Truxton Is In Shaw

At the Zoning Commission meeting last night the Zoning Commission had voted to strike section 410 in it’s entirely. I think. I’m actually confused now. According to the agenda they were voting to strike all references of R-4 districts from the 410 Zoning Regulations. But it seemed to me that they voted to get rid of the whole thing because there was something else in the regulations that better suited R-5 zones, where 410 was just confusing.
Now the people who will benefit most from this are the residents of Square 507 fighting Wilbur Mondie. By striking R-4 from 410 or 410 altogether, the loophole for Mondie to build skinny little 14 ft wide townhomes on the land is gone. Yay.
I must say it was the best public city government meeting I’ve ever attended. I was the only member of the public there. Even though the Zoning board started 15 minutes late, the meeting lasted about 5 minutes and all was good.

I have a fuzzy picture somewhere but twice this week I have spotted a mounted policeman on my street. First time was Wednesday? Not sure, but there were two cops on horses. The sight of them delighted the kids. The second time, yesterday, one guy galloping down the street as an SUV raced beside and behind him. I wasn’t sure what the heck that was all about. The guys on the corner? They only shifted a bit during the police horse sightings, moving into the shady shadows. A few minutes later they would move completely.

I’m back.
At some point today I need to call my sister and wish her and my brother-in-law, T. Feliz Cinco de Mayo. My brother in law T. is Mexican and before he married my sister, was incredibly illegal. He’s kinda new to the family so my feelings about him and his immigration status haven’t fully gelled. All the protests and chatter about immigration has gotten me to think about something a bit more local, the friendly drug dealers on the corner.
Some folks feel sorry for the guys on the corner. They can’t find work, some say. It’s hard for them because they are disadvantaged, others say. Huh? I’d like to think that even a substandard American education and having English as a first language trumps the education and English skills of the average guy crossing the Rio Grande. Of course, some of the guys crossing the border have some marketable skills like carpentry and other building trade skills, which for one reason or another aren’t taught widely here in the US. Tracking? Is that what it is called when you gear a kid towards shop class and not the academic classes? Do they still teach business in high school? Are there still any shop classes where students learn to fix a car? Or has this gone the way of the dodo because of testing and liability insurance?
One could argue that the immigrants are taking jobs away from the guys on the corner by taking lower pay. Oh, last I heard a drug dealing foot soldier makes less than minimum wage on the corner. So I suspect it may be something else.
Anyway. Happy 5th of May, where we celebrate the kicking of French butt by Mexican boots, or we celebrate margaritas and nachos, one of the two. Be you native born American, Mexican, Salvadorian, or what ever, enjoy the day.

If you’re curious to read more about policing strategies, Google is your friend.

Alternatively, you could be lazy and just read this or read about Philadelphia’s strategies (at bottom of page). Philly identified all open air markets and put two uniformed officers at each site.

I know there’s going to be a lot of discussion over the coming days about what are the appropriate steps to take. I think the community should focus on how to get the political and MPD leaders to take responsibility for making a serious and noticeable change. We need to focus on individuals’ accountability. Press Orange on this and make him make it a campaign issue. Don’t let him talk about budget, there are a lot of reasons why his increase in budget is bad idea or just a red herring…. It’s throwing good money after bad, it requires too long to get new officers and programs up to speed and, most simply, more money just isn’t necessary to make arrests.

My suggestion is to get Councilmember Orange, Chief Ramsey and the PSA Lt’s in a room and have them all commit to (by signing) a short-term and a long-term plan with metrics that they can be measured to. People do what gets measured and reported.

Other ideas?

So I just got back from the emergency crime meeting. Interesting hour and a half. It’s tragic that two individuals were shot last night at 1st & O St and Bates area. That has to be said upfront. It’s proof that though the Eastern edge of Shaw continues improve, there are still quality of life and crime issues that exist in the area that need to come to a hard stop, immediately.

Couple of thoughts. Vincent Orange was there and sort of took a MC role of the meeting. I’ve said it before on here, but I, Truxtonian, really do not like the man… at least as a public official. I think he does a very poor job with the responsibility bestowed upon him and he has done far less for the ward than should be expected of an elected representative. If he had put half the effort in helping his constituents fight crime as he has in his cheap political theatrics while running for mayor… well, there’d be less crime in his ward. I could go on about him, and how I think he cheapened the discussion with his calculated jabs against Cropp and other Councilmembers, but I saw this today and I think it sums up the tragedy of Vincent Orange quite nicely. Read Orange’s Long Shot Candidacy halfway down the page.

Ok, on to the meeting. If you missed the meeting, here’s my take on it. It may vary from what others heard or saw. The officers there, Lt Welch and Lt Wright, are very eager to make changes in the area. They picked up PSA 501 in February (I believe), so they haven’t had responsibility for the area for very long. Regardless, the residents in attendance did not seem very interested in cutting them much slack. Most of the residents’ heartfelt comments seemed to revolve around why the 1st St area has had problems with crime for the past 10+ years. There were emotional appeals and most people brought up fair points, to be sure. However, I’m not sure if the two Lieutenants are the right targets for some of the outrage. Maybe they are, I don’t know. One memorable moment was when ANC Brannum stood up and said that the dispatchers intentionally treat calls originating in this area differently than calls originating from other areas west of the park– implying the MPD does not respond to dispatches here the same as they do in more affluent areas because of who lives here.

