ANC Round Up: Small Country, Short Meeting
[Monday] night the ANC made good on GM’s prediction and held what is likely to be its shortest meeting of the year. This was mostly as a result of the fact that the Old Georgetown Board took a powder for January, and that cuts out about half the items from the agenda. Or as Commissioner Birch said “we learned tonight what it’s like to be a commissioner on an ANC that doesn’t have to send 15 projects to the Old Georgetown Board every month.” Although according to what GM’s heard about other ANC’s, like the notorious Foggy Bottom ANC, lacking Old Georgetown Board items is no impediment to interminable meetings.
While the meeting was short on OGB applications, it was still long on interesting items.
Crime Report
Lieutenant Hedgecock gave a presentation on crime and MPD’s efforts in Georgetown. One item at the top of the list was the probable resurfacing of the Georgetown Sexual Assaulter. On early Sunday morning a woman on Calvert St. in Glover Park was awoken with a man hugging her. After he started to make thrusting moves against her she screamed and he ran. As with all the other similar occurences she was unable to give a description of the offender.
Lieutenant Hedgecock gave a little more information on the series of attacks. He stated that years ago a man was arrested for similar offenses. He stated, however, that they do not believe the crimes are connected. He did add, though, that they believe these assaults are being perpetrated by multiple assailants.
One more sad bit: the individual who was found dead underneath the M St. bridge on Thursday was not simply a victim of the cold, as many suspected. He appears to have jumped or fallen off the bridge. Hedgecock could provide no more information on the case.
Safeway Update
Craig Muckle of Safeway stopped by again to give a brief update on the new Social Safeway. For the most part, though, there wasn’t much to update. One interesting item is that they are going to provide a high end “wine cellar” instead of the plain two aisles they had in the old building. For what it’s worth, Muckle said it would look like the wine and beer section at the McLean Safeway.
Also, Muckle indicated that Safeway intended to request longer hours to sell beer and wine. Right now they have to shut down at 10:00. They would like to extend the hours right up to closing, which is midnight.
Finally, Muckle made a soft promise for the store to open by May 5th. An even more ambitious promise: he said the new Safeway will “probably be the best store in the company.”
Let Your Freakishly Small Country’s Flag Fly
The House of Sweden is a bit of a misnomer these days. The complex of buildings at 2900 K St. actually houses the embassies of not only Sweden, but also Finland Iceland and now the tiny country of Liechtenstein.
How tiny is Liechtenstein? On his honeymoon GM drove the length of Liechtenstein in this car:
The amount of time it took to drive from the northern tip of Ruggels to southern tip of Balzers was probably less than the time it took to consider whether Liechtenstein can put up a flag pole on the sidewalk in front of the building.
With pretty much no debate, the measure passed unanimously.
High Noon Comes to Potomac Street
Today the Board of Zoning Adjustment is hearing an appeal from Philadelphia Pizza to overrule the DCRA’s determination that the restaurant isn’t a restaurant at all, but rather a take-out or delivery joint. This matters for more than where they show up in Zagat’s because they are only licensed to be a restaurant. Investigators from the DCRA found that they are nowhere near meeting the requirements of a restaurant (i.e., not enough people get served at tables). The restaurant argues that they do. The BZA will decide who’s right.
Last night the ANC did not really discuss the merits of the case. They simply had to pass a series of two resolutions to facilitate their participation in the hearing today. They passed easily, although staying true to his drunken and hungry student constituents, Aaron Golds voted no on every resolution. Even the ones that were purely procedural. Hopefully some students will buy him a free slice for this hopeless futile gesture.
Although whether they’ll be able to buy it at Philadelphia Pizza is in doubt. There is a chance that the hearing today will result in the restaurant having to immediately close. We’ll see.