News & Politics

Robert Devaney • June 29, 2012

After months of contentious discussions along with private and public meetings and press coverage as well as D.C.’s Zoning Commission hearings on Georgetown University’s 2010-2020 campus plan and the adjacent neighborhoods’ objections, the hour of decision is at hand. And it has taken the added weight of the District government to seal the deal.

The Executive Office of the Mayor of the District of Columbia issued a media advisory Tuesday: Mayor Vincent Gray, Georgetown University President John DeGioia and Ron Lewis, chair of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E, “will make a major announcement regarding Georgetown University’s campus plan and engagement with neighborhood and city leaders” at the intersection of 36th and P Streets, N.W., just outside the university’s main campus, Wednesday, June 6, 2:30 p.m.

After a tense impasse on zoning discussions on the campus plan, Gray began to get his office more involved. The mayor had spoken at an October 2011 ANC meeting and said that he thought the issues surrounding the campus plan could be resolved. Last week, he spoke at the annual meeting of the Citizens Association of Georgetown and indicated that an agreement was 95 percent complete.

According to the mayor’s office, “District leaders have been working closely over the last several months to bring Georgetown University officials and Georgetown neighborhood leaders together regarding the school’s campus plan.”

Alison Schafer •

One quick glance as you walk by and you can see it. They are good. They are really, really good.
The regulars at the Rose Park tennis courts include lawyers, former members of Congress, diplomats, doctors, liberals and conservatives. They are young, or a little creaky, from all parts of Washington—and from all over the world. But they all bow to the altar of tennis. And many of them have been playing pick-up tennis together for decades.

“I’ve only been here three years, they barely talk to me!” says Drew Hodge, a banker and tennis player.

Hodge is sitting in the shade, on a plastic chair bought by the tennis players, watching a heated doubles match. Next to him sits Clarence Lyons, a 30-year regular here and the unofficial boss of Rose’s three courts. He tamps down disputes when they arise and helps organize volunteer maintenance squads to trim back bushes and keep the courts neat. Clarence is locally famous, greeting the mothers and their kids by name— even if they never step foot on the courts.
But it’s the tennis players, racket in hand, who ask for him all the time. “Who’s Clarence?” and “Someone told me to ask for Clarence?” are constant refrains.

After all, he’s their connection to a good game.

“People—its DC, after all—leave to go to other countries. When they come back, they come back here,” Lyons says. He says the concierges at nearby hotels often send players up to Rose. One of them told the regulars that there are only three public courts in the U.S. with a level of play this high—one in Chicago, one in San Diego and Rose Park.

David Dunning lives a block from Rose and spends most of his time there, organizing events, cleaning up, playing tennis, chatting with neighbors or just hanging out. “It’s the best pick-up court for tennis in DC, there are a lot of good players here who come from all over the city,” he says.

During prime time, weekends and week nights, the Rose Park players are clearly a literally slice above the average. People show up and get folded into games, or they sign up and a game comes to them. Usually, a wanna-be comes and hits on the backboard next to the courts for a while. That’s sort of a tryout—if you look good on the backboard, you get to move up to the regulars. Of course, anyone can bring their own game and sign up for a court; this process is only for the hard-core players.
On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, the action is intense. Two ferocious pick-up doubles games flank a gentle grudge match between neighbors. Many of the people on the court played in college, and some are tennis coaches. Only a few, though, are women. The vast majority of the regulars are men, though the few women who do play are impressive.

One of the spectators muses that the good players come to Rose because the courts are build in a slight “V” shape, so the big hitters can slam the ball and it (mostly) stays in. “Everyone looks like a super star,” suggests Hodge.

Another says that good players attract good players. Ville Waites has been a regular for some fifteen years. He identifies himself as “the king of everything around here,” and says players have got to be able to handle the pressure of constant ribbing and a little supportive trash talk.

“They come for camaraderie and they come to hang out, to shoot the breeze,” Waites says, “that’s half of what people come here for.”

