Town Topics

Lisa Gillespie • January 16, 2015

The Maine Avenue Fish Market in Southwest D.C. is one of the oldest continuing fish markets in the U.S. But a bill approved by Congress might change the fish market by allowing vendors to sell something other than fish. As part of a broader bill that passed this week allowing a massive redevelopment of the Southwest Waterfront, Congress amended a 1906 law that allowed only fish and shellfish to be sold at the market. The law designated the fish market — which had been established at a nearby location in 1805 — as “the sole wharf for the landing of fish and oysters for sale in the District of Columbia.”

But under the new bill, ushered through Congress by D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the fish-only exemption was dropped, allowing D.C. to run and regulate the fish market as merely a “market.” As a parallel to the congressional move, the District Council amended the 1906 law as part of the 2013 budget and clarified what goods can be sold at the fish market: “All types of food and beverage, produce, consumables, organic or ‘green’ themed items, plants and flowers, artisan ware, arts, handmade or handicrafts — and such other similar or related retail and consumer goods as well as any and all appurtenant, ancillary, complementary or co-existing cultural, theatrical, residential, exhibition, office, or arts uses.” When the law was written in the early 1900s, boats would pull up to the market and unload their wares. It’s been a long time since that happened — the boats have been replaced by refrigerated trucks — so a change seemed only logical. Additionally, the waterfront will soon look very different — its redevelopment will see 2.5 million square feet of new hotels, office space, retail space, and residences.

Domestic and international tourists put $6 billion into the D.C. economy last year. That’s a 6.2-percent increase from the $5.68 billion spent in 2010 — and a whopping $600 million in essential tax revenue for the city.

Lisa Gillespie •

The District Department of Transportation is wrapping up a year-long study of three bicycle facilities, two of which, the 15th Street cycle track and Pennsylvania Avenue center median bike lane, are located downtown. Researchers found that bicycle counts increased dramatically along the corridors, while motor vehicle travel times did not change significantly. Bicycle crashes also increased along the corridors, and the researchers recommended continued monitoring of bicycle crashes over time. In addition, the project included a survey of adjacent property owners, residents, motorists and bicyclists, who were all generally supportive of the facilities. The report also recommends several design and operational improvements to benefit both bicyclists and motorists. The hospitality industry, the city’s second-largest employer behind the federal government, had 76,000 jobs last year, up 7 percent from 2010, according to Destination DC.

Robert Devaney •

Police are seeking a man possibly named Jason about a June 30 sexual assault in the West End, according to NBC 4 News. The Metropolitan Police Department considers him “a person of interest” and released a photo.

According to the MPD, a woman was sexually assaulted on the 2400 block of M Street, NW, June 30 at around 10:30 p.m. The potential suspect is described as a 41-year-old black male, bald, with medium complexion, 5’9” and about 170 pounds. He was last seen wearing a brown T-shirt with the words “Fight Club,” tan shorts and sandals. He may go by the name of Jason.

Police have not said if this person of interest witnessed or was involved in the attack. If you have any information, call 202-727-9099 or text 50411. Your information will be kept anonymous.

Robert Devaney •

At its monthly meeting on July 2, Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E considered issues on how to contend with the GSA’s sale of the West Heating Plant on 29th Street, outdoor seating at Paul Bakery and John Simon’s two- story addition to his 35th Street home.

Re-developer of the Old Georgetown Post Office at 1215 31st St., NW, EastBanc, Inc., plans to build most of the new added office and retail space below ground as well as an addition in the back of the original building. The post office’s second floor has not been used for years. The U.S. Postal System will continue its operation in the front of the first floor as usual. Commissioners approved EastBanc’s request for a variance; the Board of Zoning Adjustment will review the re-designs July 23.

“The Office of Planning, historic folks and the neighbor next door have all had different ideas about this project,” said EastBanc Executive Mary Mottershead at the meeting.

The commission heard discussion on how to convince GSA to put conditions on the sale of the closed heating plant land on 29th Street. It agreed with the Citizens Association of Georgetown and the Friends of Georgetown Waterfront Park that part of the property be set aside for parkland.

