At about 3 p.m. this afternoon, onlookers reported seeing a man drive his car into the C&O Canal near 33rd and Water St. According to some sources, the man was drunk. He remained in his car until emergency crews arrived on the scene and was transported to Georgetown University Hospital at about 3:30 p.m.

The car landed in a muddy area of the canal that doesn’t have standing water.

All photos courtesy W.J. Greenberg.

In this week’s feature, Nico Dodd delves into the graffiti art community whose canvasses are the walls and abutments around the C&O Canal underneath the intersection of Key Bridge and Whitehurst Parkway:

“People come into the Georgetown area because they’ve heard that it’s kind of easy online,” said Matt. “People write about it and people post pictures about it and write about how easy it is. A lot of other D.C. spots are less publicized, because the artists that are D.C. and local have to really fight for it, so that newcomers and people that are really experienced in the area, you know, don’t have to work as hard to get there.”

As more high-profile graffiti artists stake their claim to prime real estate, the C&O Canal maintains its local reputation as a haven for amateur tags and murals. For those who grow up in the area, it has become tantamount to an institution—close enough to hang out, and just on the law enforcement’s periphery.

On the Editorials page, the editorial board lauds the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program for its significant contribution to the alleviation of poverty, and warns against GOP efforts to slash the program’s funding.

In News, Vanya Mehta examines the appointment of Robert M. Groves, the head of the U.S. Census Bureau and a member of the National Academy of Sciences, to the post of University Provost and Executive Vice President.

For Sports, Daniel Kellner discusses Miami Marlins manager Ozzie Guillen’s five-game suspension for insensitive comments about Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, hoping that athletes don’t abandon their important roles in public discourse on account of isolated instances of backlash.

In Leisure, Julia Lloyd-George praises Mask & Bauble’s and the Theater and Performance Studies program’s joint production of Macbeth, which breathes fresh life into an ageless tale of dark ambition. The show premieres tonight at 8 p.m. in the Davis Center.

Page 13 this week analyzes the University’s planned changes for Sunday Masses, as Georgetown has brought in famed Hollywood directors to spice up the services.

And finally in Voices, Connor Jones worries that presumptive Republican nominee for president Mitt Romney’s swerve to the ideological right during the GOP primary will force him to govern from the far right, to the detriment of the country, or risk losing the support of his party.

This weekend there’s a lot happening on the performing-arts front, from Shakespearean classics and a reimagined Sabrina Fair to Pauly D of Jersey Shore fame. (His hair counts as performance art, right?)

Friends, Romans, Countrywomen

Never read the play? Maybe Mean Girls can jog your memory.

An all-female cast takes on Ancient Rome in a gender-driven spin of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Taffety Punk Theatre Company puts on a fierce interpretation of the tale of Rome’s most famous emperor, with actresses clad in all-black street clothes working amidst sparse décor, set to electro-punk background tunes.

Julius Caesar, which closes this weekend, is performed Wednesday through Saturday. $10.

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Heavy rainfall in March that burst the C & O Canal and contributed to major flooding of the Georgetown Waterfront caused damage that will cost about $2.8 million to repair, WTOP is reporting. The estimate comes from the National Park Service, which did not report where funding for repairs would come from.

Flooding began in mid-March, where locks in the Canal began to fail under pressure from heavy rainfall. The Potomac River rose 3-4 feet in most places during the storms, and 5-10 feet along the Georgetown Waterfront. Old Town Alexandria and sections of the Mount Vernon Bike Trail went underwater, too.

The damage includes a broken lock about a mile upstream of D.C. and the huge amount of mud, silt, and debris that the flooding deposited along the banks of the Potomac.

Via We Love DC

Photo from Flickr user bronpau used under a Creative Commons license

If you’ve gone by the C & O Canal this past week, you’ve probably noticed an abnormal amount of construction work going on.  That’s because the D.C. Department of Transportation just began a three year project to replace three of the canal’s 109-year-old bridges.

