Okay I got three things about the ANC 5C meeting.
1. I wasn’t there.
2. I got a comparision report from a reader and posted it over at This Meeting Never Happened. (User: thismeeting password: neverhappened)
3. New Kid on the Eckington Block reported the St. Martin’s project discussed at the ANC meeting.
UPDATE: Scott Robert’s notes have been added to This Meeting Never Happened.
Okay maybe I’ve been unfair. So I’d like to try to be a bit more positive. Not all Suzane Reatig projects in Shaw are ugly. Since figuring out how to spell the name correctly and finding the architect firm’s site, the firm has done some lovely things in the hood. I also learned historic district- smistoric district, but more of that later.
So. The multi-unit on S Street, across from the Wonderbread, not pretty in my eyes. But you know the row of townhomes near New York Ave, on L, with the colorful doors that look so cute? Suzane Reatig! I know, I found it surprising too! The firm does a little of the same on 5th St and there is supposedly more color in the back.
So the firm can take a townhome and spiff it up a bit.
Now, historic districts. There are a few SR projects within the borders of the Mt. Vernon East Historic District, that’s the pink on the map. First thing is the Metropolitan Community Church. Being a traditionalist, my first impressions of MCC was ‘oh they’ve taken a gym and turned it into a church’. Okay, the SR site says different. Another project in the Mt Vernon East area are those lovely glass houses on N Street. I really like the back of them. The front looks very euro-something. The L Street condos previously mentioned also sit in the borders. So modernism can be in an historic district (also noticed a pretty cool Georgetown project too).
The townhomes on the corner of 5th & O look nice, in the pictures. On the ground, a little less so, but the theme of this post is positive about modernism. So there you have it, local Shaw architectural firm, some cute stuff, some not so cute stuff. Some stuff in historic districts, some stuff just sitting across the street from the HD.
Either at Karl&Joey’s Annual Christmasy Christmas Party or chatting with neighbors just before I heard rumor that the vacant lot on the 1700 block of 4th NW is going to get a condo thrown on it. It’s 18 feet wide so yes, stuff can get built. I was thinking it would be great to take over the lot (like neighbors did to another lot) and ‘do’ something with it. But it seems stuff was cleaned off of it and via 2nd or 3rd persons someone mentioned putting a condo up.
I just got this to say to whomever is going to build something on the lot. Ugly don’t sell. If you are going to build something, build it so real live people, maybe even a homeowning type will buy it. There is an ugly house on 3rd that I swore has never had a soul living in it. Why? Because it is U-G-L-Y, it ain’t got no alibi it’s ugly. And ugly don’t sell unless it is dirt cheap. Ultra modern surrounded (rules may differ for end units) by traditional, kinda ugly. Ugly modern next to traditional, very, exceedingly ugly, and probably won’t sell.
Anyway. Rumor. Condo. 1700 blk 4th.
Update: Just to clarify, not all modern is ugly. There is some stuff in the hood that is modern and kinda cute or interesting.
Okay a lot of you are going to be running off for Christmas/End of year/ New Year whatever vacation so a few words of advice:
1. Stop your mail. Go to USPS.gov and put a stop on your mail for the time you are gone.
2. Stop your paper. Call the Post or the Times and make them stop delivering the paper ’cause nothing says not at home like 2 of those things piled up.
3. If you have roommates don’t assume they will be around to pick up the mail & paper, so ask them. They have their own lives and might at the spur of the moment run off too.
4. Tell a trusted neighbor that you are going away. Sometimes those mail and paper stops don’t work out as smoothly as we’d like and then there are the Chinese menu people and UPS that leave things at your door.
There a few other things you might want to do depending on how long you will be gone (like get a cat sitter or leave your car in a friend’s garage). Any other tips for neighbors?
I want a bathtub. Yes, I have a bathtub, but it is useless for the purpose of taking a bath. So for the past couple of weeks I’ve been thinking about my bathrooms and how they will change in the renovation.
