Big Changes Ahead for Georgetown Below M Street
• April 11, 2016

If three recent community and business meetings are any indication, look to see the Potomac waterfront, C&O Canal, K Street and Wisconsin Avenue and side streets south of retail-dominated M Street undergo some serious upgrades in the years ahead.

The Citizens Association of Georgetown hosted a panel at the Potomac Boat Club Sept. 26. Moderated by Bob vow Eigen, CAG vice president and president of Georgetown Waterfront Park, the others at the table were Scott Fleming of Georgetown University, Tara Morrison of the National Park Service and Erik Meyers of the Potomac Boat Club as well as vice president of the Conservation Fund.

The four spoke to a standing-room-only crowd in boat club’s main hall as the sun set over the Potomac. After many decades, the time appears to be finally at hand that a new boat club will be built on the shores of Georgetown. There are at least three variations as the NPS has issued its 2013 Non-motorized Boathouse Zone Feasibility Study. Meanwhile, the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority may need to built run-off tunnels, disturbing the shoreline and delaying any new construction.

The Georgetown Business Improvement District held a brainstorming session for its Georgetown 2028 initiative Oct. 3 at Washington Harbour. Topics included enhancements along the C&O Canal, a Georgetown Metrorail station, transportation choices, restaurant and retail, K Street and the waterfront and collaboration among community groups. The ambitious ideas ranged from widening the towpath of the canal to building a pedestrian bridge to Roosevelt Island as well as a gondola to transport people from Georgetown to Arlington. Visit GeorgetownDC.com and click on the tab, “Georgetown 2028,” for details.

The group reconstructing the West Heating Plant and designing Four Seasons condominiums on 29th Street held a community get-together Oct. 8 to go over plans for the exterior of the formerly government-owned property. It was sold in June for $19.5 million to a development group, now known as Georgetown 29K LLC, made up of Georgetown’s Levy Group, the New York-based Georgetown Company and the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. South of the C&O Canal and the Fours Seasons Hotel, the plant — which was completed in 1948 and generated heat for federal buildings — will be partially demolished and converted into space for about 80 condominiums.

Ignacio Bunster, landscape architect of Georgetown Waterfront Park, showed plans for a new park space around the West Heating Plant that will link the Waterfront Park with Rock Creek and the C&O Canal. The property at the canal will offer a new pedestrian bridge. Along Rock Creek, bikers and joggers will be able to loop around to Georgetown Waterfront Park. An elevated park will be built over the old storage yard.

Another meeting, set for Oct. 22, will focus on the changes for the huge building. The group, headed by Richard Levy, will call for more than half of the structure to be demolished. [gallery ids="101500,151446,151448" nav="thumbs"]

Mary Meyer Honored by Georgetown Senior Center
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The Georgetown Senior Center, founded by Virginia Luce Allen in 1982, honored one of its longest-serving volunteers, Mary Meyer. Working closely with Allen for years at St. John’s Church on O Street, Meyer has logged in just about 30 years. The seniors — who meet Monday, Wednesday and Friday for pre-lunch exercise, a lunch with a musical or educational program afterwards and sometimes a field trip to a restaurant or Nationals Park — enjoyed a special Meyer’s menu on Sept. 9: mixed salad, Atlantic salmon and champagne with homemade chocolate cake that rivaled anyone’s cupcakes. Meyer says she might take it easy a little more, but that’s doubtful.

“Dedicated volunteers have always been the heart and soul of the Georgetown Senior Center,” says David Roffman, retired editor and publisher of the Georgetowner. “For three decades, Mary Meyers has quietly manned the kitchen staff of volunteers for the center. Her gracious smile, sparkle in her eyes and upbeat personality are precious gifts, and the seniors love her dearly.”
(If you would like to volunteer, call Mary Meyer at 202-965-3952, or Cathy Applin at 703-276-1129. St. John’s Church very graciously donates the use of Blake Hall and the kitchen to the center, which is a 501-C-3 non-profit, and has been coming to St. John’s for 30 years.) [gallery ids="101449,153626" nav="thumbs"]

West End Library Plans Move to Watergate
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With redevelopment by EastBanc set for 24th and L Streets, NW, the West End Public Library plans a move to temporary quarters at the Watergate complex in the meantime.

“The D.C. Department of General Services has signed a lease for 5,000 square feet of retail space at the Watergate complex’s 2600 Virginia Ave., NW, which used to be home to the Saks Jandel boutique,” according to the Washington Business Journal. The relocation will likely last more three years. The D.C. Public Library plans to open the Watergate branch in late autumn.

Jack Germond: Unforgettable Reporter’s Reporter
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Jack W. Germond, who died at the age of 85 Aug. 14, looked like a newspaper guy, talked like one, too, and lived like one. If respect and reputation are the coin of the realm in the business of reporting and print journalism, Germond was one very rich guy.

