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Top Orange aide quits over campaign's tone
In the second big loss for Vincent Orange's campaign for City Council Chair, George Lowe, one of the campaign's top fundraisers, has quit the Orange Crush after becoming displeased with the "negative tenor of this campaign," D.C. Wire reports.
In particular, it seems likely that the Orange campaign's strident attempts to capitalize on reports of his rival Kwame Brown's significant personal debt is what drove Lowe to leave the campaign. He resigned just two days after the campaign released an email blast about Brown which said he was "mired in lawsuits and debt" and asked how he could represent D.C. to investors.
Orange has downplayed the loss to his campaign, the Post said, saying that fundraising took place through a group effort. Linda Mercado Greene resigned in June because of her personal connection to Brown.
The Post obtained an email that Lowe sent last week to Orange and his top campaign staffers. In it, he wrote that he had "given this a significant amount of thought ... and continue to arrive at the same conclusion and that is that I no longer feel comfortable with the negative tenor of this campaign and will not be a part of such."
"Our campaign is factual," not negative, Orange said upon Lowe's departure. "It's clear that I will make changes to the council and I will be looking at the committees and making us more efficient and more effective."
Above, Lowe looks on as former councilmember Kevin Chavous rallies the crowd at Orange's inuagural campaign event in early June. Photo by RJSmith.
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Which Georgetown establishments will be a part of Restaurant Week?
There's no getting around the fact that August in D.C. is brutal. Like, why-did-I-choose-to-live-here brutal. It's only a small consolation that August is when most of the insufferable Capitol Hill interns who flocked to the city in June finally go back to Milwaukee, or whever they came from.
So what's the one thing that's got the Gtown Saucer looking forward to the worst month of the year? Washington D.C. Restaurant Week.
Restaurant Week is that magical time of the incredibly hot time of the year when gourmands can grab a three-course meal of a prix fixe menu for $20.10 at lunch, and $35.10 at dinner. Many of D.C.'s best restaurants participate. You can find the full list here, but for quick reference, here's the full list of the Georgetown restaurants where you can get a great discount meal from August 16 - August 22. Every restaurant on the list has an Open Table site, so you can make reservations from your computer.
1789 Restaurant - Dinner
Bistro Français - Lunch and Dinner
Bistrot Lepic & Wine Bar - Lunch and Dinner
Bodega Spanish Tapas & Wine - Lunch and Dinner
Bourbon Steak at the Four Seasons - Lunch
Café Milano - Lunch
Chef Geoff's - Lunch and Dinner
Daily Grill - Lunch and Dinner
Farmers and Fishers - Lunch and Dinner
Filomena Ristorante - Lunch and Dinner
Juniper at the Fairmont - Lunch and Dinner
La Chaumière - Lunch and Dinner
Morton's The Steakhouse - Dinner
Neyla - Dinner
Paolo's Restaurant - Dinner
Ristorante Piccolo - Lunch and Dinner
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Fatal shooting in Georgetown is apparent suicide
At 4:45 a.m. on Wednesday, police found a man who had been fatally shot in a car parked outside of an art gallery at 31st and M Streets, the Washington Post is reporting.
The man, sitting in a silver Saab on the south side of M Street, had a single gunshot wound to the head and a gun in his lap. Officer Mark Beach called his death "an apparent suicide." The man was pronounced dead at George Washington University Hospital.
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Thomas Jefferson Street closure beginning July 28th
According to DDOT, Thomas Jefferson Street in Georgetown between M and K Streets will be closed for the rehabilitation of the Thomas Jefferson Street Bridge beginning July 28th.
The work will involve demolition of the bridge, reconstruction of north and south bridge approach slabs, and construction of a new bridge deck, and sidewalks.
During construction, the contractor will maintain access to the adjacent houses and businesses. While the bridge will be closed, two-way traffic will be permitted between M Street and Thomas Jefferson Street Bridge and between K Street and Thomas Jefferson Bridge.
No parking will be permitted on the entire west side of Thomas Jefferson Street, north or south of the bridge.
For more information, please contact Mark Clabaugh of DDOT at 202.671.4566 or mark.clabaugh@dc.gov.
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Georgetown has 5 of 100 locations for bike sharing program
DDOT is putting 1,000 new bikes on D.C.'s streets through Capital Bikeshare.
The bikes will be available for rental at 100 locations throughout the city—and five of the locations where DDOT has preliminary plans to build stations are in the Georgetown area.
