Month: March 2006

Third Thursday Shopper Special on 14th & U Streets- 03/16
The MidCity Business Association is pleased to support this merchant run event that highlights the retail businesses of 14th Street and U Street.
Come out shop and enjoy! – Please Forward.
Third Thursday Shopper Social on 14th & U Street

March 16, 5-8 pm

Spring brings a renewal in life and in shopping! 14th Street has joined the shopper social which means that shopping on 14th & U Street is twice the fun!

U Street: +
* Moojoo Ken, 15% off all items & 50% off selected items (light fare & refreshments), 1512 U
* Nana, 10% off everything new & an additional 10% off all sale items for savvy shoppers, 1528 U
* Homegrown, 5% off Bodee Candii Jewelry (brownie cake), 1514 U
* Junction, 20% off all vintage and 50% off the rack, 1510 U
* Habitat, sale on select jewelry, 1510 U
* Wild Women Wear Red, a free “DC Flava” tee with any purchase and 50% off most shoes and boots (light fare and refreshments), 1512 U
* Goodwood, 15% off lamps (wine and cheese), 1428 U
* Pink November, 10%-20% off on all new Spring arrivals, 1231 U
* Carbon, Up to 50% off selected merchandise… and new Spring shoes are arriving. 1203 U
* Meeps celebrates St. Patrick’s Day with their Luck O’ the Draw Sale!
Pick your luck! Discounts of 10%-50% off plus free prizes! (refreshments & treats), 1520 U 14th Street: +
* Dragonfly, 20% off all lacquer paintings
* Home Rule, 15% off candles and candle accessories, 1807 14th St
* Candida’s World of Books, 15% off store-wide sale, 1541 14th St
* 100% Mexico, 15% off store-wide sale, 1612 14th St
* Garden District, 60% off on select tools & spring bulbs, 1801 14th
St
* Pop, 75% off all remaining winter stock and 15% off all new Spring
items, 1803a 14th St
* Pet Essentials, 25% off dog coats and sweaters, 1722 14th St
* Muléh, Take an additional 20% all sale merchandise. Also check out
new men¹s and women¹s spring fashions by 3.1 by Phillip Lim, John Varvatos,Marika Charles, Nicholas K, Nicole Farhi, and Rozae Nichols 1831 14th
St
Plus there are New and Beautiful things for SPRING! Come Explore . . .

web: www.midcitylive.com

–Scott Pomeroy, Development Officer
MidCity Business Association
202.577.6786–
Www.MidCityLife.org

First there was the news of EC-12 the firehouse, slated to become a sit down neighborhood joint. Then there was news of Big Bear. Followed by news of a bakery. 2006 or 2007 is looking really good for the other side of Florida Avenue.
What does TC have? Well, one hoped for project fell through but really. The firehouse and Big Bear are like 100-200 feet away from the Truxton-Eckington border. On the TruxtonCircle.org discussion board someone mentioned a bakery on North Capitol that’s been around forever. The only problem, it just doesn’t look like they want to sell me baked goods. Now I’d buy your baked goods if you really want to sell me your baked goods AND if it like them. But if you don’t want to sell me your baked goods then, oh well. I mean print up possible hours of retail operation, stick it on the door, maybe get one of them orange OPEN signs. Oh, and shoo away the loiterers. Am I asking for too much?

An old fellow across the street from me died of cancer yesterday. Well that’s what I was told when I ran into another neighbor on the street. The doctors only gave him two weeks to live but he stretched it out by a couple of months. Come to think of it, I had not seen him lately. I’d seen his grandkids and other folk visiting the house, but not him. Last I saw him he had a walker, which was unusual because he got around, driving and whatnot without much assistance.
Now I’m figuring out what is the proper course of action. Visiting with a plate of food tends to be the usual thing. I can’t think of anything besides potato salad (everyone cooks potato salad). I might just do flowers.
At the BACA meeting it was mentioned, as well on another neighborhood email list, that Carl Hunter one of the people in the March 2nd crash on New Jersey Ave passed away. Carl and Shirley Hunter, residents of the area, were traveling to work when the accident occurred.

…Are completely useless and meaningless if not enforced.

Back at the BACA meeting (I think) someone asked someone (one of the candidates, really I’m not trying for accuracy, just credit) why ugly crap gets built in Shaw and our part of town and not places like Georgetown. I can’t remember the exact answer but it boiled down to enforcement.
There is something good gad ugly going up on the pepto bismol colored house on Rhode Island Ave (NE?). Is it legal? Dunno? Thing is if no one, who is really interested (as I am only slightly interested) in fighting the erection of the ugly addition of another level, then the ugly thing gets built. If no one calls DCRA questioning it, or checks with the Zoning board or challenges the legality of it, then it gets built. Now if the pepto colored house was in Georgetown where there is a vigilant populace with various DC agencies on their speed dial, they more than likely would be challenging it as soon as the first cinder block was spotted. Of course, the addition on the pepto house could be all perfectly legal, with the proper papers and plans filed, and despite what I think the addition could be beautiful. Yeah.
There are also laws against construction work not between 7am & 7pm. Yet for about a year the contractor at 1617 NJ Ave NW started after 7pm. I would call and occasionally the police would come out and enforce the rules. That is if I wasn’t challenged by the dispatcher who thought it was perfectly legal to hammer away at 9pm.
Rules, laws and regulations created by the city that were not enforced by the city are like as if no rule existed at all. I understand that the city needs citizens to call in, write or whatever to alert the city when its laws, regulations and what have you are being violated. Citizens also need to know that they have to hold the city accountable for the enforcement of those laws when they alert the city to such violations. The government, thankfully, is not an all knowing, and all seeing Big Brother that knows immediately when wrongdoing is occurring.

