Gt 02 18 2015

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Serving Burleith, Foxhall, Georgetown, Georgetown Reservoir & Glover Park

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Vol. XXIV, No. 30

The Georgetown Current

New visitor center seeks volunteers

litte valentine

■ Tourism: BID launching

kiosk at Georgetown Park By BRADY HOLT Current Staff Writer

The Georgetown Business Improvement District is seeking community volunteers for a new visitor center it will open this spring in the Shops at Georgetown Park mall.

These “ambassadors” will offer advice, directions and brochures to tourists, helping visitors “get the most out of their time in Georgetown,” according to Maggie Downing, the BID’s destination manager. The visitor center — a kiosk in the mall lobby entrance near M and Potomac streets, across from Dean & DeLuca — is part of the BID’s broader effort to make Georgetown more accessible and visible as a destination and neighborhood. The

organization hopes to work with Destination DC to market the existence of the center when it opens in April. “So often I imagine our visitors getting off the Metro at Foggy Bottom and making their way over here, and not really having a sense of what’s available to them,” Downing said in an interview. “This will be one central place where visitors can go to orient themselves to the neighSee Visitors/Page 11

‘Cat cafe’ eyes vacant O Street storefront By KATIE PEARCE Current Staff Writer

Brian Kapur/The Current

The Georgetown Library hosted a Valentine’s Day party on Thursday. The festivities included games, crafts, songs and stories for children of all ages.

Washington’s first “cat cafe” could be finding a home in Georgetown. The young entrepreneur behind Crumbs & Whiskers — a hybrid cat adoption center and pastry shop — is currently eying the property at 3211 O St. as she wades through the city’s process for opening the first-of-its-kind business. In an interview, Kanchan Singh emphasized that a lease is not yet signed for the Georgetown site, though she said it’s her “top choice.” She hopes to open her business sometime this summer. Singh also used the O Street address for her application with the D.C. Board of Zoning Adjustment, for which a hearing is scheduled on March 24. She said the application is meant “to get the ball rolling” even before a lease is secured. See Cats/Page 5

Brian Kapur/The Current

The 3211 O St. site meets the city’s rules for pet boarding, but still needs approval from the Board of Zoning Adjustment and the Health Department.

Displaced Herb Cottage gift shop to close in June

Glover Park ANC debates Stoddert parking shortfall

By ELIZABETH WIENER

■ Education: Classroom

Current Staff Writer

All Hallows Guild at the Washington National Cathedral has reluctantly decided to close its gift shop, a decades-old retail operation whose move from the historic Herb Cottage to an underground parking garage helped spell its doom. The relocated shop on the B-2 level of the garage will close June 30. The guild, a nearly century-old volunteer group that raises money for the Cathedral’s grounds and gardens, said it will continue other fundraising efforts. But the shop, said president Deborah Page, will be sorely missed. Even operating in the red, she said, it served as a gathering space for volunteers, a sort of public face for the guild. “Emotionally, none of us wanted this to end.”

NEWS

trailers reduce teacher parking By GRAHAM VYSE Brian Kapur/The Current

The All Hallows Guild had to move its shop to an underground garage when the historic Herb Cottage suffered damage in 2011. The garage location was a big problem. It was “not ideal, from a retail perspective — kind of dark and it doesn’t have the charm” of the Herb Cottage, which offered plants, pots and household gifts in a cozy gothic setting. “We have a wonderful manager, wonderful staff, See Cathedral/Page 10

SPOR TS

Local resident set to premiere film on ‘Rosenwald Schools’ — Page 3

Visitation topples rival St. John’s in girls basketball — Page 9

Current Staff Writer

With Stoddert Elementary’s enrollment continuing to rise, the Glover Park advisory neighborhood commission is reviving a related community discussion about parking needs near the Calvert Street school. The school’s student body grew from 260 students in 2010 to 423 this year, and Stoddert will add a

SHERWOOD

‘Stamps of approval’ for D.C. police chief, school plan, stamps — Page 6

new fifth-grade class in the fall, principal Donald Bryant told commissioners last Thursday. Student population exploded after the school was modernized and expanded, and it’s once more over capacity. The school’s growth has implications for parking at and around the facility, as was evident last year when 20 teachers had their parking spaces taken over by temporary “demountable” classroom trailers. A group of nearby residents donated their visitor parking passes to the school as a temporary solution to the problem, and Bryant told commisSee Stoddert/Page 5

INDEX Calendar/18 Classifieds/25 District Digest/2 Exhibits/19 In Your Neighborhood/16 Opinion/6

Police Report/4 Real Estate/15 School Dispatches/8 Service Directory/23 Sports/9 Theater/21

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