M Street Water Main Work at Key Bridge Nears Finish

November 28, 2012

For some residents of 35th, M and Prospect Streets, the news that D.C. Water’s Large Valve Replacement Project on M Street should be com- pleted by Dec. 15 is most welcome, especially the pounding sounds at 2 a.m. about two weeks ago. Ditto for drivers along M Street moving over the street plates.

“We are planning to install the valve on Dec. 7,” Mohammad Huq, D.C. Water project man- ager, Department of Engineering and Technical Services, told the Georgetowner. “It is expected that the work will be completed by Dec. 15.”

The water main work is part of a “Capital Improvement Program to improve the water system infrastructure. These efforts will improve water quality and system reliability, increase water pressure in some areas, and maintain ade- quate flows throughout the system,” says D.C. Water, also known as the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority. The work was scheduled to be completed during the summer but took longer because of added joint seal work so that the street would not be dug up again so soon

29th Street Canal Bridge Completed


You can now drive on 29th Street between K and M Streets. D.C. Department of Transportation’s Three Bridges Project — begun in August 2009 ¬– has been completed.

The bridge over the C&O Canal along 29th Street was the third and last bridge replaced during the more-than-three-year job, which also replaced bridges over the canal at 30th and Thomas Jefferson Streets.

According to D.C.DOT’s Three Bridges’ website, “Monitoring of the canal walls and adjacent buildings is required for the duration of the project. Minor wall maintenance is included in the work as is roadway reconstruction work to tie into and transition the existing roadways and sidewalks into the new proposed bridges. Each bridge crossing includes extensive utility relocation and upgrade work involving water, electric, phone, and gas lines that will be coordinated with the respective utility companies.”

Comcast Boxes Slammed; Cable Giant Agrees to Listen

November 15, 2012

Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E complained about the small utility boxes pop- ping up around Georgetown of late, and the installer Comcast was taken aback, thinking it had full approval for the boxes’ installation.

“This business is coming into our community and just making an aesthetic wreck of what we try to preserve in the historic district,” said commissioner Tom Birch of the small refrigera- tor-sized boxes on the sidewalks.

“We were not aware of additional require- ments,” said Aimee Metrick, spokesperson for Comcast , which has agreed to go through the design review process. Designs in public space are to be reviewed by the Old Georgetown Board, part of the Commission of Fine Arts.

“We’re hoping that this project will now go into the review process, as it should have in the first place,” Birch told the entertainment news site, TheWrap, which added, “Birch said a review would consider whether the boxes could be moved to rooftops or other alternative locations.”

“I’ve got a neighbor who has one right in front of his house now, and I don’t know what that’s going to do to real estate values,” Birch told the news site. “There’s some piece of street furniture out there that wasn’t there for the last 250 years.”

2 Students Elected to ANC2E


For the first time in 10 years, two students from Georgetown University will sit on Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E, which expanded to single-member districts and eight commissioners after D.C. redistricting. Peter Prindiville leads single-member district 2E08, which includes two blocks between 36th and 37th Streets and between Prospect and O Streets and on the university’s main campus: Nevils, Alumni Square, Copley Hall, Harbin Hall, Village C East and Henle Village. For district 2E04, Craig Cassey will represent Village C West, New South Hall, Southwest Quadrangle, Village A and the Jesuit Residence. Both commissioners ran unopposed.

ANC Report: Crime, Traffic and Runs

November 9, 2012

Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 2E held its monthly meeting for May at Georgetown Visitation Prep April 30.

The two Sunday armed robberies at Five Guys and near Serendipity 3 were noted by commissioner Ed Solomon, who advised once again all to be alert and lock up. [See news story below.]

Commissioner Jeff Jones, the ANC lead on the O and P Street Project, said its completion date is Aug. 24 with fill-in work for trees to continue.

The District transportation department’s Paul Hoffman gave an update on Glover Park’s Wisconsin Avenue make-over with concerns expressed about traffic and safety. (Expect more on this project.)

Dates were approved for Bike DC on May 13, National Triathlon on Sept. 9, the Best Buddies Challenge on Oct. 20 and the Marine Corps Marathon on Oct. 28. Also noted was the new date for the Taste of Georgetown: June 2. [See “Business Ins & Outs.”]

