Visitation Prep Students Mugged Friday Afternoon
• April 20, 2016

Two Georgetown Visitation Prep students were mugged around 3:30 p.m., Friday, April 15, in Pomander Walk along the 3300 block of Volta Place. The two female students were grabbed by a boy and pushed into the alley of small townhouses off Volta Place, where they were mugged by two girls. The assailants stole a phone and ran away when a neighbor observing the crime came on the scene. The visibly shaken students, who were uninjured, remained on a Volta Place corner to speak with police and school officials as commuter traffic idled on 34th Street.

According to the Metropolitan Police, the suspects — two of whom were wearing Guy Fawkes mask on top of their heads — are black, 14 to 18 years old and averaging five-foot-seven or five-feet-eight with thin or medium builds.

Expansion of DC Circulator Suspended
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Expansion of the popular DC Circulator, including a proposed extension of the Rosslyn–Georgetown line to the U Street corridor (which Georgetown business have pushed for), has been suspended following two embarrassing audits of the bus system, formerly thought to be in good shape.

Safety, maintenance and financial problems were first discovered in August 2015 by an independent consulting firm commissioned by the D.C. Department of Transportation. Their audits revealed an average 2.9 critical defects, deemed “unacceptable by any standard,” and 22 overall defects per bus in a sample of 44 of the Circulator’s 67 buses. A second audit in January 2016 showed improvement, 0.5 critical and nine overall defects per bus, but that audit sampled only 22 buses and noted that “15-20 buses are consistently down on any given day for repairs.”

DDOT owns the buses, but pays $750,000 to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to manage them. WMATA outsources operations of the system to First Transit, which has a two-year $41.6 million contract.

Body Found in C&O Canal Identified
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A body found floating in the C&O Canal near 31st Street Tuesday morning, April 12, has been identified, according to D.C. police.
Osbaldo Lemus Bernal, 51, of Arlington, Virginia, was found in the canal around 7:30 a.m. by construction workers, who took a photo from the canal towpath near the Sea Catch Restaurant of the backpack floating above the man’s body. The Metropolitan Police Department indicated that the death might not be suspicious, although homicide units were on the scene the morning the body was discovered. Parts of 31st Street and South Street were blocked off for a time.

According to informed sources, the body had been in the water for more than a day. The deceased worked at a business less than one block away.

Body Found Floating in C&O Canal Identified
•

A body found floating in the C&O Canal near 31st Street NW Tuesday morning, April 12, has been identified, according to D.C. police.

Osbaldo Lemus Bernal, 51, of Arlington, Virginia, was found in the canal around 7:30 a.m. by construction workers, who took a photo from the canal towpath near Sea Catch Restaurant of the backpack floating above the man’s body.

The Metropolitan Police Department indicated that the death might not be suspicious, although homicide units were on the scene the morning the body was discovered. Parts of 31st Street NW and South Street NW were blocked off for a time.

Tensions Rise at G.U. With Visit by Planned Parenthood Head
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Administrators at Georgetown University, a Catholic institution, have repeatedly refused to prohibit the president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, from speaking on campus. The speech is set to take place April 20.

The Georgetown University Right to Life group condemned the invitation, extended by the Lecture Fund, a nonpartisan student-run organization, as contrary to the school’s Catholic values. Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in the country.

As a reaction to Richards’s much publicized visit, another student-run organization, Georgetown Right to Life, has invited a speaker from the opposing side. Abby Johnson, an anti-abortion activist, is scheduled to speak from the pulpit in the university’s Dahlgren Chapel the same day. Johnson is a former Planned Parenthood clinic director, who won “Employee of the Year” in 2008 from the organization. She abandoned her pro-choice views after reportedly observing an ultrasound of an abortion in 2009, during which she witnessed what she interpreted as the fetus squirming in reaction to the procedure.

Michael Khan, president of Georgetown Right to Life, has denounced the university “for allowing Cecile Richards to speak unchallenged.” He said he hopes that Johnson will illuminate “Planned Parenthood’s careless disregard for human life,” with her “life-affirming message.”