I decided that the upstairs is not the place I want a tub. The beautiful claw foots I’ve been drooling over at the Brass Knob (on the unit block of N St, should you wanna walk by it) are cast iron…. heavy. Add water, heavier. Add me, even heavier. There is a bit of me that is unsure about having that much weight on the 2nd floor. Then there is the problem of getting it up the narrow staircase, provided I got it through the front door. Besides, I don’t need a tub for the everyday. I shower every morning and yearn for a bath, occasionally. So I’ve decided that the upstairs will be where the everyday shower will be.
But I still want the opportunity to take a bath in my house. So I’m looking at the 1st floor. For the past few days I’ve been trying to figure out how to squeeze a 5ft bathtub into a small bathroom in a small house, figuring I should have more space on the 1st floor. I don’t know if it is possible. The possibilities I’ve been coming up with make the floor layout look weird.
So I’ve chucked the 5 ft bathtub idea and have begun to look at other options like an ofuro or a greek tub. Or maybe I’ll head back to Brass Knob and take a look at their 4ft-4.5ft tubs.
Richard has put up some pix over at flikr of the New Town proposal. Oh, look it’s a big outdoor mall! It’s disgusting. The proposal for the inside market looks like a really new supermarket. I got an idea. Take that idea shift it over 1/2 a mile to P and 8th, and call it a new Giant.
Also where the hell is Litteri’s in this Disneyfied suburban wet dream? I love Litteri’s and once you have discovered the magic of that cramped wonderland of Italian food, you realize how unique it is. I don’t want it to be moved or even temporarily relocated, because what is going to make it (or any other business) come back? People have free will and agency and when the city tells you in its own eminent domainish hostile way to go away, why pack up a 2nd time and come back?
Want to know why this project is all wrong in so, so many ways? Read more on Richard Layman’s blog entry on New Town. Richard points out another problem. Let’s call it the Brentwood Shopping Center. Does that place excite you? Oh, a Home Depot that never has what you want & don’t bother complaining about lack of knowledgeable sales people, I find that in many HDs. I know I’ll have better luck at Logan Hardware.
Could the Capitol/ Florida Market area use some spiffying up? Yes. But it doesn’t need to be turned into a little piece of Fairfax, Co.
You: Shiny black luxuryish looking new car stopped right in the crosswalk forcing me to walk in the traffic lanes.
Me: Woman on foot with big plastic pail swinging and “accidentally” whacking your shiny new car.
Sorry ’bout that. I didn’t set out to hit your car, but I didn’t care if I did because you took away my cross walk. I had to walk around your boat, into traffic. Yes, there wasn’t anything coming but that is besides the point. So in the future let’s avoid incidents like this by recognizing there is a place for everything and everything in its place. Cars behind the long solid line. Pedestrians with swinging objects in the crosswalk.
Over on the eastern side of New Jersey Ave we have our problems in the TC. One that I think (and I’m sure others will have different opinions) isn’t a big problem is the oldtimers vs newcommers battles that plague the other side of NJ Ave. I have a couple of guesses of why that boil down to leadership, and the problems of vocal/active old timers.
When I first moved in back in 2001, there was the old vs new vibe. No doubt about it, but now it’s less of an issue. In those earlier years for me I attended the PSA meetings and the BACA meetings and you would get the old woman, always a woman, who railed against “them”, “them” usually being the white people buying up the houses, making the prices go up, and wanting to change everything. And this is where leadership came in. The leaders of the meets be they the police officer heading the PSA meeting or Jim would give them an opportunity to vent their frustrations, but would not validate, or affirm the argument that the problem was the newcomers.
Also Jim is a Great Leader. He was worked for the people of the northern 1/2 of the TC, called the Bates Area, and not for himself. He saw the opportunities that came with having an influx of new people. He stressed the importance of voting so that ANC 5C01 could rightly demand a bigger chunk of the Ward 5 pie. Bigger chunk of pie, more attention and services for the people. This past primary election showed how far we have come from being treated like the redheaded stepchild of Ward 5 to having Marie Johns and Adrian Fenty coming to our area as well as the Ward 5 front runners showing up at our events. But I’m really digressing.
