News & Politics

Georgetowner •

The Georgetown Business Improvement is getting a new boss. Joe Sternlieb, the new BID chief executive officer begins his job in mid-October. The BID?s previous executive director, James Bracco, departed in July.

Sternlieb, who holds a master?s degree in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has years of experience in D.C., including as vice president of acquisitions at EastBanc, Inc., and as deputy director of the Downtown D.C. BID for 10 years.

?I have a passion for the District and for helping the city reach all of its potential,? said Sternlieb in a BID press release. ?So, leading the Georgetown BID is one of the greatest positions that a city planner like me aspires to hold. Georgetown is one of the greatest mixed-use neighborhoods in the nation. . . . This is an exciting time for Georgetown and the District, and I am really looking forward to getting started.?

?Prior to his leadership role at Downtown D.C.,? according to the Georgetown BID, ?Joe was staff director of the D.C. Council Committee on Economic Development where he shepherded the BID enabling legislation through the City Council. He currently serves on the Board of several civic organizations, including the D.C. Building Industry Association, D.C. Surface Transit, Inc., and D.C. Vote.?

Established in 1999 by its property owners and merchants, the Georgetown BID has more than 1,000 members. Its full-time CEO reports directly to the BID?s board of directors.

David Post • October 2, 2012

The old man was sitting at the kitchen table, holding a hanky over his weeping eyes.

“What’s the matter, Pa?”

“I’m confused.”

In the movie Moonstruck, family and neighbors were pouring into the kitchen. The mother had just demanded her husband terminate his affair, and he meekly agreed. One brother had just proposed to his reluctant brother’s long-suffering fiancé. And now the grandfather was crying.
Mitt Romney has a similar effect. I’m confused.

I can’t figure out where I fit into his view of America. Am I in the 99%, the 50%, the 47% or 100%?
Being in the 1% in the top 1% of income and wealth would be nice, but I’m not.
Even being in the top 13% and paying tax at Mr. Romney’s income tax rate would help. My rate is much higher because I work for a living and don’t have overseas investments.

Mr. Romney recently criticized 47%-ers for being 0%-ers and paying no federal income tax. He says they won’t vote for him anyway. Since I pay income tax, he must be counting on my vote.
On the other hand, some say he has been 0%-er on some of his tax returns. If he is a 0%-er, can he vote for himself in good conscience? It takes real political courage to call half the country a bunch of moochers who feel “entitled” when you belong to that club. If he were a 35%-er, paying the top tax rate, surely he’d proudly tell us, but we’ll never know because his lips are sealed.

Learning that I’m not a 50%-er was a surprise. I thought I was doing pretty well. I got a good education, have graduate degrees, repaid my student loans, live pretty comfortably, don’t live paycheck to paycheck, own my home, and have some savings and retirement. Then, Mr. Romney said the average middle-income family earned $250,000. OK, I’m below average.

Even worse, this 50% thing makes me feel horribly guilty. Is my company a sweat shop? We don’t pay any of our employees enough to be a 50%-er, or even half of a 50%-er if someone else in their home earns enough to lift the household up to that $250,000 average. It’s a wonder all of my employees haven’t quit and taken an average job somewhere else.

If 47%-ers pay no tax and 50%-ers earn $250,000, that means only 3% earn between the point where the 0% bracket ends and $250,000. Paul Ryan is good at charts and graphs. You can bet that’s a good one.

To clear it all up, Mr. Romney now says his campaign is “about the 100% of Americans.”

Are non-Americans now 0%-ers?

I’m so confused.

Get me a hanky.

Georgetowner • October 1, 2012

Kenneth Cole Pentagon City – Rock the Vote Event

September 27th, 2012 at 06:00 PM | Free

6-8pm on Thursday, September 27, 2012 Kenneth Cole Pentagon City will be hosting an in-store charity event in support of Rock the Vote. 20% of the total sales from the evening will be donated to AWEARNESS, the Kenneth Cole Foundation in support of Rock the Vote. Rock the Vote’s street team will be present registering customers to vote. Customers can enjoy bubbly and bites while they shop and will be offered a free gift with purchase.