In addition to Johnson’s talk, Georgetown Right to Life will be hosting “Flag Day” on April 20. Members of the group plan to plant 3,600 miniature flags on Copley Lawn to represent the number of fetuses terminated daily in the United States.

Hyas for Choice [sic, see below], Georgetown’s unofficial and unrecognized pro-choice group, has admitted its disappointment at the protest and invitation of Johnson. Hyas for Choice President Sophia Kleyman stated that the “dialogue in opposition to Planned Parenthood is not only factually incorrect but also damaging and triggering to people who have sought their services.”

The university refuses to recognize the group due to its un-Catholic mission.

The word, “Hoyas,” is a register trademark of the university and as such cannot be used by the group.

Georgetown University President John DeGioia has trod a moderate path in reaction to the recent tension on campus over the issue of abortion. He has simultaneously affirmed Georgetown’s commitment to “academic freedom and freedom of speech” and to the importance of the dignity of life. On April 12, the university hosted a panel event, entitled “Resisting the ‘Throwaway Culture’: Protecting Human Life and Dignity.”

Task Force Urges Deferment of DC Water Projects
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Concern from Georgetown businesses, residents and neighborhood civic associations over DC Water’s extensive proposed projects across the neighborhood may bring to bear Section 106, the law giving the Commission of Fine Arts’ Old Georgetown Board final approval of all construction in the historic district.

In effect, this would pit one federal agency against another, the Environmental Protection Agency, which is instigating DC Water’s green infrastructure projects.

In order to fulfill a major consent order from the EPA, DC Water has proposed a number of projects across the District to address its aged combined-sewer system (built before there were requirements to separate storm water runoff from sewage) and reduce the overflow of raw sewage into the Potomac River, the Anacostia River and Rock Creek during
heavy rainfalls.

For Georgetown, a massive tunnel from the waterfront to a water processing plant in Anacostia was originally proposed. After objections to the proposal by Georgetown civic groups, the major consent order was changed and a less disruptive tunnel was announced, along with significant green infrastructure projects to lessen the runoff.

These green infrastructure projects include installing pervious pavement in alleys, building storage reservoirs underneath parking lanes, installing pervious pavers at intersections and diverting storm water from the sewer system into rain barrels installed on private and public buildings for temporary water storage.

At a Feb. 29 meeting, a task force of Advisory Neighborhood Commission members and representatives from the Citizens Association of Georgetown, the Georgetown Business Improvement District and the Georgetown Business Association met with DC Water officials to provide comments and recommendations on its proposals, according to an article by Walter Groszyk in CAG’s Georgetown Citizens newsletter.

Also discussed was the applicability of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, which the CFA maintains applies to any proposed green infrastructure in Georgetown. The section requires federal agencies to assess the effects of federal actions on historic properties.

Because the projects proposed for Georgetown, a National Historic Landmark historic district, would be so disruptive its historic character, including extensive excavation of Georgetown’s public ways and, potentially, archaeological surveys and investigations prior to excavation, the task force recommended that DC Water’s projects be moved north of Georgetown or deferred altogether.

Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments on Obama’s Immigration Plan (photos)
• April 19, 2016

Demonstrators gathered en masse on Monday, April 18, 2016 in Washington D.C. as the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a challenge to President Obama’s plan to protect millions of immigrants from deportation and allow them to work. DAPA refers to a 2014 policy put on hold by lower courts, known as Deferred Action for Parents of Americans. If the shorthanded court deadlocks 4-4, Obama’s policy would effectively be frozen.

View our photos from the base of the Supreme Court steps by clicking on the photo icons below. (All photos by Jeff Malet) [gallery ids="122371,122481,122473,122465,122457,122449,122441,122433,122425,122417,122489,122497,122379,122553,122559,122545,122536,122529,122521,122513,122505,122409,122401,122303,122296,122288,122281,122259,122251,122273,122267,122573,122310,122317,122394,122386,122566,122365,122357,122349,122342,122333,122325,102405" nav="thumbs"]

The Latest Issue of The Georgetowner
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Sidewalk Widening Begins, Free Bus Rides
• April 18, 2016

From April 2 through November 2016, the Georgetown Business Improvement District reports that it “will implement sidewalk widenings each weekend on the 3200 block of M Street, NW, and offer free D.C. Circulator bus rides in Georgetown along Wisconsin Avenue. … Visitors and residents will enjoy eight more feet of space for an improved pedestrian experience.”  

