Month: June 2006

I made a list of the stuff I want done with the house, with very short explanations. 2 pages.
This week I will chat with my personal mortgage guru. The problem is that my main mortgage has a crazy low interest rate, my 2nd mortgage has an ever changing/ increasing interest rate and if I liquidated all my stocks, cut up the credit card and gut out my savings, maybe I could pay that 2nd mortgage off. I’m not sure if I want to refinance or just get another 2nd mortgage.
Later I will chat with the two contractors I’m interested in. Mainly because I know they will leave something for me to do so I can save some money.
Maybe before that I may need to talk with an architect or structural engineer as the big things I want to fix are structural. The party wall between me and the other house is thin. The bricks, that are on dirt, are like chalk. The floors aren’t level. Okay, that doesn’t bother me that much. And. And I want a green roof and I am not green roof ready.
After the structural stuff there is the list of “fix it” stuff that comes from years I figuring out what is wrong with the house. Some of the “fixes” are aesthetic. Other fixes are design issues.

After work I put cat food in the white bowl that sits in the cat trap. These are the kittens I need t trap. Good thing is that one ran into the cage when I approached. If I hadn’t made it hard to shut the trap I could have trapped one kitten at a time. And I saw Momma. Momma was definately “Momma” as I saw her underside.

‘Tis the season for firecrackers. During this time you can try to train your ear to tell the difference between gunfire and firecrackers. Or you can be like me and say they are all firecrackers. Luckily (knocking on wood products) I haven’t seen a lot of firework stands. Yet.
The firecracker noise will continue from now till about mid August. I don’t remember what the rules are regarding the District and firecrackers.

Thanks to Marty and Emily for putting out traps, providing food, and picking up the caught kitties. Thanks also to Justin and Lindy for providing traps.
Well we got two cats. First capture was one of the kittens on Saturday. Later that night or very early Sunday morning “Momma” was captured. Yet, it was discovered that “Momma” wasn’t “Momma” ,she was a he. Why a male cat is hanging with a bunch of kittens? I don’t know. Could be that there is a female cat that is also black and white (yeah, they’re all black and white) that is around. Well “Uncle” or “Poppa” has been snipped and clipped (ear clipped). The kitten is being fostered by someone who needed a companion for another fostered kitten.
Now the goal is to get the other 3 kittens, that have not been captured used to the cage being around and eating wet food. I had been leaving out dry food (what do I know, I’ve only raised dogs) but they are supposed to really like the wet. So hopefully, I can capture the kittens and get them in a foster home so they may be adoptable.

I don’t read the Washington Times but thank goodness other people do. Apparently there was an article about speed and red light cameras being racist. This idea being based on the idea that the cameras are in black neighborhoods and thus hurt black drivers. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
For one. If you live in a neighborhood with the cameras, you know where they are and adjust accordingly. People do slow down in that stretch near the bridge just before the Fed Ex building, and after they pass it…people speed up. The cameras are there to capture the forgetful (as in you forgot the camera was there), the people who don’t live here, and speeders.
Second, attend a neighborhood meeting and you will find black people who want cameras. Okay, not so much speed cameras but cameras to get the drug dealers moving. I’ll bet you money if you told the folks at a BACA meeting that BACA (the northern 1/2 of Truxton Circle) was getting one camera and asked where they wanted it, we’d be fighting over which corner. If anyone asks, I vote for a camera NJ and R or the Florida Avenue park. People at R and NJ don’t seem to believe that red light means stay stopped. Instead it means if you don’t see any traffic, and pedestrians aren’t traffic, go anyway.
Third, as someone pointed it out, this city has a 60% black population. But also I have to note that if you are driving in from PG County, another majority Black area, you have to drive through more of the city and thus you’re going to hit more traffic cameras than someone driving from majority white Virginia. What of MoCo? Connecticut Ave has more traffic lights and traffic and pedestrians than say the NE stretches of New York Ave. So just by geography alone, you’re more apt to get a ticket.
If you take away cameras please replace them with citizen ticketing, where DC residents have the right to fine and ticket traffic violators. There a couple red light runners I have in mind.

Well that’s the message I get and got really loud and clear this morning when someone decided to move the bus stop from where it was for years to the other side of the terminal, resulting in my bus blowing past me. If Metro truly liked their bus ridership, they would make it easier to ride the bus.
Metro does not make it easy to ride the bus. For my commute I take the train and the bus and believe me the train is way easier. I’m not going to get into the lonely bus stop with just a sign, sometimes not even telling you what bus may come along there, and more often not even hinting what the bus’ schedule is and whether or not it runs on the weekends. Yes, there is the Ride Guide, but that requires getting on a computer or having a mobile device that surfs the web. At the very least, at the train terminals there should be something that tells you where the buses that run around there go. The bus schedules on the kiosk, not always there. The little maps on the bus stop signs, not always there either, particularly if several buses share that sign and their schedules take up every single panel. The maps they do have, not really the most detailed, but at least they are something.
The bus rider is required to do extensive research before engaging in an unfamiliar bus ride. I don’t have to do the same with the train. I look at the subway map in the station that tells me where the different trains go to one of the hundred and something stops. At the train stop there is almost always a neighborhood map that gives me a general idea of where to go from there. But if you want to take a bus from that train stop. Hope that DASH or Ride-On go from there because those bus routes and schedules are more often more helpful than Metro (PG County’s THE BUS is way worse). There is only one station I’ve been in where there was a bus route map for that area (can’t remember if it was the District or Maryland).
Even if you know where the bus is supposed to go the bus terminals at the train station sometimes is quite confusing. One day I had to catch the 80 bus at Ft. Totten. I know where the 80 bus goes and stops from the Union Station area to Brookland, anything beyond that is unfamiliar. So I get to Ft. Totten. There are what seems to be over a dozen bus stops. Luckily there is a Metro employee available to tell me which of the twenty odd bays I’m supposed to catch my bus. I wound up asking an employee because I was standing at a stop that said 80, but not the right direction, which wasn’t clearly marked. It wasn’t the right stop. I had to go to another bay a good 100 feet away from the other bay marked 80. What happens when the metro employee is not to be found, or there are other people ahead of you also in need of the employee’s attention.
Signage and maps. That’s all I want. Take a metro bus map, laminate it, tape it up on the kiosk. Laminating is too much? Then take the map and tape it up. If a route is changed, take a magic marker, and mark it up. Also if a metro station has more than 3 bays for buses, tell me which one I need to go to, because I can’t see from a distance if that 2 inch character is a “3” or a “B” or a “8”.
Come on Metro, show the bus rider some love.

