Day: September 21, 2006

If anyone cares I have restarted the 1900 census project. This is a continuation of what I did for 1880 and the paper I wrote for last year’s DC Historical Conference, “Ethnic Divides in an 1880 DC Neighborhood”(PDF), which looks at every single family in the NW Truxton neighborhood. There were about 1,000 people, hundreds of families/households and the area wasn’t that heavily populated.
There is no 1890 census to look at. Well, not a complete one, as story has it, that year got burned up in a fire. There are city directories, arranged by name, but they only give address and occupation.
So bad thing about 1900. More people. More households to slog through. More houses. There are alleys that people lived in that don’t exist now.
Good news. I did hired some help to collect the data and put them in the forms I created, so a good portion of the work has been done.
Bad news. I can’t seem to remember where I put 1/2 of it.

From Alex
Meeting on Neighborhood Tax Increment Financing for Shaw, 09/21/06

A public meeting on using Tax Increment Financing to assist in the
revitalization of Shaw’s commercial district and Georgia Avenue will be held on
Thursday, September 21, 2006, from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM at the DC Housing Finance
Agency, 815 Florida Avenue, NW. Community residents concerned about ensuring
funding for key initiatives like parking, commercial rent subsidies, clean and
green programs, new sidewalks and street lighting, etc., should attend this
meeting and advocate for their priorities.
The Great Streets Initiative within the Office of the Deputy Mayor for
Planning and Economic Development is convening this meeting, one of a series of
four, to discuss the potential for four Neighborhood Tax Increment Financing
(TIF) sub-districts along the designated Great Streets corridors, one of which
is 7th Street/Georgia Avenue. TIF involves earmarking certain real property
and sales taxes within an area to pay for public and private investments. This
public/private partnership tool allows the District to pledge future tax
revenues–revenues not already committed to meeting citywide operational needs
or debt service–to support private investment in key redevelopment projects
in addition to supplemental infrastructure and public space improvements.
An overview of TIF and how it works as well as technical analysis about the
estimated potential revenue streams for each respective proposed TIF
sub-district will be presented to the audience. Residents, property and business
owners, developers, and neighborhood and business associations are encouraged to
attend and provide input on how the District might prioritize spending
within their sub-districts.
The proposed 7th Street/Georgia Avenue Neighborhood TIF district is roughly
bounded by O Street at the south, 5th Street at the east, Howard Place at the
north, and 11th Street at the west, and could generate approximately $3
million per year. These boundaries leave out critical portions of Shaw’s
commercial district, which extends south to K Street on the south side of Mount
Vernon Square. This will result in a failure to capture new taxes generated from
the proposed Convention Center Hotel for the benefit of the community
surrounding that major project, and ignores properties along 7th and 9th Street
that could house businesses that would benefit from amenities and services, such
as the new Green Team, that could be funded via the Neighborhood TIF. Be
sure to come to the meeting to advocate for extending the proposed Neighborhood
TIF to the south.
For more information on the Neighborhood TIF proposal and a map showing the
boundaries of the proposed Neighborhood TIF district, go to
http://dcbiz. dc.gov/dmped/ frames.asp? doc=/dmped/ lib/dmped/ pdf/G-S_Nhood_ TIF_Flyer- Shaw-081106.pdf.
For more information on the Great Streets Initiative, visit
www.greatstreets. dc.gov. For more information in DC’s TIF program, go to www.dcbiz.dc. gov.
Alex

Alexander M. Padro
Commissioner, ANC 2C01
1519 8th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001-3205
Voice: 202-518-3794
Email: PadroANC2C at aol. com
Website: www.members. aol.com/PadroANC 2C

(I could write about about the shooting in my alley or another shooting, that according to an email I got, occurred between 6th and Marion, but I’m not in the mood for that kind of negativity right now.)

Walking to the Post Office, I saw a familiar face standing at New Jersey and S St NW heading in the direction of the Shaw station, Metro General Manager Dan Tangherlini. I wanted to say something. Something like, why the blankity-blank did my blanking bus not bother showing up Friday and what ditch digger school did Metro find the driver who showed up 1/2 an hour late on Monday. But I said nothing, I just looked in his eyes and smiled.
Once I finished my business at the Post Office I ran into a neighbor who was trying to remember where he parked his car. We exchanged pleasantries and I got on him about driving and not walking.
Going about half a block I ran into another neighbor, L’s mother. She was pushing her little ‘old lady cart’. We exchanged smiles as we continued to our separate destinations.
This is the thing I like the neighborhood. Yes, there is the crime that pokes its head up in various forms. But between the bad there is the good everyday where you run into familiar faces and good will is exchanged.