Sidewalks are temporarily expanded by eliminating parking spaces and placing pedestrian railings on the street along the 3200 block of M Street, just west of the major intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street. Vehicular traffic will continue unimpeded.

According to the Georgetown BID, the sidewalk widening will occur “Saturdays, starting at 6 a.m., through Sundays at 6 p.m., weather permitting, April 2 to early November 2016, weather permitting.”

There will also be discounted parking — $6, all day — at the PMI Garage at 3307 M St. NW on Saturdays and Sundays during the sidewalk widenings. 

In addition, the BID will sponsor free, northbound D.C. Circulator rides on the Union Station-Georgetown route along Wisconsin Avenue, NW, from K Street stops in Georgetown to the top of Book Hill (30th/K, Wisconsin/K, Wisconsin/M, Wisconsin/N, Wisconsin/Q, and Wisconsin/R). 

Bowser’s State of the District: ‘Laser-Focused’
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An upbeat District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser, proclaiming herself leader of “a city that is built not for the past, but one that is building for the future,” delivered her second State of the District Address on March 22 before a large audience at Arena Stage in Southwest, right across from a waterfront area being rebuilt on a massive scale.

While touting her achievements during her tenure as mayor so far, Bowser promised a major school-spending increase, a raise in the minimum wage to $15 an hour and an investment in infrastructure. She said she would attack last year’s huge rise in homicides with a big increase in the use of body-worn cameras. And she defended her plans to close D.C. General and launch shelter projects in every ward of the city.

While she noted that sometimes criticism or interference from politicians and government officials can be a hindrance, she said that “every morning when I wake up, I am laser-focused on what I can do to create opportunity that is equal and fair, and blind to age, gender, zip code, race or religion.”

She promised to make sure “that no one is left behind and that there will be opportunities to a path to the middle class for everyone.”

Bowser said that the city must move forward, stating that we have three choices: to reject growth, to grow without regard to our roots and risk losing what makes D.C. great or to balance change with preservation and with growth, doing it together across all eight wards. “I choose the third way,” she said.

“Some people say change and school reform hasn’t moved fast enough,” she continued. “That isn’t true. We’ve done a lot. We’ve put a plan for $6.5 billion in modernizing DCPS schools, with $2.5 billion to come. … We’ve created the best conditions for charter schools in the country.”

Given the expected 20-percent increase in students next year, Bowser promised a $75-million increase over the previous year in school spending.

She praised the 10-year tenure of Cathy Lanier as chief of police and said that she would make sure that the city would implement the most progressive and transparent body-worn camera program in the country. She promised that there would be 650 more police officers equipped with the cameras by the end of this month and that by the end of the year every single patrol officer would be wearing one.

The mayor also promised a substantial increase in ambulances and 911 call-takers and dispatchers.

“We will continue to invest in our neighborhoods,” she said. “We will continue to invest in our transit system, to make sure that Metro is safe and reliable. And I know I can count on Jack Evans, the ‘Mayor of Metro’ to make good use of D.C. taxpayer dollars.”

She praised Arena Stage for making its commitment to the Southwest community “with this beautiful theater. Check out the signs of progress across the street, with hotels and homes and retail popping up at the Wharf. … We want to bring this kind of commitment and investment to other parts of the city, with the new DC United Stadium and at Walter Reed.”

She also engaged with the issue of the fight against homelessness, which has now become somewhat controversial. “Last year, we made unprecedented investments to end homelessness, to make it rare, brief and non-recurring.

“I promised you we would close D.C. General. … It is too old, too big and not safe enough. So we’re going to close D.C. General and open small, short-term family housing across the District. … We cannot do this alone, the Council paved the way with a vote last fall, and we need your next vote to move us forward again. Let’s not be distracted by arguments based on fear or convenience or apples-and-oranges comparisons, which falsely represent the cost of lifting families out of homelessness. If we fail to act or do not move forward with one of the sites, we will not be able to close D.C. General. Not now, not any time soon and maybe never.”