Every September, the park hosts a doubles tournament, complete with a cookout and trophies.
The Rose Park courts are such a draw that the occasional celebrity sometimes stumbles upon them. Last year, the actor Owen Wilson came by a couple of days in a row. Carlos Santana, of the eponymous band hit balls there once (which is truly hard to imagine, if you remember the ‘70s). A few years ago, Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf warmed up at Rose before a Legg Mason tournament. Of course, they only raised the level of play at the courts a little bit.
[gallery ids="100824,125517,125509,125503" nav="thumbs"]

Robert Devaney •

The Georgetown Senior Center, headquartered at St. John’s Episcopal Church on O Street, held a fundraiser May 9 at the legendary F. Scott’s restaurant, part of the Clydes Restaurant Group, on 36th Street. Hosted by Sally Davidson, John and Ginger Laytham and Lila and Brendan Sullivan, the happy group celebrated the center and its founder, Virginia Luce Allen, who died in 2009 and whose birthday is May 10. The center’s fundraising campaign has reached about $15,000 for its programs and services, which includes its popular lunches and lectures at St. John’s Blake Hall on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Neighbors are invited to participate, whether as cook or guest, or to assist with the center’s day trips. To donate your time or money, visit GeorgetownSeniorCenter.org, or call 202-316-2632 [gallery ids="102451,121113,121119,121130,121124" nav="thumbs"]

Robert Devaney •

You may not have noticed that resident-only parking already exists in Georgetown. At least, along certain sections of 33rd, 34th, 36th and P Streets, thanks to the O&P Street Project.

Here is an update from the project leaders: “As part of the O&P Street Rehabilitation project, street lights within the project zone are being updated or, in many cases, added. In response to public concern for safety, the finalized lighting plan increases current lighting by 40 percent, while still preserving the historic feel of the area. You may notice a new light fixture or foundation for a new light fixture near an existing light. In many cases, the existing light will be removed at a later time. Many of the new foundations are covered with orange drums. These drums are in place for pedestrian safety and will be removed once the light poles are installed. When the new lights are operational, you may notice a significant increase in brightness the first couple of nights. Per DDOT’s policy, any existing street lights designated for removal will stay turned on until we verify all of the new lights are fully operational. Once they are deemed as such, the existing lights designated for removal will be turned off.”

The website is FixingOandPstreets.com. As far as the new parking signs go, let’s see how long they stay up.

Robert Devaney •

Some D.C Council members are preparing for a trip to Las Vegas at the end of the week. It is for a retail and real estate trade show, which some of them have attended before, at the Las Vegas Convention Center across from the Las Vegas Hilton and near the new, shiny Wynn Resort and other temptations.

Their attendance may be good for Washington business, but it still looks a little awkward, what with the brouhaha over a GSA trip to Sin City in the Nevada desert.

RECon — May 20 through May 23 — is the “world’s largest gathering of retail real estate professionals and provides the opportunity to network, make deals and learn from industry experts,” the group says. “No other retail real estate convention attracts a worldwide audience. With over 30,000 attendees and 1,000 exhibitors it is the largest industry convention, making it an unparalleled opportunity to do a year’s worth of business in just three days. So, if you are looking to meet with retailers to discuss new or existing leases in your center, then you need to have a presence at RECon.”

WAMU, which first reported on the Las Vegas trip, wrote: “The D.C. Council is doubling down on Las Vegas this year, sending an unprecedented number of council members and staff to the Global Retail Real Estate Convention, which is hosted annually by the International Council of Shopping Centers. The D.C. Council is sending perhaps as many as 15 or 16 people to the . . . conference, many on the taxpayers’ dime. Why? The city’s real estate market is hot. Big box retailers want in, and once-overlooked neighborhoods and projects — St. Elizabeth’s, Walter Reed, Penn Branch — are now primed for development. Council members are looking to, as several put it, bring home the bacon.”

