How much would you pay?

I’m having evil thoughts.
Once upon a time, long time ago, when DC real estate prices were starting to go crazy, like 2001, I made my friends an offer. If they bought a house or condo in Shaw I would give them $1,000 to help with closing costs. Did I have $1,000 just to give away? Not really, but I could sell some precious tobacco stock if needed. I figured it was worth $1,000 to have the people I loved blocks from where I lived, instead of out in the burbs. I offered it to Liz, to Gn, and MH. Liz bought in Alexandria and the other guys never bought anything. After some time the tobacco stock got sold to pay for the new kitchen.
Now I’m thinking, if I’m willing to pay to have people come to DC, would I be willing to pay for people to go away? How much would you pay for the crack head a few doors down to just pack up and move? What is it worth to you? $500? $2,000? $10? Of course, half the problems don’t even live here, they just hang out.

11 thoughts on “How much would you pay?”

  1. While I get the point, I do not think I would bother. Slowly but surely these people will go away…soon there will be enough yuppies and others with cash to blow in Shaw that will complain until they are pushed out of the area.

    Soon the small apartment house/crack den on the next block will be gone. Soon the stuff that goes down in and around Immaculate Conception/other place across the street will be done…because now the people that live in Immaculate now own it…

    There are alot of “new sheriffs” in town and I think soon the same shift that you saw in Logan will happen here. One day Logan was sketchy the next day it switched…

    There is a new gym going in on that awful block on 7th Street…this will begin the turnaround.

  3. Soon? Soon has been measured in years and some slumlords just keep replacing crappy neighbors with more crappy neighbors. I’m thinking of one house on my block owned by a bad lawyer/slumlord who is mean and dare I say? Just plain evil. The property she owns has gone from enabling grandma (relatives as dealers), down and out family, to crackhead and assorted crack friends. When the crackhead goes she’ll just replace with some other person or group of the same vein. At times, she, as a landlord is worse than the people she puts in, she has threatened neighbors and is just plain unpleasant when she does visit her property.
    Yes, some have gone away on their own. Screaming woman, gone. Mentally ill guy, gone. Ugly weathered old guy & possible dealer (gotta supplement SS somehow), gone. Even some hanger outs have gone, the ghetto tranny that used to have suprise block parties, gone.
    It’s just that sometimes you want to speed the process up.

  5. I will pay $100 if the kids stop riding their @#$&*(#&(*&@ motorbikes up and down the streets.

  6. Just to be contrary, I gotta share that it was a local hustler/pusher who was instrumental in my husband and I catching our stupid run-away dog this past Sunday morning. Me, my husband, a friend, and a neighbor were racing around the local housing project after the dog (which I am only dog-sitting, more the trauma) and none of the up-&-coming neighbors paused to help… but the lady who is always out on the street, doing whatever it is she does, was the one to finally put me in the right place at the right time to catch the dog before it got hurt.

    Maybe my only point is that sometimes you can’t guess which of the neighbors will be the ones you really appreciate.

  7. Yeah the motorbikes are out of control… of course once the fireworks start in a week or so, I’ll be wishing for them back!

    Never forget the time I saw some kid aim a bottle rocket horizontally, and fire it down the street at someone’s car.

    – JM

  8. start? bottle rockets and the little noise maker firecrackers (don’t know what they’re called) have been going off near me for more than a week.

    I blame it on the fact that I live next to a house with something like 8 kids in it, but still…

    can’t wait until their supply runs out.

  9. To answer a few points…AM it is a little pilates/yoga studio/gym…looks great.

    MM, document EVERYTHING. Every time the crackhead causes an issue…everytime the lawyer does something to threaten you/neighbors and do not be afraid to call 311 to report it. Build a case and when the crackhead smokes themself to death/out of $$$ go to the lawyer and show her the log. Explain to her that if she does not work with you and others to keep the next neighbor in check you will seek “legal advice” as to how to deal with the constant issue of her being a slumlord and not dealing with her tenant’s actions…it will be a small shot across her bow and hopefully a good one.

    Calvo…I agree…I find myself trying to figure out if it is a gun or firecrackers at times.

    As for the motorbikes…call the Mayor’s office…call Jack Evans…call your ANC rep…call Lt. Neal. Be a pest and remind them that there is a helmet law in the District and they are not enforcing it…explain to them that Pat Collins is just one phone call away and he will make the issue into the next Watergate (as he does for every issue).

    The only way that this type of stuff sill stop is if WE speak up. Write the letter, make the phone call AND show up when they are scheduled to show up…and do not be afraid to call them to the carpet (remember they work for you).

    Cities all over the US have banned those bikes and it can be done here…we just have to be pests about it.

  10. About a year ago I hanging out in my living room when I heard a whole bunch of very close sounding firework noises. I went out front and saw that someone had placed & lit a bunch of what appeared to be roman candle on the median. This is at a point that Florida hits another street (so it’s not just an ordinary intersection). The roman candles were, of course, angled such that they were shooting at on coming traffic, rather than just straight up. I was really shocked that there wasn’t an accident.

  11. 1. Get yourself a PSA LT who wants to work. Make sure he and wife get to picnics, as well as rest of PSA types. Get to know them. Monthly neighborhood meetings, not just ANC. It’s too big.
    2. Close/board/brick( much better!) up one bad house. Don’t think too big. Maybe an easier one. Make sure DCRA knows who you are.
    3. Then one more. It may not be immediate.
    4. Within two years, you won’t recognize the place. It’s not that they will all be gone, but you’ve broken critical mass. Make the bad guys have a hard time finding space. You’ve done your turn with them. Now it’s someone else’s turn. They move, you don’t.

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