Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Education, enforcement are key to ending unsafe and unsightly rental properties.
The Georgetown community is taking on the sticky problem of unsafe, unsightly and unlawful rental properties often owned by negligent landlords, rented to inexperienced tenants and inspected by what some consider an inefficient system. The new Georgetown Community Partnership (GCP), composed of neighborhood leaders, students and University officials, formed a committee to address these problems at the GCP steering committee’s first meeting on Nov. 6. Renting Headaches About 1,600 Georgetown undergraduate students live off-campus, and approximately 1,200 of them call West Georgetown and Burleith home, according to university spokesperson Rachel Pugh. Many of these students are renting for the first time. Nearly a thousand inexperienced …
Thursday, September 13, 2012
The success of the partnership depends on a willingness to work towards common goals, leadership says.
Key leaders behind the Georgetown Community Partnership (GCP) have moved beyond the tense litigious realm the Georgetown Campus Plan process created and hope to convince students and neighbors to do the same. Lauralyn Lee, an associate vice president in the Office of Community Engagement at GU, said the campus plan negotiations created a "hostile environment" at times for students living in the community. But she called on students and their neighbors to put those memories aside. "We’re asking people, not only students, but also community members, to change their thinking in a really meaningful way. To start treating their neighbors as neighbors and each other as partners and to work in that collaborative spirit towards partnership," said …
Friday, July 20, 2012
With the exception of the student-held seats, the full slate of sitting commissioners plan to appear on the November ballot
The role of an advisory neighborhood commissioner (ANC) is not always an easy one: long meetings, heated debates and unending responsibility for problems from trash collection to traffic lights. Yet each of Georgetown's current non-student commissioners plans to appear on the ballot once again in November. ANC commissioners serve two-year terms. Current commissioners Bill Starrels, Ron Lewis, and Tom Birch have all picked up their ballots, according to the DC Board of Elections & Ethics (DCBOEE). So have students Craig Cassey, Jr. and Peter Prindiville. As Georgetown Metropolitan pointed out, when Prindiville filed his petition with signatures July 13, he was the second ANC candidate in the entire city to do so. Commissioner Charles Eason …
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Letter states that the two sides want time for 'additional opportunity for facilitated discussions.'
In an surprise move, a Georgetown University representative and leaders of three neighborhood groups opposing the campus plan stood side-by-side Monday night to announce their joint request to the D.C. Zoning Commission for an extension to the Georgetown University campus plan proceedings. The university was due to submit filings on April 12 and April 19, but requested a 60-day extension in an April 2 letter signed by neighborhood groups. The letter requests the extension "in order to permit additional opportunity for facilitated discussions regarding the terms and conditions" of the campus plan. "We're giving a somewhat different report than we had expected," said Ron Lewis, the Advisory Neighborhood Commission chair (ANC), before calling…
Robert Hyman
12:53 pm on Wednesday, November 28, 2012
For one year I was turning in rental properties using the DCRA on line verification system that "leads you to believe" that you have reported a suspected rental property to DCRA for investigation. Then they tell me by phone, a year later, they have no record of my reports and they do not know where the on line reports actually go to. They never received any reports from me. more ›