Council members reportedly traveling to the show include chair Kwame Brown — who wrote a letter to his peers about the trip and told WAMU, “Clearly my letter indicates that for everyone going, there should be justification on why you are going” — and Jack Evans, Jim Graham and Vincent Orange.

According to Washington, D.C., Economic Partnership, the local non-profit which has registered some of the council members and others for the convention, “Washington, D.C., has remained a top investment market both nationally and globally, even through the most recent recession. Despite D.C. development activity bottoming out in 2009 with only 4.3 million square feet of construction starting, it made a quick and significant comeback in 2010 with nearly 11 million square feet of construction starts. This dramatic increase was in large part due to federal and local government investment in the office, hospitality and education development markets.”

“The increase in retail space last year verifies that the District’s retail market is alive and thriving, and we need to make sure that this story is being told across the region and the nation,” says Keith Sellars, president and CEO of Washington, D.C., Economic Partnership.

O.K., that’s a pretty good reason. Besides the obvious attractions, a big one is no longer there. The Lamant Peterson-Amir Khan boxing match, set for May 19 at Mandalay Bay, has been canceled because Peterson failed a drug test.

Robert Devaney •

President Barack Obama zipped a few blocks from the White House to the Ritz Carlton May 8 to address the 18th Annual Gala for the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies. It was a day after the Ritz hosted the likes of Prince Harry and Ban Ki-moon for the Atlantic Council’s big dinner. Obama entered the ballroom which proved campaign-ready.

With shouts of “aloha” and “mahalo,” the president spoke before an enthusiastic and loud crowd in the standing-room-only hall. “Four more years! Four more years!” the crowd yelled to Obama, who responded, “Thank you. Everybody, please, please, have a seat. Have a seat. You’re making me blush.”

Citing his own life story, Obama said, “Now, I am thrilled to be here tonight because all of you hold a special place in my heart. When I think about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, I think about my family — my sister, Maya; my brother-in-law, Konrad . . . My nieces Suhaila and Savita. I think about all the folks I grew up with in Honolulu, as part of the Hawaiian ohana. I think about the years I spent in Indonesia. So for me, coming here feels a little bit like home. This is a community that helped to make me who I am today. It’s a community that helped make America the country that it is today. So your heritage spans the world. But what unites everyone is that in all of your families you have stories of perseverance that are uniquely American.”

After Obama left and darted back to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, one of APAICS’s leader, Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) said that the president was not born with “silver chopsticks” or “silver rice bowl,” for that matter. Honda then asked the group, “Are you ready for the next four years?”

Besides political and congressional leaders, such as House minority leader Nancy Pelosi or Norman Mineta, the 1,000-plus crowd included Olympic medalist Michelle Kwan, actress Grace Park and Miss D.C. Ashley Boalch.

The Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) is a national non-partisan, non-profit organization that is “dedicated to promoting Asian Pacific American participation and representation at all levels of the political process, from community service to elected office.” According to the 2010 Census, Asian Americans comprise the fastest-growing group in the U.S. and are now getting more attention from politicians for their votes.

Georgetowner •

There are two kinds of robberies: the ones that are serious and the ones that are not. medium complexions and thin builds.

When a handgun is involved, it’s always serious. When the hands of a clock are stolen, chances are it’s not serious–it’s tradition. (All right, one might fall from the clock tower.)

Handguns were involved in two robberies at or near restaurants Sunday, April 29. An armed suspect, dressed in black, described as light complexioned, robbed the popular Five Guys restaurant on Wisconsin Avenue of an undetermined amount of cash just before midnight.

Earlier that day around 1 p.m., two employees of Serendipity 3 Restaurant on M Street, taking a cigarette break outside the restaurant were robbed by two men who approached them asking for a cigarette. One of the men pulled a gun and demanded the victims’ wallets and phones. According to the Metropolitan Police Department, the two men were described as black males between 25 and 35 years old with medium complexions and thin builds. One man was described as wearing blue pants and a yellow shirt. The second man was described as having brown eyes and brown hair and wearing a black hat.