Walking home one day I ran into one of the neighborhood teenagers, also walking home, and began some light chit-chat. In the course of conversation I discovered he’s a Junior and will be a Senior when the school year starts up again. “So, what are you going to do after school?” I asked. The answer was to get as far away from home. My cousins had the same idea, but that’s another topic. “Maybe college” he said and rattled off a couple of places he thought would be interesting, NYU, something in Boston, Florida. I pounced at Florida, being a University of Florida grad myself (GO GATORS!). I started selling the idea of UF and how it is a good (and way more affordable) school, the weather, what dorms he should look into, etc.
After we parted ways, I thought I should annoy more teens, particularly Juniors about college. Well my college, ’cause that’s what I know. And if not college, because it may not be for everyone, a trade. But then, I don’t actually know that many older teens. The kids I know are around 14 or younger. Too young to bug about college.
If I see him again today, or tomorrow, I think I’ll bug him again about Florida.

Well considering there are developers still developing and candidates running for stuff, affordable housing may pop up in the discussion.
Yes, every one is for affordable housing, to a degree.
The project over in NE Eckington, the Fairfield Development Project is supposed to have 8% of its units affordable for those making 80% of the AMI. If I’m reading the HUD data right (pdf file) for one person it is $41,700 and $47,700 for two. So of the 625+ housing units, about 50 or more will be affordable. Eight percent does not sound like a lot, but it is better than 0%.
On the other end 100% affordable housing projects are bound to attract neighborhood opposition. Also it is concentrating poverty which is not good for the neighborhood and not good for the residents of the projects.
So the question is, when developers or politicians talk about affordable housing what kind of affordable housing are they talking about? And with the politicians, how they propose to carry out creating, making, affordable housing is a concern. Will it be via some financing scheme/ tax break where a percentage of units are to go to folks making up to a certain income? Then what is is good percentage that makes the project commercially viable, does not concentrate poverty, and provides a decent number of affordable units? Will it be housing vouchers, where we’ve seen, folks could concentrate themselves in poorer areas. I don’t have any answers but I do know that the Devil is always in the details.

Just two (the second is the black spot o’ fur under the folding table) of the four feral kittens that have been spotted in the yard. One I have already named “Scardy Kat” as it runs at the very hint of danger or sound or movement or anything for that matter.
The kitten in front of the white white pot is taking in the lush greenery of the yard. Later three kittens will engage in a game of attack hide and seek between the folds of a outdoor rug I have folded over in a corner.

UPDATE:
I’m disappointed that only the usual suspects showed up, I was hoping for more of you. But off the top of my head this is what happened…..
The developers showed their stuff for an Eckington project. 625-675 units, 850 parking spots. Jim Berry asked about jobs for the community, and not just laborer positions, jobs for architects, accountants, etc in the community. After the developers departed Jim mentioned that we need a resume library to find the accountants and whatnot in the community. Mary Ann talked up Flower Power and she’d like donations for the reception, such as a bottle of wine, food, etc. On the topic ABC licenses, it will be a long battle. The ABC board is very business friendly, so much so that the battle with the liquor store on the corner of 4th and Florida has been going on for over a decade and their license still gets renewed. Jim Berry solicited invitations from residents to send him their stories, videotape, etc relating to the stores. Jim also prepared the audience for what the store’s supporters will throw at them such as, “These white people…. these new people are coming in and wanting to change things…. I’ve been here 40 years….. drive out black businesses…” One of the 15 candidates for Ward 5 spoke. At 9:05 I left ’cause Vance went on one of his non sequiturs.
I’ll type up my notes and place them on the site where I keep the other notes, provided I don’t loose them under a pile like I did the other notes.

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It’s the first Monday of the month and so there is a BACA meeting. On the agenda tonight are the three liquor stores whose (is that the right word “whose”?) liquor licenses are coming up for renewal. Our great leader Jim, wants to hear from you and it would be good to hear testimony from supporters, as I gather there will be opposition. There was a petition that did go around so I’d be surprised if there isn’t someone who would oppose.
And there are some other things on the agenda:

Paul Tummonds, Esq.
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP
re. the Fairfield Development Project at the Capital Commerce Center
Agenda for the evening also includes updates from the following committees:
Membership
Public Safety
Youth Services
Transportation
Environmental Services
Land Use, Planning and Economic Development

Monday, June 5, 2006
Mount Sinai Baptist Church
3rd and Q Streets, N.W.

Rooms 1 and 2 7:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.

For more information regarding the meeting and/or the Association, please contact Jim Berry at (202) 387-8520