Mayor Fenty may show up at tonight’s BACA mtg

Got an email from Jim Berry:

Neighbors,

I have recently been informed that Mayor Fenty has placed tonight’s BACA meeting on his schedule for the evening and, if possible, he intends to stop by. As you know, we will be talking about the Focused Improvement Area Program that he initiated in parts of Ward Five (including our neighborhood) and we will present a modest award to Ms. Alice Thompson, Outreach and Services Specialist for Ward Five, Executive Office of the Mayor. Finally, we will be receiving community feedback from residents about the future re-uses of the JF Cook Elementary School and MM Washington Career High School buildings to pass along to our neighbor and Advisory Neighborhood Commission Chairperson Anita Bonds as well as the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education.
Hope to see you there!
Best,
Jim Berry
Bates Area Civic Association, Inc.

Do your own d@mned taxes

Once upon a time I had a conversation with my young college aged cousin and I told her, do your own damned taxes. She was waiting for her daddy, my uncle, to do them. I had been filing my own taxes since I was 17 and didn’t see what her excuse was. She her most sophisticated investment might have been a savings account, any money she made herself was from a dinky student job, and she wasn’t being claimed by her parents. If this describes you, do your own damned 1040EZ.
Also regardless of if you do a 1040EZ or 1040, you can file your individual DC taxes electronically for FREE, as I did this weekend. I had filed my Federal taxes a good while ago using one of those tax software programs. So I had that file open as I went step by step with the Individual Income Tax On-Line page. You will have needed to have filed a 2006 DC income tax return for it to work. A lot of it is just copying from your Federal tax form (they say what line you should look at) and plugging it into the on-line page. So don’t pay extra to file your ‘state’ taxes.

The remains of the day

I only glanced at the Sunday paper and some other articles relating to the anniversary of the 1968 riots and noticed something. Furniture stores, drug stores, and liquor stores were looted and burned. It seems the only thing to bounce back from the riots quickly were the liquor stores. Correct me if I am wrong, but between 1970 and 2000 wasn’t the easiest thing to buy in Shaw was something, anything, that could get you smashed quickly?
When I first moved to Shaw (after bouncing around the metro area), beer and wine, or read 40ozs and MD 20/20, was available every two blocks. Now, sorta yes, sorta no. The Bates market, has been shuttered for a while, but it is no longer selling anything. The liquor store on 4th and Florida is transitioning and sells a selection of wines you can cook with.** G&G on New Jersey sells no alcohol. But there are still several old style liquor stores in the hood with the scratched up Plexiglas and 90-100% of the merchandise behind it.
So 10-20-30 and 40 years after the riots, you still have liquor stores. I can’t remember if it was DC or some other post riot city where a black businessman was interviewed. To bring business back to the black community he…. opened a liquor store. I could only shake my head. So though very flammable, liquor is what remains when the fire has died down.

**I don’t believe you can cook with Boone’s Farm. Actually, I don’t think anyone in their right mind should drink Boone’s Farm.

BACA meeting 4/7/08 and empty schools

There will be a BACA meeting tonight and the following will be one of the topics:
From Jim Berry…
Discussion of Future Re-uses JF Cook Elementary School and MM Washington Career High School:
At our upcoming meeting, we will set some time aside to engage in a community discussion about future uses of the buildings that now house JF Cook and MM Washington. As you may know, these two schools are slated to be closed at the end of this school year and the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education is currently soliciting input from community residents as to how they would like to see these buildings re-used after the schools close for good. At a recent meeting on the subject, a number of ideas were offered to DC Government officials, including the placement of an MPD Substation in the JF Cook School building along with space for community meetings and other activities, as well as the conversion of MM Washington into a facility that has an “arts” focus – such as a community theater, a local art gallery, and the like. Other ideas involved housing opportunities for senior citizens, a public library, and the possibility of retaining MM Washington as a Career High School while substantially expanding the number occupational specialties in which its students could be trained for entry level positions in the DC workforce. Also, there was a strong expression of interest in preserving the memory of the historical figures in whose honor these buildings were named. As you know, any one or a combination of these ideas could find their way into the final plans for this important economic development but, perhaps needless to say, we must express a point of view on this topic in order to have our input factored into this decision-making. The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education is hosting a follow-up meeting at which residents and other stakeholders will be permitted to make recommendations about the future re-use of these buildings on the evening of Thursday, April 10, 2008 at McKinley Technology High School . And, we believe that this will be the final meeting called to hear our views concerning these buildings before a decision is made with regard to their respective dispositions. So, if interested, please come to our meeting on Monday to share your thoughts and recommendations regarding the two buildings. When these schools actually close, we cannot allow the two buildings to remain abandoned for the next 20 years – as has been the case with the former John Mercer Langston Elementary School building, also located near the intersection of North Capitol and P Streets, N.W.

Art @ the Bear

See this message from Pat Mitchell, President, North Capitol Main Street, Inc.:

“Art at the Bear” – Big Bear Café, that is . .
Saturday, May 10, 2008
7:00 pm to 10:00 pm

Yes, the venue is a little smaller, but the fun is as big as ever . . .
Come celebrate with neighbors, bid on or buy beautiful artwork donated/ consigned from DC-area Galleries, local artists or private collections; take a chance on great raffle items, enjoy great food, good wine and have a fun-filled night out in the community without the drive home . . .
All for the price of just $20 bucks!

NCMS’ Annual Fundraiser to Support Small Business
in Bloomingdale, Eckington and Truxton Circle

Art for the Bear

See this message from Pat Mitchell, President, North Capitol Main Street, Inc.

Calling All Local Artists and Artisans . . . Customers await.

Looking for a great local venue to show off your artistic talents; do you want more face-time with a wider audience, potential customers? Well, look no further, because “Art at the Bear” – North Capitol Main Street’s Annual Fundraising event to benefit small business in Bloomingdale, Eckington and Truxton Circle – is the perfect space to do just that.

If you’re a local artist and interested in getting your artwork in front of more local residents and potential customers, here’s an opportunity to sell/show your art, get the exposure you’re looking for, and benefit a great cause at the same time!

Interested? Call NCMS at (202) 460-4864 and leave your contact information.