Address

Kenneth Cole

Fashion Centre at Pentagon City, 1100 South Hayes Street, Arlington, VA 22202

2012 Nyumbani Benefit and Auction

September 28th, 2012 at 06:00 PM | $165-$325 | kerrymckenney@me.com | Tel: (202) 257-2335

Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Founding of the Nyumbani Children’s Home, Kenya. Theme: Nyumbani: From Vision to Reality — Twenty Years and Growing. Attire: Business.
Address

Ritz Carlton Hotel – 1150 22nd Street, NW

2012 Green Festival

September 29th, 2012 at 10:00 AM | Event Website

We’re kicking off our fall festival season September 29-30, returning to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Along with classic program favorites – Green Business, Fair Trade, Community Action and more – Green Festival introduces brand new, hands-on stages, including: DIY, Good Food, Live Art Demonstration and Eco-Fashion Showcase.

Address

Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Place Northwest

DC Walk for the Animals

September 29th, 2012 at 10:00 AM | $20/adults $15/12 years and younger $0/3 years old | events@washhumane.org | Tel: 202-683-1822 | Event Website

The DC Walk for the Animals will be held on Saturday, September 29, 2012 from 10am – 2pm at Marie Reed Elementary School in Washington, DC. It is a fundraising walk that will also feature booths, activities, music, contests and adoptable animals.

Address

2200 Champlain St. NW

Auction of Vintage Fashion, Couture and Jewelry

September 29th, 2012 at 11:00 AM | no admission | questions@sloansandkenyon.com | Tel: 301-634-2330 | Event Website

Over 600 lots of vintage and contemporary fashion, couture and accessories by
designers including Chanel, Hermès, Pucci, Louis Vuitton, Vivienne
Westwood, Dolce & Gabbana, Oscar de la Renta, Yves Saint Laurent and many others; signed vintage costume jewelry and moderately priced gold and gemstone jewelry

Exhibition

Wednesday, September 26th: 12 – 5 pm

Thursday, September 27th: 10 am- 7 pm

Friday, September 28th: 10 am – 5 pm

Address

Sloans & Kenyon Auctioneers and Appraisers, 7034 Wisconsin Avenue, Chevy Chase MD 20815

Washington National Cathedral Presents Haydn’s Creation

September 29th, 2012 at 05:00 PM | $25.00 | webcomments@cathedral.org | Tel: (202) 537-2228 | Event Website

Marking the 105 years since the laying of its Foundation Stone, the Cathedral begins its new music season with Franz Joseph Haydn’s stunning Creation, featuring Gillian Keith, soprano; Rufus Müller, tenor; Christòpher Nomura, bass; the Cathedral Choir and classical-period orchestra under the direction of Canon Michael McCarthy.

Address

3101 Wisconsin Avenue NW

Pack the Pantries

September 29th, 2012 at 09:00 AM | Free | jeffgasser@gmail.com | Tel: 989-293-9836 | Event Website

Help us feed feed a family in need in Washington D.C.

Partnering churches and congregations from downtown Washington D.C. will collect food items to fill 1,000 boxes (13x12x9) to feed the hungry in the greater Washington D.C. area. On September 29, volunteers will pack the food into the boxes to deliver to the National Capital Area Food Bank. Let us know if you would like to come help or donate food.

Remember… September is Hunger Action Month! All are welcome!

Address

Latter-day Saint 16th Street Chapel, 4901 16th Street NW

Second Annual “Fore” the Kids Golf Tournament

October 1st, 2012 at 07:30 AM | Call for details | jim@pennslyvaniaavenuegroup.com | Tel: 703-973-3830

You are invited to join us at Hidden Creek Country Club for our second annual Golf Tournament. This great event to come out and meet fellow Golf enthusiasts all while supporting a good cause!

