THE VILLAGE

Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto.

At First Anniversary, Pinto Prioritizes – and Thanks – Ward 2

BY CHRISTOPHER JONES

Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto is looking up these days.

With the Biden-Harris administration in town, the pandemic’s easing and Mayor Muriel Bowser’s budget allocating funding to the District’s neighborhoods, Pinto’s been working closely with Georgetown’s community groups to enhance residents’ security and quality of life.

Pinto celebrated one year as a member of the District Council on June 27 and thanked her constituents on social media. Two weeks earlier, on June 11, the day Washington, D.C. lifted its final pandemic capacity restrictions, The Georgetowner met with Pinto remotely to discuss her priorities.

After four years of the Trump administration, having Democrats back in the White House is fundamental for Pinto. “It’s so exciting to have a federal partner who’s on the same page about treating people with dignity and respect, getting everyone tested and vaccinated, believing in science, understanding the need to focus on learning loss for our young children in school, giving our schools resources they need to adequately serve our families and to have increased investment in our infrastructure and in our parks. It’s entirely game-changing to everything we want to do and that we know is so important to our residents’ quality of life,” Pinto said.

Funding from the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan and the closing of the District’s $750 million federal budget gap left over from the Trump administration have helped channel significant resources to D.C.’s neighborhoods. “Having access to adequate federal funding is going to be extremely impactful in next year’s budget,” Pinto said.

Not only will such funding help Georgetown’s commercial recovery and development, but social services, parks, schools and affordable housing can all be addressed.

“Ward 2 has the highest number of individuals experiencing homelessness living in the city,” Pinto said. “We know that it’s not just an issue that D.C. is experiencing. It’s a regional and national issue and to have the federal government recognize that and invest in more funding for housing is extremely important as we work to move more of our neighbors into housing which is a top priority for me and my office this year.”

Reviving Georgetown’s commercial district is also a top priority.

“We keep hearing from Georgetown’s residents about their concern with vacant storefronts and support for our small businesses,” Pinto said. “Supporting our small business community has always been at the center of our priorities. It’s a large reason I got into the race to represent Ward 2 in the first place and it’s become even more evident and dire throughout the pandemic how much need there is and how much support they’ll need following the devastating impacts of the pandemic.”

For small businesses, Pinto introduced the Great Streets Amendment Act which expands the Great Streets’ grant program opportunities to Ward 2 for the first time. To address the needs of Georgetown restaurants, she introduced legislation with Ward 5 Council member McDuffie to extend the streateries program “through the remainder of 2021.”

As a tax attorney who previously served in the D.C. attorney general’s office, Pinto is committed to reducing red-tape licensing burdens on Georgetown’s startup and small businesses and the heavy licensing fees imposed.

The current requirements, she said, are “extremely arcane” and “confusing.” In the D.C. Council Pinto recently introduced the Business and Entrepreneur Support to Thrive Act (BEST) Act. The legislation would reduce the number of business licensing categories from 128 to 10 and eliminate such archaic elements of the existing laws as requirements for “horsedrawn carriages” and “slaughterhouses.”

“I think it will be good for new businesses and ultimately it will be great for our workers who are looking for new jobs in our city,” Pinto said. “It will be good to address the vacant storefronts that we see throughout the city and I know are of particular concern to so many Georgetown residents. Ultimately, it’ll be great for our tax base and our economy to have an inviting, including business environment here in our community.”

Pinto talks up her collaboration and partnership with the Georgetown- Burleith Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC2E), the Citizens Association of Georgetown, the Georgetown Business Improvement District, Georgetown Main Street, Georgetown University, Georgetown Heritage and other community groups. She’s enthusiastic about the Georgetown canal improvement project and the new visitor center.

Pinto applauded Georgetown Main Street for its recent award from American Express for its Take-Out Tuesday promotions. She cited the BID for helping to keep the commercial sector strong. She also commended the Friends of Rose Park and of Volta Park for efforts to rejuvenate park spaces and farmers markets.

During the pandemic, one of Pinto’s major concerns has been the rise of violent crimes in the District. “Crime in our city is a huge challenge and concern. We’ve seen an uptick in gun violence across our city,” she said. Getting to the “root causes” of the problem is a major priority.

VISIT GEORGETOWNER.COM FOR THE FULL ARTICLE.

Mapping Georgetown:

Renovations at Julia Child’s Georgetown Home

BY KATE OCZYPOK

He was looking for a run-down Georgetown property to renovate for a while.