Elsewhere, a timely crime was visible to everyone, it being an iconic symbol for all of Georgetown. Over the weekend, it was discovered that the Healy Tower’s clock hands were missing, front and back, and not for the first time, either. As these are the end days of Georgetown University seniors, it was suspected that some upperclassmen may have absconded with the hands in a towering act of not quite derring-do. There is a tradition for this kind of dark-of-night theft in which the hands are then mailed to the Vatican stamped “Returned to Sender” — at least, according to Wikipedia– perhaps with a Latinate postmark. The last time the clock hands were stolen was in 2005. (Investigations are ongoing, and offenders can get suspended from school or worse.) Will they ever return? Their fate is still unknown, poor old clock hands.

Georgetowner •

On Mother’s Day––coming up May 13––you get images in your head.

Donna Reed unruffled. Soccer moms relieving the family SUV of soccer kids, soccer balls, soccer goals and soccer dogs. The beloved Irish mom: “Me mother was a saint, don’t you know.” The mom in “Leave It to Beaver.” These days, there are single moms, working moms, political moms, first lady moms and first lady moms-in-waiting.

Maybe we shouldn’t call it Mother’s Day at all. Or Father’s Day. Maybe we should call it kid’s day. Or the family dog day.

Maybe we should just have a family day. America needs another quasi-holiday anyway.
And what better place to start with a family day than the household of Jack and Michele Evans. It’s got all the ingredients.

Mom: check. Michele Seiver Evans.
Dad: check. Jack Evans.
Kids: check. Sam Seiver, 22; Madeline Seiver, 19; Jack Seiver, 19.
Kids: check again. Katharine, John and Christine Evans, 15.
Dog: check. Golden Retriever Kelly.

Now, put the ingredients, once separate, together by marriage. Then, only a short time after the September 2010 wedding, begin a major renovation of the Evans home at 3141 P Street, then put it on the 2012 Georgetown House Tour, just for good measure.

“Jack stayed, and the kids stayed upstairs during construction,” Michele Evans said. “I rented a town house. So, actually, we haven’t been together as a family until late last year, right around Thanksgiving.”

“Lots of people have made the obvious references to ‘The Brady Bunch,’ ” she said, as she led the way into the downstairs part of the house, where she’s created a picture board of photographs of all of the new family’s children, 15-year-old triplets Katharine, John and Christine Evans and Michele’s children, Sam, Maddy and Jack. Friends have compared her to the Brady mom. She laughed. “I think sometimes I feel more like Alice, the housekeeper.”

She certainly doesn’t look or act like Alice. Vivacious, creative, an interior designer by profession and inclination, she designed the major part of the Evans homestead renovation, which opened up the first floor living room, creating the illusion of a larger space by creating a flow that connects to the outdoor patio, and gracefully furnished in a style that merges tradition with contemporary motifs smoothly into the outdoor patio.

“Didn’t have a thing to do with it,” said Jack Evans, arriving in a dark suit from his District Council work late on a Friday morning. “It’s all Michele.”

Evans had been a single dad for seven years, and Michele (then Michele Seiver) had been a single mom for six years. The two married September 18, 2010, after dating for two years.

Evans, by looks, reputation, demeanor and profession, seems a man least likely to embrace drama–the Ward 2 councilman and longest continuous member of the District Council looks like the master of the budget that he is, a little buttoned down and serious expert. But he can fool you: he mastered the shaky and sometimes emotional art of raising triplets in his own way after the death of his first wife, Noel. His office is something of a man cave, full of not only the usual politician’s photographs with other elected officials, presidents, family and momentous occasions, but sports stuff, actual fussball games and Redskins, Caps and Nationals memorabilia and signs. Recently, Evans was on the stage at the Helen Hayes Awards, praising the D.C. theater scene with eloquence, embracing the spotlight when it hit him like a thespian.

Still, marrying and merging two families and renovating your house is inviting drama into your life. But it appears to be drama of the enlivening, good sort, as opposed to chaos.

