D.C.’s food truck craze is in full swing. At George Washington University several food trucks line up on H Street every day to serve paninis, pizza, macaroni and cheese, and kabobs to students and passersby alike. The Hatchet reported this week that GW students will soon be able to use their GWorld cards (GOCard equivalents) at food trucks that frequent the Foggy Bottom campus.

GW doesn’t offer a traditional meal plan. Instead, students buy a certain amount of “colonial cash,” an amount of which is available to use at nearby partner restaurants. Students will soon be able to use this portion of their meal plans at the various food trucks. The Hatchet reports:

Senior Associate Vice President for Administration Ed Schonfeld said the move was in response to a letter submitted by the Student Association this week. [...]

Steve Nichols, deputy director of the GWorld card program, said administrators expected the move would cause food trucks to “blow up” in popularity even more.

“Once they take the card, they’re going to be pretty successful,” he said. “We’re anticipating they’re going to be really popular.”

Georgetown doesn’t share the rest of the district’s fascination with food trucks. While Georgetown students may demand more variety with their meal plans in general, food trucks rank decidedly lower in their priorities. Even though 2012′s campus plan resolution brought late-night food trucks on campus on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, students continue to go off-campus for late-night food and socializing. After all, the food trucks were only a short-term solution to growing on-campus student life. In all likelihood, the Snack Shack won’t start accepting flex dollars any time soon.

Photo: Edsel Little via Flickr

Encore, Olson, Encore!

At yesterday’s meeting with the advisory neighborhood commission, Vice President of Student Affairs Todd Olson listed all the University’s plans to reduce off-campus partying in West Georgetown, Burleith, and Foxhall. According to the Georgetown Dish (Vox was not able to attend the meeting), upon hearing Olson’s promises of on-campus social life, the crowd broke out into an impromptu applause in enthusiastic support of the University’s new efforts. Olson also introduced the new Lauralyn Lee, associate vice president for community engagement.

As we know from the past few weeks, the changes include new food trucks available around campus from Thursday to Saturday as well as the abolishment of tight on-campus party registration rules. Now, students will be able to host on-campus parties without advance registration. Olson also mentioned the New South Student Center as a method to refocus student life on campus, and reiterated the University’s plan to house 90 percent of undergraduates on campus by 2025.

“I don’t believe there are any questions to Todd about moving forward. The ANC was supportive, and we’re supportive of the Georgetown Community Partnership,” Commissioner Ed Solomon said to Vox. “We all agree that the program is a result-oriented partnership…when the programs are all implemented. I think we’re all speaking the same thing. There wasn’t really any controversy.”

Please, no goose lighting

In other news, the ANC also discussed two new restaurant additions to the Georgetown area: Good Stuff Eatery and ShopHouse. Good Stuff plans to open in December at 3291 M Street, and the ANC approved the awning, doors, and signs. According to the Patch, the ANC did request a change from the restaurant’s proposed goose lights to a slightly less bright choice.

The opening date for ShopHouse remains unclear, but will open either at the end of this year or the beginning of next.

As promised yesterday in a press conference, ANC 2E finally released the full details of the provisions in the Campus Plan. University officials and neighborhood leaders have ruminated over these “proposed conditions” since negotiations restarted in early April. Both parties responded with an extremely satisfied view on the result. ”I am confident that this agreement represents the interests of our entire community and aligns our long-term strategic plans with the goals of our growing city,” President John DeGioia said yesterday in an email to the Georgetown community.

Not all students reacted to the agreement with as much excitement as the Mayor and President DeGioia. “Particularly promising in this agreement is the stated desire by both sides to make campus a more lively and social place … That said, they are certainly elements of the agreement I found troublesome … Students are full members of society and they should not have their ability to freely choose housing redistricted. The complete ban of student cars from the neighborhood also strikes me as unfairly discriminatory,” ANC Commissioner Jake Sticka (COL ’13) said in an email to Vox.

Earlier today we brought you a few highlights from the recently released provisions on the Campus Plan. Now we’re giving you the full breakdown: from housing to food trucks to the satellite campus. Enjoy.

Full list after the jump.

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I don’t know if it was the broken heating system or the tension, but everyone was sweating at last night’s meeting of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission, but it served as a reminder that NIMBY-ism is a dish best served lukewarm.

Safety Dance

A representative from MPD came to give the police report to the ANC. Besides the recent robberies and sexual assault, MPD also received calls about a peeping tom and an individual engaging in hotel fraud. A man who uses the name “Antonio Williams” has been checking into hotels around the city using false credit card information, and, when the cards are rejected, he calls a friend to impersonate a bank to convince the hotels to accept his cards over the phone.

Also at the meeting, one resident brought up the accuracy of Rocky’s Reports. According to the resident, Rocky’s Reports significantly underplay the number of 911 calls in the area. She said she logged every call she makes to MPD, and Rocky reports that there were less overall calls than she made. She wanted to know where exactly Rocky gets his information and called the reports, “a gross misrepresentation of what’s going on.”

According to Commissioner Ron Lewis, Rocky gets his information from casual conversations at the second distrct headquarters, which is different from the communications headquarters who normally handle these things.

“They’re completely PR efforts,” Lewis said, shrugging.

Keep on truckin’

This month, the ANC came back to whether and how they want food trucks in Georgetown since the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs is in the process of changing the rules to allow them to park in any legal parking space. Last month, the ANC created a draft resolution that would allow food trucks to park in Georgetown, but not on residential streets.

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Last night’s meeting of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E saw a series of guest stars from DCRA, Pepco, MPD, and DC Fire Dept. And that’s in addition to all the normal nonsense and obligatory campus plan pooh-poohing the ANC partakes in on a monthly basis. So let’s just go over the interesting parts.

Raze the roof

Two representatives of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs came to last night’s meeting to address the partial building collapse last November. The DCRA duty officer that night, Bill Davidson, explained the situation: after the scene had been cleared of hazards, he inspected the property and structural damage. He permitted the owner to clean up the debris but required the owner to file for a construction permit to rebuild.

As to the cause of the initial collapse, Davidson reported, “The owner has to hire a structural engineer to make the determination,” which he has not done yet. So the cause of the collapse–and whether the property owner was violating any laws–is unknown.

A few of the commissioners, including Bill Starrels and Tom Birch, were incredulous that the property owner was responsible for determining the cause of the collapse. Starrels cited that, years ago, when the property was a shoe store, the owner was notorious for property neglect.

“I worry about a cover-up,” said Birch. “I still reserve skepticism.”

Additionally, the owner of a neighboring property complained that the owner of the collapsed building had bricked up one of his windows during the clean-up. As it stands, the owner of the collapsed building isn’t allows to rebuild until the DCRA grants him a permit to do so.

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As a part of their College Crawl, the Big Cheese Truck is headed to campus this week.

Part of the fad of food trucks, the Big Cheese Truck the truck is scheduled to be near campus on Friday according to their website.

The truck will likely arrive between 11 and 11:30 a.m. and park either by the front gates or the library steps, according to an email to Vox.

The truck’s menu includes a variety of gourmet cheeses from the Cowgirl Creamery served on artisan bread. And as all grilled cheese should be, the truck also serves tomato soup.

The Big Cheese Truck’s College Crawl will have been to the University of the District of Columbia, Howard, American, and George Washington University prior to heading to Georgetown to determine which school loves grilled cheese the most.

You can follow the Big Cheese Truck’s location on Twitter and Facebook.