Paul Bakery got its approval for limited outdoor seating on Wisconsin Avenue, although it has already been serving diners on outdoor tables.

Mount Zion Methodist Church got ANC support for a special exception to continue its 35-children program for those 5 and younger.

John Simon got approval to improve the back of his 35th Street house with a two-story addition but no roof deck was to be added.

— ANC 2E will next meet Sept. 4 at Visitation Prep on 35th Street.

Robert Devaney •

After protests about a District Council measure to control prices for rides by the new car service, Uber, council member Mary Cheh dropped an amendment to a taxi bill that would have raised the minimum fare for an Uber trip at roughly five times the drop rate of a D.C. cab — or about $15. Cheh will bring up the issue again with a separate bill in the fall.

Uber operates an online system with registered members who can use a smartphone app to contact a Uber sedan and get their ride. D.C. cab advocates say the start-up firm, which is going global, has an unfair advantage in D.C. with fewer traditional taxi cab restrictions.

The proposed measure would have set Uber’s minimum price for a ride at about $15 — which is the base fare for the car service, as it stands today.

Robert Devaney •

The Georgetown Business Improvement District seeks a new executive director. Less than three weeks after its annual meeting, the Georgetown BID announced the resignation of James Bracco, its executive director since 2009.

“Jim Bracco has decided to leave the BID after an exemplary three-and-a-half years of service,” reported Georgetown BID’s board president Crystal Sullivan in a July 3rd e-mail to its members. “On behalf of the BID’s board of directors, we would like to thank Jim for his great efforts in making Georgetown a clean, safe and enticing community for our businesses to thrive and visitors to enjoy. He has been a steady presence in not only the Georgetown community but in representing our neighborhood amongst city agencies and initiatives. We greatly appreciate his time and level of service to Georgetown, and he will be missed.”

Bracco indicated to The Georgetowner that he was reconnecting with “former Trammell Crow Company colleagues on a future venture” but could not elaborate at this time.

At the June 13th meeting at the House of Sweden, Bracco gave an update on projects and said he was especially proud of the clean-up crews, whose work he admired each morning when driving to work. Among other projects, he also showed images of the holiday plantings to come as well as a sketch of the holiday ornament to be dramatically suspended over the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street, much like the lighted decoration that hangs each Christmastime at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in Manhattan.

At its big meeting in 2011, the BID launched its new website and with its re-branding effort revealed the neighborhood’s new retail motto: “Come out and play.”

The next big BID event is Georgetown’s Fashion Night Out, Sept. 6. Its tagline: “Liberty and fashion for all.”

Veronica Lopez •

D.C.’s recent storm has caused many massive power outages around the area. An event called the “Ask the Utility Execs” will be hosted by WTOP Radio 103.5 FM this Wednesday, July 11, and will consist of a live discussion with representatives from a variety of Washington area power companies. Some of these companies include Pepco, BG&E, SMECO, NOVEC, Potomac Edison and Rappahannock.

This discussion will address concerns and issues from the recent power outages caused by the storm. The moderator of this discussion will be Marc Segraves, a WTOP investigative reporter. Questions may be submitted online at wtop.com and on the WTOP Facebook and Twitter pages. The event will begin at 10 a.m. at WTOP Studios, where the Georgetown Media Group will be covering it and provide details with a web update.

Robert Devaney •

The beloved C&O Canal boat, the Georgetown, is leaving us. The 19th Century style, mule-pulled, 90-foot cargo boat sits on blocks in the canal between 33rd and Thomas Jefferson Streets. Captivating visitors for a ride along the C&O Canal for decades, the boat has deteriorated and deemed unsafe for passengers.

At Thomas Jefferson Street and the canal there is a June 27 party planned to celebrate the long-serving boat — with a hope the gathering might generate a fund-raising effort to save the boat. (It’s a slim one.)

