The Georgetown Metropolitan

I’m signing off for the year! Have a happy holiday and see you in 2026!

DPW announced over the weekend that it is beginning its leaf pick up next Monday for Zone D, which includes west Georgetown. So if you live west of Wisconsin Ave., make sure to get your leaves out to the curb, asap. They can be piled in the tree boxes or bagged in paper bags.

If your a constituent of mine (i.e. you live above Volta Place) and your leaves don’t get picked up within the next three weeks, please let me know!

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s your weekly news round up:

• On the effort to fix the Rose Park trash situation.
• Sit-in to support GUTS bus drivers.
• Salt n Sundry coming with pop-up.

The ANC will meet for the last time of the year next Monday night at 6:30 at Visitation. A draft agenda is above. As you can see, there are Old Georgetown Board projects listed on the agenda. The OGB is right now working through the backlog of cases that built up during the shutdown. In fact, they’re meeting tomorrow to go through projects that were supposed to be reviewed back in November. Then they’ll meet again on Dec. 11th to go through the rest of the backlog.

However, there still are no Commission of Fine Arts members. Projects needing permit approval will still need to wait for the CFA to be filled again before moving forward. There’s a meeting of the CFA scheduled for January, so perhaps there will be members by then. We’ll see.

Hello and welcome to your December Northwest Georgetown ANC update.

Leaves and Snow

It’s that time of year again, when the city makes an (often unsuccessful) effort to clear the leaves from the streets. This lack of success comes in several forms, but last year the largest complaints were:

• That they completely missed whole blocks
• That they didn’t take bagged leaves, and
• Even for the blocks they did pass, they missed lots of leaves

The ANC has been repeatedly pressing DPW to address these complaints. And I can at least report that the city is now stating that they’ll take bagged leaves. (Remember that bagged leaves always have to be in paper bags, not plastic.) We also provided the mayor’s rep with a list of blocks that were missed last year, so hopefully they will not be missed again this year.

As for timing, DPW splits each ward into four zones: a, b, c, and d. It works through each zone sequentially. Right now it is starting zones c, which in Georgetown is east of Wisconsin Ave. So if you live east of Wisconsin, get your leaves out as soon as possible.

The area west of Wisconsin is in Zone d, and will be picked up after c. Depending on weather, this could start in a couple weeks. You can check this website for updates.

Hopefully they will actually get all the leaves this year. But if after a couple weeks, your block is still untouched, please email me at 2e02@anc.dc.gov and let me know.

In either event, leaf pick up season will be followed (or briefly coincide) with snow season. Unlike with leaves, this job is mostly on us. Please remember that your sidewalk needs to be cleared within 8 hours of daylight after it stops snowing. (If you’re able, go ahead and shovel your neighbors’ sidewalks too!) If you are unable to shovel your sidewalk, please let me know and I’ll try to arrange someone to handle it for you.

Breakfast With Santa and Volta Park

Don’t forget that this weekend, the Friends of Volta Park are hosting their annual and beloved Breakfast with Santa:

Speaking of Volta Park, I continue to share the concerns that many have expressed about the apparently abandoned work on the ball field renovation. I am continuing to push DPR for answers on why it continues to be delayed and what impact this delay will have on the overall timeline. Some residents have also expressed an interest in clearing some space on the field for use by residents while the wait continues. I will update as soon as I get some clear answers.

On the positive side, I was recently informed that a splash pad may be coming to the park. It would likely be located in the plaza south of the rec. center. I think this would be a great asset for parents of young kids.

Book Hill

There is a public meeting next week for the planned Book Hill Park renovations. It will be on December 9th at 6:00 pm in the library. This will be the second meeting for the planned renovations and I expect that they will be presenting some of their initial findings and recommendations at this meeting. If you’re interested in the park, come on out!

And with that, I wish you a warm and happy holiday season!

There will be a community meeting next week to update the public on the status of the planning for the Book Hill renovation project. Click here for a summary of the first meeting. At that meeting, planners proposed several possible elements for the project, including repairs to existing infrastructure and the possibility of a new terrace. We’ll see how the plans have evolved since then.

My understanding is that the city is reprograming money from the “Triangle Park” project at the intersection of 33rd and Wisconsin and moving it to the Book Hill project instead. Apparently the crepe myrtles in the triangle park were deemed worth keeping and thus no viable plan for dramatically improving the pocket park remained. But this is great news for Book Hill since it will dramatically increase the available money.

Photo by M.V. Jantzen.

Good morning Georgetown, here’s your weekly roundup:

• New luggage store on M St.
• Nice profile of Koryouri Uraru.
• Halcyon House business accelerator moves out of Georgetown.

If you are like me, and you have a teenage girl, I present to you breaking news: Garage is coming to M St.

That is a meaningless message to me. And it may be meaningless to you too. But to many a teenage girl, this is a coveted clothing shop. And with its arrival, trips out to Tyson’s Corner become all that less necessary (by “necessary” I mean necessary by the standards of a teenager, not a normal human being.)

According to the Washington Business Journal, the store will be taking over the former Club Monaco space at M and 33rd (which is the former Rhino Bar, to somewhat old-timers, and the former Winston’s to genuine old-timers.) No word when it will open.

Breakfast with Santa will be returning to Volta Park this December 6th. Here are the details!:

One of our favorite events will be returning on December 6th to the Volta Basketball Courts. Join us between 10am-12pm and enjoy the holiday cheer with friends and neighbors. Bring the whole family, including your four-legged fur babies, for the Santa Experience ($20) which includes: sitting with Santa (*parents will take their own photo), festive crafts, doughnuts, coffee/hot chocolate and new this year – live DJ music and face painting!

On behalf of Georgetown Ministry, we will also be collecting gently used adult coats, hats, mitts and scarves. *Please do not bring any children’s coats or clothing for donation.

Come join us for the festivities, sure to bring laughter and smiles for the whole family.

Two new stores are on the horizon for Georgetown, at least according to this month’s Old Georgetown Board submissions.

The first is the international brand Uniqlo. They have long been rumored to be looking for a location in Georgetown, and it appears they have found one. The sign application indicates that they are aiming to take over the recently vacated J Crew location on M St. (J. Crew moved to the other end of M St., opening recently at M and 30th).

(In case you’re wondering, in English the name of the store is pronounced like Unah-Klow. For what it’s worth, in its original Japanese it’s pronounced more like Unick-Cah-Lo.)

The other new store is probably a less familiar name to you. It’s called Nuts Factory, and it’s coming to the former Town Liquors location at Wisconsin south of O St. This appears to be pretty much what it says: a store that sells nuts. But it appears the main product that they sell is something called Dubai Chocolate. They have about a dozen existing store locations, all of which are in the northeast.