Then one day, Rory Veveers-Carter, a co-founder of the human resources company Jaba Talks, happened to notice an ad in the paper showcasing the sale of an American icon’s house. World famous chef Julia Child (1912-2004) had owned the Georgetown home at 2706 Olive St. NW. Asking price, $935,000 -- that was back in 2015.

Veveers-Carter told the Washingtonian he was intrigued that Child and her husband Paul lived at the old sunny yellow clapboard house -- rotted and crumbling, with a large hole on the back wall. Also, Child was said to have worked on “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” while living at the home.

“It looked perfect—dilapidated, wellpriced and in a great location,” VeveersCarter said. “The Julia Child connection was also interesting as my grandmother was a fan and had her kitchens in New York and Cape Cod in the same style, pegboards and all!”

Veveers-Carter was introduced to the personality of Julia Child by his grandmother who would watch her cooking shows for inspiration. With kitchens designed just like Child’s, echoes of the famous American chef who helped popularize French cuisine were around all the time.

Child and her husband Paul moved to Georgetown in 1948. They met while working for the Office of Strategic Services (aka the CIA before it was the CIA). Paul loved food as much as Julia did and when they moved from Georgetown to Paris, Julia began taking classes at Le Cordon Bleu — the beginning of the rise of the icon we know and love today. See this time in their lives played out onscreen with Nora Ephron’s “Julie and Julia,” made in 2009.

While in the home on Olive Street, Child gave cooking classes with Georgetown ladies (some were rumored to be diplomat and socialite Pamela Harriman and former Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham). In the book “My Life in France,” Child said it was during this time she really polished her teaching skills. Neighborhood women would meet with Child Monday mornings then go and cook the meals they learned for their husbands during the week. They would make items like poached eggs with mushroom duxelles, sauteéd chicken with tomato sauce, apples braised in butter with orange sauce and more.

Veveers-Carter has cooked many of Child’s dishes and when he first moved into the house on Olive Street, he thought quite deeply about what his first meal would be there. Ultimately, he chose lamb shank provencal with a creamy madras sauce, bringing together Child’s French inspiration with a twist of the food Veveers-Carter was raised on. “As [Julia] said, don’t be afraid to try and fail,” he said. “That is a mantra I adhere to.”

Veveers-Carter believes Child truly loved cooking and educating people to not be afraid of trying, so the biggest homage he can pay is continue those traditions. He sees himself as a “custodian of history” in Child’s former home.

During his renovations, Veveers-Carter found the location of Child’s old kitchen behind a bunch of plaster. His renovations team also found a window sealed up behind a wall in colors that are consistent with Child’s kitchens. “We have preserved part of the wall and will place ‘her window’ in front, allowing the cook and guests to see where the revolution in American cooking started,” he said.

Pg. 10: Standing in Rose Park, adventurer and renovator Rory Veveers-Carter outside the Child house on Olive Street before the work began. Pg. 11: Marilyn Butler, founder of and force behind the Mapping Georgetown project, with her dachshund, Halston. Courtesy photos.

When it comes to restoring homes -- for lack of a better term -- this isn’t VeveersCarter’s first rodeo. He shared that he owns a 1700s Cape house and an 1800 Vermont salt box house. In England he even lived in a 15th century home. The hardest part of this particular renovation, however, was the unknown. “The house was dilapidated, there was visible rot and holes in the walls and animals and birds lived in the cavity,” he said. “I knew I had a challenge, but I wouldn’t know [how big] until we pulled away the internal walls and exposed the bones of the house.”

When they finally did expose the bones, it was worse than Veveers-Carter and his team could have imagined. However, he was patient and stuck with it and shared that the house will be move-in ready by July. Just a few weeks ago he had his first guest over.

“The Smithsonian hosts Julia Child’s kitchen, but Georgetown hosts the birthplace,” he said. “It can stand proud as a testament to its past, not only as her home but one of the few remaining homes in the area owned and built by Edgar Murphy, a leading member of the African American community that called this area home.”

As far as the coming decades, VeveersCarter hopes the house on Olive Street will host many evenings of cooks and friends gathered in the kitchen, being inspired and inspiring others to master the art of cooking.

“Personally, I hope every future owner shall remember they are only custodians of history and within these walls, something special was started,” he added.

More information on Veveers-Carter’s efforts can be found on Facebook and Instagram at “jewelonolive.”