“Perhaps, it wasn’t the easiest way of doing things,” Michele Evans said. “We married in September 2010, and a week later, the renovation started.”

“The most difficult thing is the merging of the families,” Michele Evans said. “You have to negotiate, compromise, and you can’t really actually bring everything you have together. You have to figure out what to do with six sets of skies, for instance, and your schedules have just sort of doubled. He and I have different ways of parenting out of each of our particular situations. I was pretty lucky in one sense: my children are spaced apart — there’s the oldest, the middle child and the youngest. With triplets, it’s all at once, which presents different challenges, different joys and requirements. I can just imagine how hectic things could get for Jack, doing everything as a single dad.”

What he did, for instance, was to organize laundry bags: all the socks in one bag, t-shirts and underwear in another, and so forth. “That wouldn’t have worked for me, but I could see it was necessary for them.”

“You learn a lot about each other in that first year,” Jack Evans said. “When you’re a single dad, you have to be organized like that. It can’t be done any other way, for me.”

Michele Evans laughed, remembering the first Thanksgiving the two families shared.

“I had prepared a whole meal based on a family recipe, very elaborate, gourmet, complicated,” she said. “They were used to and quite happy with cranberry sauce, out of a can.”

“With my children, the triplets had a chance to deal with older sisters and brothers,” she added. “I think in some ways that’s my role with the girls, too, I’m more like an older sister in addition to being a mother to them.”

“I think Jack approached being a single dad by creating a sense of order, which is necessary, and I think I bring a little more color and creativity to things. “ she said.

She was merging her life and family not only with another family but with the family of an elected official, a politician and a public figure.

“That was different,” she said. “I’m a naturally friendly person, I think, outgoing. But being in the public eye, you have to be a little more careful with what you say.”

“I think the kids know that,” the father and council member said. “It’s just something you learn. It’s like ‘your dad’s on tv, or they hear somebody say something that’s not particularly flattering or it’s critical, they hear and read things. I just tell them–think before you say something to someone.”

Evans’s political resume–re-elections to his Ward 2 council seat almost as a matter of course, a failed, but nonetheless very classy and professionally managed run for mayor–is thick with experience, and hardly complete. In other words, the obvious question comes up: does he still want to be Mayor of Washington, D.C.?

“Absolutely,” he says, emphatically. “I think the prospects for success are better these days than they were then, and if the occasion arises where I think I have a good chance, I’ll run.”

As a leader on the city council and a Georgetown resident, his profile is already high throughout the city and among his neighbors. If he chooses to run at some point in the future, he’d be running as the head of one family, once two separate families, the father who knows, if not best, certainly a lot about raising a family, and about being a parent. And he’ll present a richer, more complete and complicated persona and identity to the public, something larger than his identity as the government’s and council’s most experienced leader. He is also the man who can take a large part of the credit for leading the way in transforming downtown Washington and for bringing baseball to Washington, among numerous accomplishments.

The newly constituted Evans family almost didn’t happen. “I asked her out twice,” Evans said. “And she said no.”

The third time, as it turned out, was the charm. “We ran into each other at a party, and I started to go out the door and I turned around and I thought, if I don’t try again, it’s never going to happen.”
He did and she said yes. The first date? “He took me to a Nationals game,” she said. “I loved it.”
Less conventional was a date in which Evans took his future wife on a drive-by tour of African-American churches in Ward 2.

Michele Evans grew up in Wyoming and came to Washington to work in the office of then Sen. Malcolm Wallop (R-Wyo.). Before merging her family of three children–Sam Seiver 22, now living in Santa Ana, Calif., Madeline Seiver, 19, now at the University of South Carolina, and Jack Seiver, 16, a junior at Gonzaga College High School–lived in Spring Valley.

“Being a single parent — and we both know this for a fact — is hard work, period. It doesn’t matter who you are,” Jack Evans said. “If you’re a stay-at-home parent, it’s hard work. If you’re a single parent and working, it’s hard work. We both know that for a fact and from experience.”

