Author: Mari

Last year I began posting about 5 days a week and kept up the posting pace for a year. Now, I’m finding it a tad bit harder to come up with things to write on a near daily basis and there are some other projects I would like to devote my time to. So I’m going to reduce my postings to 3 times a week, particularly Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I might post Tuesdays and Thursdays, but I’m going to treat them like my Saturdays and Sundays, where I post when I really, really, have something to say.
Last year in August I had an average of 42 visits a day using up 31MG a month, this July it was an average of 450 daily visits using 701MG. At 1 gig my server starts charging me $5 more. I like you guys but I don’t make any money from this and as I’ve said many times, I’m cheap. So posting 3x a week is also a internet traffic calming/reducing strategy.
Fear not, I’m not going anywhere. Neither are the crackheads, the dealers, the bad section 8’ers, and horrid suburbanites who come in to trash the hood. As long as there are those folks, as well as the slow changes of a gentrifying neighborhood, I’ll write about them.

Thanks & Pax,
Mari/e
Webmistress

So Nora Bombay and I were out shopping, or more accurately, looking at stuff that we could or could not afford. Roaming around Expo, Home Depot’s fancier store, Nora pointed out a big dresser, only $1,200. I balked. Not only was it more than I really wanted spend on furniture, I could never get it into my house.
When I got my fridge the delivery guys had to take the front door off the hinges just to get the darned thing in. I had to destroy part of the stair railing to get it into the dining room. What was worse was this was not a huge fridge and it took a lot of effort to get it in. Lesson learned, I need to ask if I can get it through the front door before I buy.
This is one of the reasons why I like IKEA. Almost everything fits through the front door. I know some have forsaken IKEA, but most of it fits through the door that doesn’t open all the way and can get through the narrow hallway. Just because of my front door alone, I’ve had to keep my furnishings small.
This Sunday I was walking around Georgetown admiring the houses. Not because of wealth or grandeur. Nope. I was looking at space saving solutions. Forget the big, mini-mansions and huge homes best suited for entertaining the King of Prussia. There are a number of dinky sized townhomes in Georgetown too. I was looking at rear balconies, alley side decks and patios, and if they left their windows wide open, interiors. Please note this is all from the sidewalk.
Inside some homes I saw what I’m going to call size appropriate furnishings. What was in the living rooms were moderate sized couches. None of these huge mammoth couches I’ve see in my suburban relatives’ homes. Maybe the people of Georgetown have annoying front door problems too?
Back here in Truxton, IT (and B) has done a good job getting the most out of his small space home. There is no wall to create a living room or a dining room but they have done it with a couch and some other furnishing that I can’t remember the name of…. Basically furniture creates space and it doesn’t feel tiny. You know you are in a small space but you don’t feel cramped.
Now if anyone wants to see how they (IT & B) pulled off the design then, you’ll have to wait for the new Discovery Channel show, which I also can’t remember the name of but it debuts in August (I think) and it is about decorating and designing with less than 1,000 sq. ft. of house. With any luck you’ll see about 5 minutes of their house. ‘Cause really it is so small, it takes just 5 minutes. But it will be the 5 minutes of your life.

There will be a meeting tonight, below is the agenda

August 1, 2005

Monthly Meeting Agenda
Meeting Called to Order 7:00 p.m.
Opening Comments J. Berry
Public Safety Committee Report: Alice Harper, Chairperson
(a) Fifth District Police

4. Land Use, Planning, and Economic Development Art Slater, Chairperson

Committee Report

(a) Remarks: Alex Nyham, Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, “A Briefing on the Redevelopment of Sursum Corda, Sibley Plaza, Tyler House, and Temple Courts”

“Flower Power 2005” Mary Ann Wilmer, Chairperson Membership Committee

Environmental Services Committee Report Scott Shappell, Chairperson
BACA Housekeeping J. Berry
Announcements:
(a) Next BACA Meeting – Monday, September 12, 2005

9. Adjournment 9:00 p.m.

JDB

Well close to the end of the week, heading into the weekend, the news in Truxton was, well, bad. There had been some daytime shootings over near 3rd and P and around First Street. What the hey is going on? I have no idea. A fair number of theories, but no answers.
During this lovely weekend, I did see a very active police car making the rounds around Bates and 1st. First I saw the car, with two cops, break up a street game of catch. About 5 minutes later, after the car left, the kids/ young adults were back at it. Then I saw the same car cruising up and down 1st. I last saw it in the park at 1st and Florida where the bums hang out. When I passed by the area later the hanger outs were back to business as usual, hanging out, with a little hand dancing going on as well.
Is it increased police presence because of what happened? I don’t know. But it is always good to see the police making the rounds. It is even better to see them get out of the squad car.

