Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Vol. XX, No. 29
Serving Burleith, Foxhall, Georgetown, Georgetown Reservoir & Glover Park
THE GEORGETOWN CURRENT
University police to get MPD invite
STRIKE A POSE
■ Safety: City sets protocols
for off-campus calls for service
By CAROL BUCKLEY Current Staff Writer
Police Chief Cathy Lanier issued an internal order last week strengthening the role of university police in calls for service to off-campus locations linked to D.C. universities. The general order directs
Metropolitan Police Department officers, when responding to calls to a “campus-affiliated location offcampus (e.g. fraternity house, offcampus housing),” to invite campus police to respond to the site as well. The order does not extend university police jurisdiction beyond campus confines, clarified Thomasine Johnson, director of public safety at Catholic University. She served as chair of a committee within the Consortium of
Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area that helped hammer out the order. The new directive reflects existing practice at Catholic University, said Johnson. When 5th District police respond to a location offcampus “where students are disturbing the area,” they call the university police to respond as well. Those school-employed officers “attempt to bring a peaceful closure to the See Police/Page 5
Hardy gets principal from downtown By JESSICA GOULD Current Staff Writer
Bill Petros/The Current
Organizers of the 2011 Monte Carlo Night at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the West End hoped to raise $500,000 for Children’s National Medical Center. Proceeds of the event, held by the D.C. real estate community, will go to capital improvements.
Interim Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson has appointed a new principal to lead Hardy Middle School for the remainder of the year. Daniel Shea comes to Hardy after 20 years as a teacher and administrator in Montgomery County, according to Henderson. Shea worked for 15 years as a middle and high school principal, the chancellor wrote in a Feb. 7 letter to parents, and he currently serves as head of scheduling for D.C. Public Schools’ middle and high schools. “Mr. Shea brings the requisite experience to lead a middle school and prepare to transition students to succeed in high school,” Henderson wrote. She added that his scheduling “expertise” would be especially helpful at Hardy, where parents have complained about scheduling errors and confusion. See Hardy/Page 5
Bill Petros/The Current
Georgetown’s Hardy Middle School has suffered a troubled year following the departure of longtime principal Patrick Pope.
AU draws flak over vacant market spot
To get new trees, Watergate residents will have to pay
By CAROL BUCKLEY
■ Parks: Deal would address
Current Staff Writer
Northwest gourmands who have long bemoaned the loss of Balducci’s market from New Mexico Avenue were surprised to learn last week that building owner American University turned down a proposal from a well-known restaurateur to install a similar market in its place. Chef Geoff Tracy, owner of Chef Geoff’s restaurant at 3201 New Mexico Ave., as well as four other establishments, told customers that he proposed an “upscale market” that would have occupied the entire footprint of Balducci’s, which closed in 2009. “The neighborhood needs a smaller market” than nearby Whole Foods, said Tracy, a Spring Valley resident. He had his financing in order, thanks to a backer,
NEWS ■ New contract could improve city tree care. Page 3. ■ Congo adjusts plans for 16th Street embassy. Page 4.
concerns about building views
By ELIZABETH WIENER Current Staff Writer
Bill Petros/The Current
Neighbors have pushed the university to install another market in place of Balducci’s. and figured the proposal for the empty space would be welcomed. But building owner American University turned down his offer. The rejection was “based on price,” said Tracy, though the university has remained quiet on the specifics of the deal, which fell through about four See Market/Page 7
PA S S A G E S ■ Chocolate tour adds new loop in time for Valentine’s Day. Page 13. ■ A local matchmaker reveals her methods. Page 13.
The young row of sycamores along Rock Creek Parkway near the Watergate could be replaced by shorter trees of the same family, or could be left to grow. That’s the somewhat murky upshot of a debate that has roiled the National Capital Planning Commission, the National Park Service and a group of Watergate residents over the past
SPORTS ■ Gonzaga basketball downs WCAC archrival St. John’s. Page 11. ■ Visitation, Roosevelt win hoops contests. Page 11 .
few months. Planning commissioners last Thursday asked the Park Service to consider replacing the sycamores with shorter trees — but only if Watergate residents foot the bill for moving the saplings and buying and planting new trees. Otherwise, the row of just under a dozen young American sycamores, planted in 2009, will remain. Some residents of the Watergate complex have been pushing for removal of the American sycamores, arguing that the trees could eventually grow to 100 feet, See Watergate/Page 18
INDEX Calendar/20 Classifieds/29 District Digest/4 Exhibits/23 In Your Neighborhood/10 Opinion/8 Passages/13
Police Report/6 Real Estate/15 School Dispatches/19 Service Directory/25 Sports/11 Theater/23 Week Ahead/3