Located at 1100 30th Street, Wisconsin Avenue above the C&O Canal, 1401 37th Street (on Georgetown University's campus, right outside its front gates), Wisconsin and 37th, and 2422 37th Street, the five locations are all tentatively set to have solar-powered BIXI systems, which will dock the bikes and accept cash, credit cards, and a "BIXI Key."
There isn't a price yet for using the bikes.
Read more at Vox Populi.
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Pet boutique going under in Georgetown
If you need a fashion-forward collar for your cat, or a tiara for your dog, you'd better get to Georgetown Belle Pet Boutique soon—the store, which only joined the Georgetown business community in late 2009, is due to shut its doors in the next few weeks.
Washington City Paper's Lydia DePillis reports that the store, which owner Todd Walderman took over from another business owner in December, (he then moved it from O Street to P Street and renamed it), has seen three solid months of poor sales and now has a flashy "store closing sale" sign hanging over its front door. From WCP:
"Sales dropped off after the winter months, and Walderman can no longer afford his $5,000 per month rent, along with restocking inventory.
“'Things over the last three months got very slow, and never picked up,' he says. Hopes for quick economic recovery have faded, and people are still careful with their money—100 customers will come through in a day, and buy nothing."
Read more at Housing Complex
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Kimberly Casey and Daryl Judy join WFP
Washington Fine Properties has announced that Kimberly Casey and Daryl Judy have joined their firm. Casey and Judy have been the top producing team at TTR/Sotheby’s for a number of years. In a press release, Washington Fine Properties said:
"We are delighted that they have decided to join our team at WFP."
"Daryl and Kimberly have developed a reputation for working hard, listening well, knowing the market thoroughly and making sure their clients are completely satisfied. They are licensed across all three jurisdictions and will be working out of the Georgetown Office."
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Politico Spots Jack Evans Sweating in Georgetown
D.C. Councilmember Jack Evans' celebrity quotient is going up. Or it was a slow news day -- or both. In any case, Politico's Kiki Ryan, another Georgetown resident, pointed out that Evans was "out for a run on Wisconsin Avenue, dripping from head to toe. Not that his damp situation stopped him from meeting and greeting—Evans was seen stopping to shake hands with passerby." Where will Jack appear next? Martin's? This is getting exciting...
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Rat poison pellets cause alarm at The Dog Shop
Jane Huelle arrived at her Wisconsin Avenue business on Saturday morning to find an unpleasant surprise: in the night, an unknown person had dumped rat poison pellets all along the sidewalk in front of The Dog Shop.
Huelle was immediately concerned—not for her storefront or sidewalk, but, true to her profession, for her customer's best friends. Rat poison, she said, can be extremely dangerous to 
dogs, and she knows three dogs who have died this year alone from ingesting rat poison—two from Foxhall's Battery Kemble Park and one who lived in Georgetown.
So in response, Huelle spent most of her weekend trying to minimize the collateral damage from the dumping. It took her all day Saturday to clean up the pellets, which had been dropped all along the sidewalk in front of her store and the two neighboring businesses, The Georgetown Café and a hair salon. She filed two separate complaints with the Metropolitan Police Department (putting down poison pellets is illegal) and contacted both the Georgetown BID and the City to make sure that the pellets were not the work of their abatement programs. (They weren't, and the BID has requested increased security around her ).
As for who did it, Huelle said, "I haven't a clue. Honestly, I think it was someone who truly thought they were helping the rat problem."
But for the perpetrator's sake, and for the sake of dog owners, she wants to make sure the issue gets public attention.
"What I want is a PSA letting people know that you can't just put poison out and assume that only rats will eat it," she said. "It's made to taste good. Birds get it, squirrels get it, cats get it, dogs get it, and it's just as lethal to all of those animals as it is to rats."
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Now, you can pay for parking by phone on Reservoir Road
Starting this week, DDOT is rolling out a series of pilot programs that will attempt to make parking in D.C. a less utterly frustrating task. And while Georgetown won't be home to one of the streets that is testing sensors that will help drivers find open parking spaces, drivers parking on Reservoir Road will be able to try out paying by phone.
How does it work? DCist's guide says drivers who want to test it can sign up for an account at www.parkmobile.com and then download the necessary application. Perks include an automatic text message that gets sent to your phone when your time is almost up.
Around the city, DDOT is also debuting pay-by-plate, where parkers can enter their license plate numbers into a multi-spot meter.
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