Commissioners also expressed their wor- ries about too much development at Williams-Addison House at 1645 31st Street to architect Dale Overmeyer, who assured them that new plans would keep the mansion a single-family home. The issue will go before the Old Georgetown Board. [gallery ids="100763,123206,123203" nav="thumbs"]

News BuzzNovember 1, 2012

November 1, 2012

**Get Ready for Flooding
Along the Potomac**

As Georgetown and other D.C. neighborhoods
cleaned up after Hurricane Sandy, dodging
a major hit compared to New Jersey and
New York, flooding along the Potomac River is
the next worry. Especially for Georgetowners,
the riverside complex, Washington Harbour,
is on their minds, as they recall the April 2011
flood there.

The Potomac was predicted to overflow its
banks and flood by late Oct. 30, according to the
National Weather Service. It advised that ?residents
and businesses along the Potomac River in
. . . Washington should prepare for a flood not
seen since the floods of 1996.?

Citing Little Falls as a point of reference, the
Weather Service predicted flooding at 10 feet
and continuing to 15 feet in the early hours of
Nov. 1. The waters should recede to nine feet by
Nov. 2, according to the NWS.

**The Barber of Georgetown:
Rigo Landa to Retire**

Rigo Landa of Georgetown Hairstyling, the
classic, old-school barber shop at 1329 35th St.,
NW, will officially retire Nov. 8. Landa, who
began working at the barber shop in 1968 and
bought it from two brothers who owned and
operated it, has sold it to his stepson Ed Lara,
who previously worked in the airline industry
and also is a guitarist. Rigo, who has traveled all over the world, was born in Cuba and will hold
on to his barber?s license for now ? in case Ed
needs an extra day?s work for himself, Veronica
or Nguyen.

**Doc?s Georgetown Pharmacy
To Become a 7-Eleven**

We know our former publisher Dave Roffman
will not like this news flash one bit.

According to Carol Joynt and CarolJoynt.
com, the retail space once known as the
Georgetown Pharmacy, which closed years ago
to become a clothing store and then an art and
decor store, is set to become a convenience store,
i.e., a 7-Eleven. The closed store is at the corner
of Wisconsin Avenue and O Street.

?My source on this is
next to golden, and so I?m
going with it,? Joynt writes.
?Apparently, the Donohue
family has done a deal to
lease its building at Wisconsin
and O to the 7-Eleven chain.
Work already has begun on
the interior. Everyone seems
to like to look for signs that
Georgetown?s charm is a
thing of the past, and this latest
development will probably
be included on that list, along
with reports of a TJ Maxx,
Target and a bowling alley at
Georgetown Park mall, and the
new mega Nike store on M
Street. But, the times they are a changin?.?

The Georgetown Pharmacy was run and
owned by Harry Alexander ?Doc? Dalinksy, who
was a Georgetown institution with customers
that included senators, judges and journalists.
His Sunday brunch, provided by the Georgetown
Inn, was frequented by the likes of Ben Bradlee,
David Brinkley and Art Buchwald, as seen in a
classic Fred Maroon photo.

**Comedy Legend Carl Reiner
Gets His Georgetown Degree**

Comedian, writer and director Carl Reiner
? who received the Kennedy Center?s Mark
Twain Prize for American Humor in 2000 ? was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Oct. 23 at the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills, Calif. Reiner studied at Georgetown?s School of Foreign Service in 1943 after joining the Army during World War II.

?Today, Georgetown University delights to honor the director of ?The Jerk,? the father of Meathead and Betty White?s on-screen boyfriend,? the university?s Bernard Cook said. ?Actor, writer, producer, wit, Carl Reiner is a renaissance man whose seven-decade career spans the history of television and the maturity of feature film.? Reiner is also known for his creation of the 1960s television series, ?The Dick Van Dyke Show.?

Reiner says his ?biggest triumph? as a comedian was when he impersonated his professors in a Christmas show he was asked to put on in Georgetown?s Gaston Hall, according to the university. ?This evening I will never forget,? he told Cook. ?There we were ? Gaston Hall was packed with soldiers, the balcony was filled with the Jesuit fathers, the priests and the lay teachers.? The comedian even impersonated the stern mannerisms of Rev. Edmund Walsh, S.J., after whom the university?s foreign service school is named.

Reiner recalled his days in D.C. fondly. After all, he also met and married his wife Estelle while in Georgetown. ?

Annie Creamcheese Leaves for L.A.

