Big GDS news

[Anonymous]

The Palisades campus will likely be sold to another school.

So I guess the proponents are ok with people driving to their neighborhood to shop for groceries?

Yes that area was long in the tooth, but many were very happy with the prospects of both being redeveloped into better retail with more housing and a real grocery store.

[Anonymous]

If they add a cafeteria what will people on DCUM complain about!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

So I guess the proponents are ok with people driving to their neighborhood to shop for groceries?

There's a Whole Foods a short walk away (2 blocks), another a short bike ride/longer walk/1-stop metro ride away (near Friendship Heights metro), and there will be a new Giant on Wisconsin near the Cathedral for those who must drive. That Safeway was gross and usually empty anyway.

[Anonymous]

Wonder if they'll be able to close 42nd St between Ellicott and Davenport? Also, won't that still be a pretty small campus for a K-12 school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/openhouse/development/georgetown-day-school-buying-safeway-and-car-dealership-in-big-expansion.php

GDS is buying the Safeway and Volvo dealership to expand and consolidate its campuses.

Great for the school. Horrible for the neighborhood.

I think it's a win-win. Great for the school and for the AU neighborhood, which avoids getting another oversized, generic town center development of the type going up a mile south along Wisconsin Avenue. Even some folks who thought they wanted Cathedral Commons are now expressing surprise and disappointment at how large and out of scale it is for the surrounding neighborhood. They are concerned that it will be traffic magnet nightmare. I am not a GDS parent, but I expect that the school will be much more sensitive to immediate community concerns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This also explains why they haven't spent a lot of $$$ upgrading the lower/middle school recently...

Palisades, get ready for a mega-development.

Nonsense. Some other independent school will jump at the chance to buy GDS' Palisades facility.

[Anonymous]

Great news!! Now we just need a decent grocery store at Spring Valley shops where Fresh & Greens was.

[Anonymous]

Great Leadership at GDS! This is excellent news!

[Anonymous]

Actually I think this isn't great for the HS. They will have to share their field and some facilities with a bunch of little kids. Right now GDS HS is unique in that it really does feel like a suburban high school with all the perks that comes with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Actually I think this isn't great for the HS. They will have to share their field and some facilities with a bunch of little kids. Right now GDS HS is unique in that it really does feel like a suburban high school with all the perks that comes with.

Could you elaborate a bit on this? What are the perks, aside from being able to leave campus for lunch, which, BTW, students at many independent schools may do, including -- just one example -- Sidwell, right down the street.

[Anonymous]

This is a lose-lose for anyone who lives in the neighborhood, unless their kid happens to go to GDS.

[Anonymous]

How can this be a good thing for the city? Just more loss of property tax dollars....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a Palisades resident who hates the GDS lower school traffic, I'm curious what will happen to the lower school campus.

Perhaps a low-security prison?

Well played.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a lose-lose for anyone who lives in the neighborhood, unless their kid happens to go to GDS.

How is that? Traffic?

[Anonymous]

Good. The GDS lower school is a soul less mass of 1970's construction . Tear it down and be done with it. Thank God.