Town Topics

Georgetowner • April 18, 2012

The D.C. Taxicab Commission approved a fare hike of 44 percent, effective for most cabs in the city. The per-mile fare will go from $1.50 to $2.16, and the cost for idling will go from $15 to $25 per hour. The purpose of the increase is to bring cab revenues more in line with past fares, when a zone system was used as opposed to the present meter system.

Taxicab commission chairman Ron Linton told the Washington Post that the fare hike will take effect April 21, “but not all cabs will begin charging the new fares right away. Some will need to get their meters recalibrated.”

Georgetowner •

The D.C. Zoning Commission approved a 60-day extension for comments for Georgetown University’s 2010-2020 Campus Plan.

Now in private discussions, local residents with university representatives asked for the extension, which now allows for testimony on the plan to be filed in the middle of June.

“We hope to come to some compromises on what the community needs and what the university needs,” Jennifer Altemus, president of the Citizens Association of Georgetown, told the campus newspaper, the Hoya. “I think both of our sides are very clear on what we’ve been wanting out of the process, and hopefully if we work together we can make that happen. [Private meetings] haven’t been successful in the past, but we haven’t given up trying.”

Georgetowner •

But, wait, there’s more . . . to see besides Georgetowners’ homes . . . like their gardens. The annual Georgetown Garden Tour of eight private gardens is set for Saturday, May 5, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Each garden presents a unique perspective on designing precious outdoor space in this historic neighborhood. The 2012 tour includes the magnificent gardens of the Bowie-Sevier house on Q Street as well as several other gardens, both intimate and grand.

Tickets are $30 before April 28 at www.georgetowngardentour.com. Tickets may also be purchased by mail: Georgetown Garden Tour 2012, 3313 P Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20007 or by phone: 202-965-1950. Tour tickets are available at $35 the day of the event at any of the gardens or at Keith Hall, Christ Church, 3116 O Street, N.W.. A tea for ticket holders takes place from 2 to 4 p.m. at Keith Hall.

The Garden Tour is sponsored by the Georgetown Garden Club to benefit local organizations, with emphasis on the preservation of gardens, parks and green spaces. Past beneficiaries have included Book Hill Park, the Student Conservation Association at Montrose Park, Trees for Georgetown, Tudor Place gardens, the rose garden at Montrose Park, Rose Park and the Volta Park Habitat Garden.

Georgetowner • April 17, 2012

On April 16, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act. His signature 150 years ago freed 3,100 slaves within the nation’s capital and pushed forward the arc of freedom for all African-Americans. It is still felt to this day — especially this past week with D.C.’s sesquicentennial celebrations all around town.

Many of us began with a walk around the monuments at the National Mall, especially those of Lincoln and King, went to Frederick Douglass’s home in Anacostia, Lincoln’s Cottage at the Old Soldiers’ Home, and concerts at Lincoln Theatre. On the holiday itself, many enjoyed a parade, speeches and fireworks at Freedom Plaza. There was a brunch at the Hamilton Restaurant and a party at Lincoln Restaurant. Many in the District government have been pushing for making the holiday bigger, especially Councilmember Vincent Orange. They deserve our thanks.

At Georgetown University, a April 17 commemorative program instructed on the history of blacks, Union soldiers and contraband camps near D.C. If the federals seized slaves as wartime contraband, they had the start of a chance for freedom. We have mostly forgotten such details, and even that of the nearby university’s landmark tower, seen for miles around. It is named for Rev. Patrick Healy, S.J., Georgetown’s president in the 1870s, born of a bi-racial slave and Irish father. The young Healy would have been considered a slave except that his father send him north for his schooling.

These are stories that need to be re-told. We need to sing the African-American hymns anew as well. At one Sunday event, a black preacher said that some of us need to “break the bondage of slavery in our minds.” We have heard that before but it needs to be said again.

“We got to figure out ways to own this emancipation,” said Rev. Raymond Kemp, moderator of the Georgetown commemoration, where Mayor Vincent Gray also spoke. To that and all the other salutes to struggle and freedom, we say, “Amen.”

Georgetowner • April 5, 2012

Could there be peace in our time? In the April 2 meeting of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E, a joint statement by neighborhood groups and Georgetown University asked the D.C. Zoning Commission to delay the deadline for filings on the university’s 2010-2020 Campus Plan process by 60 days.