Address

Hidden Creek Country Club, 1711 Clubhouse Rd., Reston, VA 20190

Gary Tischler • September 27, 2012

Fall, brisk, as normal as average but a little bit better, came to town, getting weather folks to shut up about storm fronts and severe weather warnings. The weather was acting like autumn weather does, full of change, a frisky optimism. That’s what it felt like in Washington: it was a fall signal without the dying leaves doing their much-heralded twirls to the ground. It was more like a beginning or, at least, a respite.

Because in Washington in the Year of Our Great Divide, 2012, it remains an election year marching irresolutely toward a resolution in November, a spell of good weather like this seemed over a weekend like a return to normalcy where we bless the average, everyday offerings of urban living. After all, there was baseball, the Nationals, and a star quarterback on the Washington Redskins who seemed to be fulfilling his promise right before our eyes.

And, as one local writer somewhat irreligiously put it to us, a panda cub had been born onto us. This event which had occurred the previous weekend put a certain buoyancy in the air, because we vividly remembered the female panda’s last cub, the remarkable Tai Shan who had left us for a preserve in China not that long ago, and who was still tremendously missed. With the announcement of the unexpected birth, instant memories of Tai Shan and his star power, and the thousands of stuffed panda toys that were sold upon his arrival came to mind. The newcomer, who appeared to be healthy, had no name yet, per Chinese tradition. Everyone referred to him as butter stick, which was about the size and description that fit the tiny cub, often referred to, rarely seen.

All this non-political news made the fall weekend special, the kind where you could start your Friday sitting at a Starbucks, or your local café, drink latte or regular, and watch the family of man drive by, run by and bike by, more often than not. You took a taste of normal into your life—the yard sale signs, the sales at Safeway—not so much at Whole Foods. On the other hand, it was between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. So, Jewish food with its potato latkes, dumplings and soups appeared in the delis to our delight.

In the neighborhoods of our cities, there was no lacking for things to do: in Dupont Circle, they held a street fair on 17th Street which meant traffic troubles but brought out man and beast and fried chicken smells and local artisans and artists, a pause in the day of running from dry cleaner, to hardware store to grocery store. The new performance arts season with concerts, and plays and operas and dancing in abundance. Our park, by Adams Mill Road, along with the dog park, the soccer field and the basketball courts were busy.

Elsewhere, you could go to the National Mall and get your fill of books and writers, authors and bloggers and poets in the willing flesh for the annual National Book Festival. You could come to city’s annual Latino festival, with a festive parade of nations which opened your eyes wide to the diversity of the Hispanic world. This city, in weather like this, revealed itself in the way a body does to singer John Mayer — as a wonderland.

On Sunday, we bought sweet nothings at Heller’s Bakery and exercised our walking feet all over Mount Pleasant. I spent some time on the phone later with my son, who lives in Las Vegas, and we talked about things and memories we hadn’t talked of in some time, for no reason except that it seemed right. I think the weather made you feel safe to do things like that. And yet, sunlight, and a breezy wind which might incline you to dance or sing can be deceiving.

If you turned on your television, computer or whatever screen which feeds you like a succubus with information, those uninvited guests in your living room, your house or your phone were never far away. I mean, of course, those fine ladies and gentlemen running for elected office, who approved those ads not done by SuperPACs or other interests groups. I especially mean Governor Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama, who drop by with the regularly of an uncle looking for a free meal. On NBC News’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, something of a food fight threatened to break out among the round table participants as Republican strategist Bay Buchanan got into an argument with Morning Joe’s Joe Scarborough, a conservative himself.

Later in the evening, CBS News’s “60 Minutes” had lengthy interviews with Romney and Obama (separately), which were revealing for not really revealing anything. Have to wait for the debates.

By then, the balloon of optimism in the air had burst. The Redskins, on a track to give up, oh, I don’t know, one thousand points this year, gave up another 30-plus and lost again to Cincinnati 38-31, and the Nationals, although still with a magic number of six, and owning a clinched playoff sport, managed to lose two of three to Milwaukee.

And the panda cub died. I was following scores on the net when I saw it, short and terse: “Panda Cub at the National Zoo Dies.”

