Last night, the National Park Service, Friends of Georgetown Waterfront Park, District of Columbia officials, and about 100 others gathered to celebrate the completion of Georgetown Waterfront Park. The newly completed park, which took $24 million and a couple decades to complete, includes a pergola and a river stair, which allows people to view the river and regattas from the shoreline. And there’s a giant fountain (which children were already playing in).

The first part of the park was completed in 2008, but debris and tons of concrete, which were once the floor of the Capital Traction Co. powerhouse, had to be trucked off the land before construction could continue in 2010.

The ceremony, emceed by Rock Creek Park superintendent Tara Morrision, featured President of Friends of Georgetown Waterfront Park Bob vom Eigen, Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans, and NPS Regional Director National Capital Region Peggy O’Dell as speakers.

“Look at this place,” said CM Evans. “This is a beautiful place for people from all over the city to enjoy.”

Additionally, Sharon Percy Rockefeller, President and CEO of WETA, wife of Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia and daughter of former Senator Charles H. Percy of Illinois, spoke on her father’s behalf. (Sen. Percy is gravely ill at Sibley Hospital and could not attend the event.) Sen. Percy chaired the Georgetown Waterfront Park Commission in the 1990s, which worked alongside the Citizens Association of Georgetown and the National Park Service. A plaque commemorating his service was unveiled by the water’s edge.

ANC Commissioners Ron Lewis, Bill Starrels and Ed Solomon, as well as Georgetown Men’s Head Crew Coach Tony Johnson were in also attendance.

Starrels commented that the new park was “the crowning jewel to the waterfront.”

For more pictures, check out William Newton’s twitter and Patch’s account.

photo: Nico Dodd

According to the Georgetown Current [PDF], a one-time resident hopes to open a medical marijuana dispensary in Georgetown.

The man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, has not yet filed an application with the D.C. government.

“I spent 6 years in Georgetown (1994-2000) living near the intersection of 31st and Q St. NW, where I ran an operation similar to what the new law proposes without a single problem from anyone except the police, with absolutely no regulation,” he wrote in an email to the Current.

After scoping out a few locations, the man claims he found “a willing landlord” who is interested in leasing space for the dispensary on Wisconsin Avenue near the Georgetown Public Library. However, the Current added, he is “open to direction from the community.”

Last May, the D.C. Council unanimously approved a bill to allow certain people to obtain marijuana from the yet-to-be-opened dispensaries. Those with chronic illnesses, such as cancer, gloucoma, HIV/AIDS, or multiple sclerosis, will be eligible to purchase up to two ounces of marijuana per month with a doctor’s prescription.

Read the rest of this entry »

If I were a betting blogger, I’d say that the city probably won’t let Mehmet Kocak reopen Philly Pizza. Call it superstition, but when your entire neighborhood is organized against you, the mayor’s attorney compares you to a brothel, and Mayor Adrian Fenty himself shows up at your store’s fresh grave to dance on it, that spells death for your chances of making it in Georgetown.

But Kocak isn’t so easily phased, and this week, he continued his bid to get a new Certificate of Occupancy from the Department of Consumer Regulatory Affairs—the same department that shuttered the same storefront back in March of this year. The Georgetown Dish reports that he went before the DCRA to make his case earlier this week. And while they’re light on the details, it’s clear from the attendance at that hearing—DCRA Director Linda Argo, a lawyer from Attorney General Peter Nickles‘s office, ANC Commissioner Bill Starrels, and the residents who fought to shut him down and their lawyer, Marty Sullivan—that Kocak is going to be under a lot of scrutiny.

Sullivan says that they already have reason to worry if Kocak does reopen Philly Pizza, or some other store at the Potomac Street location. While he’s advertising his new store concept as a prepared food shop, akin to Subway, Commissioner Starrels said that Kocak has also applied to operate a 500-degree-plus oven—for pizza.

“I don’t think [Kocak] has earned any credibility,” Starrels told the Voice in July. “I hope that Peter Nickles will do everything in the law and his power to protect my constituents from having to suffer under these people again and from this place reopening.”

I’m going to go look up the Vegas odds, but I’m guessing they’re not in Philly Pizza’s favor.

Georgetown’s favorite pizza place is trying to come back—again.

Philly Pizza & Grill, which D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles once compared to a brothel, recently filed a demolition permit with the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) for its Potomac Street location. However, don’t start dreaming of late-night, ranch-drenched pizza just yet.