For years, the National Park Service had set up tours in which visitors, park rangers and volunteers would wear period clothing and describe what life was like for the families that lived and worked on the canal. Despite a signed petition delivered to the NPS, the Georgetown boat will be removed and destroyed

And some of its neighbors are not happy with the decision.

John Noel, chief of division of partnerships of the C&O Canal National Historical Park, had been fighting to keep the boat and tour above board. “The National Park Service and I have looked at all our options, whether it was better to repair the boat or to somehow save it,” Noel said. “Due to the budget crisis, unfortunately we cannot repair it.”

NPS plans to launch a smaller recreational battery-powered boat for canal tours in July.

Veronica Lopez •

“It’s a dream come true to be able to experience it in person,” said Elizabeth Maloy, track and field athlete, Georgetown graduate and program assistant for the Citizens Association of Georgetown, as she was about to compete for a spot on Team USA that will go the London 2012 Olympics.

“My ultimate goal is to be the top three but to enjoy it: the nervousness before, the pain, and soak it all in,” Maloy said.

For Maloy, the Olympic Trials begin on June 25 at the University of Oregon in Eugene, with a standard two-step process in order to make the team. This includes a preliminary race and a final race, with a victory of the first race leading to a chance to compete in the final race on June 28. The top winners will then compete for the U.S. in the Games of the XXX Olympiad in London, which begin July 27.

“The people I met through CAG and in school are so supportive,” said the 26-year-old who holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Georgetown University, works in Georgetown and lives in Columbia Heights. “It means so much. It’s really cool, and I’m so grateful that I’m apart of this community.” An All-American and Big East champion, Maloy still trains with Hoyas coach Chris Miltenberg and runs at Ellington Field, along the tow path or in Rock Creek.

Maloy’s life in track and field started in seventh grade in her hometown of Albany, N.Y. “I remember going to school that day, and I was going out for the tennis team. All my friends were going out for cross-country. So, I decided to try out. I’ve been running ever since,” said Maloy, who runs the mile and the 5,000 meter (more than 3 miles).

However, it hasn’t always been a smooth sailing ride for an opportunity to compete in the Olympic Trials. Throughout her time at Georgetown University, with a fifth year of eligibility to run, Maloy experienced injury after injury and multiple stress fractures. “It was a constant battle. I had to work my way back into shape,” Maloy said.

During her postgraduate season at Georgetown University, she was introduced to a new way of living, as a result of a new coaching staff. “It introduced me to a whole new philosophy, to be patient and not to push so hard. It made a huge difference,” Maloy said. In 2008, she qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing but fell and broke her foot, leading her to give her spot up in the trials. “It was very hard to do because I never want to give up an opportunity, but it was the best decision for me. It makes this more exciting,” she said.

In order to prepare for the Olympic Trials, Maloy has increased the intensity of her workouts with strength training, a four-year process she underwent. “The work is all in the bank now,” she said. “You know you worked so hard for it and you can only control so much.”

Seeking a spot for the 5,000-meter race in the Olympics, Maloy motivates herself through her love for running, which has taught her more about herself as an individual. “What I really love about it [running], it taught me so much about myself and how strong I am. The feeling of being able to push yourself and push that limit a little more motivates me to go out and race,” she said.
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Gary Tischler •

One  thing about living in Washington, or maybe even in the modern world, there’s always something going on. There is something to look forward like a birthday or a holiday, something to look back on like the 57th Inauguration, something to celebrate, like Groundhog Day.  For every month of the year, the calendar is pretty much full, if you choose to fill it.

February, for instance, is Potato Lovers Month and Umbrella Month. It is Black History Month or African American History Month. It is Creative Romance Month and Condom Month as well as Friendship Month, and that includes the celebration of Flirting Week and birthdays galore  and special days every day of the month, just about, from Morgan Fairchild’s birthday (Feb. 3), to Thank-a-Mailman Day (Feb. 4).

