In Shaw (the historically gentrified blog)

This morning I spotted the following at R and New Jersey Ave NW.

New CaBi station! Well since this is a decade in review this is a far cry from the old ugly bike.

This was first seen in the 2005 entry "Bike Handle on Richardson." Yes, people of Richardson Place, your street used to look like crap, with that mix of broken concrete and brick.

One of the great things about the neighborhood in the early days was it was a good place to get around without owning a car. Still is, but back in 2005, you had to own your own bike. None of this fancy schmancy CaBi stuff. I had a little series of posts called "Living in Shaw with no car" one of those was in regards to bikes. Looking back on that post there have been some changes. Chain Reaction is no longer there. It was a cool bike shop, where Red Toque currently sits, operated by the now defunct Shaw Eco-Village non-profit. It had young men, teenagers, fixing bikes at a nice price. Now I use Bicycle Space, which is a bit further from the house.  Also from that post I see that bike lanes were appearing on R but between 7th and 14th. Love that in the following years the lanes expanded. I really wish they'd expand more to have something between 7th and North Cap that gets you past NY Ave and Downtown. There is so much more around here to walk and bike to it is wonderful.

One of the great things about the neighborhood, and I say "neighborhood" in the general walking around space, ignoring political and civic boundaries, is the Bloomingdale Farmers Market. The BFM is coming back for another wonderful year of fruit, doggies walking around, meats, and baked goods. Saw the announcement that this coming Sunday it will be open again from 9AM to 1PM.

2007 was the first year of the market, per a quick look of my old posts. That was the same year as the opening of Big Bear, and as we know from experience, the two go together. I'm quite sure if I searched  I could find a post mentioning a previously failed market in Bloomingdale that sat around on Joe Mamo's lot. A farmer's market outside of the coffee shop just works, so it would be best to keep it where it is.

As  a resident and blogger I have enjoyed the market. I seem to have mentioned the market each year it has been open. It is not as big as other DC markets but it is great in its smallness. Neighbors can meet up with each other, kids can get introduced to unprocessed food, and people can talk to farmers.

I look forward to Sunday.

I keep looking at my old 2003 post "My Dream of Shaw" trying to figure out what I could say to the person who wrote that entry ten years ago.

Is my block diverse? Is my neighborhood diverse? There was a question of diversity at the most recent BACA meeting directed towards the Mundo Verde representative. It seems that 7% of the staff of this very sought after charter school, is African-American. An attendee asked if that was enough diversity, so at the same time I can wonder does our neighborhood have enough diversity. But then what kind of diversity? Looking at the census tract that covers Truxton Circle, tract 46, we went from 92% black in 2000 to 65% black in 2010. This can be seen as a good thing because it means the neighborhood is no longer a segregated black neighborhood.  I've been glancing at academic papers about segregation, and they seem to agree that segregation is bad. However the authors of these things seem to want to desegregate white neighborhoods, with an influx of up and coming (they say poor, but let's be hopeful and positive) African Americans in order for the black newcomers to take advantage of job opportunities, better housing, better schools, and lower crime. No one seems to advocate for it going the other way around, whites desegregating a poorer black neighborhood to bring (eventually) job opportunities, better housing and lower crime. When it happens in the other direction, we call it gentrification.

It's diverse enough. It isn't Georgetown, nor does it look like the neighborhoods west of the Park. As long as there is the Co-op, and multi-generation families who bought their houses in the bad old 80s (or before) there will be some level of economic and racial diversity. Mom or grandma might own the house free and clear and may be in good health to live long enough to out last the young new couple who moved in. Then she may pass the property on to the kids or grandkids who live with her, and they might have 5 or more years of living there before deciding to cash out or getting moved out due to taxes or foreclosure or seizure by a non-resident relative who was smart enough to get mom to sign a will leaving it to them (it has been done!). When the bank or the IRS or the City or the smarter relative sells, as none seem interested in landlording, it won't be to a poor person.

Even landlords seem to have lost interest in Section 8s and renting to the poor. The evil landlord on my block lost interest in renting to crackheads a few years ago. Seriously you'd think she was advertizing on the back side of crack baggies. She does not invest in her property, but she has fixed it up juuuuust enough to rent to young people enjoying their crummy group house in the hood experience, as opposed to crack heads who don't seem to care about crap. Another landlord, who isn't evil, also decided to go with market rate over Section 8, because the Section 8 tenants were rough on the structure and tore the place up. Both landlords are black, renting to non-blacks.

I've digressed on the topic of diversity.

Crime, is better than it was before, but I still fear jinxing that so, no more on that topic.

