Sheila, Josh Groban may be good, but you haven’t heard Christmas music until you’ve listened to William Hung’s masterpiece, Hung for the Holidays.

Mike McClain has a great idea for NASA to pursue.  Anyways, all they’ve been working on since the dissemination of the Space Shuttle Program are faulty robo-maids.

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Washington D.C.’s City Council is having a special election on April 26th to fill the At-Large council position vacated Kwame Brown, who become Council Chair. Candidates include (clockwise from top left) Sekou Biddle, John Lopez, Vincent Orange and Jacque Patterson.

The Georgetown Dish and The Georgetown Current are co-hosting a public candidate forum today at 7:00 p.m. at the Georgetown Safeway that will be moderated by Davis Kennedy and Beth Solomon. Georgetown University’s campus plan is likely to be a hot topic of discussion during this discussion.You can submit your own questions to the discussion on the Dish’s website.

h/t + photo: The Georgetown Dish

Safeway’s reopening at the beginning of May may have brought a new face to the grocery store, but it seems they has even more changes in store for us—plans revealed last week by Georgetown Metropolitan show future redevelopment of several stores in the immediate area surrounding Safeway.

The first major change to the shopping center will be the construction of a new building on the plot of grass to the south of the new Safeway. It is unclear as of yet what this building will house, but the GM notes that the concept art looks similar to a CVS.

The building next to Safeway, currently home to an Einstein Bros Bagels and a pawn shop, will receive a “re-skinning” to make the complex look more modern. The building will also feature some of the glass work seen in the new Safeway.

In addition to having the goods on the construction plans, GM laments these changes, arguing that they do not mesh with the architecture of the rest of Georgetown and that the fancy remodeling would likely force out current tenants.

For the record, Vox isn’t going to take sides, but could possibly be swayed if a certain pizza place is looking to rent.

Vox doesn’t necessarily share the same enthusiasm of the Safeway press release announcing Social Safeway’s impending reopening—which is entitled “The Return of a Washington, D.C. Legend”—but we are excited to hear that after almost nine months of construction, the Safeway on Wisconsin Avenue has a scheduled a definite date for when it will reopen, May 6, 2010.

And its reopening with enough amenities to make you think you’ve wandered into a Barnes & Noble, maybe a mall. The new, 24-hour Safeway store will include a Starbucks bar, an indoor and outdoor seating area with a fireplace, WiFi, and HD televisions, a sushi bar, a gelato bar, and a dry cleaner’s.

Safeway is also boasting that this will be its ‘greenest’ store in the District, and it will seek LEED certification when it opens. LEED certification is awarded by the U. S. Green Building Council, a non-profit organization which bills the award as the “nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.”

Safeway will continue its free delivery to Georgetown area codes for orders over $50 until it reopens. The code for free groceries is “FREE642.”

In December, unplowed side streets disappointed commissioners

On Monday, the Advisory Neighborhood Commission kicked off the New Year with a relatively empty slate of issues, due mostly to the fact that the Old Georgetown Board doesn’t meet in January. Vox couldn’t be there, but afterwards, we caught up with student Commissioner Aaron Golds (COL `11) to hear what happened.

Among the business that did take place, citizens of Liechtenstein will be happy to know that the ANC approved a public space permit for a flagpole for their nation’s embassy on K Street.

The ANC also received an update that the Safeway on Wisconsin Avenue should reopen according to schedule in May. They responded to some construction issues on 35th Street and reviewed the District Department of Transportation’s response to the massive blizzard that enveloped D.C. just a few weeks ago.

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Plans for the interior of the renovated Georgetown Library

Georgetown Metropolitan has a writeup of all the new and returning restaurants, businesses, and attractions that we can expect to open in Georgetown in 2010. The post, inexplicably entitled “2010: The Year That Will Be,” lists the following as establishments that will open this year:

• Safeway – 1855 Wisconsin Ave – May 2010 – Originally slated to open in March, Social Safeway is supposed to make its grand, green reopening in May. And this one will have gelato, a sushi bar, and a Jamba Juice!

• Apple Store – 1229 Wisconsin Ave – May 2010 – After months of doing battle with the Advisory Neighborhood Commission and the Old Georgetown Board, who together rejected four drafts for an Apple Store on Wisconsin Avenue, an Apple Store was approved to build in March. So far, builders have demolished the French Connection building that formerly stood there.

• Georgetown Library – 3260 R Street – Fall 2010 – A new library with superior facilities will replace the old one that burned down in a huge fire in May of 2007.

• Ristorante Piccolo – 1068 31st Street – 2010 – This cozy date spot was ravaged by a fire in October 2008. Armed with plans for new rooftop seating, Ristorante Piccolo is supposed to open any day now.