He was a print man through and through, but he also struck an unforgettable figure on television, most famously with “The McLaughlin Group.” Germond made every guy who took on beats, wrote about crime or back room politicians out of the limelight and who would never look like Brian Williams, feel a twinge of hope. Heck, more than a twinge.

A large man, he poked fun at his looks, his business and himself often, a rare quality in a field that has more egos than a surgeon’s convention. In a town and region in which you could run across a syndicated columnist without half trying while walking the dog, Germond stood out. He was Washington bureau chief for Gannett Newspapers, wrote a column for the Baltimore Sun and wrote about politics loaded with inside information from inside informants—so much so that he acquired a reputation of writing the truth, getting the story and maintaining his larger-than-life soul.

He wrote—sometimes with Jules Witcover—books galore about Washington and politics, about elections, plus two memoirs about the large shadow he cast: “Fat Man in a Middle Seat: Forty Years of Covering Politics” and “Fat Men Fed Up: How American Politics Went Bad”. He rose to prominence in Washington coming out of New York state covering politics there in the late 1950s, as good a training grounded for immersion into the game of politics as you probably can get.

Germond would be the first to admit that if you put him into a thousand-dollar suit, he could reduce it to a hundred-dollar suit just be sitting down. According to the Washington Post, he said he was “a fat, bald guy who looked unkempt even in a freshly pressed suit and a Brooks Brothers shirt, who played poker and the horses rather than golf, who didn’t give dinner parties except for friends and who sometimes drank too much.” He worked for the Washington Star until it folded and went to the Baltimore Sun, until he retired in 2001. He also appeared on TV talk shows, such as “The McLaughlin Group,” where he took on the role of defender of the liberal faith.

And still he wrote. Before and after retirement, he wrote, the “Politics Today” columns with Witcover, and the books he wrote with him: “Blue Smoke and Mirrors: How Reagan Won and Why Carter Lost the Election of 1980” and “Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars? The Trivial Pursuit of the Presidency 1988.”

When Germond died, he had just finished writing his first novel, “A Small Story for Page 3”. Naturally, the hero was a reporter. Sadly, there won’t be a second. -30-

Stars of Russian Ballet Perform at National Gallery of Art (photos)
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In conjunction with its major exhibition “Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, 1909 – 1929: When Art Danced with Music” (open thru October 6, 2013), the National Gallery of Art has been host to a variety of free open to the public dance performances in its East Building.

View our photos of dancers from Russia performing excerpts from the repertoire of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes by clicking on the photo icons below. This particular event took place on Sunday July 21. The featured perfromers were Anna Antonicheva and Maria Allash (Prima Ballerinas, Bolshoi Theatre); plus Danila Korsuntsev and Anton Korsakov (Principal Dancers, Mariinsky Theatre). You can check the NGA schedule for future dance performances at http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/exhibitions/2013/diaghilev.html

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‘Justice for Trayvon’ Rally Held in D.C. (photos)
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A week ago, a jury found George Zimmerman not guilty in the death of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla. In response, the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network organized “Justice for Trayvon” rallies and vigils outside federal buildings in more than 100 locations across the country July 20. The demonstrations came a day after President Barack Obama publicly identified with the slain 17-year-old and the deep frustrations felt among African-Americans over the verdict. One of these rallies took place outside the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse on Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C. The shooting death of Trayvon Martin has led to serious debates about race and the fairness of the justice system. Many question the wisdom of the so-called “Stand Your Ground” laws enacted in Florida and several other states and call for further Justice Department review of the case.

View our photos from the local rally by clicking on the photo icons below. [gallery ids="101401,154191,154196,154203,154208,154214,154220,154225,154231,154236,154241,154247,154253,154259,154184,154178,154278,154121,154274,154270,154127,154133,154138,154143,154149,154156,154161,154167,154173,154264" nav="thumbs"]

Traffic Alert: Key Bridge Reopens After Bomb Threat; 37th Street Detour
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Key Bridge was closed in both directions July 11 for about an hour — roughly 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. — after the Metropolitan Police Department responded to a phone call about a bomb. After a suspicious package investigation, police found nothing, they reported. Lanes on the bridge were opened to traffic a little after 11:30 a.m.

At the M Street side of Key Bridge, repair work has left metal plates on the roadway. A $20-million rehabilitation project for Key Bridge — which connects Washington, D.C., and Arlington, Va. — is slated to begin in fall 2013, according to the District Department of Transportation.

Meanwhile, DDOT is detouring traffic on northbound 37th Street, NW, for its project to improve the intersection of 37th Street and Tunlaw Road, NW. “This detour is scheduled to last until Wednesday, July 24, weather permitting,” according to DDOT. Southbound traffic on 37th Street will not be detoured during this period.

DDOT also reports: Northbound 37th Street, NW, traffic will be directed eastward on Whitehaven Parkway, NW, to northbound Wisconsin Avenue, NW, and then to westbound Calvert Street, NW. WMATA has installed temporary stops for Metrobus routes that have been affected by this project, and the related detour. Traffic control signs will be in place to guide travelers around the detour.