“Oh, no,” I yelled aloud, and I’m sure it was part of a collective sigh. No one knows exactly what happened. Today, it was learned that the cub had a liver problem. The mother behaved perfectly as she is wont to do as a mother. The cub with no name was gone. “It was devastating,” the director of the National Zoo said.

It was the week of anticipation, free and clear, that made this news so hard to bear. It’s not that we knew the little cub intimately or had even had a glimpse of him. We knew it already. He would have been the second coming of Tai Shan, the panda rock star spreading magnetism and stardust around like he had done with such ease.

It’s hard because pandas are endangered, because the mother had a number of failed pregnancies and because Pandas have difficulty breeding and reproducing. It’s hard because they are also, no other word for it, enchanting. We all remember the triumphant Tai Shan making his debut in front of a hardened press corps at the National Zoo, a group of journalists who were turned into instant blubber. He was a performer whether trying to navigate a tree branch in front of a crowd or diving into his birthday cake. He was a boost, a gift, a boon for the National Zoo in monetary ways, but also a boost for all of us in this city, and everyone who visited the city. The last time I saw him, he was clambering up a hill, his bottom fur sporting pink frosting after he sat in his birthday cake.

That’s what was dancing before our eyes when the announcement of the new cub came. And that’s what disappeared like a stone when the news of his passing came.

Fall, though remained, the air still bright as the next Sunday, the next good news. In my front yard, a black squirrel who lived among the three houses around us, suddenly turned around, looked at me and stood up. Not once, but three times. I mention this because it was a rare thing. Squirrels in this neighborhood run from people unlike the squirrels on Capitol Hill, who have picked up the habit of begging for nuts and treats the way the politicians they live among troll for votes.

At a time like this, you take comfort in what presents itself, however modest.

Jeff Malet •

More than 100 top authors and thousands of visitors gathered on the National Mall for the two-day 12th National Book Festival, Sept. 22 to 23. The festival included readings and author discussions, book signings, entertainment and storybook characters to interact with children. The theme of this year’s event was “Books That Shaped America” in conjunction with a recent Library of Congress survey of 88 fiction and nonfiction works that helped shape the nation. Separate pavilions ran programs simultaniously for the following major categories: Children, Teens, Fiction & Mystery, History & Biography, Contemporary Life, Poetry & Prose, SciFi Fantasy & Graphic Novels, and Special Programs. A separate Family Storytelling Stage featured authors and musical acts popular with young children. As always, the event was free and open to the public. The Distinguished Benefactor of the festival was David Rubenstein, who co-chaired the National Book Festival Board with James H. Billington, the Librarian of Congress. Corporate sponsors included Target, the Washington Post, Wells Fargo, AT&T, Scholastic, and Lego Systems, Inc. Returning to the festival was the Digital Bookmobile, a high-tech exhibit powered by OverDrive, which supports reading and literacy with ebooks from libraries. Notable authors in attendance included Bob Woodward, Julie and David Eisenhower, Walter Isaacson, Tom Friedman, Robert Caro, singer-songwriter Jewel Kilcher and Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa.

View photos of the event by clicking on the photo icons below. [gallery ids="132614,132469,132460,132451,132441,132433,132423,132414,132407,132397,132389,132378,132369,132361,132478,132488,132605,132595,132587,132578,132571,132563,132554,132545,132533,132525,132516,132507,132497,132350,132340,132329,132194,132186,132177,132168,132159,132150,132623,132141,132629,132132,132636,132124,132644,132201,132210,132321,132313,132302,132293,132285,132277,132269,132260,132252,132244,132235,132227,132219,100995" nav="thumbs"]

Robert Devaney • September 26, 2012

Georgetown’s oldest Baptist church community continued its 150th anniversary celebrations Sept. 15 on Dumbarton Street in front of the First Baptist Church, Georgetown and in adjacent Rose Park. The festivities included food, music, dancing, a book and clothing sale, as well as a prayer table and games in the park. The Baptist church at 2624 Dumbarton Street, N.W., is one of Georgetown’s historic black churches and welcomed the entire neighborhood to its Saturday street fair. The church will continue the celebration with a 150th Anniversary Prayer Breakfast on Sept. 29 — and an anniversary ball in October.
Its 12th pastor, Rev. Robert Pines, arrived at 2006. Pines — who went to Georgetown Washington University and Dunbar High School — says he feels like he is back in his old neighborhood.