You get the drift.  In this issue, we celebrate February for our readers, by concentrating on love and history, if you will, specifically, we’re going to take a look at Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14),  the birthday of presidents, specifically, that of  Abraham Lincoln and the presence of history in our city and daily lives, and the celebration of February as Black History Month with its accompanying round of events, commemorations and celebrations.  It is a fact that in this city, especially, remembering the past allows us to anticipate the future more fully.

Our cover photo is of Barack and Michelle Obama in their inaugural night glam and glory by former White House photographer David Hume Kennerly.  In many and most ways, the Obamas embody the themes of our February story. As a couple and as parents, they are very much about the essence of Valentine’s Day which is love both romantic and familial.  As the first African American president and first lady, first and second terms, they are giant figures in the stream of American history as well as African American history, and their presence adds to the enrichment of our daily lives as citizens in a city embraced by history.

ST. VALENTINE’S DAY

It is probably fair to say that President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, as couple and parents, represent many of the qualities and virtues that sell Hallmark Cards, inspire a rush to the flower stands, give rise to a man going to Jared Diamond, make us think about couples and parents and the subject and celebration of love.

The inauguration revealed those aspects about the Obamas and not for the first time. Here were the daughters suddenly grown into adolescents and near-teens, acting like older and younger sisters under the beaming eyes of their parents, fooling around, texting, and look at that couple coming down the stairs there in the glare of a gala, Obama’s killer-watt smile at high, courtly beam, the tux, the red dress, the white bow tie, she serenely proud, billowing, what a rush of a date night.

They bring evidence of the love and romance in their lives to the public regularly.  It is speculation, of course, but you guess that they’ve had their rough patches because politics is not an arena for starry-eyed beginners, but you also guess that their relationship is one of deep and shared love and respect, and got-your-back loyalty and pride. While both are husband and wife with guy and gal things, they are total grown-ups as parents. 

In terms of glamour, the Obamas give Camelot a run for its residue of dazzle and razzle and youth and kids.  Their elevation to the White House seems to have strengthened them as a couple, it has been an addition as opposed to an imperilment. They appear to do honor to the idea of love.

The rest of us have to do what we often do at times like these—forget our workaholoic tendencies,  and appreciate the fact that someone other than the face in the mirror or our pets love us.  If you are loved, and share a love, how to show your appreciation of the person you so nonchalantly introduce as your better half?  Praise, wine and dine, kiss and give a shout out, buy roses, Godiva, cupcakes and a little shiny bauble from somewhere, if not Jared’s. 

Do something, besides dinner and champagne.  Here are some suggestions: go to a movie.

Specifically, go to the “Screen Valentines: Great Movie Romances” at the American Film Institute Theater, a series of some of Hollywood’s classic romantic movies which will move you, make you laugh and make you cry, running from Feb. 1 through March 14. 

Some of the films include “Ninotchka,” a 1930s movie billed as “Garbo Laughs,” in which the Great Greta, playing a dour Soviet commissar is wooed and led astray by American Melvyn Douglas; “A Man and a Woman,” the classic example of French sensuality starring Anouk Aimee and Jean Louis Tringinant; “The Way We Were,” in which passionately opinionated New York Jewish princess Barbra Streisand and rabble rouser meets blonde golden boy Robert Redford in his prime.  There are more—go to the AFI website for details.

It was always Hollywood to which we looked for guides to the joys, sadness and perils of love: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry” was Oliver’s epigram for his lost love, but don’t try that one on your girlfriend or you’ll be sorry.  And my favorite love line from a western: Wyatt Earp, smitten with a school teacher, asks a bartender: “Hey, have you ever been in love?” to which  the reply is “Nope. I been a bartender all my life.”

You could check out the Washington Ballet, Feb. 13 to 17, at Sidney Harman Hall in the Harman Center, where the company’s “L’Amour (love, baby . . .) features three sensual, sexy, hot and love-stuff dances. That would be “Dangerous Liasons,” a world premiere choreographed by David Palmer; “Opposites Distract,” a company premiere choreographed by Elaine Kudo, and “Under Covers,” a world premiere choreographed by Amy  Stewart.  It all sounds like various reflections on the sexual and romantic and sometimes darker sides of love.