Residential Street Sweeping Resumes Monday, March 20

Motorists can receive a $30 fine if parked in a street-sweeping zone.

(Washington, DC) Following the annual winter hiatus, mechanical street cleaning will resume in the District’s most heavily trafficked neighborhoods on Monday, March 20, 2006—the first day of spring. Alternate-side parking restrictions in these areas will also return. Parking citations ($30 fine) will be issued to vehicles parked during street sweeping hours in areas posted with “No Parking/Street Cleaning” signs. Additionally, parked cars may be towed to allow the sweepers access to the curbside.

Weekly street cleaning routes are typically located in the city’s high-density neighborhoods, especially areas with significant foot traffic. Street sweeping reduces debris that would otherwise be carried by rain and runoff into the city’s storm drains, polluting the District’s rivers. The sweepers remove litter from the street by brushing it onto a conveyor system, which transports the material into a debris hopper.

Residents and businesses also play a role in maintaining street cleanliness. District law requires property owners to sweep or keep the area in front of their homes or businesses clean 18 inches from the curb line into the roadway.

Learn more about DPW’s street cleaning program.
@ http://www.dpw.dc.gov/

…you’d be calling the cops right now.

Just got back from the Florida illegal alien wedding/ family reunion and one of the first things I do? Call the cops. Well 311. Guys who don’t live here hanging out on the corner. The dispatcher asked no questions and I honestly don’t expect the cops to show. But if I see guys who mind you don’t live on the block they are hanging on, I’ll call the cops. I want to make the corner near the house inhospitable for any commerce.

Nothing like being woken up at 5:00 AM-ish to two men screaming at each other at the tops of their lungs. It’s even better is when it carries on for the better part of 45 minutes while they circle the block, increasing in volume and intensity.

“I’m gonna f’ing kill you [explicative, explicative]”.

Ok, I admit that at first I was worried there was a problem that would lead to someone being hurt. By the end of it, I’m wishing I had a gun to hand them so they could just get it over with. Seriously, it went through my mind about 50 times.

And what’s with the laps of the block while screaming at each other, kicking bottles and making a racket? The worst part was that it apparently was an argument over $5 that one of them owed the other.

The incident reminded me of a friend’s argument that dueling should be brought back to help resolve some of these crackhead type conflicts. Un-PC, yes. Effective? Maybe.

Via Jim Berry
Neighbors,

A couple of neighbors have reported to me that a person knocked on their door today, reporting to have broken off his key in his front door lock. Curiously, the individual (a virtual stranger to both neighbors) wanted to “borrow” $80+ dollars to engage the services of a locksmith to fix the problem. Perhaps needless to say, neither of our neighbors complied with the request of the stranger and he went on his merry way.

The Fifth District Police have been notified and, in general, the description of the person is as follows: An light complected, African American male, approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall, bald and clean shaven. He had an aqua (blue-green colored) jacket, dark pants and white sneakers trimmed in black.

Be aware of the possibility of this person knocking on your door to solicit money and, because we are trying to track his whereabouts, let me know if he shows up at your house.

Best,

Jim Berry
ANC 5C

While poking around the The Old House website I came across a piece for an alternative to a ladder to reach lofts or other spaces in cramped quarters. The thing that really caught my eye, besides looking nifty, was that the architect created the stair for a Washington, DC house.

Rarely does anything that happens on the mall make it up to my side of Shaw. Rallies, protests, whatever seem to invade the Red line, Foggy Bottom, Dupont, and downtown. However yesterday there was a protest on the mall regarding immigration. I didn’t know this when I tried to get around a huge mob of Latinos at PG Plaza metro. On the heading back into the city I noticed that the Latino population was significantly higher than usual. Almost every stop between PG and Shaw/Howard had some sizable clump of Latinos. Notably confused clumps that did not comprehend that which is WMATA, which really isn’t the most visitor friendly (confusing signage, grumpy employees) transit system. Normally where there were loud obnoxious and annoying teens, instead there where groups of Spanish speakers. This was a bit odd. I wasn’t sure what to make of it.
Then later at a meeting at a downtown teashop I was told about the rally down at the mall and that Union Station was a madhouse. This new information explained the upsurge, but usually, to me anyways, what goes on at the mall doesn’t come up to Shaw. But there they were looking at street signs, metro maps, looking lost in Shaw. Now one could ask that maybe I never noticed other groups with actions on the mall venturing up before. Well for one, the Green line (to me) has a higher portion of African Americans riding it as it goes through historically black neighborhoods and PG County twice. So if there is an upsurge of a non-black demographic one would notice.
Well once some signage from a pro-choice? pro-life? rally made it to the Shaw/Howard trash can….. Maybe this is a sign that out of town visitors are moving through and stopping in Shaw more?