Members of the Citizens Association of Georgetown, the Burleith Citizens Association and the ANC, all of which oppose the university’s expansion plans, and representatives from the university stood up at the meeting to affirm the surprising announcement. As it stands now, the university’s deadline for submissions is April 12, and neighborhood groups have until April 19 to respond.  If the zoning panel agrees to the request for delay, the submission and response dates will change to June 11 and June 18, respectively.

Only several weeks ago, Jennifer Altemus, CAG president, as well as student leaders and others on the university side, was lamenting the delayed decision by the zoning board.

Why the 180-degree turn? ANC chair Ron Lewis said that the delay was requested so that “we can explore the possibility of reaching common ground in our talks about the campus plan. . . We’re giving a somewhat different report than we had expected.”

“This approach reflects our continued efforts to seek common ground and to engage with city and neighborhood leaders,” wrote Rachel Pugh, director of media relations for the university, in an email. “Joining with our neighbors in requesting an extension is a meaningful sign of progress in a long process.”

Major sticking points between the parties, such as the demand that students be housed on campus by 2016, remain. But some persons in the process seem to be taking zoning commissioner Anthony Hood’s advice in February that residents and university officials meet more continually to resolve any issues affecting the neighborhood. At an earlier ANC meeting, Mayor Vincent Gray spoke of the town-gown tension and said he believed that common ground would be reached. Whether this small measure of unity displayed at the April 2 ANC meeting leads to a sea charge by which neighborhood and university leaders collaborate is anyone’s guess.

At the same meeting, the ANC voted unanimously to oppose the redrawn designs for the university’s planned Athletic Training Facility.

Georgetown’s Jack the Bulldog to Welcome Puppy Mascot-in-Training, April 13

Georgetown University’s Jack the Bulldog  is going to have to start making room on the couch and especially on the bleachers, because a bulldog puppy will arrive April 13 on campus to be trained by the boss, the veteran, the main four-legged mascot. The new guy, “Jack Jr.,” or “J.J.” for short, is a gift from Janice and Marcus Hochstetler, bulldog breeders in California, who have two children at Georgetown. This is their way, they say, of thanking the university for the education their children are receiving.

Jack recently injured his left rear leg and is expected to have surgery this month. He will be returning this fall to continue rooting on the athletes and begin teaching J.J. what it means to be a Hoya. “Jack’s presence will provide important support to J.J. since the older dog is already comfortable with his life as a mascot at Georgetown,” says Rev. Christopher Steck, S.J., associate professor in theology. “J.J. will be looking for signals from Jack, and Jack’s enthusiasm in different environments will encourage J.J.’s own.”

According to the American Kennel Club, Jack ranks 8th among 125 of the most famous dogs in pop culture. He spends his time cheering at Georgetown games (Hoyas say he is often seen attacking and eating cardboard boxes with the opposing team’s logo on them), or resting in the lobby of the Jesuit Residence before heading home to his New South apartment that he shares with Steck. 

The Washington Post reported that the new addition is not a replacement for 9-year-old Jack. J.J. was planning on moving across country since he was born in December. Steck tweeted last Friday, March 30, “Really excited about the new puppy, and just to be clear, Jack is NOT retired.”

Join Jack and J.J. for a special welcome event at Healy Circle, 4 p.m. on Friday, April 13, when Steck returns to campus with the little guy from San Diego. Meanwhile, check the university website which will map the puppy’s travels across America to his destination in D.C.

Library’s McCoy Earns Historic Preservation Award; Tale of 2007 Fire in the Comics

Jerry McCoy, special collections librarian, Washingtoniana Division of the D.C. Pubic Library, will receive an individual award from the Historic Preservation Office of the D.C. Office of Planning which chose the Georgetown Neighborhood Library project for the 2012 District of Columbia Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation. The ceremony will be held June 21. 

McCoy is well known in Georgetown for heading up the Peabody Room at the R Street public library. It suffered extensive from an April 2007 fire. Nevertheless, firefighters and staff saved 95 percent of its historic collection, including the beloved portrait of Yarrow Mamout, a early 19th-century Georgetowner who emigrated from West Africa and a popular resident at the time. (Today, the library stands fully reconstructed.)

That story was re-told in the Washington Post’s March 25 comics sections in the “Flashbacks” comic-strip. “I thought the denoument of the Yarrow story featuring the Peabody Room’s portrait and its rescue from the fire was pretty spectacular,” McCoy said.

Georgetowner •

The District Department of Transportation and the National Park Service announced last month that the first Capital Bikeshare stations have been installed on the National Mall. Two stations were installed just days before the start of the National Cherry Blossom Festival. The new stations are located at Ohio Drive and West Basin Drive, SW near the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial; and on Jefferson Drive between 14th and 15th Streets, SW, close to the Washington Monument.
 