Each bridge is slated to take a year’s worth of construction.  DDOT is starting with the bridge at 30th Street, and will later be fixing those on Thomas Jefferson Street and 29th Street, according to DDOT’s Denis D’Arbela.  The project will cost about $6 million in local and federal funds overall, according to the Washington Post.

Because the bridges are so old, they are going to be completely torn down and replaced, D’Arbela explained.

“I wouldn’t say the current bridge is dangerous,” Aaron Golds (COL ’11), who represents the University in Georgetown’s Advisory Neighborhood Commission, said. “Crossing the bridge now is fine. They could do the construction now, or wait. In five or ten years, it could eventually become a problem. I don’t know that for a fact, but I think the bridge is not in very strong condition.”

According to Golds’ fellow ANC Commssioner Bill Starrels, the project has been going smoothly so far.

Reporting by Lillian Kaiser.

Additional seating: A true menace to society

The real fireworks at last night’s meeting were over the proposed moratorium on additional seating for restaurants in the Georgetown Court complex near the intersection of Prospect St. and Wisconsin Ave. The complex houses seven successful restaurants (such as Cafe Milano, Bangkok Bistro and Morton’s) and is one of the few areas in Georgetown not subject to the liquor license moratorium.

When Morton’s recently applied for additional seating, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board approved the request despite neighbors’ protestations, but said that it would “entertain a motion for a moratorium on additional seats,” according to ANC Commissioner Bill Starrels.

Starrels and Karen “Cookie” Cruse, a member of the Citizen’s Association of Georgetown’s Board of Directors, argued at last night’s meeting that the area is already “over-saturated” and that neighbors are tired of spending time fighting every request for more seats.

Robert Elliott, Georgetown Court’s landlord, countered that the alleged complaints about lack of parking and traffic problems are exaggerated and that the ANC and neighbors would still have input into future seating expansions even without a moratorium. Elliott also raised objections to the fact that he was only presented with the nine page text of the proposed moratorium 90 minutes before the ANC meeting started, despite asking for it a week ago and offering to collaborate on it.

ANC Chair Ron Lewis was dismissive of Elliott’s complaints, telling him that he was just “throwing sand in our eyes.”

“I know nothing I say here is going to affect what you do,” Elliott replied. “You could’ve called me. I don’t think you should’ve had this document put together in private. I don’t think that’s right.”

Elliott was at least partially correct—his objections didn’t have much of an impact on the ANC. They voted 4—1 to co-sponsor the moratorium with CAG, with Georgetown University student rep Aaron Golds (COL ’11) casting the lone vote of opposition.

After the jump: We finally get around to replacing 109-year-old bridges and Tackle Box proves no match for Cookie Cruse.

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The people who run the Georgetown Canal have noticed you’re getting fat, and they’ve come up with a solution: guided walking tours of the canal, with prizes. You can wreck the process, though, by cheating like a fiend.

You see, prizes are awarded to whoever walks the most miles, but the score is based on an online spreadsheet. There’s nothing keeping you from winning the tennis shoes, park service badge, or whatever they’re handing out. [Ed. note: I don't trust Will as far as I can throw him]. I doubt this guy will be waiting for you at the end of each 30 minute walk.

If robbing senior citizens of their plaudits isn’t your thing, marvel at the canal administrators’ loose definition of what it means to “walk” something. If you walk all 7 weeks, you’ll have walked 185 miles. That means big things, apparently: “Why 185 miles? The C&O Canal NHP actually runs 185 miles from Georgetown all the way to Cumberland, MD. If your team walks 185 miles in the next seven weeks, you can say you walked the entire Canal!”

That seems like a gross exaggeration of your achievement. I’ve swam a good amount in my life, but I don’t say I’ve swam the entire English Channel.

-Will Sommer, blog editor. Flickr photo from user Absolutwade