Here is an excerpt from a summary on church history:

First Baptist Church, Georgetown was founded October 5, 1862 by the Reverend Sandy Alexander, a former slave. (Alexander also founded Jerusalem Baptist Church which is located at 26th & P Streets, N.W.) Before the formal organization of the church, Collins Williams, a licensed preacher from Fredericksburg, Va., and his wife Betsey had led religious meetings in Georgetown in private residences on 27th and P Streets, 27th and N Streets, and then at his own home. Williams donated a small piece of land at 29th and O Streets to be used for a church.

In 1856, Rev. Alexander came to Georgetown to start a Baptist church but found only two Baptists in the community. However, he was soon able to find many converts and built up a large congregation that was greatly expanded by the arrival of a group from the Shiloh Church of Fredericksburg. This congregation erected a small frame structure known as the “Ark” on the land donated by Collins Williams at 29th and O Streets. The building was soon found to be too small, and a committee of Brothers, Henry Lucas, William Wormley and William T. Brown selected the present site at 27th and Dumbarton Streets for the new building.

Rev. Alexander embarked on a trip north and solicited $300 for the new building while the members were able to negotiate a loan for another $300. The cornerstone for the church was laid in 1882. The male members of the church dug foundations at night, while the women cooked hot suppers. The cost of the stone foundations was $800 which exhausted the building fund so for a time the building stood incomplete. Finally, Rev. Alexander himself took over the responsibility of seeing that the building was completed. When the trustees went to make the church’s first payment on the note, the receipt was made out to the First African Baptist Church. Trustee William T. Brown refused to accept this receipt insisting that he represented the First Baptist Church. The receipt was torn up and another one, correctly worded, was written. Brother Brown had objected to the congregation being robbed of the honor of being the first church of the Baptist denomination in Georgetown.

There is a third Baptist church in Georgetown thanks to Rev. Sandy Alexander. It is the Alexander Memorial Baptist Church, founded in the first years of the 20th century, at 2709 N St., N.W.

Also, we should recall that it is the 150th anniversary of the D.C. Emancipation Act, signed into law in April 1862, followed by the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863.

For more information, visit FBCGT.org

Article updated Sept. 26 to include mention of Alexander Memorial Baptist Church on N Street in Georgetown.
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Phoebe Lett • September 24, 2012

In the midst of what is inarguably the worst week of the Romney campaign, the name of our historic district has peppering the articles extolling the debt of the Romney campaign. Tuesday night the National Review Online reported the $20 million loan taken by the Romney camp from the Bank of Georgetown. Confirmed by a senior campaign official, the loan addressed the problem of pre-nomination Federal Election Commission rules.

As the primary election donation dollars supporting Romney began to dry up, the Romney campaign found themselves an opportunity to borrow quick cash from the Bank of Georgetown. The official and unofficial expenses of the Republican National Convention itself totaled to over $55 million, and though the Romney campaign continued to boastfully out fund President Obama, the presumed nominee took advantage of the line of credit it held at the Bank of Georgetown.

“We took advantage of the law as it exists to secure this line of credit,” a senior Romney aide said in an exclusive National Review Online interview. “We realized that we could collateralize this debt with $20 million of general election funds that were already sitting in our bank account.”

While Romney has now paid back $9 million of the loan, the news of the federal election report depicting the campaign in a debt of $15 million comes after the slight lead in fundraising by the Democratic National Committee and Obama’s re-election campaign. Last month, Romney raised $111.6 million, coming just under Obama’s $114 million.

As the official nominee, Romney will now undoubtedly have little difficulty allaying doubts about the financial status of his campaign for election. Yet as headlines spell out doom and the need for a re-boot on the campaign, perhaps the Romney campaign may find itself returning to our neighborhood bank once more.