Day: July 7, 2005

Grass growing was the most exciting thing at the PG Plaza metro station.
I did see two verrrry relaxed police officers at Columbia Heights as I headed out of the station. They were chatting it up as one leaned against the newspaper recycle bin. When I came back from the store they were no where in sight.
At Shaw I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Okay a bunch of people trying to figure out the farecard machines was a tiny bit out of the ordinary, but not really. No metro police. No DC police. And the metro troll was safe in the booth. Nope nothing out of the ordinary.
Yet the local TV stations show a different picture. Cops with semi-automatic looking weapons! Metro employees passing out helpful information! German shepherds sniffing! Now I’m gonna have to do some damage control with the folks back in Florida, who are ignoring the coming hurricane. ‘Cause really, if I didn’t listen to the radio or watch the news, I wouldn’t have known different judging from my trip.
Yet I’m not belittling what happened this morning in London. I lived in London for one summer. When I can, I visit the city often. I still have a savings account there. Londoners, I will have you know are a tough bunch. Their elders survived the Blitz and the post war rationing. I know there is one chain smoking Pakistani Londoner who can kick all the terrorists’ butts and not mess up her hair. They are amazing from the East End to Earl’s Court. I’m brought to near tears thinking about the folks I’ve met in London. Types who would meet the end of the world with a cuppa or a pint and muddle on regardless.

Running off to work I think I ran into the crack ho Toby mentioned. Nope she’s not from our block. She passed by the house of our resident crack head without missing a step, so she’s not one of ours. Maybe she lives a little south of here.
Okay, I’m guessing she’s a crack ho. Skinny as all out. Little bitty shirt, tiny little jean skirt, and messed up chemically fried hair. At 6:30AM in the morning, and there isn’t a dog attached to you, I might guess crack ho.

And before anyone corrects me, it is “ho” not “whore” they are too cheap to be worth the extra letters and if you want to use the term “sex worker,” screw you.

Your house gains in value, your taxes go up.
A new luxury condo or office building is slated to go up near you, 1 year or more of construction crew tramping through your hood with noise and dust.
Then when the damned thing is finished and people move in, there is no parking around because even if the residents have parking, their friends/customers who want to visit don’t.
A string of cool funky shops open up, weird funky looking people start walking around.
Then you wonder if it just wasn’t better to live in a neighborhood where there were no decent eateries or shops, and you had rows of abandoned lots and no one wanted to just visit your neighborhood to look around. Now LaShawn’s Beauty and Nail Salon don’t look so bad now, ’cause she doesn’t attract rats or a large customer base that want to take your parking space.
The Truxton area is on the verge of something. We could try to help develop the North Capitol Main Streets whatchamacallit, but do the residents really honestly and truly want to bring commercial development to North Capitol?
Everyso often people mention why can’t we be like such and such neighborhood and another X [insert the old standbys, Georgetown, Dupont, etc]. Maybe we should think also about the big negatives that come with the things that make the place so great and ask “Do I want X so bad enough I’ll put up with Y?”
Example:
“Do I want the convience of being able to get a cab a block over so bad that I’d put up with more traffic on nearby roads?”

“Do I want a bunch of luxury condos in my neighborhood so bad that I’d put up with higher taxes for my fee simple home?”

“Do I want an overpriced chichi grocers that will bring me closer to the poor house with each visit?”

“Do I want more of a residential feel to my neighborhood that I’d put up with a lack of commercial options?”

I’m sure the people of Georgetown are tired of non-residents of the neighborhood clomping through their hood ooggling their houses. I can guess the sound of drunks getting out of the bars near Adams Morgan is maddening. The people of Woodley Park might want to slap all the people who ask where the Zoo is, and the monkey that keeps waking them up in the morning. And somewhere in Dupont someone is tired of parking 2-3 blocks away from their house in a spot that took them 20 minutes to find. My point is, the cool funky thing you want for the neighborhood, comes at a price, may be you want to pay it, maybe not. Maybe your neighbors would be glad to put up with the negative to just get a sliver of the positive that you give no value to, maybe.
Over near Trinidad there is a question of if they want a bunch of bars and restaurants up and down H Street. Positive, all the really cool neighborhoods have a bunch of bars and restuarants down their high streets. Negative, bars and restaurants bring guys who pee in your alleys, people who park in front of your house, extra noise and traffic, and possibly more rats. Maybe with good will and open minds and hearts residents and businesses can try to combat the negatives, but there will be negatives.