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

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

Monday’s Advisory Neighborhood Committee meeting was short on entertainment, but awfully long on just about everything else.

Topics included how to ease the traffic jams at the intersection of M Street and Wisconsin Avenue, a monthly public safety report, some complaints about the Alcohol Beverage Control Board’s moratorium, and a University’s ten-year plan—but sadly, it wasn’t Georgetown’s 2010 Campus Plan. Let’s get to the wrap:

Ed Solomon: Private Eye

In what we can only imagine was a long-gestating dream, Commissioner Ed Solomon delivered the evening’s public safety report after MPD Lieutenant Jon Hedgecock couldn’t attend the meeting.

“As far as crime in our area, it’s still basically what we reported last month,” Solomon said as he presumably imagined himself chasing down petty crooks and arresting bank robbers. “It’s trending down but there’s been some high-visibility crime in our neighborhood.”

According to Solomon, who we hope dons a mask and fights crime on the streets of Georgetown, MPD plans to move extra police officers from Friday and Saturday nights to “other higher crime nights.”

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 »

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 »