For more details, contact the project engineer Charles Daniel (202-409-2070 or Charles.Daniel@dc.gov) or assistant project engineer Dawit Kebede (202-359-5926 or Dawit.Kebede@dc.gov).

July 4th Parade, New Playground; ‘Liberty and Justice for Some’
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Washington, D.C.’s best small-town Independence Day parade was held for the 47th time along MacArthur Boulevard, NW, with local politicians, church groups, associations, Bolivian dancers and just some friends getting together in an antique car. As usual, candy was thrown to the children at the sidewalks, and MacArthur Liquors offered cold juices for the hot and happy day. And, as usual, when you saw the riders from the United Horsemen’s Association of D.C., Md., Penn. and Va., you knew the parade is over.

After the parade was over, many parade-watchers walked to the Palisades Recreation Center on Sherrier Place. On hand were Mayor Vincent C. Gray, councilmembers, government officials, the Palisades Citizens’ Association, the Friends of Palisades Recreation Center and other supporters to cut the ribbon on the newly renovated Palisades Playground, the District’s third playground to be completed under Gray’s Play D.C. Playground Improvement Project, managed by the District’s Department of Parks and Recreation and Department of General Services.

“Palisades Playground is not only the District’s first ‘imagination playground,’ but it is representative of the rich Native American history that exists in the Palisades community,” Gray said. “One of the main goals of my One City Action Plan is to improve every resident’s quality of life, providing safe and inviting places for our children to play. The renovations and upgrades here at Palisades Playground are an investment in our children, our families, our community and our great city.”

As people left for afternoon barbecues or to get ready to view the fireworks on the National Mall, Gray talked about D.C.’s lack of full representation in Congress and complete self-determination. In D.C.’s case, he said, it is “liberty and justice for some.”

Later, reflecting on Independence Day, Gray said in his weekend radio address, it is “high time for full democracy to come to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who live, literally, within the sight of the Capitol dome. … ‘No Taxation Without Representation’ became a standard rallying cry for American patriots fighting British tyranny.”
“Over two centuries later, there remains one jurisdiction in our country that does not enjoy that freedom,” Gray said. “It is time to free D.C. and end the shameful practice of taxation without representation, once and for all. Our nation’s founding patriots would demand nothing less.”
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Serendipity 3 and Sushi-Ko Closed; to Re-open Soon?
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As some D.C. establishments closed for Fourth of July festivities, two local restaurants, Serendipity 3 and Sushi-Ko, closed for less celebratory reasons: health code violations.

Serendipity 3 at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street was briefly closed last week because of three citations from the D.C. Department of Health. The famous New York-based eatery was cited for not posting a business license, failing to have appropriately hot (110 degrees) water at every hand sink, and storing meat and other perishables at temperatures above the required temperature (41 degrees).

Although the manager told WUSA9 News that he dealt with the citations and reopened the business, Serendipity 3 was closed July 8. The sign over its doors read: “Sorry, we are closed for the remainder of the evening we apologize for any inconvenience.”

In addition, local favorite Sushi-Ko at 2309 Wisconsin Ave., NW, in Glover Park has been closed since June 28 because of an expired business license. Although the owner Daisuke Utagawa has not given specific details about the restaurant’s closing, previous news report cited the business’s bill with the Office of Taxation and Revenue. The Department of Consumer Regulation reportedly required Sushi-Ko to pay its bill before it can reopen.

Utagawa told the Washington Business Journal last week he was trying to get the restaurant open this week. “We’re working to renew the business license, and as soon as we do, we’ll open right back up again,” Utagawa said. “We’ve got everything except one little part.”

As for Serendipity 3’s brief closure, the Georgetowner contacted two of its representatives but has not heard back by press time.

UPDATE: After quickly dealing with minor infractions, Serendipity 3 re-opened.

Fillmore School Funds Refilled
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The Fillmore Center for the Arts has had its full funding restored, saving jobs from being cut and preserving the chance for District students to deeply engage in the arts for another year.

D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson announced the restoration of funding last week given the “recent, positive changes [to the] budget outlook for Fiscal Year 2014.” Councilmembers Jack Evans and Mary Cheh were very much in favor of restoring the funds and worked with Henderson to restore the funding, even offering to assist with funds if necessary.

Henderson believes the funding will continue to “allow the program to continue to serve students at the level we’ve come to expect from the Fillmore Arts program.” The Fillmore has been a nationally recognized school of the arts since 1974, teaching 3,500 students each year. The Fillmore not only offers school year programs but also has summer classes. There are two locations in order to cater closer to elementary schools. Classes range from drama to dance to drawing.

Parents were alarmed at the announcement of a budget cut, and there was even an online petition started from the Friends of Fillmore to urge Henderson to change her mind about funding. Voices have been heard and now the school will continue to serve District students in the arts and four full-time positions that were at first “excessed” will remain.