Another leader, Mary Ann Wilmner, of the BACA membership committee and Flower Power queen. She has pulled together old timers and newcomers to get involved in Flower Power to beautify the neighborhood and make it a better place for all of us. She is a positive force and an asset to Bates Street.
Then there were the consistent loud old timers. G-d bless ’em. These were the women who showed up almost regularly, or enough times to make their voices heard. They wanted the neighborhood cleaned up. They were tired of living near group homes and bad section eighters. Their problems weren’t the newcomers but some of the crap that already was here.
I guess when the old vs new divide isn’t agitated by the leadership AND the more vocal and involved old timers don’t see the new people as their biggest threat, then the divide isn’t that problematic. There is a divide, but it doesn’t color everything.
Well yesterday I smelled gas every time the furnace fired up. This, understandably was worrisome. So early this morning I turned off the heater so it could cool off so I could fuss with it. To make up for the lack of heat I dragged out two heater fans, turned them on and tripped the fuse. So maybe just one heater fan.
I cleaned the furnace. Got my hands really messy. Put everything back and turned it back on. No more gas smell. Instead it was replaced by the odd aroma of burning plastic. An improvement in my mind. The smell went on for a few minutes when I decided to check the furnace out again. Hey, were those wires fused together before? Maybe that was the burning smell? Two wires fused and one very crispy.
So to the hardware store to pick up some electrical tape and maybe those twisty together the wire thingies. On the way there I ran into Lem the neighborhood handiman. He said he could fix it and will be over around 2. Lem means well. If he isn’t here by 3 I’m going to try to fix the wires. Anyway he told me to pick up a thermocoupler. It’s cold so I walked over to the closest hardware store, the one at 6th and FL, Best Price Hardware. It is sort of like a small RI Ave Home Depot (sans lumber) where they have hardware stuff but not necessarily the exact thing you need. I figured I should take my chances. Nope. So I then went to Logan Hardware. They had it.
Just in case I did secure an appointment for a guy to come out and look at it later on this week. Hopefully if Lem comes, or if the wire fixing thing does the trick and does not kill me, I can cancel it.
Good news from Chapple’s site and Daddy-5-O, the 5 votes STAND! Praise be!
I (or Truxtonian) will update this tomorrow.
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Or maybe just me because someone said he could only offer snark…..
Safely on this side of New Jersey Ave, the goings on over there in ANC 2C have been interesting if not educational. Any closer to a third world type power struggle I’d need my own armed private guard, and a translator. I have learned that despite being overthrown by the electorate, which wasn’t a given until yesterday, Mr. Leroy Thorpe took over a civic association and got himself appointed puppet master (or parliamentarian) of the ANC 2C commission. So Mr. Thorpe is not going to fade away, unless the good people of 2C do something about it. Mr. Brian Smith offered some advice on the Mt. Vernon Sq list:
Alright folks…it is time to exert a little grassroots muscle. I called
Wendy Rahim in Jack Evans’ office and she suggested calling two people:David Catania 202-724-7772 – I spoke with Jennifer in his office and she is working on who the exact point of contact is in the office. I will circulate the name and contact info when I get back to DC tonight.
Gotleib Simon 202-727-9945 – handles ANC issues for the DC Govt.
When you call please do the following:
– Make sure you explain you are a resident of ANC 2C and you are concerned about the election that took place for next year’s officers for the ANC
– Explain that with an illegal vote, Leroy Thorpe promoted himself to a post of de-facto leader of the ANC and there is a chance that he will not even be the elected member for the SMD he currently represents.
– Ask the ways that we can get this election overturned and put on hold until the new officers are installed in 2007.
– Ask that they begin a preliminary investigation into the finances for the ANC, in particular a $3000 grant for computers that ECCA received last night even though the paperwork was not filed.
So people of 2C do whatcha gotta do. If not for yourself, for Democracy.
