President's Letter - February 2012
 CAG President,
Jennifer Altemus
While I was away in January
(Singapore and Thailand!)
I asked several board members
to write about the CAG programs
or issues they are involved in.
First, Diane Colasanto updates us
about Block Captains and Public
Safety: We’ve been very busy over the last
several months—recruiting new block
captains, sending out alerts, and planning
for block-by-block meetings
with our local police officers.
So far, 67 residents have volunteered
to be block captains, acting as “crime communication
central” for their close-by neighbors. They each
assemble a contact list for the households on their block
and forward information about public safety to the residents
who want to be kept informed. Program coordinators,
Bev Casserly, Helen Darling and I, monitor the
crime reports, alerts, and press releases issued by MPD,
and gather more information about incidents from the
police when needed. We summarize the information and
e-mail the block captains so it can be shared.
About 60% of the residential blocks have a block captain.
If you haven’t already heard from your own block
captain, you can check the list at http://cagtown.org/blockcaptains2011.
pdf for contact information. If your block
doesn’t have a captain, contact me at dcolasanto@gmail.
com for more information, or call CAG at 337-7313.
CAG’s wants to expand the program so every resident who
wants timely access to public safety alerts will have it.
CAG’s overall Public Safety Program also includes the
Guards from Securitas who patrol the neighborhood five
nights a week, strong advocacy with the MPD, and a pilot
program installing security cameras on some residential
blocks. These efforts are entirely funded by donations and
all donations are tax-deductibe. If you haven’t yet donated
to the program, visit the CAG website today at www.cag
town.org/(Public Safety) and please contribute.
Second, Bob vom Eigen provides information about
The National Park Service feasibility study on the location
and size boat house structures along the Potomac
River in Georgetown. The study comes after years of
unsuccessful deliberations over the size and location of
the boat house proposed by Georgetown University in
2006. There is no disputing the critical need for more
boat house capacity. Thompson Boat Center is severely
crowded and the
popularity of rowing
is expanding. There
is no shortage of
studies of where to
locate the needed
boat houses, commencing
with the
designation in 1986
of a non-motorized
zone beginning at the
foot of 34th Street
and extending 1000
feet west of the Key
Bridge, as part of the
Georgetown Waterfront
Park plan approved by the DC City Council, the
Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning
Commission. In the following 26 years there have
been several additional studies, but no progress in dealing
with the congestion at Thompson’s.
Why an additional study now? There is one potential
new development since the 1980’s which would impact
the location of the boat houses – the possible construction
of a massive holding tunnel for storm sewer run-off (a
part of the DC Clean Rivers Project by WASA) west of the
Key Bridge. WASA needs to designate now the access
point from which the underground tunnel boring would
commence up-stream because no one would invest funds
for a boat house on a site that might be condemned and
converted to a construction zone.
The key questions are:
1) Can this feasibility study process succeed in building
a consensus over where and what kind of boat houses can
be constructed within the existing or revised boat house
zone? 2) Will it be a further expenditure of funds that
simply delays the National Park Service makeing a tough
decision. The answer to the first: probably no, given the
strident opposition by several interest groups to any new
construction west of Key Bridge. The answer to the second:
probably yes. Prospects for expediting a solution to
the problem of boat house congestion are not good.
Please come to the very important Zoning Commission
meeting Feb. 9 to hear the commissioners public
deliberation about the GU campus plan. And I look forward
to seeing you at CAG Presents Georgetown ARTS
2012 reception at the House of Sweden on February.
-Jennifer Altemus
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