Month: May 2007

College Opportunities for Black men who want to be teachers

Neighbors,

Alice Thompson, Mayor Fenty’s Ward Five Constituent Services Coordinator, asked me to pass the below information along to folks in the community. Perhaps you might know of someone who could benefit from these opportunities.

Best,

Jim Berry
Bates Area Civic Association, Inc.

College Opportunities for Eligible Black Males
Do you know any Black Males who are a senior in high school who want to go to college for FREE.

The black colleges are looking for future Black Male Teachers and will send them to Universities/ Colleges…

FOUR (4) YEARS FREE

THIS IS FOR MALES ONLY.

1. Have parents fill out this application.
2. Read the Mission Statement. There are Ten (10) different South Carolina Colleges or Universities including:
Benedict College
http://www.callmemi ster.clemson. edu/schools/ benedict. htm

Claflin University
http://www.callmemi ster.clemson. edu/schools/ claflin.htm

Clemson University
http://www.callmemi ster.clemson. edu/schools/ clemson.htm

Morris College http://www.callmemi ster.clemson. edu/schools/ morrishtm

South Carolina State University
http://www.callmemi ster.clemson. edu/schools/ southcarolinasta te.htm

Greenville Technical College
http://www.callmemi ster.clemson. edu/schools/ greenvilletech. htm

Midlands Technical College
http://www.callmemi ster.clemson. edu/schools/ midlands. htm

Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College
http://www.callmemi ster.clemson. edu/schools/ orangeburgcalhou ntech.htm

Tri-County Technical College
http://www.callmemi ster.clemson. edu/schools/ tricountytech. htm

Trident Technical College
http://www.callmemi ster.clemson. edu/schools/ tridenttech. htm

3. Send this to your family and friends also.

The web link is below:

http://www.callmemi ster. clemson. edu/index. htm

http://www.callmemi ster.clemson. edu/index. htm

2007 Spring Home Energy Efficiency Expo

Neighbors,

This is something that all of us could probably benefit from. Hope you can make it!

Best,

Jim Berry
Bates Area Civic Association, Inc.

2007 Spring Home Energy Efficiency Expo
WHEN: Wednesday, May 16, 2007; 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.

WHERE: Reeves Municipal Center
2000 14th Street, N.W. (Between 14th and U Streets, N.W.)

PARTICIPATING VENDORS: Casey Trees, DC Department of the Environment, DC Emergency Management Agency, DC Water and Sewer Authority, Federal Department of Energy, Grayton Plumbing, Industrial Bank, Mayor’s Office of Latino Affairs, and the Sierra Club.

SPONSORS: The DC Office of the People’s Counsel, the DC Office of Environment, and the Mayor’s Office of Latino Affairs.

A Rose by any other name can stink when it hits the fan

While I was away this weekend, mourning the death of my grandma, the whole what’s the friggin name of the neighborhood blew up. As far as I’ve been able to grasp it, a vocal party in the Bates Area that is opposed to the name Truxton Circle penned a few letters to various city officials expressing their opposition to the name. However, one of those letters was to DDOT requesting “an immediate stay on the grant application for a Truxton Circle Banner pending further review.” Considering that city grant money may be harder to come by in the future, and that it is easier to get grants once you’ve gotten one, our little disagreement about the name of the neighborhood has gone too far.
I had not seen the letter that started it when I had seen the Truxton Circle dot org’s Daily (somewhat weekly-ish) dispatch in my inbox on my cell phone. I read the dispatcher’s letter, which expressed anger and irritation, leaving me to wonder WTF? It wasn’t until Sunday night when I read the offending letter and got a fuller account from the co-founder of TruxtonCircle.Org. Dang.
I respect the right of my fellow neighbors to disagree and go into the public sphere to express said disagreement. Regarding the name and history of the neighborhood, I welcome any research that others bring forth. The problems in the offending letter were a few statements and one poor citation. Let’s review:

Specifically, the Hanover project grant states that the Hanover neighborhood is “bounded by P Street NW, North Capitol Street, New York Avenue NW and 1st Street NW”. This is inaccurate. According to the Shaw School Urban Renewal Plan, the historic borders of the Hanover Street are limited to Hanover Street.

