Posts Tagged “ANC wrap-up”
 This month’s edition of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E came with a visit from the ANC’s northerly neighbors. ANC3B and friends traveled all the way from Glover Park to defend their plan to revamp a segment of Wisconsin Avenue north of Safeway.
On Wisconsin!
The hotbed issue of last night’s meeting was a proposed construction project… that’s happening in another ward. The ANC of Glover Park has been working with the District Department of Transportation and the Office of Planning for some time to modify Wisconsin Avenue from Massachusetts Avenue down to 35th Street. The proposed construction project will widen the sidewalks, add a designated left-turn lane, and reduce the number of lanes to two going each way.
According to Brian Cohen, Chairman of ANC3B, the project has two goals. First, it will improve pedestrian safety by slowing cars down and giving pedestrians an easier time crossing the street. Both the narrowing of the road and the addition of a few lighted cross walks are in response to two pedestrian fatalities that took place on Wisconsin in Glover Park.
The second goal for the project is to reduce the visual clutter in the area. According to Cohen, making the streetscape more pedestrian-friendly will help the commercial district too.
All this is fine and dandy, but ANC2E was worried a construction project might cause (cue ominous music) cut-through traffic.
Originally, it was commissioner Bill Starrels who raised the issue, but the infamous Stephen R. Brown was the one complaining at the meeting. Read the rest of this entry »
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 Last night’s ANC2E meeting saw special guest appearances by MPD and the US Attorney General’s Office for D.C.
Crime
In addition to the regular appearance of MPD’s Lt. John Hedgecock to discuss the crime statistics of the area, Captain Jeffrey Herold came to address the events of the night of October 31. According to Herold, Halloween in Georgetown this year brought an increase in roving bands of people looking for trouble.
Herold mainly addressed the shooting at 28th and M on Halloween. Althought it is an ongoing investigation, Herold said that the victim is at George Washington University Hospital and in critical condition. He also noted that it is unlikely that the shots, as suggested by some reports, came from a passing truck—instead, the shooter was likely a pedestrian. MPD does not know at this time the relationship between the victim and the shooter or the shooter’s identity.
Herold also noted that, although MPD had an increased presense in Georgetown that night, they were not anticipating the difficulties they had with crowd control. Interestingly enough, Herold reported that the usual trouble spots for Halloween, U and 18th Streets, were quieter than normal.
In addition to the shooting, MPD made five arrests that night for robberies and recovered three weapons, including a sawed-off shotgun at the 1200 block of Wisconsin.
[Note: Vox has received multiple reports of an armed mugging that occurred on Halloween outside the front gates that resulted in the theft of a woman's laptop, phone, and wallet. A Department of Public Safety officer was called and chased after the perpetrator, but did not catch him. There was no public safety alert.]
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 Bikes-a-million
During the meeting’s open comment portion, Commissioner Tom Birch, brought up DDOT’s stalled project to install bike lanes on L and M streets in West End.
Since the project is outside of Georgetown, the ANC2E can do little other than request that DDOT continue with the project (which happens to be the same amount they could do if it were on the other side of Rock Creek Parkway).
According to resident Ken Archer, a non-cyclist supporter, Councilmember Jack Evans also supports the project.
Either way, this gives us the rare opportunity to picture Tom Birch on a bicycle.
Race-ism
The ANC heard two requests for charitable races to move through Georgetown in October.
After several minutes of intense questioning, the Commission eventually resolved in favor of a DC Road Runners race along K Street in October to benefit victims of domestic violence. Commissioner Ed Solomon admitted, “It may seem at at times that we’re against races.”
The ANC is actively trying to curb the number of races, especially those wishing to make money, enter Georgetown, and disturb residents and businesses.
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Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E (Georgetown-Burleith-Hillandale) met for its monthly meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday at Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School.
And threw it out the…
The ANC was not supportive of requests to convert the second story of a 35th Street residence into an apartment. According to Commissioner Ron Lewis, ANC 2E would not consider a resolution to support the request until after the zoning regulation amendments and Campus Plan hearings were wrapped up.
“Students living off campus is a major concern,” Lewis said. “Until those key issues are resolved, we cannot support it.”