Jack Evans’ wardrobe provided by Streets of Georgetown:
Shirt: Hart Schaffner Marx blue gingham shirt – $89.50
Tie: Hickey Freeman navy pin dot bold strip – $135
Pants: Hickey Freeman bone color 100% pima cotton chino – $245
Gray Suit: Hickey Freeman peak lapel grey prince of wales plaid suit $1495

Shirt: Hart Schaffner Marx Blue Gingham Shirt – $89.50
Tie: Hickey Freeman navy pin dot bold strip – $135
Pants: Hickey Freeman bone color 100% pima cotton chino – $245 [gallery ids="100762,123200,123189,123197" nav="thumbs"]

Robert Devaney •

Georgetown Farmers’ Market Re-Opens Wednesday

The Georgetown Farmers Market opens Wednesday, May 2, for its tenth season in Rose Park.

The Friends of Rose Park, in cooperation with the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation, sponsors the Georgetown Farmers Market in Rose Park for another season. The market will be open, rain or shine, every Wednesday until Halloween from 3 p.m. until 7 p.m. near the corner of 26th and O Streets.

“The Friends of Rose Park has been delighted with the neighborhood support for this project in Rose Park, and we hope the Georgetown community will join us on opening day,” according to the group.

The market welcomes newcomers and regulars to the park:

= Two Oceans True Foods: free-range turkeys, chickens and eggs as well as family-caught seafood

= Oh! Pickles: a wide variety of homemade pickles

= Baguette Republic: artisan breads, cookies and more

= Anchor Nursery: fresh vegetables, fresh cut flowers, plants

= Quaker Valley Orchards: berries, honey, apples, peaches, greens

= Praline Bakery: French bakery specialties; dinners-to-go, croissants

= Les Caprices de Joelle: paella, soups, quiche, waffles and other goodies

Neighbors and volunteers interested in helping at the market one day a month and local non-profit groups interested in getting on the calendar at the market should e-mail RoseParkMarket@yahoo.com.

Rose Park is located between M and P Streets, N.W., bounded on the west side by 26th and 27th Streets and on the east side by Rock Creek Parkway. Its facilities include three tennis courts, a basketball court, a baseball diamond, two playground areas and substantial open space. [gallery ids="100757,123127,123121" nav="thumbs"]

Robert Devaney •

During lunchtime on April 30, 2007, a fire nearly destroyed the Georgetown Public Library at R Street and Wisconsin Avenue. The flames of the collapsing cupola and roof attracted neighbors and news crews, as the D.C. Fire & EMS Department struggled with low-pressure hydrants and used one blocks away.

That same morning, a fire had swept through Eastern Market, one of Capitol Hill’s most popular food, shopping and meeting spots. Stunned city officials and residents feared the two places would never completely recover.

Today, both buildings have been re-built and made even better — thanks first to the firefighters of Washington, D.C. The library and its Peabody Room are a source of information as well as pride for its neighbors.

Georgetowners, thinking they had lost the history that is contained in the library’s Peabody Room, were relieved to learn that almost all items had been saved. The collection houses books, photographs, maps, manuscripts, newspapers, artwork and artifacts documenting Georgetown’s two-and-a-half centuries.

Here is what Jerry McCoy, Special Collections Librarian, Peabody Room, has to say:

“Today is the fifth anniversary of the Georgetown Branch Library fire. The fire destroyed two-thirds of the second floor of the library. The remaining one-quarter was the Peabody Room. Had it not been for the professionalism of the D.C. Fire & EMS Department more than 250 years of Georgetown’s history would have been lost.”

Named in honor of 19th century merchant, banker and philanthropist George Peabody (1795-1869) and established in 1935, the Peabody Room is a special collections section of the Georgetown Public Library. The Peabody Room is open Monday, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 pm; Thursday, 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. [gallery ids="100759,123146,123140,123137" nav="thumbs"]