In 2003 I wrote, "As far as businesses go, I dream of fewer liquor stores. A few places where I can walk to in 15-20 minutes from the house and grab a pastry, or sit down and eat, or buy a book." Well, books come in the mail or on-line in digital form, so scratch that. There are almost as many liquor stores as last time, just fewer places to buy 40 oz beer and MD 20/20 to go. Now in 2013, I can walk 10 minutes and get a pastry or baked good or cookies. In 2013, there are several places in walking distance to sit down and eat some food, with wait service. Well that part of the dream came true, and I also got things I didn't even dream about that I wanted, like the Bloomingdale Farmer's Market .

I could say to my 10 years younger self that the neighborhood becomes more attractive and less segregated and it will be a great place to live, sorry it is taking so long.

Blog Issues-I haven't been posting anything lately because of the flashing warning signal from my host saying how much space I was running out of, so I deleted a bunch of stuff, including, the old "This meeting never happened" entries. It pains me but I'm going to have to start deleting more material at inshaw.com/blog, now that most of it is at http://dcinshaw.blogspot.com/. Little extras, like the meeting notes hidden behind a password are gone. Well, gone from the public website. I have a copy. I created it after an incident where a speaker who came to a BACA meeting did not like how Google (not my fault, blame Google, but I'm easier to yell at than Google) summarized my notes. I wrote that I was buzzed and he was loud, but the way Google had it, he was drunk and loud. Apparently his co-workers were small minded speed reading non-click through bitties that caused him trouble. Anyway....

I'll probably start deleting chunks of the old Inshaw Site starting with 2010 and working down to 2003. The goal is to reclaim 2 Gigs to have more space to put things on TruxtonCircle.org.

House on Street 4 Sale- In my last post I mentioned neighbors were going to put their house on the market. Well, it is on the market for $649K.  There was an open house Sunday, but I saw people with the sheets of paper where the map location in the top corner looking at the house Friday. Those MRIS print out sheets haven't changed much since I bought my house, except now they are in color. It will be interesting to see what will be the final price.

????- The picture, I have no clue but it was something new at the corner of Rhode Island and New Jersey. Sign seems to say it will be like that till the end of the month.

I could search the past times I've done this, but I'm just going to break my own rule, just this once. Unless something like this pops up again....

Chatting with a neighbor, I discovered another family will be leaving our lovely street and there is a 95% chance that they will sell. They think they'll need to stage the house so they can get the best price.  My vague memories are that the house is mordern on the inside and in good shape. It is a 3 bedroom more than 1,400 sq ft.

I'm aware some of you are dying to live on my block and yes, it is an awesome block, so heads up.

Well I think I've found a pattern. I see something new, I search my blogs for when I posted about it, and write up something short and post it. This is the case with the North Capitol Street firehouse.

Yes, the firehouse that seemed to have been doomed to a circle of neighborhood development Hell.

 I found a post that was written by my short term co-writer Truxonian from 2006 announcing that a restaurant was coming. [Mari looks at wrist] It's 2013, seven years now. Boundary Stone wasn't even a sparkle in anyone's eye then and Big Bear wasn't going to open until later that year. There was lots of hope and promise and sh*t in the air.

Well the new thing is the Firehouse has a facebook page. Which I think is the requirement for all new hip ventures opening in Bloomingdale. In the past 24 hours, the owners of the page have posted a photo of an upstairs bar...... Hey how's that ABRA license thing going? Is Steve May still in charge of this project? Sorry, but I am seriously friggin jaded. I've had 7 years to get this way and Mr. May's 2011 hissy fit letter didn't help.

Scott Robert's seems to be more hopeful.

I saw on the Shaw Neighborhood Yahoo list ANC Kevin Chapple mentioned that the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) selected the Shaw 42 Developers as the developers for Parcel 42. This confused me because I thought some hotel group got the ANC vote and silly me thought last year's ANC's vote counted for something. If you forgot what all the proposals were, see East Shaw's blog.

The Parcel 42 saga has been going on for a while. My earliest mention was back in 2007 (6 years ago). There was another mention in 2009, and 2010, 2011, and 2012. Part of that was the protest camp that was there in 2010.

UPDATE- East Shaw has a post on this new turn.

Last night we drove past the new Italian Bloomingdale restaurant Red Hen, and man that place was crowded. It looked fun but crowded. We'll probably wait a week or two before checking it out ourselves. But this got me to thinking that Bloomingdale is the place where the cool destination places are landing, while we over in the TC just get to look and walk over.

Part of me wants to say it started with Windows, they were there first, and pointed to as a signal of change in the neighborhood. This was in 2005. The next year Big Bear, the coffee shop, opened after much, much waiting and hoping and a few get to know the neighbors events. Then it became the tie for the Bloomingdale Farmers Market in 2007, and real estate ads began citing it as an amenity. Now the coffee shop is all fancy and stuff and popular.