Georgetown Metropolitan also lists a number of spots which may or may not see change in the coming year. Something may open up in the old Nathan’s restaurant location, possibly a steak frites place and the old Georgetown Theater property is for sale. And Pottery Barn is closing its Georgetown Store, he reports.

The Washington Business Journal has also reported that a new cafe will open in what used to be a gallery space at 1639 Wisconsin Avenue.

Photo from DCLibrary.Org

When it reopens in 2010, the produce aisle may not be Social Safeway’s only “green” feature. Owners of the currently under-construction Safeway on Wisconsin Avenue will seek LEED certification for the new building, DCmud reports.

LEED certification is awarded by the U. S. Green Building Council, a non-profit organization which bills the award as the “nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.” Georgetown University seeks LEED certification for its new buildings, too.

Unfortunately, students and Georgetown residents won’t be able to marvel at Social Safeway’s eco-whatever features until May—not March, as originally planned. Safeway will continue its free delivery to Georgetown area codes for orders over $50 until it reopens. The code for free groceries is “FREE642.”

Photo from Social Safeway website.

With the Wisconsin Avenue Safeway out of commission, are your shopping needs just not being met by Whole Foods/Safeway Delivery/Trader Joe’s?  GUTS has your back!

According to Georgetown’s Director of Media Relations Andy Pino, GUTS will be offering runs to the Rosslyn Safeway on weekends.

The change will combine the Rosslyn and Dupont Circle routes; GUTS buses will go from campus to Rosslyn, stopping on North Oak Street near the Safeway there, back to campus and then to Dupont.  Weekday service will not change.

You’ve come a long way, baby

The Wisconsin Ave. Safeway has been closed for about a month and a half and construction has started in earnest.

Unsurprisingly, it’s already started to irk the neighbors. On the GeorgetownForum listerv, a resident named Michael wrote yesterday:

Construction vehicles at the 1855 Wisconsin Ave site started at 6:30 AM today with their beep beep beep alarms, audible from at least 2 blocks away. Tuesday June 9 they finished after 11:15 PM. Are there limits on when construction activity can occur and if so, who’s responsible for enforcing them? How can the community assure the volume of the beep beep beep be muffled so they can be heard on site and not 2 or more blocks away from the site?

No one is against construction activity if it really has to proceed late at night. The community wants a grocery store sooner rather than later. It seems we can have both the construction activity and reasonable noise levels in the neighborhood. Any ideas?

Now that’s a pretty reasonable complaint, especially by local listerv standards. According to Safeway’s website (www.socialsafeway.com, I kid you not…), they’re doing special nighttime construction this week, so that may explain the after hours beeping. Still, it’s going to be a long year on the listservs…

How’s the actual construction going, though, you might wonder. The ever-obliging Safeway has set up a construction webcam which is updated daily with a new, impressively high-resolution photo of the site. So now you can stare longingly at the mound of dirt, remembering the good old days when it used to house actual groceries, as you try to figure out what else to add to your online cart to get to the $50 free-delivery threshold…

Photo from Safeway’s construction webcam.

When you’ve gotten over the initial shock of Wisconsin Avenue’s Safeway closing for a year, and made your way through all the extra stock you purchased in the ‘blowout sale’ at the location’s last hurrah, you’ll realize that you need a new grocery store to buy all your nourishing goodness. Well, have no fear, there are a few sample answers for this puzzling conundrum.

If you don’t feel like changing your routine much, Whole Foods at 2323 Wisconsin Ave is very willing to take on some extra clientele. This store sells those fancy, high quality natural and/or organic products, so you know your colon will be happy you made the switch. However, beware: your receipt total rises the healthier things get.

If you feel like dropping a few extra, unneeded dollars into the hands of those thieves’ Dean and Deluca, head down to 3276 M Street and get less than you pay for. Clearly the closest locale for grocery fulfillment, but experience tells me that you might leave empty handed and completely unfulfilled.

My personal favorite Safeway replacement, however, is Trader Joe’s, located at 1101 25th Street. This store offers some great organic products, and much more reasonably priced than Whole Foods or that pocket-emptying Dean & Deluca. This is highly recommended, if for nothing else than to try something a little bit more fresh.

Naturally, I’ve the left the best choice for last. In fact, you don’t have to change your routine at all. Even after the Wisconsin Safeway location is closed, you can place orders on www.safeway.com and they’ll bring it right to your doorstep and with promotion code FREE642 students can receive free delivery on all orders $50 dollars or more. Granted, you may be missing out on the total grocery shopping experience, but after all—the internet is the future!