I haven’t seen anything in the SSURP defining smaller areas, but then again, I haven’t seen the SSURP in its fullness. But the borders cited by the Hanover people are the same borders they’ve been citing for the last 5-6 years as their section of the TC, as opposed to the Bates Area. I’d hope that if we went hunting for grant money for just BACA it would not be limited to Bates Street and denied to Q, R, 4th, 3rd, 1st and North Cap.

Therefore, the grant applicant’s request for a Truxton Circle banner on 1st NW is inaccurate. According to the text “Washington DC, Past and Future ” the former Truxton Circle was located at the 1600 block of North Capitol Street NE, not in Old City, Bates Shaw East community. Additionally, there was not and is not a neighborhood called Truxton Circle. It was a landmark, not a neighborhood.

I already did the when the TC was a neighborhood and not a landmark or a post office in another post. And I can’t find Washington DC, Past and Future in Amazon or Half, nor is an author cited. I did a Google search and came up with nothing, which leads me to think this might be an article, and if that is so citing the journal would be nice.
There was some other stuff, but to go over them would be nitpicky. We’re all human and prone to error. One of the undersigned in the counter grant letter had nicely pointed out a typographical error on my main site. I am thankful for that correction and in the same spirit of neighborliness, while having differing opinions, I suggest that in this public sphere argument, stronger citations and proof be brought forth. Meaning, if you are going to cite a source if it is a book or article cite the title and author and journal if applicable. If it is an oral history, interviewee, interviewer, date and repository where the interview is housed. And if anyone has a question about any of the sources I cite or use when asserting a statement as fact contact me if you feel that my bibliography or citations are incomplete. The idea is to let you the reader and member of the public review the research for yourself (should you decide to drag yourself to the MLK or the historical society’s library) and decide.

Old City

I am getting the feeling that few people have any idea of what the heck I’m talking about when I mention Old City. Much less Old City II. Some of you know it as the area mentioned on the real estate database with the tax office.
Because I don’t have a neat little book at my side saying so, nor am I sitting in the Washingtonia room at the MLK, please allow for some error. And if there is error, please correct and cite source.
I’m 89% sure the map shown in this post is of Old City. Basically, it is the L’Enfant drawn city, within the District of Columbia. So, there is Georgetown, which isn’t part of Old City, it is labeled #7 on the map. Then there is the Old City, which are Police and Fire Districts 1-6, and there is the rest of Washington, which isn’t shown anywhere on the map.
I don’t think of Old City as a neighborhood. It is a city, a very small city in the District of Columbia. Georgetown, a town, in the District of Columbia. Everything else, farmland. And like a lot of farmland in our nation’s history, got gobbled up by developers and turned into communities. Oh, sometime in the late 19th, early 20th century.
So are we clear?

What makes Shaw, Shaw?

I posted something on Shaw Rez’s blog that made me think I should just post here instead of ranting there.
What unites us? What makes Shaw, Shaw, and not Glover Park or Fort Lincoln or Avondale? What makes the stuff that falls outside of the borders (and for the sake of argument I’m sticking with every neighborhood that falls within the border, whether they like it or not) different and within the same? And does it hold true over time?
The easy answer, which I’ve been pointing to over and over and over again like a broken record is the Shaw School Urban Renewal Area hashed out by the Redevelopment Land Agency and the National Capital Planning Commission and any other government body that wanted to ‘fix’ the area in the 60s and 70s. But there is a past, preceding the creation of those borders, and possibly the creation of the school’s borders, with various notables ‘passing through’ and buildings of various sorts being built for various sorts for various reasons. And in the past and the present there is the hard answer of what makes Shaw, Shaw.
Just sticking with the present, what makes Shaw, Shaw? I’m going to say there is probably not one answer. And I’m saying that because I know I’m going to leave something out. First thing that comes to mind, right now, lunchtime on a Wednesday, is the amount of ‘affordable’ and public housing that exists with private and market rate housing in the same space. That is part of the character because it puts people of various income levels together in the same neighborhood. It puts services and service organizations that serve and advocate for the poor, in the neighborhood. If you want to talk history, you can find bits of or ghosts of“the Great Society” in Shaw. Anyway, those things play a part in the character.
There is more but my lunch hour is over with.