October 17, 2012

After seven years, Annie Creamcheese, the vintage clothing store at 3279 M St., N.W., has closed and is moving to Los Angeles. Owner Garrett Bauman, who resides in Las Vegas but is originally from Bethesda could not reached for comment at presstime The sign on the shop window thanked Washington and announced the store would open in L.A.’s Westwood neighborhood, near U.C.L.A. There is also an Annie Creamcheese, originally named for Bauman’s girlfriend at the time in 2004, in Las Vegas.

News Buzz: Ice Rink, Obamas, Jazz at EvermayOctober 17, 2012


**Ice Rink Ready Before Thanksgiving**

After inaugurating and showing off its newly re-worked fountains with water spouts,
Washington Harbour has shut it down and begun the seasonal conversion of the elliptical space into an ice rink?to be ready for skaters before Nov. 22.

According to Washington Harbour?s owner MRP Realty, ?The 11,800-square-foot
Washington Harbour Ice Rink?larger than the rinks at Rockefeller Center in New York City or the National Gallery of Art?s Sculpture Garden in Washington?will be ready to welcome its first skaters before Thanksgiving. In addition to offering open skating, discounts to college students and the opportunity to skate with Santa Claus, the rink will accommodate parties and special events, such as birthdays, family gatherings and
corporate events.?

Hours of operation for the ice rink will be noon to 9 p.m., Monday through Thursday; noon to 10 p.m., Friday; 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday; and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Sunday. Admission is $9 for adults, or $7 for children, seniors and mili-
tary. Skate rental is $5, and skating lessons are
available.

**West Heating Plant: Oct. 25 Meeting; Auction Next Month**

Property hunters can now learn more about taking part in the upcoming auction of the
Georgetown Heating Plant at a meeting on Oct. 25. Jones, Lang, LaSalle is marketing the federal property, owned by the General Services Administration.

The meeting will be at the main auditorium of the GSA National Headquarters Building, located at 1800 F Street, N.W. Registration will begin at 8:30 a.m. The building will be open for site tours from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Speakers at the meeting include Bill Dowd, the Acting Regional Commissioner for GSA. Tim Sheckler, the Director of GSA Real Property Utilization and Disposal Division for the National Capital Region, will also be speaking, as well as a representative of the District of Columbia Office of Planning.

Topics to be discussed at the meeting are the acquisition, the GSA online auction and the
terms of the sale. Neighbors, local groups and Ward 2 councilman Jack Evans have called for use of the included open space that part of the
sale to be set aside as parkland for public use.
The West Heating Plant is at 1051 29th Street, next to the C&O Canal and north of K Street NW. Built in 1948, it was used as a steam generating plant for federal building until 2000. The opening and closing dates, minimum bid and bid increments for the sale have yet to be set. The site is scheduled to go to auction in November.

**D.C. Jazz Fest, S&R Team Up for Performances at Evermay**

The D.C. Jazz Festival and the S&R Foundation have partnered to host the DCJF Annual Trustee Reception on Nov. 14.

The reception, including a performance entitled Jazz Meets the Latin Classics, will feature legendary musician, 10-time Grammy Award-winner and National Medal of the Arts recipient Paquito D?Rivera and his Latin jazz trio. DCJF and the S&R Foundation will also jointly host jazz performances by Yotam Silberstein on Nov. 2 and Cyrus Chestnut on Nov. 9 as part of the Overtures Holiday Concert Series. The events will be held at the Evermay Estate, the S&R Foundation?s headquarters. For his Jazz Meets the Latin Classics performance, D?Rivera will perform alongside the extraordinary Yotam Silberstein and Alex Brown. D?Rivera will bring his unparalleled virtuosity to the DCJF Annual Trustee Reception to celebrate the rich tradition of jazz in the nation?s capital.

?A great jazz performance energizes the spirit and stirs the soul,? said Sachiko Kuno, president of the S&R Foundation. ?The S&R Foundation is delighted to collaborate with the D.C. Jazz Festival for what promises to be three spectacular evenings of jazz.? Tickets to the first two performances of the Inaugural Overtures Holiday Concert Series can be purchased for $50 at www.OverturesSeries.org, and include refreshments and on-site valet parking.

