Town Topics

Georgetowner •

The one tavern liquor license available in Georgetown looks like it will be going to Gypsy Sally’s at 3401 Water St., NW. The music venue applied at the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration to transfer its restaurant license to become a tavern. The tavern license became available when the defunct Saloun, formerly at 3239 M Street, did not renew its license. Pending approval of its voluntary agreement by the advisory neighborhood commission, Gypsy Sally’s new license would not require it to report food sales. As for the rest of the town, Georgetown has 68 restaurant liquor licenses – and remains under a neighborhood liquor license moratorium.

Robert Devaney •

The Georgetown-Burleith Advisory Neighborhood Commission met Nov. 2 at Visitation Prep and focused on Wisconsin Avenue traffic, Metrorail in Georgetown, new designs for the former Georgetown Theater, the Georgetown Business Improvement District’s “Georgetown 2028” and the first annual report for the 2010-2017 Georgetown University Campus Plan.

During the meeting, Ellen Steury was named the commissioner for single-member District 7 – on the east side, north of P and Q Streets, NW—including Evermay, Oak Hill Cemetery and Dumbarton Oaks—to Whitehaven Street. There was no election, as no other citizen applied for the position.

The Georgetown ANC is in agreement with the Glover Park ANC that the District Department of Transportation return Wisconsin Avenue traffic (just north of Georgetown) to six lanes. Sidewalks have been widened only in a few spots.

The ANC also supported bringing subway stations to town. It has passed such a resolution before. All major community groups want Metro. No one in the room expressed opposition.

Owner and architect Robert Bell’s plan for the former Georgetown Theater property (1351 Wisconsin Ave., NW) got another look. The ANC again voiced its concerns – “unprecedented large footprint” – about rear-addition designs that have gotten neighbors’ complaints. This week, Bell will be before the Old Georgetown Board, which also questioned his designs for the rear of the property, which is in the center of the block. The ANC also worried about the “loss of privacy” with the rear addition. Bell replied that the designs offered an upgrade to “a derelict situation.”

Georgetown BID CEO Joe Sternlieb presented a lightning-round version of the BID’s ambitious “Georgetown 2028” concepts. He said the BID “wanted a stronger commercial district without negatively impacting the residential district.” Sternlieb listed transportation, physical improvements and the economy as the top categories. He also wants to see Metrorail in Georgetown within 15 years by 2028. Also mentioned was the idea of a gondola or cable car from the Rosslyn Metro over the Potomac River to a station within (perhaps) the Car Barn – and also easier access to Roosevelt Island, whether or not a pedestrian bridge is built over the river from Georgetown. A final report from the BID task force on “2028” will be made public Dec. 12.

As for the university’s campus plan and community partnership, ANC Chair Ron Lewis complimented all involved, saying, “The partnership has worked as a true partnership.” It helped to have a detailed road map, he added. Georgetown University’s Lauralyn Lee noted that 450 beds had been added to on-campus housing, with a new dormitory planned as well as the renovation of space within the Quadrangle. (The Zoning Board has not yet approved these projects.) Also important to note, Lee said, was the Office of Neighborhood Life – for students as well as lifelong residents of Georgetown – at 36th and N Streets. She invited residents to call 202-687-5138 or email NeighborhoodLife@Georgetown.edu anytime (Cory Peterson is the director). The annual report will available on the university’s website in about a week.

The next ANC meeting will be on Dec. 19 – and count as its January meeting. Why meet then? Because the Old Georgetown Board plans to meet Jan. 2, leaving the ANC few dates before Christmas or after New Year’s Day. It usually meets a few days before the OGB monthly meeting.

Georgetowner • December 5, 2013

Georgetown’s best-known Santa Claus is back on the rooftop of Jack Davies’s Prospect Street house, which overlooks the Potomac River and welcomes all with a big “Merry Christmas” wave. It may your last chance to see him.

For several years, Davies has been putting up his 20-foot inflated Santa on the back of his house with its grand vista of the Potomac River. Those entering D.C. from Virginia on Key Bridge easily see it, especially when it is illuminated at night. Davies — a philanthropist and businessman who is part owner of the Washington Capitals, Wizards and Mystics as well as founder of AOL International — said he is happy to bring people a little yuletide cheer.

The rooftop of Davies’s house has something new this year: a For Sale sign on the railing. Yes, the house has been on the market since spring, and there is a good chance this will be the last time to view this not-so-secret Santa.

Perhaps the inflatable Santa will convey to the new owner, should he or she want to continue this new Georgetown Christmas tradition. “The best $700 I ever spent,” Davies told the Georgetowner in 2011. As for that house at 3618 Prospect St., NW, check with Washington Fine Properties.