In early 2008, Kim Wee opened Timor, now Field to City. Back then it was just a few shelves and some fresh milk in glass jars. Back then, if you wanted milk in glass jars you had to go all the way to the Logan Circle Whole Foods. Back then it was also quirky, as Kim would adjust and change things, like making the side door the entrance after he was robbed.

Two years later there was a hint of the Boundary Stone coming to Rhode Island Avenue. I'm doing this decade in review to check the copy of the old blog, so by the time the Boundary Stone opened in 2011, I'd moved from inshaw.com/blog to blog.inshaw.com. A bit before Boundary Stone's opening, Rustik opened in the fall of 2010. 

It seems each year after that Bloomingdale gets something new, some new place or thing that helps define the commerical part of the neighborhood, making the place more and more attractive. These changes did not come quickly, as nothing seemed quick about them as we waited for construction, and licenses, and stuff before we could start enjoying these places and taking friends to them. I predict Red Hen won't be the last new great thing in Bloomingdale, as there is something about the neighborhood. When we figure out what "it" is, maybe Truxton Circle can get some.

 

Note: I also found in my old blog posts EC-12 dating back to 2006, there is probably some 2005. EC-12 is the firehouse on North Capitol that was supposed to become a restaurant. In 2006, that's pitiful.

Happy Federal Income Tax due day. When I have blogged about taxes, I tend to stick with the real estate taxes because I can look that up on the city government's website. I have only mentioned the individual tax return thing maybe once on the old InShaw blog. That was praising the free online DC tax filing. This year I bitched about it, because it was so friggin confusing. I tried to do our DC taxes by hand but the instructions were so confounding and confusing, such as directing us to look at page X but not giving the page number.

So I gave up and paid the extra for the state software, good thing. The amount I paid was returned to me 5 times over in a refund. Last year when we used DC on-line tool we wrote a check to the government. Because the commerical software kept insisting that we file on the same form separately, as opposed to filing jointly, like I wanted to do. Makes me wonder if I would have had to write a check last year if I had bothered to use commerical software.

Part of me wants to write about leadership, but I can see where that can lead to hurt feelings.  I discovered a post on the ToT blog about a current leader's outburst that I found disappointing. But I'm going to go with the song accentuate the positive, the positive being Jim Berry, former ANC for 5C01 and former BACA president for-like-forever.

I had to search my emails to locate a 2007 event I distinctly remember, honoring Jim, in order to locate a mere mention in the blog. I didn't go into detail but a huge thing was Jim's service to others, putting others before himself, being humble. A lot of honorary dinners have a lot a empty blah-blah-blah of why X is a great leader, there I remember a lot of testimony of how Jim treated them or helped them and I learned a lot about this huge teddy bear of a man.

Something else I had to search the emails for that I'm sure is mentioned nowhere on the blog, Jim's vision. In 2007 I had found, while skimming the transcripts of the National Capital Planning Commission Meeting, Jim's name. It seems that in October 1995 he testified in support of the building of the MCI (now Verizon) Center, seeing that future residents in our neighborhood walking over to the purposed entertainment center to enjoy what the place had to offer. I think of it and have thought of his testimony every time I'm on the 70 bus back home and I have caught a glimpse of a neighbor on 7th St with stroller/kid in tow after some child friendly event at the Verizon Center or movie. Jim acknowledged the problems of the now, but he also held a view of a better future ahead.
One of the things I really appreciated with Jim as my ANC was his full support on issues like zoning. In 2005 and 2006 the residents of Square 507 (Richardson Pl, NJ Ave, 4th St, etc) were dealing with a developer named Wilbur Mondie. Mr. Mondie wanted to build several "luxury" townhomes on a few skinny lots on Richardson Pl. The houses were to be something like 12 feet wide (6 feet short of legal) and 3-4 stories tall. One passionate neighbor, Karl, organized many other neighbors in protest. There were several daytime, during work hours, BZA meetings.  Jim showed up to at least 1 or 2 of them and as ANC supported the protesting residents. So it was disappointing when a few years later the ANC who replaced Jim did not provide any support when another zoning issue came up in the area.
Jim wasn't perfect, at times he was too sympathetic and understanding, particularly with the running of the BACA meetings. He let people have a voice, but that would allow the meeting to devolve into a gripe session. I understand in the gripes there was real pain and the possibly that the victim hadn't had anyone else to listen to their story. So Jim was slow to cut people off, which made meetings run long.
Jim was BACA president until 2010 and stepped down from his role as ANC in 2006. As I remember, he moved to somewhere in Ward 4, and that was the last I heard.