Anyways, Lt Welch’s message was this: “Make us accountable to you.” So, whenever you call in a situation/issue, get the dispatcher’s number and record the time of your call. Write down the number of the scout car that is dispatched (it’s on roof, back bumper and sides of car). Follow up with Lt Welch, personally, if you are dissatisfied with the MPD’s service and provide enough information so that he can look up the officer that was dispatched, check the recording of the phone call with dispatch, and determine where the MPD failed the public. Lt Welch talked about some major progress that they continue to make. I think he mentioned four arrests for carrying weapons in the Bates/1st St area in the past week or so. He also said something about arresting an individual with something like 14 bags of heroin on him in the Hanover area within the past day or two.

Finally, the MPD mentioned that they have a pretty good idea of where a lot of the crime/chaos on 1st street is coming from. They identified a specific number of homes (3) that they believe are responsible for a large share of the crime. They are working hard to find a way to change the status quo. Time will tell how successful they will be.

Someone else there will probably have more info, another take on the meeting or something of more value than my quick impressions.

Neighbors,

In response to the significant escalation of gunfire in our community of late and, most recently, the shooting that occurred near the intersection of 1st and Q Streets, N.W. as well as the homicide that took place in the 1400 block of First Street, N.W. last night, Council Member Vincent Orange is convening an emergency meeting at Mount Sinai Baptist Church, 3rd and Q Streets, N.W., this evening from 7:00 p.m.until 9:00 p.m. in their old sanctuary. Specifically, Mr. Orange has asked officials from the Fifth District Metropolitan Police Department to provide a briefing on the recent spate of shootings that have taken place in our section of PSA 501, and to respond to questions or recommendations from community residents regarding the strategy that the MPD is using to address the problem.

I have recommended to Mr. Orange’s office that a representative also be present from the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA) who is responsible for the supervision of offenders who live in PSA 501. That is, the CSOSA can play a pivotal role in helping to identify and discipline those who are under their supervision and are ultimately found to be a contributor to our current problems in any way.

Please help to spread the word among your neighbors. Hope to see you this evening!

Best,

Jim Berry
ANC 5C

Something very important came up and I am devoting a week to resolve it. I have part of the the April BACA meeting notes and an uncleaned up TC3 podcast to post but you won’t hear from me till May 6th. Also I probably won’t attend the May BACA meeting May 1st. So someone please fill me in on what happened.
Thanks.

I am no expert. I’m just taking what I understand and putting it out there.
I live in a R-4 zone. That’s what most of the Truxton Circle part of Shaw is, except for the Cooperative which is R-5-B and the main roads that are zoned C-2-A. According to the DC Zoning website, in an R-4 area:

Permits matter-of-right development of single-family residential uses (including detached, semi-detached, row dwellings, and flats), churches and public schools with a minimum lot width of 18 feet, a minimum lot area of 1,800 square feet and a maximum lot occupancy of 60% for row dwellings, churches and Flats, a minimum lot width of 30 feet and a minimum lot area of 3000 square feet for semi-detached structures, a minimum lot width of 40 feet and a minimum lot area of 4000 square feet and 40% lot occupancy for all other structures; and a maximum height of three (3) stories/forty (40) feet. Conversions of existing buildings to apartments are permitted for lots with a minimum lot area of 900 square feet per dwelling unit.

Translated? Low density. Things that are there, pretty much grandfathered in. Any new construction has to be at the least 18 feet wide, no more than 3 stories or 40 feet high. The C-2-A also promotes low density for our commercial corridors where buildings are limited to 50 foot heights.
Why am I telling you this? Well for two reasons. The first is to inform you about the joys of zoning. As an R-4 we don’t have huge towering apartment buildings, but rather small 4 unit apartments and lots of townhomes. The zoning law (if followed and enforced) keeps the area small and intimate. Second, once you know, you might want to defend the character of the area by defending the spirit of the R-4 zone. Developers, neighbors, and whomever will ask for variances and you need to know what they are asking a variance from. May 4th at 6:30pm at on the 2nd floor of 441 4th Street NW there will be a public hearing regarding a bit of confusion in the zoning regs.
Back when the Richardson Place neighbors were battling Wilbur Mondie about proposed townhomes a problem was discovered. The way section 410 is written it seems to allow R-5 apartments in an R-4 zone. The way Mr. Mondie was proposing his development, for a period, he’d have 6 or 8 apartment units, which were to be later to be joined to create 3 or 4 separate townhomes (I’m not remembering exact numbers now). So if he stopped part way, we’d get a R-5 structure in an R-4 zone imposing a density that the particular area in question could not handle.

I just wanted to share the blog Toolspotting which looks at tools useful to the DIY types. Of course the recent posting showing flowery wrenches do make me want to wretch. But other postings do make me go ‘ooooh, I want that!’