Or you could go where he goes: “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?”  That would be our good swain Romeo upon discovering Juliet. You will hear those lines again, but in a somewhat different context at the Signature Theater’s production of Joe Calarco’s play “Shakespeare R&J,” in which students at a repressive and all-male Catholic boarding school go against the rules and begin to “perform and act out” the forbidden Shakespeare play with dramatic results.  This “Romeo and Juliet” is modern, or as Calarco says, “wildly passionate and sexy.”   At Signature, Feb. 5 through March 3.

Don’t forget, in fact, to give your dog a Valentine’s Day treat. Their love for us is, after all, and unlike that of anyone else who might love you, unconditional.  (February is Responsible Pet Owner Month)

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Just by being who and what they are, Barack and Michelle Obama stand at the center of Black History Month, and the president, in his speech and looking back on the thousands-strong multitude understood the historic nature of where and how he stood,  knowing he would not be in that place again.  When he was elected and inaugurated for the first time, I suspect much of Washington’s overall, day-to-day citizenry re-discovered themselves as neighbors after all.   In Adams Morgan, my friend and neighbor Mickey Collins, who often regaled me with tales of U Street glory days of the black community, told me how sad he was that his aged mother had not lived to see the election. Then, I was sad also that Mickey did not live to see the results of the second election.

Black history is neither an overlay nor a background noise in Washington, D.C., the city which we inhabit. It belongs to everyone who lives here, not just in traditionally African American neighborhoods but the entire city, now changing in its makeup, but always rich in a permanent history.  We have a network of black churches and congregations, we have Martin Luther King, Jr.’s memorial, we have the Frederick Douglass Museum in Anacostia, we have slave and church cemeteries and the steps of the Lincoln Memorial which is as much a shrine to the memory of the 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech as it is to the memory of Abraham Lincoln. And we have all that jazz everywhere.

Some people have argued that with the election of Obama, we are living in what’s called a post-racial era, yet the subject of race is always on the mind like a prayer and an unanswered question.  At the District of Columbia Jewish Community Center, there will be an exploration of the subject with “Race in America: Where Are We Now,” an arts and ideas weekend with panel discussions, films and performances of David Mamet’s play “Race,” Feb. 16-17.

Here are some events to watch out for, including the Feb. 2 Black History Month Family Day at the Smithsonian’s American History Museum.

On Feb. 14, THEARC at 1901 Mississippi Ave., SE, the DC THEARC Theater will present two free performances in honor of Black History Month, featuring “Harriet Tubman: The Chosen One,” a 45-minute play performed by Gwendolyn Briley-Strand, taking the audience on one of Tubman’s 19 journeys on the Underground Railroad.

In addition, such institutions as the National Archives, the Library of Congress, the D.C. Public Library, the Anacostia Community Museum, George Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate, and others will hold special events throughout the month of February.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE CIVIL WAR

February is the month we celebrate the birthdays of both President George Washington and President Abraham Lincoln, but it is Lincoln, the Civil War president and the Great Emancipator who resonates most strongly during the years of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.  While we look to the past and hear echoes of Lincoln’s words as spoken by Daniel Day Lewis in the hugely popular film “Lincoln,” President Obama will address a joint session of Congress with his annual and much-anticipated State of the Union address on Lincoln’s birthday, Feb. 12.

We are by now almost reflexively calling Washington a divided city in terms of the governing classes, but when the Civil War began in 1861, those divisions were searing, real and often bloody. Washington, itself, became at times a city under potential siege as well as the seat of power. 

Our museums especially have focused on the Civil War.  You can go to the Smithsonian  Museum of American Art for “The Civil War and American Art” to the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture Gallery (inside the National Museum of American History) for “Changing America: The Emancipation Proclamation, 1863 and the March on Washington, 1963” and “Torn in Two,” a geographic and cartographic approach to exploring the causes and memories of the Civil War with political cartoons, photographs, prints and maps at the Ford’s Theatre through Feb. 24.