“We are delighted to offer Capital Bikeshare to our residents and visitors as they traverse the historic landmarks and monuments on the National Mall,” said Mayor Vincent C. Gray. “We strongly believe that a Capital Bikeshare presence on the Mall will promote greater use of bicycling and other sustainable transportation options throughout the five week festival and beyond.” 
 
The new stations are the first of five Capital Bikeshare stations planned for the Mall and they will remain in place after the Cherry Blossom Festival.

Georgetowner •

Notice those black and steel interwoven figures dominating the median of New York Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets? They’re the second installation of the New York Avenue Sculpture Project www.downtowndc.org/go/new-york-avenue-sculpture-project by international sculptor, Chakaia Booker, who unveiled them last month on International Women’s Day, more than two years after the National Museum of Women in the Arts www.downtowndc.org/go/national-museum-of-women-in-the-arts (1250 New York Avenue) teamed with the D.C. Office of Planning and other agencies to begin work on featuring changing installations of works by contemporary, world-class women artists.

New York-based Booker works almost exclusively with recycled tires that are cut, shaped and folded, then woven into large-scale expressive works fusing ecological concerns with explorations of racial and economic differences, globalization and gender. The art project has changed the look of New York Avenue, one of Downtown’s major boulevards.

Georgetowner •

The Urban Land Institute issued its final report on a proposed plan for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library www.downtowndc.org/go/king-library (901 G Street) last month, setting the stage for the 40-year-old historic landmark to begin an in-depth analysis to determine the feasibility and cost of implementing the report’s recommended scenarios. Although an analysis of the city’s central library will begin next month, its fate has been discussed for years, particularly as Downtown has become more vibrant and property values have soared.

ULI presented preliminary details of its finding to help guide city leaders and residents in deciding the 400,000 gross-square-foot building and MLK Library’s future in November. The three scenarios for consideration include keeping the existing building as a library and lease excess space to another commercial, non-profit or municipal entity, maintaining the existing building for the library’s complete use and selling the building and identify another downtown location for the central library.

The Freelon Group, a nationally recognized architectural firm and the library’s architect-of-record, will examine how the library can be reconfigured for co-tenancy, add two additional floors, and identify, prioritize and provide cost estimates for needed major improvements. In addition, the library will work with the D.C. Office of Planning to explore whether there are viable, alternative locations in downtown that can accommodate a 225,000 SF central library.

Georgetowner •

More dining options are making their way into Downtown. First on the house-cured, hand-carved meat front: the Carving Room (300 Massachusetts Avenue) and Red Apron Butchery (709 D Street) plan to debut this summer and fall, respectively. The Carving Room sandwich shop will open in the Mass Court apartment building to occupy space once reserved for Caldo, the Italian restaurant which decided to set up shop elsewhere. Besides serving lunch and dinner, it will feature an open kitchen, seating for 65 and a sidewalk café with 50 seats. Red Apron, a fixture at local farmers’ markets, will occupy 3,600 square feet of space and serve up all-natural, hormone-free lamb, beef and poultry. Known for its artisanal charcuterie, salumi, sausages, hot dogs and other fare, the butchery will also serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. The Protein Bar, the Chicago-based high protein food and drink eatery, is also coming, and will reside in the Market Square North building (701 Pennsylvania Avenue). Expect to see blended drinks, salads, chicken and vegetarian chili, and “bar-ritos” (made of warm organic quinoa and whole wheat wraps, instead of rice and flour tortilla) on the menu.

Finally, those of you awaiting Freshii’s (555 11th Street) arrival, it’s here. The fast casual franchise that sells customized salads, wraps, burritos, and other healthy fare opened last month, in space once occupied by Gifford’s Ice Cream & Candy Co.

Georgetowner •

Two years after purchasing the YWCA building (624 9th Street) for $21 million, MRP Realty and Rockpoint Group LLC plan to demolish the 93,553-square-foot structure this summer, thus ditching original plans to extensively renovate it and add 9,000 SF. In its place, they will construct a 112,000 LEED GOLD certified building on a speculative basis. The new office building will have a mostly glass façade, about 6,500 SF of ground-floor retail space and a new address, 900 G Street. The existing Class B building is located across from the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library www.downtowndc.org/go/king-library (901 G Street) and adjacent to the Mather Studios condominium. Akridge (601 13th Street) developed it in 1981 to house the YWCA offices and activity centers, including a first-floor pool.