ARE YOU READY FOR THIS?

By Dave Roffman
The Jazz Singer Al Jolson used to cajole his audience with "Folks, youain't seen nothin' yet!"If last Monday evening's monthly Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E meeting told Georgetowners anything it was just that sentiment exactly. Big construction projects are headed this way, seemingly all at once, and our ANC Commissioners, let alone the Old GeorgetownBoard, seem powerless to stop any of them. Consider:

The old Hurt Home on R Street, long ago abandoned by our city government, will become the site for "high end" condos after developers"restore and maintain the historical nature of the building." Their proposal calls for some larger units (two to three bedrooms) to encourage families to come here (we guess families with a couple of million dollars in the bank) as well as a surface parking lot and an underground parking lot.

Anthony Lanier and EastBanc are planning to reconstruct the PostOffice on 31st Street and the parking lot behind it (the one you enter next to the Old Stone House on M Street) into fourteen to twenty townhouses of various heights and sizes and rooflines, never mind the already strangling traffic situation on 31st Street. The Post Office itself will become a retail store or stores of some sort. Retail? Already Smith & Hawkins has departed their 31st Street location, and The Pottery Barn on the corner is set to leave Georgetown this summer. But, yeah, sure, go ahead and develop that Post Office.

And up on Holy Hill, Georgetown University is extending their ten year plan into 2010. We can hardly plan for tomorrow, but GU is holding a series of community meetings this month to discuss their off campus life issues, housing, enrollment, transportation and the future of the1789 block. Go to http://community.georgetown.edu/campusplan.html forfull details. Linda Greenan said several new projects on campus were in a holding pattern due to lack of funds. These include a new science building and a new multi-sports complex on campus.

And then there is the O and P Street projects wherein the trolleytracks, cobblestones, sidewalks, watermains will be repaired and replaced to the tune of $11 to $12 million in the years 2010 to 2012. Much needed to be sure, but oh the chaos it will create. We shudder tothink about it.
So you see folks, if you think the repaving of P Street (currently tying up traffic on the East side of Georgetown) and the many mini-construction sites all over the village are a pain in the neck,well, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

REMINDERS:
Hyde-Addison schools are holding their big auction at the Swedish Embassy on Nov. 13.

Fall Cleanup Day will be Nov. 14 in the West side of the Georgetown. All volunteers are encouraged to meet at Volta Park by 9 a.m. Breakfast will be served, as will a BBQ lunch. Come ready to work.

And the new TD Bank in the 1600 block of Wisconsin opens this Saturday, Nov. 7, with a super funday, give-away, games from 10 a.m. to3 p.m.