Better than a cup of coffee, the Morning Digest will provide you with what you need to be prepared for the day: a daily round-up of links, local news, and important events on campus and around D.C.

Note: Due to the looming shadow of finals, Vox will be operating at a reduced posting schedule until the end of the semester. Be sure to check back for the Morning Digest and other updates designed to tempt and delight you in these times of darkness.

  The weather today will be cloudy in the morning and clear later in the day, with a high of 70.

To masticate today:

• Midnight Breakfast: UnBirthday!: What’s After Dark, Student Affairs, and Dining Services are hosting an Alice and Wonderland themed end-of-the-year celebration tonight from 10 pm to midnight at Leo’s. It will include a number of activities like painting your own teacups, mixing your own tea, playing a giant game of chess, and free food!
• Superfood’s final performance of the year and senior send off: Superfood will give its final performance of the year at 3 pm in front of the John Carroll statue in Healy Circle. In addition to being the last concert of the year, the group will be sending off its five seniors.

What to look out for:

•  $10 million dollar gift to National Mall from Volkswagen: Volkswagen planned to announce a $10 million gift today to to the Trust for the National Mall in order to help fund its plans for an aesthetic renovation.
• Capital Bikeshare adds new options for infrequent users: A new membership option allows users to pay $10 for the key, which is like the traditional annual and monthly membership keys. But, with this key, users only have to pay $7 for a day pass to use a bike for a day.

In the meeting of the ANC 2E last Monday (which Vox was unable to attend, guess you’ll have to get your hard-hitting analysis of street traffic elsewhere), commissioners unanimously approved two new Capital Bikeshare locations: one next to the CVS on the Wisconsin Ave. and the other in the empty lot where Water St. intersects 34th St.

Capital Bikeshare, D.C.’s wildly successful bike-rental company, allows users to pick up bikes and drop them off at other locations across the city. According to a study by Mobility Lab, most trips from the Georgetown University stop have either DuPont Circle or Rosslyn as a destination, which is unsurprising, given Georgetown’s position as a transit island.

This week in D.C. news features Chuck Brown’s memorial service, a Washington Times columnist’s worst work, and the latest on the D.C. Council’s vote on whether to give city employees back pay.

Chuck Brown memorial service

The late, great, pioneer of go-go music Chuck Brown passed away on May 16. Our nation’s capital celebrated Brown in the funkiest way possible: a four-hour-long dance party. Yep, that’s right.

Thousands of people gathered yesterday at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center for the memorial service. Several District officials and Mayor Vincent Gray spoke at the event and promised to name a park after the legend that was Brown, nicknamed by some as the “Godfather of Go-Go.”

Brown was 75 when he died in John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore of multiple organ failures, according to the Washington Post.

If you feel like bustin’ loose on these hot and humid summer days, Vox recommends you break it down in honor of Chuck and his long list of soulful contributions to D.C.’s music scene.

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The construction outside the front gates has taken yet another victim. Aside from the blocked-off areas and the sand all over the sidewalks (Editor’s note: That is from the construction, right?), back in May the construction also forced our wonderfully convenient G2 stop to move all the way to Wisconsin Avenue. And now they’re taking away the bikes!

Today, the Capital Bikeshare station that has been sitting right outside the gates for the past year will officially close due to the ongoing construction. But it won’t only refuse to allow members to take or leave a bike—employees will be dismantling the station and entirely removing it. According to an email sent last week by Capital Bikeshare to its users, the station will be reinstalled “in early November.” Since we doubt the construction will be done by then, hopefully they’ll find a place to put it where there’s actual pavement.

The construction which has been gobbling up our convenient travel methods is the “O&P Street Rehabilitation Project,” which aims at fixing or removing old streetcar tracks, replacing water mains, and repairing sidewalks, among other touch-ups. From today through October 17 25, the construction team will begin “milling and paving work” outside the gates, which involves repairing concrete and putting down new asphalt. But hopefully no sand.

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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After debuting its Capital Bikeshare program in late September, the D.C. Department of Transportation finally installed Georgetown’s very own solar-powered bicycle station earlier this week.

The station, which is located in the House of Sweden parking lot at the intersection of K Street and 29th Street, doesn’t have any bicycles yet. According to Georgetown Metropolitan, a second station should spring up on Wisconsin Avenue next week.

Another station was originally slated to be installed near campus at the intersection of N Street and 37th Street, however, those plans now appear to be up in the air.

GM added that a fourth station is rumored to open in front of the Hardy School, near the Wisconsin Avenue Safeway.

7:30 p.m. update – Commenter “Anon” reports that the bikes are now at the station.

Photo: Google Maps

After an ANC-less August, last night’s Advisory Neighborhood Committee agenda featured bikes, break-ins, and a daunting backup of private projects.

Bicycle Races

The next major topic of discussion was the highly-anticipated Capital Bikeshare program. DDOT spokesman Chris Holben announced that the two-year old SmartBike project—the first public bike-sharing program in the US—has been so successful that the city will expand it to 100 new locations and 1,100 bikes.

The new plan will include three locations in Georgetown, two of which have already been discussed and agreed upon—a spot on K Street next to the House of Sweden and on Wisconsin next to the Canal Bridge. The candidates for third location included the stretch of sidewalk right outside the University’s front gates and the intersection at Prospect and 35th, adjacent to the Car Barn.

The ANC voted to continue its support of the first two locations and, despite complaints from residents wary of potential increased noise, voted six to one in favor of the 37th and N location.

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No bike? No problem.

Starting this fall, the DC Department of Transportation (DDOT) plans to expand its popular bicycle rental program to 100 stations across the city. Building off of the success of the SmartBike DC bicycle sharing program, Capital Bikeshare will bring at least 1000 bicycles to the streets of Washington.

And here’s the best part—Georgetown University snagged itself a station. Earlier today, DDOT posted a map of the preliminary Bikeshare location on its website, only to take it down after noticing some errors. (The heroes over at Greater Greater Washington, however, have an interactive copy.) According to GGW, DDOT is “still tweaking” the map which details all of the bike sharing stations, but plans to formally announce the locations later today. (UPDATE: The map is back on the DDOT site.)

How will this affect Georgetown students? For starters, it will mean that some of us can ditch those long waits for GUTS buses.

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