The Citizen’s Association of Georgetown and the ANC were particularly concerned that the residence would not be owner-occupied. The owner of the property could not attend the meeting to respond to these concerns.
Random acts of burglary
Metropolitan Police Department Lt. John Hedgecock reported that violent crime in the Second District is down 50% compared to last year. However, property crime – including burglaries and bicycle thefts – has doubled this year, following a citywide trend.
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 As far as ANC 2E meetings go, last night’s was uneventful and short. The few items on the agenda pertained to the placement of gas meters, Nevils construction, and proposed condominiums at the foot of the Exorcist stairs.
Residents makes a stink about Washington Gas
According to commissioner Ron Lewis, utility company Washington Gas has not been adhering to an agreement to install all gas meters inside of Georgetown houses.
“Those gas installations have great big pipes and they’re just not appropriate for a historic community,” Lewis said. “They look like something out of an oil field.”
Both commissioner Jeff Jones and another resident stated that in their experiences with the gas company, workmen insist on external installations unless residents aggressively push for indoor meters.
Washington Gas representative Hughey Battle defended the meters’s placement, citing safety concerns for workers and residents.
“When they can’t put in the special equipment, they’ll put it outside,” he said.
Battle’s colleague defended the company and informed the commission that the 2001 agreement only applied to the commercial area around M Street, although a later agreement was reached that extended the ban to all of Georgetown.
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Concessions are not good enough
In an unsurprising move, the ANC found the University’s recent concessions to the community insufficient and made no amendment to their recommendations [PDF] passed in their Feb 28th meeting. Commissioner Ron Lewis claimed the “concessions” did not address their complaints.
“The feeling appears to be similar so we will not change our findings and recommendations,” he said.
Resident jealous of trees in other wards
In the open comment section of the meeting, resident Ann Goodman objected to the wrought iron tree protectors lining Georgetown streets. According to her, they were not 18 inches away from the curb and thus prone to collision with cars.
“My biggest issue is that they’re really kind of tacky looking,” Goodman pointed out.
To boot, Goodman pointed out that other parts of the city had nicer looking tree fixings: you know, the ones with the little rings on top, which are way cuter.
“Why do they get cheap on Georgetown?” she said. “We’re probably paying for them.”
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The majority of attendees at this month’s ANC2E meeting came to show their opposition/support of the GU 2010-2020 Campus Plan. The neighbors made a large show by handing out their signature buttons at the door; the decorations on the front gate reminded passers-by that these are not GU’s dorms, and DC Students Speak representatives came to accuse the residents of Ward 2 of discrimination.
Everything old is … still old
To kick-off the bickering, Commissioner Ron Lewis announced, “Tonight is not a night for input.” He recognized four parties to summarize stances before the Commission would vote on their resolution [PDF]: the University, the Burleith Citizens Association, the Citizens Association of Georgetown, and a student advocacy group whose name he couldn’t remember (DC Students Speak).
Vice President for External Relations Linda Greenan took the floor on behalf of the University.
“We’re disappointed we could not come to an agreement,” she said. Calling the plan modest, citing the enrollment cap, undergraduate counting methods, the loop road, and the 1789 block as examples of the university’s inclusion of community input,
Greenan added, “Our students have a right to live in the community.”
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 Compared to the Campus-Plan-a-thon two weeks ago, last night’s ANC meeting was relatively tame. And short.
Surprisingly, this meeting made little mention of the quickly cloying Campus Plan or the ANC’s last session, which, it must be noted, Commissioner Ron Lewis called “very inclusive.” The commission will adopt a formal position on the matter at either their February 28 or April 4 meeting, according to their agenda.
So this is how liberty dies, with smug looks from several ANC commissioners
To remedy the scourge of after-hours noise in D.C., Lt. Hedgecock announced a new amendment to the far-reaching “Disorderly Conduct Law” to make “unreasonably loud noises between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. that are likely to disturb one or more persons in their residencies” an arrestable offense.
“There’s a problem with noise in Georgetown,” he joked, “Anybody agree?”
He went further to explain the capacity of police officers under this new provision: “If they deem it likely to affect or annoy someone, they can affect an arrest. […] The breach of peace does not have to occur.” The potential punishments include up to 90 days in jail and a $500 fine.
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