According to the recently-approved permit, the building is zoned as a “prepared food shop.” Philly Pizza originally closed because it violated zoning laws about prepared food shops; even if owner Mehmet Kocak reopens the eatery, it can’t be the late-night pizza peddler it once was.

The permit allows for “limited interior demolition” that focuses on equipment that would be needed to make food on the premises. The building’s “kitchen hood, ductwork and exhaust system” are all being removed.

Shortly after Philly Pizza was closed via court order in March, owner Matt Kocak filed papers with the DCRA for a new certificate of occupancy. While the DCRA has yet to approve the application, the renovations suggest that Kocak is angling to reopen his restaurant.

However, those who fought to close the restaurant, such as ANC Commissioner Bill Starrels, are disappointed with the new developments.

“I don’t think [Kocak] has earned any credibility,” Starrels said. “I hope that Peter Nickles will do everything in the law and his power to protect my constituents from having to suffer under these people again and from this place reopening.”

Even if Philly Pizza does reopen, neighbors shouldn’t expect large crowds of customers—the permit lists the proposed maximum occupancy at 18 persons.

Early last year, the D.C. City Council passed a ban on selling single beers in some D.C. neighborhoods, including Georgetown. Faced with major revenue losses, many business owners immediately sought exceptions to the ban from Advisory Neighborhood Commissions. Those who could convince their ANCs that they weren’t selling singles at a price where homeless could buy them—the Logan Circle ANC gave an exception to a Whole Foods to sell pricey microbrews, for example—were by and large successful.

A year later, guess which ANC still isn’t playing ball with one local business?

Yep. Early Friday morning, Georgetown’s ANC met at the offices of the Georgetown Business Improvement District to discuss a request from Dixie Liquor for an exemption to sell high-price craft brews. In a 3-2 vote, the ANC passed a resolution advising the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration not to grant Dixie an exemption, frustrating efforts Dixie began in February 2009.

Back then, in an ANC meeting, Dixie Liquor owner Joy Kurash had argued that Dixie was projected to lose out on $38,000 without the exemption. She also brought samples to emphasize that what she intended to sell was expensive—high-end microbrews that start at $14, culinary liquors, and a Sam Adams “Utopia,” a $180 beer that Sam Adams only brews every other year. The ANC deferred a vote on the exemption.

On Friday, along with Commissioners Ron Lewis, Bill Starrels, and Bill Skelsey, the Citizens Association of Georgetown argued that single-sales of alcohol are directly related to high rates of vagrancy, pointing to the presence of “drifters” in Francis Scott Key Park.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tuesday night’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission meeting may be remembered by historians as the start of a new chapter in the Georgetown neighborhood crusade against late night takeout eateries. Plus, MPD reaffirms its commitment to increased patrols in the neighborhood in response to recent burglaries. Here’s the wrap:

MPD is on the job

Early in the meeting, Lieutenant John Hedgecock of the Metropolitan Police Department presented his report on crime in the Georgetown neighborhood.

“Throughout the Second District we are seeing a large increase in burglaries,” Hedgecock said.

He noted that there had been 12 burglaries in the past month, and that in one instance, four masked men had entered a house and robbed it. He also noted that in a recent robbery a neighborhood resident was beaten until he required hospitalization. Hedgecock said that MPD had partnered with the University and had increased uniform and nonuniform presence in the area.

Oh crêpe, not again

About an hour and 45 minutes into the meeting, a small M Street business, Crêpe Amour, presented a request for changes to its Alcoholic Beverage Control License. The request, presented by Sri Suku on behalf of his father, who owns the business, is necessary if the business is to go ahead with its plan to remain open past midnight.

Read the rest of this entry »

Having successfully completed a months-long campaign to shutter Philly Pizza, today, neighborhood residents and community leaders received an additional surprise: a visit from Mayor Adrian Fenty, who drove up to the restaurant’s former home in his Smart Car just after 11 a.m.to make brief remarks about the closing of this drunk food hot spot.

“They did a fantastic job, didn’t they?” Fenty said as he shook hands with neighbors gathered to hear him speak, in reference to Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners’ efforts to shut down Philly Pizza after the city had revoked its license to operate.

Flanked by Attorney General Peter Nickles and Department of Consumer Regulatory Affairs Director Linda Argo, his podium positioned near where tipsy Georgetown students used to sit on the curb to enjoy their pizza with ranch dressing, Fenty congratulated ANC Commissioners Bill Starrels and Ed Solomon for their work to “shut down a nuisance business causing havoc in the community.”