I’m too lazy to trek all the way to Modern Liquors over on 9th Street. I could buy wine at the Giant but I really don’t like my birthdate displayed on the register for everyone to see. So when I needed to stock up on wine and other spirits I wandered to something a bit closer, Bloomingdale Liquors on Rhode Island.
Yes, I know there are two other liquor stores closer to my house but I’m not going to them. For one, I hate going into places like that. Everything, and I mean everything is behind the bullet proof glass in the closer liquor stores. The shopping experience is demeaning. Maybe it is okay for your classic ghetto wino picking up his Peaches & Cream flavor of MD 20/20, but not me. I hate the bullet proof glass, more so when it looks like it hasn’t been cleaned. Second, neither of the two closest liquor stores carry wine I can cook with. Arbor Mist and Boon’s Farm are really not worth making a garlic wine sauce with and I don’t consider them to be real wines.
I’m not a wine snob. My stock wine is Trader Joe’s $2 Buck (really more $3) Chuck. A Kendell-Jackson would be fine. Sutter Home would be good too. I’m not asking for $20-$50 bottles, which I’d never buy because I’m also cheap, but I want wine that isn’t wino wine.
So I went to Bloomingdale Liquors at 1st and Rhode Island. Yes, there is the bullet proof glass but there are also aisles of product I can closely look at and compare. And I did compare a bottle of Captain Morgan rum with Barcardi. I also picked up a shiraz. I could have picked up a merlot, some white or red table wine, or sherry. Most important to me as a shopper, I got to pick them, look at the bottles and decided whether or not I should buy. Not looking through some obscured glass trying to determine if that bottle on the far shelf is something I want.

The nominations for Flower Power are due by the end of this month. Also I still have tons of Flower Power Garden tour tickets for sale email me at “inshaw at att dot net” for a ticket.

I used to have a quote from former Mayor 4 Life Barry stuck on a post it of his response to questions posed on the Kojo N. show on WAMU. Can’t find it but I’ll do my best from memory…”Why do you all have to be so cynical?”
That came to mind when reading an announcement from the Truxton Circle Dispatch of our Ward Councilman Orange visiting the Windows Cafe in ANC 5C03. My cynical self 1st thought, if he weren’t running for mayor would we ever see him over on this side of North Cap? Second, can Windows fit all those people? Windows is tiny.
When I first came to the Truxton part of Shaw 4 years ago, Orange didn’t really seem acknowledge that this was in his Ward. I felt we were the red-headed stepchildren of Ward 5. In the past 2 years, he has made his presence better known in Truxton and possibly NW Eckington (I don’t know ya’ll in Bloomingdale tell me). However, I see it less as a public servant embracing an accidentally forgotten Truxton and more of a politician getting his mayoral run in order. I really wish he wasn’t running for mayor so I could better know where his motivations were coming from.

Last night we had a blackout. It was dark and hot. Oh so hot. Problem was I keep the house at about 80 degrees. I’m fine with 80. Not so fine with anything above 85. So I was rescued by Nathan and BL from my getting ever warmer heat trap of a home.
When the power went out I was in the kitchen and reached for the spot where my flashlight was supposed to be. Not there. I did have citronella candles still in the kitchen and lit those (matches seem not to move), just to get enough light to find the other flashlights stored in the house.
This morning the power was back on. According to one of my neighbors it came back sometime after midnight. According to the ice cream in the fridge, no serious damage had occurred.
It’s going to be hot again today. I’m going to see if I can get the house down to 78 degrees.

As some of you know I have been looking at the censuses for the Truxton Circle area for what now seems forever. Anyway, once at a Truxton gathering I was asked about Italian families. For the most part I have been finding lots and lots of German and Irish immigrants and 1st generation Americans but for the most part, no Italians. Not until now. In 1910 there was at least two Italian and Italian-American families. But not a whole lot. There are more Russians than Italians. Fewer Swedes and Finns. Basically, still the Irish and Germans still dominate in the “not from here” category. The biggest ethnic group in 1910 Truxton by far African Americans.

Over a huge crab cake out in the suburbs of Baltimore I respectfully disagreed with a table companion, Chick, over the baseball stadium and possible gentrification for the SE area. Chick, is a SE Capitol Hill resident, living in the shadow of the Capitol and eventhough I trust that he is a bit more familiar with the South Capitol/N Street area where the city plans to put the Stadium, I am doubtful that the stadium will bring the same turnaround as the MCI Center has done with Gallery Place/Chinatown. I pointed out some of the differences between the two.
For one, there is sort of nothing there. A porn store and a couple of clubs do not a ‘something’ make. Before the MCI Center there were surrounding offices and government agencies and 1 museum (now closed for renovations that will continue for ever). The restaurants that were put in to help serve the MCI crowds, are supported by the office/govt crowd during lunch.
Second, during the days when there is no baseball, what is it that would make the area a destination? The MCI center has concerts and horse shows and other functions when one of several teams isn’t playing a home game.
Third, RFK really didn’t do that much for the surrounding neighborhood, why will a stadium in SE make a difference there? Yes, I am aware of the whole waterfront plan that the stadium is supposed to link into.
For me it comes down to the fickle nature of market forces. There was something to work with in the area around the MCI center, before the Center. And then these things fed into each other, building on the other. The whole stadium thing seems to me built on the idea that people coming for baseball will come back when there isn’t a game or stick around. Yet there need to be businesses that serve the game attendees, but those businesses need to be supported when there isn’t a home game. And yes, there will be building offices, but will the people in the offices venture out into the neighborhood to support the business brought in to serve the game attendees?

By the by…. The Post reports that the real estate market for residential homes is cooling down. Maybe some of you might be able to buy before the decade is out.