Northwest Georgetown May ANC Update

Hello and welcome to the May Northwest Georgetown ANC update!

Spring is here and with it some helpful reminders:

Trees:

Our wonderful street trees need our help to get growing. If there’s a relatively newly planted tree on your block (i.e. planted within the last 3 years) it will need regular watering to thrive.

The basic goal you should have is to water young trees at least once a week with a good 20-25 gallons of water, from now until the trees drop their leaves in the fall . If you can’t water the new trees, try to find a neighbor who can.

The preferred watering device is the ooze tube (the bags that go around the bottom of the trees). You can differentiate them from the not-preferred gator bags because the gator bags have zippers. (They’re not preferred because they can create an unhealthy environment around the trunk and you have to remove them after each use.) With the ooze tube you can just fill it up and let it go.

If you don’t have an ooze tube, you can just leave a hose trickling into the tree box for 30 minutes to an hour.

Once a tree is mature, you can stop watering it. By then the roots are so spread out under the sidewalk that it doesn’t need your help anymore (although during any particularly dry periods, it can’t hurt to water it).

Garden Waste:

If you’re a gardener, this time of year means lots of garden waste from pollen and fallen blossoms, etc. In order for the city to take this away, you need to put the waste in paper bags (like the ones that hardware stores sell). Garden waste left out in plastic bags won’t get picked up.

As for the picking up part, you need to file a 311 request to schedule it. (The exact title of the service you need to request is “Scheduled Yard Waste”). Frustratingly, the reservations are typically several weeks away. So you can be stuck with the bags for that time. One strategy I recommend is to organize with a neighbor or two who also have yard waste and schedule out several staggered appointments that you all can share.

Bulk Waste:

Spring cleaning also often includes wanting to get rid of bulk items, like couches and other furniture. You can schedule that pick up through 311, but you have a better option this time of year. As part of the wonderfully successful Georgetown Community Partnership, the university offers its students free bulk trash pick up. This helps avoid situations of students leaving town with trash and other items sitting on the sidewalk. The good news is that non-student residents can take advantage of the same service!

Click here to schedule your pick up.

Bus Changes

The entire WMATA bus system is about to undergo a complete overhaul. Starting June 29th, every single bus line will receive a new name. And in most cases it will also receive a new route.

I’ve described the changes in detail here, but here is a handy thumbnail description of how the existing Georgetown lines will appear starting June 29th:

D2: This will now be called the D96 and it will now travel from Bethesda all the way to Foggy Bottom. The Georgetown to Dupont section will largely remain the same.

G2: This will now be called the C91. It will still travel from Georgetown University to Howard University. But instead of traveling along O, P, and Dumbarton through Georgetown, it will travel on Q St.

D6: This will now be called the D94. It will still travel to Sibley, but no longer will it go eastward to RFK. It will now terminate in Chinatown.

38B: This will now be called the A58. It will still travel from Farragut out to Balston, by way of Georgetown, but now it will continue onward all the way to Seven Corners.

30 Series: The 30 series will be replaced with the D80 and the D82. Through Georgetown it will mostly be the same (although with an unfortunate number of eliminated bus stops). The D80 will travel to Union Station (like the current 33) and the D82 will go to Foggy Bottom (like the current 31).

Finally there will be a novel new route called the C85. It will travel from Foggy Bottom, along M St. through Georgetown. It will then head out to MacArthur Blvd. in the Palisades in order to reach the new MacArthur High School. Then it will wind its way back through Glover Park and up through Ward 3.

Hopefully the transition will be smooth and riders will be able to adjust. Please reach out if you are having difficulty or have questions.

Volta Park

Volta Park’s annual fundraiser cocktail party is returning June 7th, back at Visitation. Tickets are available here. Moreover, there will be a field day in the park from 10am to 1pm on the same day. Should be a great time!