**Obamas Celebrate 20th Wedding Anniversary at Bourbon Steak**

The Obamas — the president and the first lady ? celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary at Bourbon Steak Restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue Oct. 6. Because of his debate with Mitt Romney, President Barack Obama had missed the true date of the nuptials, Oct. 3. Chef Adam Sobel was happy to serve the first couple and tweeted an image of the menu ? which included
potato blintz with fried quail egg, creme fraiche and oscetra caviar, Chesapeake rockfish crudo with apple, radish onion, seared diver scallop with cauliflower tempura, risotto, and sweet potato soup with cabbage, seared foi gras and maple syrup. He later deleted that tweeted photo of the menu. The president gave Sobel a box of Presidential M&M?s; the press was kept across the street at at Le Pain Quotidien; the Obamas? waiter thanked the president for keeping his mother alive with Obamacare (it is not yet fully
operational).

**DDOT, GGW Host Live Chat on Parking**

The District Department of Transportation and Greater Greater Washington will host an online live chat at noon, Oct. 18, to solicit public input on the future of parking in the District. To date DDOT has held a series of a series of community conversations, called Parking Think Tanks, to gauge the state of parking and solicit public input on parking in the District. This live chat will offer an additional opportunity for anyone who visits, lives or works in the District to provide their input on parking. The comments received from the public will help shape future parking policies and programs to create a more efficient use of parking resources.

Following the Parking Think Tanks and the live chat, DDOT will host a public summit to report on the input received from the public; how the input may potentially shape the outcome of comprehensive curbside parking management plan; and the agency?s next steps. Additional information about this summit will be posted online at ddot.dc.gov/ParkingThinkTanks.

**COMMUNITY CALENDAR**

Oct. 25, 7 p.m. ?Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy: lecture by Judith Tankard on her book, ?Beatrix Farrand: Private Gardens, Public Landscapes.? Georgetown Public Library, 3260 R St., N.W.

Oct. 26, 7 p.m. ?Georgetown Gala: Putting on the Glitz; Citizens Association of Georgetown. Embassy of the Russian Federation, 2650 Wisconsin Ave., N.W.

Oct. 27, 10 a.m. ?Georgetown Public Safety Meeting, at Georgetown Safeway Cafe, sponsored by Citizens Association of Georgetown. Discuss safety and crime issues with Officer Atkins; bike registration demonstration.

Oct. 29, 6:30 p.m. ? ANC2E Monthly Meeting. Georgetown Visitation Prep, 35th Street. Halloween Happenings Georgetown Theatre Company will read poetry and short stories by the master of macabre, Edgar Allan Poe. A ?horrors d?oeuvre? reception will follow the reading, and a supernatural surprise is guaranteed. A $10 donation to
the Georgetown Theatre Company is requested. Oct. 27, 8 p.m. Grace Episcopal Church, 1041 Wisconsin Ave, NW.

**HALLOWEEN HAPPENINGS**

Paul Bakery has taken a different spin on Jack-O-Lantern making. They?ll be carving bread rather than pumpkins, and they invite you to join them at their Georgetown Bakery and Caf?. Cost is $15 per person; this includes a large pumpkins shaped loaf of bread, a stencil to carve a design, and a drink and treat. To reserve a spot email paulb03@paul-usa.com. Oct. 22 and Oct. 29, 10 a.m. to noon, 1078 Wisconsin
Ave., NW.

Smith Point will have its 11th annual Halloween celebration, featuring two options for open bars. From 9:30 p.m. through 12:30 a.m. the open bar will be $40, and from 11:30 p.m. through 12:30 p.m. it will be $20. Costumes encouraged, and tickets are first come first serve at the door. Oct 30, 9:30 p.m., 1338 Wisconsin Ave., NW.

Many families will be gathering in Glover Park for a Halloween parade. The event will begin at Stoddert Elementary School and will go down 39th Place, left on Benton Street down to 39th Street, Oct. 31, 4:45 p.m. Thunder Burger & Bar will celebrate Halloween with a costume contest. Prizes for Best Male Costume and Best Female costume will be awarded ? each will win a $50 Thunder Burger & Bat gift certificate. Oct. 31, 10 p.m., 3056 M St., NW.

The Georgetowner’s 58th Anniversary

October 5, 2012

I wrote my first story—at the request of then publisher David Roffman—for the Georgetowner in 1980, a kind of long (what else is new), discursive piece on Ted Kennedy’s run for the presidency, a train wreck of monumental proportions, right up until the moment at the 1980 Democratic National Convention when the senator redeemed himself with a stirring speech that laid out his liberal principles like the party’s gift to the nation.

That means some 32 years have passed, and here I am, still writing, and here we are, in the middle of a particularly disheartening presidential campaign, where principles are as hard to find as a Republican moderate who admits to being one.

