D.C. gets another Whole Foods location today—the store opened today in Foggy Bottom at 22nd and I Street NW.

Two critical questions: A) Will having a new fancy grocery store in the area relieve the wrap-around-the-store lines at Trader Joe's? B) Will the new store (and parking garage) be less of a design nightmare than the P Street NW Whole Foods?

Photo by dionhinchcliffe via Flickr / Creative Commons Attribition 2.0 Generic License

On Feb. 9, 1821, President James Monroe approved a congressional charter for Columbian College in the District of Columbia, today now known as George Washington University. The college, today located in Foggy Bottom, was originally situated adjacent to today's Florida Avenue near 14th Street NW. Several Baptist ministers, notably Luther Rice, Obadiah B. Brown, Spencer H. Cone, and Enoch Reynolds, purchased the land for the college for $7,000.

Columbian College initially had a just a prep school and two academic departments: theology and classics. The class of 1822, comprised of 30 students, was taught by three professors, and a tutor. Congress required the college be free of religious discrimination:

Persons of every religious denomination shall be capable of being elected Trustees; nor shall any person, either as President, Professor, Tutor or pupil, be refused admittance, or denied any of the privileges, immunities, or advantages thereof, for or on account of his sentiments in matters of religion.

The university changed its name to The George Washington University in 1904, as part of an agreement with the George Washington Memorial Association. The university moved to its Foggy Bottom location in 1912.

Photo by Flickr user arvindgrover using an Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license

(Photo by Andres Rueda/Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License)

Congrats, D.C.: We have the third-lowest credit card delinquency rate in the nation, falling to 0.61 percent. Just two more spots and we beat Iowa!

As the Washington Business Journal reports, there’s even more promising news on the local personal debt front: “In the District, the average total credit card balance was $4,916, down 15.78 percent from a year ago.” Ahh, great!?!

It’d be interesting to see a breakdown of these numbers by ward or by ZIP code, but that information isn’t available. But it seems reasonable to assume that numbers for areas near college campuses, where living by plastic is an unfortunate rite of passage to adulthood, would be high.

The average George Washington University student now graduates with an average tuition debt load of $31,299. And that’s not factoring other credit card debt. Ouch!

If GWU grads stick around town after graduation, will that bring down D.C.’s relatively rosy credit card delinquency rate? Let's check back on that. Maybe all the recent credit card reforms will help?

Ben Schumin/Creative Commons

City Desk just spoke to the Metro rider who helped rescue a man from the tracks in the Foggy Bottom station on the Blue Line recently, who provided a little more information on the incident (which the rider also wrote in to Unsuck DC Metro about). The passenger, who prefers not to be named, says he was on his way towards an escalator and out of the station on June 16  when something odd happened.

"I happened to notice out of the corner of my eye that a woman was leaning over the platform ," the rider says. Though he was caught up in a tide of exiting passengers, he turned around to check things out. "I couldn't just walk by, " he says. Drawing closer, he could see that the woman, who was wearing high heels and a business suit, had gotten on her knees to reach for something. Drawing closer still, he could see what she was struggling to get a hold of—a man.

The man looked disoriented, and had fallen on the tracks. "He was trying to get on the platform," the rider says. Though the platform was full of commuters, no one besides the woman made any attempt to help him.

The man seemed in obvious, imminent danger. It was about 9:30 a.m."There was obviously not a train there that second, but I was pretty sure one would be there soon because it was rush hour," the rider says. Running over to give the woman a hand, the rider grabbed the man's belt while the woman grabbed his arms. The rider says the man on the tracks was a pretty big guy—240 to 250 pounds—but the two nevertheless managed to hoist him to safety.

After that, the rider saw a "station manager hauling butt down there." As the man now had help, the rider continued on his way to work. WMATA has confirmed the incident took place.

When he thought back on the situation, the rider says, he was bothered by the  fact that his fellow train riders had merely watched as the woman struggled to save the man on the tracks. "There were tons of people," he says. Though some were obviously calling for help on their cellphones, "One person calling was good, but the rest could have helped her."

Actually, according to Metro spokesperson Lisa Farbstein, you're not supposed to reach for a passenger who falls on the tracks. Besides the fact that there's 750 volts coursing through the third rail, the person you're reaching for could inadvertently doom you. "If somebody had a hold of your arm, and the train is coming, you could be pulled into harm's way," Farbstein warns.

Still, it seems unlikely the passive onlookers at Foggy Bottom knew that. Some of them, the rider says, just walked by as if nothing was happening.

So what are you supposed to do if you see someone fall on the tracks? According to Farbstein, high-tail it to one of the two Metro call-boxes on the platform. There, you should be able to reach the station manager. The manager will call headquarters and have them cut the power to the the station, nullifying the threat of oncoming trains and accidental electrocution.