3 years for a tree

About 2-3 years ago the tree in front of my house died. The first year, I wasn’t sure it died but put a request in to have it ‘taken care of’ by the city. The leaves had fallen before all the other trees, and all the leaves kind of dropped at once. Well the city did nothing that first year. The second year, it was dead. It didn’t come back. No leaves. Nothing. I updated the request I had with the city from last year, saying it was most definitely dead. Nothing. Then I started complaining to then ANC Jim Berry, and making some commentary at the BACA meetings about it.
As Winter came the bark from the tree began to fall off in huge chunks and revealed big cracks in the tree, about 1/4 of an inch wide. The way the cracks formed and the way the tree was shaped, I could see a huge limb falling on one of the parked cars or worse the tree falling on my house.
Well yesterday, strolling by the house I discovered the tree is now gone. Yay! Took the City nearly three years to get it gone, but now it is gone. No one is in danger of having it fall on them. Also another dead tree on the block is gone too. Yay.

1984

There was some good natured conversation at last night’s BACA meeting about where the hell are we. Apparently at a meeting I missed, there was more of a continuous meeting regarding the name of the neighborhood.
Just to restate: I am in the Bates Area, which is in Truxton Circle, which is in Shaw, which is in Old City II, which is in Washington, which is in the District of Columbia, which is in the United States of America. You might be in Westminster, which maybe in (I’m not sure) Logan Circle, which is in (though some might not want to admit it) in Shaw, which is in Old City II, etc.
Anyway, the discussion goes back to Truxton Circle. Several people with a gist of what the argument is, are aware that once upon a time, long, long ago there was a circle at FL and North Cap and it went away in the 40s. What I’ve become aware of lately is that in 1984, solid proof that the powers that be, the local and federal government called my little section of the Shaw School Renewal Area (aka Shaw) Truxton Circle. As an area, and not as a landmark or a post office, TC is called Truxton Circle in the Washington Post’s August 2, 1984 article Subsidy Program’s Nuts and Bolts . Then I found maps from a federal agency* from 1984 with the name Truxton Circle boldly printed on top of the area. After 1984 the city continues to call the area Truxton Circle as it sells underpriced and moderately priced housing to DC residents.

*I’m sorry I’m going to have to be vague about the source until the end of the Summer. Ask me in person why.

Crime, meetings, whatever

Well I may have my BACA meeting notes up sometime this week. Maybe.
Quick recap though. 1- I got there late. 2- A Capt. from the 5th District was speaking and handed out a list of adult arrests. The list has all sorts of useful info like full names, address arrested and residence of arrested persons. There was a spirited discussion about the role of the police department kept going by two persons I don’t regularly see at the meetings. And the meeting ended with a question of where are we and what do we call ourselves.
I have to make mention that over at ANC2C & You, there is an excellent video entry of an interview with the property manager of Gibson Plaza on 7th St., regarding the recent shootings. The gangs are not afraid of the police and will do a drive by knowing there are police officers yards away.
The ‘whatever’ in the title goes back to the question of what do we over in the eastern section of Shaw call ourselves. Um, not late for supper. First there is a problem with the various names for place and the odd idea that if a place has one name it cannot be part of another name. Where I am is in the Bates Area, in Truxton Circle, in Shaw, in Old City II, in Washington, in the District of Columbia in the United States of America. Why is that difficult to grasp? How many times do I have to point out that Shaw is a big honking neighborhood and within that big honking hood are other subneighborhoods and smaller niches. And what’s with the mindset that if you associate yourself with the smaller niche you’ve been voted off the Shaw island?

I got nothing

My grandma died this weekend. Not the mean one I talk about, the other one in Florida. Even though we weren’t close, as I’m one of her thirty some-odd grandchildren, this weekend has been focused on trying to find information about the funeral arrangements, and such. Which means, for today’s InShaw post, I got nothing. Maybe Tuesday or Wednesday I’ll have a Fun with ProQuest or something.