👋🏼 It's Cuneyt, back with Town Talker — my column on politics and power.

It's an age-old transit fantasy, but with neighborhood bigwigs in support and four concept plans drawn, how real is the idea of a Georgetown Metro stop today?

• "It's totally real," says Joe Sternlieb, who runs the business improvement district. "The question is, is it 20 years away? 30 years away? 40 years?"

⚡️ The big picture: Washington's growth is pressing. And so Metro needs a new Potomac crossing to meet the demands of booming Northern Virginia. It would bypass what's known as the Rosslyn tunnel bottleneck, where only 26 Blue, Yellow or Silver line trains can pass in an hour.

• A second, new tunnel could go through Georgetown.
• An Alexandria resident could board a Blue Line train running through Georgetown straight downtown or to Union Station, which would be a regional mega-station. Another alternative runs the Silver Line through Georgetown, boosting Dulles Airport.

Where? Station spots thrown around by people I spoke with include the foot of Key Bridge at a former gas station or the parking lot that wraps PNC Bank on Wisconsin and M.

• In Kevin Costner's 1987 thriller "No Way Out," the old Georgetown Mall housed a station.

Reality check: Three problems stand in the way.

• The biggest problem is money. The Blue Line or Silver Line expansions are estimated to cost between $25 billion and $40 billion. Enough said.

⛔️ The second problem is NIMBYism.

• First, some myth-busting: There's a 50-plus-year-old tale that Georgetowners prevented a Metro stop because they didn't want outsiders. "The myth is a myth," says Jack Evans, the area's former council member who used to chair the Metro board. "It was more of the fear of buildings falling down and secondly whether there was enough ridership to merit it."

I still wouldn't underestimate the potential for Georgetown dysfunction. Consider that it took the Four Seasons thirteen trips around the sun to turn a vacant heating plant into condos.

• "Metro would be that, compounded many, many times over," says Carol Joynt, who once owned the old Nathans saloon in the heart of Georgetown.

🪨 Some problems are 460 million years old.

• A Georgetown dig would need to blast through a "colossal pillar of solid granite" conceived during the formation of the supercontinent Pangaea, as geologist J.M. Christoph explained in Greater Greater Washington.
• As it happens, that hard rock basically starts west of 26th Street NW, posing a uniquely Georgetown problem.

Full column

Police are investigating a Monday night shooting outside The Point seafood restaurant on the Southwest waterfront that left three people injured.

The big picture: The upscale restaurant, a popular power spot for D.C. politicos, is the latest local business to be caught in the crossfire of the city's rising crime wave.

State of play: Officers in the Buzzard Point area south of Audi Field heard shots outside The Point, where two parties exchanged gunfire at around 8:30pm, according to police.

• Two men and a boy under 18 were wounded and transported to a local hospital. Police tell Axios that one arrest was made, and that the investigation is ongoing.

Zoom in: The Point's owner Greg Casten tells Axios that three of the people involved in the shooting had been patrons at the restaurant, according to reports from his employees and video surveillance, and that they had just left the outdoor patio when the shooting happened.

• Casten says the gunfire struck seven glass windows and a door, but employees and diners inside the restaurant were unharmed.
• The Point has reopened for business as usual.

What they're saying: Casten, who's also behind Tony & Joe's on the Georgetown waterfront and Ivy City Smokehouse, says he's worried about how increasing crime in D.C. is impacting businesses.

• "It's bad for the city and it's bad for the people," Casten tells Axios.

Keep reading

💧 The Anacostia River got a failing grade on its annual report card, which assesses health and cleanliness. The score is an improvement over decades — noting a reduction in toxins and trash, and increased wildlife — but safe swimming and fishing could still be years off. (DCist)

💰 Meanwhile, Pepco agreed to a $57 million settlement with D.C. for allegedly discharging toxic chemicals in the Anacostia. Under terms of the settlement, the energy company will pay $47 million toward river cleanup and $10 million in penalties. (WTOP)

⚖️ The Big Board's owner Eric Flannery—who made repeated headlines for defying D.C.'s Covid mandates —is back in the news. He's suing six past and present ANC commissioners, alleging they conspired to unfairly protest the renewal of the H Street NE bar's liquor license. (The Buckeye Institute)

🍻 Deal du jour: Capitol Hill's Union Pub is running a "Speaker of the Pub" special for just $218 (a sign of the times): 2 buckets of beer, 2 bottles of wine, 8 shots of whiskey, a totchos platter and gavel that will surely not be annoying after all that booze. (X formerly Twitter)

The U.S. Postal Service released a stamp honoring the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, just as the Supreme Court she served for 27 years began a new term on Monday.

The big picture: The USPS announced last year plans for the stamp that features an oil painting of "RBG."

• It costs 66 cents per stamp or $13.20 for a sheet of 20 stamps.

Go deeper

📅 Upcoming events around the city.

13th Annual Red Shoe 5k at the National Harbor on Saturday:

• Ronald McDonald House Charities® of Greater Washington, DC (RMHCDC) eases the hardship of children's illness on families through programs that directly improve the health and wellbeing of children. The Red Shoe 5k is the signature annual event held to raise critical funding for RMHCDC programs and the families that they serve.

Fall Wine Festival & Sunset Tour at Mount Vernon this weekend:

• Taste unlimited samples from Virginia wineries after hours at George Washington's estate. There will be 20 different participating wineries, as well as VIP table options and concessions available to purchase.

Hosting an event? Email [email protected].

There's a first time for everything. This week, Go-Go officially stumped you!

• She was outside the "Unity" mural in Adams Morgan near the Marie Reed Recreation Center.

The backstory: Local artists and students painted the mural in the early 1980s, according to D.C. nonprofit Hola Cultura. The project was organized as a way to unite Latino and African American youth.

What we're watching: Hola Cultura says the mural, located on a Pepco substation poised for renovations, is in jeopardy. The nonprofit is asking anyone interested in helping save the art to reach out via email.