Month: October 2006

1900 Friday special: Who lived in your house

Okay Fridays are slow days so I figure I can offer this. For today only (Friday October 20, 2006) between now and 5:30PM for residents of the TC, I will tell you who lived in your house in 1900. The TC being anything within the boundaries of Florida, North Cap, New York, and New Jersey Avenues NW. Oh, and your place had to have existed in 1900, which is a good percentage of the houses ’round here.
So you email me at mari at inshaw period com with the subject line “1900 census” and a or your TC address in the body and I will email you back sometime today with info about the 1900 residents (if any) at that address.
See folks history can be fun!

Bates Market

Possibly taken October 17, 2006.

I’m a little late on this but the Bates Market at the corner of 3rd and P is closed. According to the chatter on the TruxtonCircle discussion board, Georgians (of the former Soviet Republic, birthplace of Stalin) are going to take over. Why? I don’t know what attraction the place would have for area Georgians, but what appears will be interesting.
All I know is that it was poorly lit store where some folks hung out. It was a source of get drunk quick malt liquor and dusty canned goods. I had only gone in the store maybe 5 times in the years I have lived here. I prefer G&G Market on NJ and Q. No liquor or beer, well lit, and not too many people hanging out in front.

Jury of your peers

Truxtonian and I have recently been invited by the District of Columbia to appear at the DC Superior court for jury duty. Gaging the crowd forced to watch Sandra Bullock in that 1995 classic “The Net”, a lot of folks were invited and actually bothered to show up. However the crowd did not seem to reflect the 56% black, 32% white, & 10% something else demographic of the city. Also I was not as lucky as I was last time, where I was freed after lunch. This time I was called in so the lawyers could pick and choose (yeah, there is a word for it but I don’t know what it is) from the pool. The defendant, was a black male and I could count the number black men in the pool on one hand. There were a healthy number of black women, including myself, who were talking amongst ourselves trying to figure out how NOT to get picked. Then there was the huge variety of Anglos including a subset of law students, lawyers, and people who work in law firms and plan to go to law school. Chatting with T about his experience, he also noticed a whiter jury pool reflecting the demographic of people moving into the city.
What does this mean for justice? For the city? I don’t know. All I know is that the jury lounge needs more tables, more electrical outlets, and some decent wifi.

PSA 501 Community Meeting (west)

Reminder from the Calendar of MPD-5D
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MPD-5D/cal

PSA 501 Community Meeting (west)
Thursday October 19, 2006
7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
(This event repeats on the third Thursday of every month.)
Location: World Missions Church, 1720 1st Street NW, WDC

Notes:
New location off first street 2 block north of Florida ave.

Trained to ignore screams

There are these teenagers who float near my block. This weekend it was two girls and a boy and they were horsing and hovering around. Their desired form of entertainment was screaming and yelling at each other along with hair pulling, choke holds, and hitting. The girls would frequently emit these loud piercing screams, that elsewhere would signal a need for help, but here was just screaming for screaming sake. Observing the teens the girls weren’t in any obvious danger because they wouldn’t stay away from the boy who was leading the dangerous violent play. The girls kept staying around him. But they kept with the screaming.
It dawned on me that by them engaging in the screaming and the playing “domestic violence” game they are getting those of us who are hearing them and seeing them, to ignore them, which is dangerous. It makes an environment where one can hear a woman screaming that “help me, I need help” kind of scream and ignore it because most of the time it’s been kids horsing around. It could also get one to dismiss real domestic violence that may play itself out in the street.