Robert Devaney • November 20, 2013

The 50th anniversary of the assassination
of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas
on November 22 will be on a Friday, the
same day of the week when it occurred in 1963.

This means we will again head into a postassassination
weekend, brimming with restored
memories of the days of drums, days filled
with shock after shock, including the live-ontelevision
of the suspected assassin Lee Harvey
Oswald in front of stunned millions.

This day, and all the recent days leading up
to the anniversary are filled with the memory
keepers, the conspiracy theorist, the still-grieving,
the noted absence of the missing who played
important roles in those days, those times. It is
the job of archivists to remember, and of journalists
and quasi-journalists, and bloggers and
stir-the-leaves-of-autumn-with-doubt types to
rehash, resurrect, remember remind, and reminisce
among the ashes of the time. Oliver Stone
will have his opinion again, that his epic assassination
film “JFK” was a kind of truth, about
the presence of conspiracy and conspirators,
although as you watch the actor Kevin Costner
pretend to be Jim Garrison, who was something
of a pretender to begin with, you may not
embrace the authenticity of the movie so much
even while in the grip of it.

Around here, we note again that John F.
Kennedy, who, on film, even with hard Boston
accents landing like an Irish clog dancer on
words at times, still looks like a man of our
times, modern, pragmatic, inspiring and energetic.
In the intervening years, we have learned
and gotten to know all too much about JFK,
the princely president and his family, not all of
which is savory. It matters not—in all the times
we have noted and remembered his presence at
this time of the year in this publication, our lingering
sadness at his absence has not wavered.
He was in his own way a Georgetowner, in the
sense that he lived here in his young man rising
youth, his young husband years, his years
of ambition pursued and his early young father
years. In Georgetown, we felt the presence of the
youthful man dashing ahead of himself to run
for president, to woo, court and marry the young
news reporter and aristocrat Jackie. It is here we
caught him leaning on a balcony, thin and dashing
as a boy, in white-t-shirt, thick hair. Here, in
Georgetown, we can still catch our breath at a
new and old sight of him in a television still or a
magazine picture from those days.

The history that has been added on over the
past 50 years is a family history—a telling of a
clan both blessed and unduly burdened with loss
and tragedy of the most public and reverberating
kind. Watching the restored George Stevens, Jr.-
produced documentary, “Years of
Lightning,
Day of
Drums,”
and seeing
Ted,
B o b b y
and Jackie
and John
Jr. at the
f u n e r a l c e r emonies is to
note they
are, like JFK, all gone too soon.
All these memories, however, including
dark knowledge, take nothing away from the
John F. Kennedy that inspired us to action. That
day 50 years ago is a kind of dark, muddled St.
Crispin day for those of us who remember it
clearly as young men and women, just starting
out, biting back the tears. That’s especially true
in our village where he served his time of knowing
youth.

Georgetowner •

On Oct. 30, Advisory Neighborhood
Commissioner (2E) Ed Solomon chaired a
meeting at the Georgetown Holiday Inn to discuss
the impact of the Wisconsin Avenue Lane
Reconfiguration in Glover Park to Georgetown
businesses and residents.

In attendance were representatives from the
Georgetown Business Improvement District,
Georgetown Civic Association, Cloister
Homeowners Association, Burleith Citizens
Association, ANC2E, Hillandale Homeowners
Association, Georgetown University, a representative
from Councilman Jack Evan’s Office,
Hardy Middle School, the British School and
businesses along Wisconsin Avenue.

All the participants expressed concerns that
the lane changes on Wisconsin Avenue were
having a serious negative impact on the residential
and business communities. It was agreed
that ANC2E should begin a dialogue with the
Glover Park ANC to address these concerns.
Commissioner Solomon reached out to the
Glover Park ANC to begin this process.

Georgetowner •

Secretary of State John Kerry, former
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
and former first lady Laura Bush gathered at
Georgetown University Nov. 15 for “Advancing
Afghan Women: Promoting Peace and Progress
in Afghanistan.” They joined forces to speak to
an overflowing Gaston Hall about the importance
in continuing to support and assist the
advancement of Afghan women.

Clinton who, in addition to being a former
first lady and former Secretary of State, is
the U.S. Afghan Women’s Council honorary
co-chair (with Bush) and a supporter of the
Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and
Security. She spoke of the need for a society
to engage all of its members. Kerry spoke of
the many different levels of success that have
been achieved in Afghanistan since 2001, and
the terrible regression that would take place
if efforts came to a halt. “What has been
achieved is nothing less than remarkable,” he
said. “It would have been more than a tragedy
if the world ever allowed this progress to be
threatened or, worse yet, to be abandoned.”

Likewise, Bush expressed her worry that
attention would turn away from Afghanistan
and its women after the U.S. military departs
in 2014.