A lot has changed in the landscape and streetscape, the nightlife-scape, the business-scape of Georgetown, which remains what this publication is about. Needless to say, I have changed—ask my doctor or anybody who hasn’t seen me in a while. On occasions like these—anniversaries and the remembrance that goes with them—we tend to forget or note what’s going on in front of us. I don’t spend as much time in Georgetown as I might and like, but the differences are notable from my own observations, and from those that appear in our publication.

We talk a lot in Georgetown who was who which tends to identify the village—it’s a historic district after all, and maybe that fact alone, which makes it very difficult to dramatically change the physical look of homes and buildings and tends to make people talk a little too reverentially about his place. Let’s face it: yes, the young senator Kennedy (John Fitzgerald) lived here for a time, but he had not yet made the connection to Camelot, and the Georgetown University is a lodestone of history and training ground for diplomats and government leaders, and yes, it’s expensive to live here, in terms of real estate and a host of other things. Yes, Georgetown is a special place, it’s famous, historic, grand with some grandees who live or have lived here, but it hardly bears the stamp of elitism, as some people would still have it.

In fact, when I went to one of the CAG sponsored summer concerts at Volta Park this year, I was energized by the buzz there, the squeals of children, the bustle of young families, dogs running around, kids chasing kids, parents keeping a wary eye on them. I noticed the presence of new village leaders in the ranks of the Citizen Association, the realtors and merchants on site, people I did not know personally, but people full of enthusiasm. Gone, it seems are the rancorous old days of pitched cultural and political battles among CAG and ANC factions, and relations between commerce and residential interests seem good, although town and gown, not as much as one might like. All of this will change immediately when the Hoyas once again return to the NCAA basketball finals, as they did in the 1980s with John Thompson and Patrick Ewing.

The past is a great place to live in—the whole city is pockmarked with landmarks and statues and monuments and notes about where Abraham Lincoln walked, George Washington slept or had a beer on his way, where so and so fought duels and everyone remembers the face of Robert Frost at JFK’s inauguration. Every neighborhood in Washington has its share of historic places and moments and Georgetown has more than its share than most. In my neighborhood at Lanier Heights, long-time neighbors tell tales of the FBI running across rooftops chasing members of the SDS in the halcyon 1960s. So it goes.

Georgetown is a great place to live if you like to breathe in history deeply, if you have some means, if you appreciate the unique nature of the place. These days, it’s full of entrepreneurs and technology leaders. Mansions change hands, while history makers remain with us as ghosts or occupants of the rarefied grounds of Oak Hill Cemetery.

Our publication, which has changed hands only twice under three publishers is to me and those of us who, to put into the words of Captain Jean Luc Picard, make it so, like a tall chair, a vantage point where we watch, comment, write about, and document the village and city parades as they go by. The emphasis changes or becomes enlarged, but never diminished—the parade as always has presidents, neighbors, musicians, cultural mavens, grand dames, and plain dames, people who engineered startups with a little help and a lot of imagination. In Georgetown, you can see what small businesses are: they make things like fine clothes, leather jackets, cupcakes and pies, they sell things and they let you sit down for breakfast or dinner in a place they filled with their personalities, which is why we remember them. They are also: publishers and writers, editors, and the people who answer the phone and give you information or call you to twist your arm for advertisements. That would be us, since 1954, and we change, too but remain at your service.

In addition to our biweekly print publication, the Georgetowner has published an email newsletter every Monday and Thursday for almost two years. The newsletter has been a great source for up-to-date news and views on life in Georgetown and beyond. Sign up for the newsletter at www.georgetowner.com.

Tip to Police Led to Arrests on the Street

October 3, 2012

An anonymous telephone tip to the Metropolitan Police Department led to four arrests on Sept. 17, said Lt. John Hedgecock in his police report to the Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC2E) Oct. 1 meeting. First reported as a car-jacking, the police chase resulted in a car crash at Wisconsin Avenue and Q Street, NW with four suspects fleeing but soon captured. The call alerted MPD to a slow-moving car near the 3900 block of W Street, NW. When police drove near the car in question it drove off erratically with the resulting crash down Wisconsin Avenue. In the suspects’ car, there was evidence of property from a burglary. Hedgecock reminded all that it was the tip that made the difference. The police would not have known. He added: “If you see something, say something.”

Hedgecock also reported a 37-percent decrease in violent crime in the area over the same period (Jan. 1 to Sept. 30) from last year. During that same 2012 time frame, only three robberies involved firearms, he said.