The Georgetown Current
Wednesday, August 2, 2017
Push for LED street lighting sees resistance
Wilson High budget sees local objections
BANGING BHANGRA
■ Education: Council funds
may not reach Ward 3 school
By MARK LIEBERMAN Current Staff Writer
Amid the city’s plans to replace its more than 71,000 streetlights with energy-saving LED bulbs, widespread disagreement remains between involved agencies and some neighborhoods about the most prudent approach. The D.C. Office of Public-Private Partnerships, established by Mayor Muriel Bowser in 2015, has been working with the city’s Department of Transportation and Office of the Chief Technology Officer since January on a project that would retrofit all of the city’s streetlights with LED bulbs and incorporate “smart city” technology that includes Wi-Fi internet access, broadband cellphone service and other built-in features. At least seven advisory neighborhood commissions and five citizens association groups citywide have already requested that the city only install lights at a color temperature of 2700 Kelvin or less. That figure is in line with recommendations from a task See Streetlights/Page 10
By GRACE BIRD Current Staff Writer
Frustrated by what they saw as an underfunded education budget, D.C. Council members cobbled together $11.5 million to add funding for city public schools. But advocates are worried that Wilson High School won’t see any of that money, despite three years of funding cuts and more than 30 layoffs. For the upcoming fiscal year,
Brian Kapur/The Current
■ Georgetown: Upgraded
Rain couldn’t put a damper on the Kennedy Center’s National Dance Day event on Saturday. The activities moved inside to the Millennium Stage. Performers like Top Naach performed Bhangra — an Indian style of dancing — and then walked attendees through the dance moves.
By GRACE BIRD Current Staff Writer
Brian Kapur/The Current
The Argentine-owned property at 2136 R St. NW sits abandoned in tony Sheridan-Kalorama.
eyesore and a health hazard,” Alan Wurtzel told The Current. It’s infested with rats, he said, and he fears the crumbling facade could easily collapse onto his property. Similar issues have swirled around properties owned by Ser-
Wilson — the largest high school in the District — saw $340,000 in cuts, advocates say, adding that they’d consider the sum to be closer to $1.3 million when the salaries of laid-off employees are accounted for. About nine Wilson teaching and administrative positions have been eliminated even as the school’s enrollment of about 1,800 students has fluctuated by a few dozen at most. While Wilson’s academic reputation is relatively strong — 88 percent of its students graduated in 2016 — it is classified as a “focus” school under the Elementary and See Wilson/Page 4
Hyde-Addison renovation underway following delays school will fit more students
By ALEXA PERLMUTTER Current Correspondent
Neighbors battle over vacant foreign missions When Alan and Irene Wurtzel purchased a Sheridan-Kalorama town home in 1993 next to a vacant building owned by the government of Argentina, they were assured their neighbors would return soon. Twenty-four years later, neighbors are nowhere to be seen and the once-opulent home at 2136 R St. NW has fallen into a state of disrepair. It’s a surprisingly common sight in the highly desirable neighborhood, where abandoned diplomatic properties sit starkly juxtaposed with sprawling mansions and elegant gardens. “The Argentine property is an
Vol. XXVII, No. 1
Serving Burleith, Foxhall, Georgetown, Georgetown Reservoir & Glover Park
bia, Sri Lanka, Egypt and Pakistan, among others, and are a source of frustration for neighborhood leaders. When the Wurtzels complained to Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2D (Sheridan-Kalorama) in May, commissioner Ellen Goldstein expressed little optimism based on fruitless meetings with U.S. State Department and D.C. government officials about a Serbian-owned property at 2221 R St. NW. “[The officials] just keep saying, ‘We’ve talked to them and they say they’re going to fix it up.’ I know that’s not going to happen, and even the State Department probably knows that’s not going to happen,” Goldstein said at the See Vacant/Page 22
Construction of a long-planned addition to Hyde-Addison Elementary School began this summer, a project that will connect the school’s two buildings but displace students to Meyer Elementary for the next two school years. The project, which has been in the works for over five years, has been delayed numerous times amid concerns over financial resources, historic preservation and the excavation of a large sewer pipe. Last summer it was deferred yet again as administrators sought to identify an acceptable swing space to send students during the construction. Work began in June and will continue into the summer of 2019. Modernization of Georgetown’s public elementary school kicked off in 2014 with renovation of the historic Hyde building at 3219 O St. NW. Earlier work took place in 2008, when the long-vacant Addison building at 3246 P St. NW was
Brian Kapur/The Current
Two years of work has begun at the Georgetown school.
fully modernized and became part of the same school complex under the Hyde-Addison name. “DCPS believes that all students should have high-quality learning environments,” D.C. Public Schools spokesperson Janae Hinson wrote in an email. “We are confident that the modernization of Hyde-Addison Elementary School will support the academic program at the school and meet the needs of all students, teachers, and families. The new state-of-the-art building will serve 400 students, include additional spaces for academic and ‘specials’ programming, and create a more cohesive campus.” See Hyde-Addison/Page 15
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