Day: August 30, 2004

Lawnmower man

There are several lawnmower men to keep an eye out for in Shaw. Bicycle lawnmower man, wheelchair lawnmower man and regular lawnmower man. Bicycle lawnmower man drags his lawnmower behind his bike. Same as wheelchair lawnmower man, who has his mower attached to his wheelchair that he slowly wanders around in. And well regular lawnmower man needs no explanation.
Don’t use bicycle lawnmower man or at least don’t pay him in advance, as he failed to do a job one of my neighbors paid him to do.
I have used wheelchair lawnmower man, whose name is Jack. He doesn’t move fast and is easy to catch up with. I have decided to use him because he charged me $3 to cut may lawn. My lawn is horribily small. There are area rugs larger than my front yard. Others have come by and offered to cut my yard at $5. At that rate I could do it myself, by hand, with scissors. But Jack’s rate was hard to pass up.
Anyway he does a good job and I’d recommend him if you need someone to cut your small pitiful yard. He’ll bag up the clippings if you give him a garbage bag. So here I will reprint the flyer he gave to me:

I do Front and back yards- Jack is my name cutting grass is my game……
Called me and I will come by (Jack) Howard Jackson phone number (202) 329-3966
LOWEST PRICES IN TOWN “Alway” do a very good job

I left in the misspellings.

Flower Power Awards

Neighbors,

There will be a reception that acknowledges those residents who were

nominated for an award during the Bates Area Civic Association’s

“Flower

Power 2004″ beautification campaign. The reception will take place on

Thursday, September 2, 2004 at Ella’s Coffee and Fine Art, 1506 North

Capitol Street, N.W., from 6:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m.

It was decided that we would not tax the very limited funds in the BACA

treasury to produce this event; hence, we have sought in-kind

contributions

that we will use as prizes for the honorees. Therefore, BACA members

who

attend are being asked for a $7.00 donation to help defray the costs of

the

refreshments for the evening.

To RSVP, please contact MaryAnn Wilmer at (202) 328-0389. Hope to see

you

there!

Best,

Jim Berry

Statement

Recently I’ve been looking at my web stats for In Shaw and well I figure I should address some things:

A few people have subscribed to this blog and I am humbled that my rants would merit consideration. I looked at the other blogs In Shaw is grouped with and well, I don’t know if I fit. I’m not a radical. My politics can be described as moderate/ conservative. I’m straight. I’m in my mid 30s. Black. I don’t go clubbing. I am not cool. The In Shaw blog sorta reflects that, in that I’m against laws that would make it easier to get a liquor license, or anti-nightlife as some may say. I’m conflicted about the gentrification I write about, less crime good, people being displaced bad. I’m very conflicted about the rise in the Anglo population and the decrease of Black and Latino groups in Shaw as the sign of things “getting better”. Or as my Anglo friends have heard me mumble, “who are these white people and what are they doing in my neighborhood?” I’m not a Socialist, and although I sympathize with folks being pushed out because of gentrification, I do not believe in undermining a property owner’s right to sell his/her house at market rates, or rent their property at market rates. However, failure to maintain and secure property makes me less sympathetic to the owner and by all means the govt/community should be able to step in.
But those 20 or so of you who do read my blog I hope you do enjoy it and my snarky comments about my neighborhood. Feel free to comment or email me, or not, whatever makes you happy. And if you are a neighbor and I have made snarky judgemental comments about your house…. well that’s just my opinion. If YOU like your house, then it doen’t matter what I think. If I’ve bad mouthed you, then feel free to bad mouth me on your blog, then we’ll be even.

How to Gentrify a neighborhood: pt 2 1/2 the gentrifier

Warning: I’m writing this after 3 glasses of wine. I could be crazy.

In a followup to Gentrify yo hood:pt 1 this part briefy looks at the gentrifier.
First, money. Do you have it or don’t you. If you have money you might have choices, you could live in the “nicer” parts of the city, or you could buy bigger digs in the hood. Then there are the people like me, who don’t have a lot of money and the hood was the only affordable thing. So you move in and make the best of it. I didn’t move in to displace the poor. I moved into Shaw, because it was along the Green and Yellow lines (metro), close to a grocery store, decent for my car-less lifestyle, and oh I could afford it as a single person.
Second, tolerance level. The white bread population that loves the suburbs don’t cotton the city. Scared white people need not apply either. Scared [any other ethnic group] should keep to the ‘burbs as well. To be and urban pioneer and gentrify the city you need to put up with the crime, the trash, the bamas, the crackheads, the vacant houses, the whatever, until the day the neighborhood turns “nice”.
third, and last (cause I really need to go to bed), the gentrifier needs to be an object of change. This can range from the small and the really local aspect of investing in your home and inspiring others to do the same. Or harassing neighbors to be in compliance with the DC laws by calling the authorities constantly. Or it can range on the larger scale as to being involved in neighborhood wide revilization programs.
Bed.Now.