EDITORIAL/OPINION

Letters to the Editor

Send Your Feedback, Questions or Concerns, Tips and Suggestions to editorial@georgetowner.com or call 202-338-4833

Paving Over Our Concerns?

Maybe they still haven’t gotten over the events of Aug. 23, 2017, when the ever-alert, ever-ready Georgetown dog squad, consisting of Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners Rick Murphy (now chairperson), Jim Wilcox and Joe Gibbons (then chairperson) — and his faithful dog, Scout — stationed themselves on a patch of broken brick sidewalk on the corner of Dumbarton and 30th Streets NW. Having cordoned off the stretch, a District Department of Transportation crew was about to apply a flexible porous pavement product.

The commissioners and Scout faced off with the crew, stopping the Not In Our Back Yard cement job in its tracks and holding their ground until receiving assurance that the patch would be resurfaced with bricks, not pavement, whether flexible, porous or otherwise.

Georgetowners had a proud chuckle over the incident. But now we’re wondering if it’s payback time.

“I have been spending my life the past few weeks talking to, cajoling, threatening and trying everything possible to keep the District from paving over several brick sidewalks in Georgetown,” reported Murphy at the May 3 meeting of ANC 2E. “There was no notification. They don’t seem to listen, and mostly don’t respond to our entreaties,” he continued. “Now I hear they intend to proceed with the paving, possibly the week of May 10.”

The kerfuffle is evidence of a continuing reduction in transparency and responsiveness to Georgetown community representatives on the part of District agencies. Certainly, we in the press encounter an increasing number of obstacles to speaking directly with officials. We have to go through everchanging layers of bureaucratic “minders” with titles like outreach director and community engagement coordinator — most of whom are working at home, distanced from their bosses. Quotes and comments come from the “communicators,” not the actual government sources.

That is not how it used to be. Until recently, we were able to ask questions and get answers the old-fashioned way; the minders just set up the interviews.

“We always had a cooperative working relationship with the DDOT about their many projects in Georgetown,” Murphy said. “The sidewalk pavement project is particularly frustrating because it is so visible and hits at the heart of Georgetown charm. The DDOT has the duty to assure that Georgetown sidewalks are safe and accessible, but there are ways of accomplishing that without suddenly covering the brick sidewalks of Georgetown with pavement.”

That’s why the city needs to respond to the ANC and community representatives, Murphy contends. But the pavement people, who report directly to the deputy mayor of operations, have apparently been given the go-ahead without regard for the neighborhood’s concerns.

Maybe it’s time to bring back Scout, along with reinforcements, both canine and human.

Philip Bermingham and the Art of Observation

As the world opens up again, we observe our lives and surroundings with new eyes. Spring is sweeter; food, more delicious; and reconnecting, more welcome after months of darkness and fear.

This month’s issue focuses on the art of observation. Our cover story salutes photographer Philip Bermingham in celebration of his 70th birthday. Georgetowner readers will recognize his work, if not his name — he’s shot about 30 covers for us, as well as portraits of the world’s best-known luminaries and deliberately private individuals.

After starting out as a Liverpool bobby, he got his photographic training shooting crime-scenes in Bermuda. (There’s crime in Bermuda?) He later moved to northern Virginia and then to Washington, D.C., where he now lives at the Watergate. Richard Selden, our much loved, departing arts editor, takes you through his life and portfolio.

Long before Instagram, writer, director and philosopher Susan Sontag observed that “today, everything exists to end in a photograph.” If this is your mantra, we invite you to submit your best photos to the 2021 Georgetowner Photo Competition. Last held in 2013 — and back by popular demand — the contest is open to anyone with a good eye and the power of artful observation (contest details on Page 11).

Keep shooting and watch this space.

Where’s the first place you’ll go when the city opens up?

YOUR OPINION MATTERS. Post your response. Facebook.com/TheGeorgetowner

Volta Park Needs Your Help

As our gardens begin to bloom, you have probably noticed the Volta Park field could use help. Our formerly grassy fields have seen better days. Drainage problems under the field have led to large patches of bare dirt, and the baseball diamond is currently too treacherous to host Little League games.

The expenses associated with these issues far exceed the resources of the Friends of Volta Park, and we desperately need the city’s assistance. As a public park, and in our agreement with the District government, maintenance of the field and baseball diamond is a D.C. responsibility, but we are competing with a wide variety of city projects for a limited amount of funds.

Please write to the office of Mayor Muriel Bowser at eom@dc.gov to let her know how much we need the city’s help to make the field once again safe for our children and bring grass back to the field.

Check out our newsletter for updates on events, fundraisers and general park facilities — including a friendly reminder to keep our four-legged furry friends on a leash while in and around Volta Park.

We appreciate all the support shown FOVP throughout this unprecedented year. — Darcy Nauman and Diana Minshall

Georgetown’s Alarming Lime Infestation

I am a longtime denizen of Georgetown and I extensively fish its waterways on a daily basis — Rock Creek, the C&O Canal, as well as the Potomac. Lately I have found myself amazed and perplexed by the amount of discarded Lime electric scooters and orange bicycles that absolutely infest our neighborhood, and especially the less trodden underbelly of our neighborhood.

I see dozens, if not hundreds, of scooters/bikes in the creek, in the canal, in the river, all along the bike trails, all along footpaths in the woods, basically everywhere. There is an especially alarming buildup of them below the neighborhood’s bridges, where they are seemingly tossed from.

It is apparent that Lime has no obligation to collect their discarded scooters/bikes, as I routinely walk past ones that have lain there for multiple months. I do not believe I am exaggerating when I say this is a serious problem. It is absolutely getting out of control, and if the myriad of discarded Lime scooters/bikes is not substantially curbed sooner than later, future generations of Georgetowners will find their waterways cluttered beyond all hope. — Van Hillard

‘No Convincing Evidence’ of Man-Made Climate Change

The article “Combating Climate Change: Essential, Not Optional” [April 14 issue] is based upon the false and unwarranted assumption that the gradual warming of the Earth since the end of the “little ice age” in 1780 is the result of a miniscule increase in carbon dioxide [From 280 parts per million of the Earth’s atmosphere to 420 parts per million] due to man’s burning of fossil fuels.

A balanced article would have informed readers that thousands of scientists reject the hypothesis, popularized by Al Gore and computer climate modelers, that man-made carbon dioxide is the primary cause of the current warming trend. In fact, more than 31,000 scientists, including luminaries such as Dr. Edward Teller, father of the atomic bomb, have signed the Oregon Global Warming Petition, at petitionproject.org, which states there is “no convincing evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate.”

The Earth’s climate has always been, and always will be, in a constant state of change due to changes in the Earth’s orbit; the heat generated by the Sun; the heat and volcanoes generated by the Earth’s molten core; meteors; and cosmic radiation. We humans have no ability to “combat” any of those continuous natural impacts on our climate. We can only “adapt,” as humans have been required to do ever since they first walked upon the Earth many eons ago. — Don W. Crockett Editor’s note: Teller was the father of the hydrogen bomb, not the atomic bomb.