The Georgetown Current
Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Vol. XXVII, No. 13
Serving Burleith, Foxhall, Georgetown, Georgetown Reservoir & Glover Park
Guy Mason may restore programs
TRICK-OR-TREAT
■ Recreation: Agency faced
fury after recent abrupt cuts
By GRACE BIRD Current Staff Writer
Instructors and students at Guy Mason Recreation Center are facing confusion over whether several long-established programs can resume. Last week, the D.C. Depart-
ment of Parks and Recreation sent a four-sentence email to dozens of participants. Citing “contract procurement difficulties,” the agency told them it had terminated their programs — yoga, pottery and bridge groups as well as a Brazilian samba class — effective immediately. Some instructors found out only after arriving for their classes. But agency spokesperson Michael Tucker told The Current Tuesday evening that all affected
programs have been restored, but he had no further details or explanations. No instructors or students reached by The Current had heard about the reversal from city officials as of the newspaper’s Tuesday night production deadline. Meanwhile, the recreation department has indefinitely put off plans to close the Chevy Chase Community Center at 9 p.m. weeknights instead of 10 in the face of See Centers/Page 5
Georgetown kicks off new Main Street By ZOE MORGAN Current Correspondent
Brian Kapur/The Current
Trick-or-treaters had a chance to visit numerous creatively decorated homes across Glover Park on Tuesday night. A costume parade at Stoddert Elementary School began the neighborhood’s Halloween festivities earlier in the day.
Georgetown has become the latest neighborhood to join the DC Main Streets program, with a planned focus on attracting and maintaining small businesses along the neighborhood’s Wisconsin Avenue corridor. The Georgetown Main Street group has received a one-year, $175,000 grant from the D.C. Department of Small and Local Business Development to revitalize the area on, and directly surrounding, Wisconsin Avenue from the waterfront north to Whitehaven Parkway. The city’s seed money is intended to help get the new nonprofit off the ground and is renewable, however Georgetown Main Street will also need to secure its own additional funding. “The impetus for starting a Main Street is to support the small businesses that are currently on Wisconsin Avenue,” Georgetown Business Association president Sonya Bernhardt told The Current. “And the
Photo by Bill Starrels
Mayor Muriel Bowser, center, addressed the new group at its ribbon-cutting last Wednesday.
reason why we are particularly interested in small businesses is because they provide a unique flavor to a community and they are original.” The business See Main Street/Page 14
Rock Creek Parkway bypass study requested
City revises interim parking plan for police garage work
By GRACE BIRD
■ Transportation: On-street
Current Staff Writer
A nearly forgotten proposal to block motor vehicles from a stretch of Rock Creek Parkway near the Kennedy Center is under fresh consideration, with community leaders in Foggy Bottom and Georgetown requesting a study of the idea. First conceived in 2003, the proposal would use Interstate 66 as a bypass in order to divert most or all parkway traffic between Virginia Avenue NW and a point just south of the Roosevelt Bridge. Proponents say the change — whether implemented temporarily by using low-cost measures or permanently by altering some roadways — would create a safe, appealing area for pedestrians and bicyclists to get from Georgetown to the National Mall; free up riverfront access to and from the performing arts center; and relieve wide-
restrictions to start Nov. 13
By GRACE BIRD Brian Kapur/The Current
The proposal would restrict a stretch of Rock Creek Parkway in front of the Kennedy Center to cyclists and pedestrians, diverting cars to Interstate 66. spread traffic congestion caused by drivers who could easily take an alternate route. “I always thought it was a waste — the fact that you had all this freeway sitting behind the Kennedy Center, and you have Rock Creek Parkway being used as a commuter route,” William Kennedy Smith, a See Traffic/Page 3
Current Staff Writer
As the city prepares to begin construction of a new garage at the 2nd District Police Headquarters, officials have revised their temporary parking plan that will reserve up to 248 spaces around the community for displaced personnel starting Nov. 13. The garage will be located behind the police station at 3320 Idaho Ave. NW, and it will serve a
new emergency family shelter while also alleviating existing parking pressures. However, the construction will take over much of the station’s existing on-site parking, prompting months of community discussion about where to fit the displaced cars. The city presented the final iteration of plans at an Oct. 16 meeting of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3C (Cleveland Park, Massachusetts Avenue Heights, Woodley Park). In response to community feedback officials said they had reduced the spaces they would use along WisSee Parking/Page 14
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Managing nightlife
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Calendar/16 Classifieds/22 District Digest/2 In Your Neighborhood/15 Opinion/6
Council bill proposes creating office, commission to oversee D.C.’s after-hours scene / Page 3
Cathedral senior fights off injury, leads Eagles to ISL cross-country championship / Page 9
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