Craving a PB&J and pale ale at 10 p.m.? An old town neighborhood mart where everybody knows your name? Wait no more. After months of delay, the old Foggy Bottom Grocery at 2140 F St. is set to open in February. The newly renovated “FoBoGro,” as it's called, will operate seven days a week, from 7 a.m. to midnight, offering comfort food to George Washington University students during late-night study sessions and serving up Danishes and coffee to early birds, notably at the nearby State Department. FoBoGro is a “corner store where you run into your friends, people know who you are,” says owner Kris Hart.

Though you won’t find any pizza—that was one of the compromises. Last fall, City Desk reported, the GWU alum bought the grocery store, opened in 1946, in hopes of revamping the run-down establishment into a modern-day mart with fresh produce and prepared food. The opening stalled, as he faced opposition from the West End Citizens Association (WECA). The group's fears: Students visiting late at night would disturb sleeping residents and drag down property values.

FoBoGro won the battle earlier this month when its alcohol license was approved by the D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, reported the GW Hatchet. Its building permits, and hours were approved shortly after by the D.C. Office of Zoning. Originally planned to open until 2 a.m., the mart compromised with a midnight closing.

Hart, COO Devlin Keating, and friends spent countless hours experimenting in their kitchen, tweaking the menu. The P.B.J.B. adds a bit of flare to the original PB&J with bananas and granola. (Hey, we are adults, after all.) The Cazenovia Sub is named after Keating's home town in upstate New York and is modeled after an old favorite: hand-sliced Italian ham, pepperoni, sopressata, sharp provolone, lettuce, tomato, tangy hot peppers, oregano, oil, and vinegar. “We wanted to take some classics…and we wanted to put some fun kind of twists on others,” Keating reports. (Foggy) Bottoms up, Cheers is finally moving in.

Photograph by Daniel Blake

There was a quick-draw showdown on the dusty streets of the Senate Finance Committee yesterday, and Montana Senator Max Baucus came out swinging. Both Democratic proposals to create a government-run insurance plan were shot down by the committee, leaving saloon shutters flapping and the road wide open for Baucus to ride in with his plan by the end of the week.

And how does the committee chairman want to run this town? Like any good sheriff, he vies for the middle of the road: that is to say, nonprofit insurance cooperatives over the public option, and as an alternative to private companies. After all, no cowboy worth his salt will trust those private vigilantes...but neither will he tame the wild west.

And over in Foggy Bottom, the metro stop, in addition to a couple blocks of 23^rd street, was closed for several hours due to a “suspicious package.” As one GWU student put it, “[the package] was bouncing.”

If bouncy packages weren’t enough to worry about, the robbers have decided to take on the guise of D.C. businessmen—a mugger alert went out Monday on 16^th and K Street for a man wearing a black suit, black hat, white shirt, and carrying a briefcase. Maybe he had an interview later?

And finally, ABC7 reported that at the concert last night at the FedEx Field, “U2 fans” were concerned about the traffic, and a lot of “U2 fans” couldn’t get off work early. Sadly, the author didn’t realize that the 80,000 concertgoers were rushing to see the far superior unmentioned act, Muse. Any of these mythical U2 fans out there want to give a shout-out?

That's it for today—I think the swine got me, and there's no vaccine until the first week of October....

Photo by Freeparking, Creative Commons Attribution License

The renovations to the system will cost $177 million (only $80 million more than anticipated last summer!) and will take upwards of 4 years to complete, beginning in early 2010.  Among the important tasks of the renovation are:

• New escalators at the south entrance of Dupont Circle – Please, slow down this exit even more.  And give me an opportunity to walk up and down that ridiculously long escalator when it's not running.
• Upgrades to the air conditioning and ventilation – Does the Metro really need to be colder?  Maybe when the trains are filled to capacity, which will only worsen when the Red Line starts single-tracking to solve this issue.
• Rehabilitation of the Rockville and Shady Grove platforms – What does that even mean?  Re-grouting the tiles?  Adding a few benches?
• New staircases, escalators, and a canopy at Foggy Bottom – A canopy?  Really?  Get an umbrella.

The other planned maintenance seems more on track, if you'll forgive the pun.  Like an upgrade to the automatic train controls and track maintenance and fixing the tunnel ventilation and fire equipment.  Maybe those should be the primary focus.  Because it's always better to prevent train collisions than to prevent getting wet while entering the station.

The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) is advising motorists that the 2600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue, NW is closed to eastbound traffic because of a sinkhole. A square hole, approximately 4 feet by 4 feet, and 5 feet deep, has developed in the roadway near the bridge over Rock Creek (see attached photo).

DDOT crews are on the scene to make repairs. They are also working with the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to try and reopen a lane for eastbound traffic, but delays are likely and motorists are advised to take alternate routes if possible

Any readers got pics?

UPDATE, 5:35 P.M.: WUSA-TV has a photo.