What gets me is there was a patrol car on that corner a few hours before.

Last night's unfortunate mugging is just one of several robberies and break ins that have occurred in and near Truxton in the past couple of weeks. Channel 7 reported the armed robbery spree that happened on 3rd and 4th Streets on Tuesday. There was the armed rape-robbery in 3D last week that has worried many around here.

The police are giving the usual advice:

We believe that the community can assist us in this fight by:

keeping cell phones, i-pads, i-phones, smart phones, and all other electronic items out of sight as you walk;

staying alert to your surroundings at all times;

keeping your car doors locked while pumping gas;

and, perhaps most importantly, calling 911 to report ANY suspicious activity in your neighborhood.

I'd add don't fiddle with your electronics at the bus stop either. While walking home, I noticed a young man taking a keen interest in a man sitting alone at the NJ and R bus stop, but his friends who were 1/2 a block ahead of him, called him to "come on". The man was totally engrossed in his smartphone and not 'aware of his surroundings.'

Think about it, she and the United House of Prayer (UHOP) have plopped a bunch of her architectural firm's stuff all over Shaw and she is a female architect, a rarity apparently. And because she is such a rare bird it would make sense that in the future (provided we haven't been overrun by aliens or zombies or blown ourselves up) that the portfolio of her work (ie the crappy looking UHOP buildings) 'must' be protected by some do gooder historic group. Because our present is someone else's past.

I work in a history profession that in it's early days spent a lot of time gathering up old papers. These things proved their worthiness to be preserved and saved by manuscript curators because they lasted so long already. Then in the early-mid* 20th century, it occured to people to appraise the old thing and ask if it worth keeping, even if it is old. But sometimes appraisal isn't really picky. I mention this because I'm convinced that those over in architectural history aren't particularly picky either and because of the gender and prolific nature, those multicolored blocks are sure to wind up on some preservation list.

The CCCA prez mentioned that the Reatig firm is set to design another UHOP structure at 926 N St NW. Let's not forget she has at least 3 other UHOP buildings (600 blk S St, 1700 blk 7th and another one near Mt. Vernon Sq) that have been thrown up in Shaw in the past couple of years with another one on Rhode Island Avenue in the process of getting built. UHOP owns a fair amount of property around Shaw so it can be a matter of time before some more Reatig buildings rise up.

So someone please tell me this conclusion is wrong and why. Explain how some preservationist 50 to 70 years in the future won't be fighting to save those quaint, then "historic" Reatig Shaw buildings? And if someone from that far in the future reads this, knock them down when you can. I don't care if the world leader or a dozen Nobel prize winners were raised there or they represent something you hold dear, bring in the demolition crew.

*My copy of The Modern Archives Reader has apparently grown legs and walked off, so I'm stuck with another archival management book that doesn't even touch records appraisal. So I'm unsure of dates and going with what I can remember from my History of Archives and Libraries class I took a decade ago.