He likened Philly Pizza’s closure to other illegal businesses that the City has targeted, like used car lots and nightclubs. Later, in his remarks, Nickles volunteered brothels and used car lots that the City had closed as a comparison.

“We listened to our Georgetown residents and it was clear this business was not being a good neighbor,” Fenty said.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today saw the end of a long campaign to shut down Philly Pizza’s location on Potomac Street, which has been operating illegally since its license was revoked in mid-February. Its doors closed last night, and today, they remain shut.

After a February 19 Board of Zoning Adjustment ruling that barred its continued operation and a subsequent order to vacate the premises failed to shutter the late night drunk food joint, Philly Pizza got taken to D.C. Superior Court, where a two day hearing that concluded this afternoon ordered the establishment to remain closed, or else find itself in contempt of the court.

Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Vice-Chair Bill Starrels said that as a result of the ruling, at today’s hearing, Philly Pizza agreed to remain closed. An e-mail from D.C. Office of Attorney General’s Michael Stern that Starrels provided to Vox reiterated the hearing’s success at shutting down the pizza joint for good:

“I am pleased to report that after a hearing for most of the day yesterday, when we returned to Court this morning Mr. Greenberg, the attorney for Philly Pizza & Grill, Inc., conceded our point to the Court and voluntarily agreed to close the establishment. We reduced that agreement to writing, and made it an Order of the Court.”

Well, almost certainly for good. Starrels said that Philly Pizza owner Mehmet Kocak has filed with the D.C. Department of Consumer Regulatory Affairs for a new certificate of occupancy.

Read the rest of this entry »

This month’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission meeting lacked the kind of heated debate that can often break out on the second floor of the Georgetown Visitation School, but it did feature an appearance from Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans that spiced things up a little.

Evans’ appearance gave the crowd on hand an opportunity to ask some greater-D.C.-related questions, which touched on the District of Columbia’s current budget issues, the city’s response to the massive snowstorm in February, and the possibility of statehood—all in all, more civic-minded questions than the ones residents asked of Evans last year, such as a question about getting those infernal trolley tracks taken out of P Street.

Evans seemed uninterested in pursuing statehood at the moment. Why?

“It’s not in the cards right now. I hate to say this about one of my colleagues, but every time Marion Barry does crazy things it feeds right into Congress’ view that he could be elected mayor again and God forbid if they had control over their affairs what could happen then? I was talking with Northrop Grumman about relocating and his name came up, and that’s a problem,” Evans said.

The meeting also included a brief presentation from Georgetown Energy, a Georgetown student-run not-for-profit organization that is advocating the implementation of rooftop solar technology across the District.

Anthony Conyers (COL ’12), Peter Nulsen (COL ’12) and Jessica Robbins (SFS ’12) accompanied Mike Meaney (SFS ’12), who directly addressed the ANC about Georgetown Energy’s campaign.

He emphasized the financial sense of installing solar panels on roofs, noting that the typical Georgetown home would receive a net profit of $30,000 over a 30-year period by installing solar panels.

Read the rest of this entry »

In the first of what will be regular ANC 2E wrapups, we’re proud to bring you the events of last night’s ANC meeting. (But between Issue Rundowns, GUSA Roundups, and ANC Wrapups, it grieves me to report that we’re running out of summary nouns.)

Last night’s local government rumble had a considerable many high points:  the ANC’s communal chastisement of WASA Director Louis Jarvis, the Dixie Liquor owner’s truly pathetic request for an exception to the singles ban, a resolution of gun stores in Georgetown, Apple’s store redesign, and a visit from the wardmaster himself, Jack Evans.

Details to follow, but the Safeway on Wisconsin will be closing for construction for over a month this Spring.

WASA: Jarvis felt the fury of the ANC when he admitted that 30% of Ward 2 hydrants, still need maintenance nearly two years after bum hydrants stymied firefighter’s efforts to rescue the burning Georgetown Library.

Ed Solomon, who recently watched from his tuxedo shop as a dumpster fire at Addison School required a second pumper truck (the nearby hydrant, tagged as “needing maintenance” but still supposedly in working condition, was in fact a dud), noted that this amounted to 59 hydrants and called the situation “unacceptable.” Later in the meeting, Jack Evans agreed.

Dixie Liquors: Next, Dixie Liquor’s Jody Kurash stopped by to request an exception to Ward 2′s singles ban, saying the store projected a $38,000 loss in sales for this year based on 2008 figures.

Read the rest of this entry »