is, and we’re guessing, probably sharply accurate like a poke in the eye, followed by a stinger (the drink).

We haven’t finished our copy, which arrived in the mail from the publisher so fast, we thought we heard the skid marks being made. There’s been quite a bit of hype and glory attached to this work already — so much so you feel as if you’ve already read it before opening the book.

But by God, give the guy credit — it’s a cannot-put downer full of attitude, big and little names and the confusion between them in this town, where the gap between politics, lobbying, celebrity and deity, real power and pretend power is practically non existent. The subtitle tells it all: “Two parties, a funeral — plus plenty of valet parking — in America’s gilded capital.” The funerals (Tim Russert’s and Ted Kennedy’s among them) and the parties (those thrown by the redoubtable Tammy Haddad ) frame a portrait of a kind of Washington merry-go-round post Drew Pearson, where riders hug the horses and each other closely, some of them falling off, others jumping on.

Most refreshing of all in this account of insiders is that Leibovitch is himself part of that round-and-round ride which only adds flavor to the book.