Month: July 2007

Crime and spats

King Karl has reported that the most NW block of the TC has had another robbery this weekend, making it about 5 in the last month for that block. This is a problem, living on the edge of 5D, the getting ignored bit. I don’t know if more patrols would help as for 3 of the 5 (I don’t know what the other 2 were) the houses were entered from the rear. So it would not have been something a passing patrol car would have noticed from the street. Another thing was 2 of the houses, maybe three, had alarm systems. From what I know it seems that having a motion detector helps inspire intruders to vacate promptly.
And filed under ‘I’m not quite sure what to do with this information’ is a spat between neighbors. Not literal neighbors, but people who live in close enough proximity to give the other nasty looks on a regular basis. The problem for me is I know both and a possible 3rd party, and I consider them all to be very nice people. Neighbor A accuses Neighbor B of committing a very bad neighborhood sin (I’m not going to say what it is lest I attract the attention of Neighbor L who gets all worked up about these things) via possible Neighbor C. A confronted B about the thing C was doing on behalf of B. B dismissed A who is now pissed and telling the story. The event seems a little out of character, but completely possible*, for B. So it is another set of people who need to stay away from each other.
I remember surprising someone on the topic of old timers vs newcomers that old timers can have longstanding neighborhood feuds with other old timers. Wrongs that were committed way back when that have never been forgiven or things that were started and just snowballed from there. Newcommers, the same, just the start date is more recent. And sometimes, newcommers can join the old vs old spat and visa versa.
This whole thing just ruined what I was planning on posting, inspired by my priest’s sermon on ‘who is your neighbor’. He said a neighborhood does not make love, love makes a neighborhood. Maybe spats do too, but I’d like less of them, cause I really can’t remember who all can’t be in a room together.

*All things are possible. It is possible that you may find me running down the street 1/2 naked chasing someone with a kitchen knife, unlikely, out of character, but possible.

U.G.L.Y. you ain't got no alibi


Uglyhouse
Originally uploaded by In Shaw

This picture was taken some 3 years back of a house on the 1500 block of 3rd Street, NW. Since this picture was taken and I ranted about it’s ugliness in 2004, I have yet to see anybody living in it. Three years and nothing, all that ugly for naught. Of course the house might have other problems.
Confusing windowAnother house that has seemingly sat vacant for years is at the corner of Marion and Q Sts NW. It is not so much ugly as it is confusing. There are two windows, one sitting on top of the other, allowing light into a space, well I’m not sure how that space is to be used. It would make a lovely spot for a spiral staircase, but I’m not sure where one would be going and the reasons for traffic flow in and out are not obvious. Now, it looks like there might have been a door there long time ago, and maybe the house was renovated to look like this but it just don’t make no sense.
Check 'n' GoLastly, not a house but a business, is the Check ‘n’ Go or the rob people of their paycheck with usury fees. Note the top portions where windows have been busted in and out and the masonry (you may need to click on the photo to get to a bigger image). Yes, I know Historic Districts would prevent the remuddling, and make my whites whiter, my brights brighter and reduce crime by 98%. But some of you know how I hate history being prostituted out for reasons other than strong history. Besides, ugly remuddling would be true to the historic slum look because the ‘Shaw’ identity seems to be more 1960s urban renewal than 1890s Victorian. And what’s more true to the story than a check cashing place in a messed up building?
I believe in the invisible hand of the market coming down and smiting those who would make the ugly. They have been punished by their wickedness with properties that bear little fruit. May those who screwed up residential properties wail and nash their teeth and pay the vacant property tax. As for the ugly commercial property, maybe location, location, location may override the ugly when a business is looking for a place to be (and I don’t see a long life for the check cashing place), or maybe not.

Foreclosure

The house next door to mine is being sold by the bank. I suspect that the guy who bought it overpaid for the 2bd/1.5 bath no basement and probably overestimated how much he could rent it out for. Rents in the eastern Shaw area (based on a quick Craigslist search) range from $1500- $1700 for similar units. Dude paid about $400K for the place. I’ve been in it, it isn’t worth $400K. Heck, even my beautifully renovated 1/2 painted house isn’t worth $400K.
Now it is on the market for something in the mid 300K range ‘as-is’. Competing with it on the same block is a nicer end unit in the low $400K. I don’t know how the two will play off each other, but have seen at least one set of buyers look at one and then the other.
I realize that this is not the only piece of real estate where some ‘investor’ paid too much and failed to notice that the mortgage, taxes and insurance were more than what the market would bear as a rental. But I’m not all that sympathetic to a group that jacked up the housing prices because they couldn’t gage the market. Also I think this is the same group that ‘renovated’ houses for flipping without a decent eye for beauty only to have their properties sit because they u-g-l-y. But that’s another post, for another day.

BACA & Paint

There is a BACA meeting tonight but I will not be in attendance as I have some pressing paint duties. I’ve been painting my house for what seems like a month. I have formed these big nasty callouses all on my hands and I want them gone.
I have told myself I need to finish all my paint jobs by the end of this week, or else I’ll go nuts. First thing that needs to be done tonight (thus not going to the BACA meeting) is the bathroom ceiling needs a coat of paint. There are only so many times you can shower without damaging the ceiling. I hope it is not too late as there are some funny looking marks up there already.
After the bathroom everything else is whenever but I got to end this painting. The baseboards on the 1st floor need a coat, because the paint I put on was damaged by the floor guy’s sander. Also on the first floor I need to paint over the ceiling paint that hit the wall and the doorway between the kitchen and dining area. Upstairs I have to decide if I’m painting the bedroom ceilings or just leaving it primer white. Sections of the brick wall need caulking and painting. The top part of the 2nd floor baseboards need a lick of paint. The top of the wall near the ceilings in both bedrooms and the hallway need paint.
Then once I’m done painting, there is the cleaning.

Moving back in

100_0519Well this week I’ve moved back into the house. The upside of giving away most of your earthly possessions prior to renovation is they aren’t covered in several layers of dust. Nor are they water damaged. The downside is the stuff you did keep stored requires cleaning or replacing and you can’t find half of it anyway.
I was crazy mad trying to put together a bookcase with rudimentary hand tools because I cannot find either one of my drills. The cordless I think may have grown legs. The corded one, it’s down in the cellar somewhere. Can’t find any of my pliers. Tools, I learned from Nathan & BL who had work done on their house, can accidentally get picked up during the rush to leave the work site.
Most of the work has been done and there are just a few things that are left to do. Painting the ceilings, getting the tops of the walls near the ceiling, hooking up the cable/phone wires, hooking up the radiators and then hooking up the AC. These things aren’t required for me moving in.
The place looks nice and very sparse. I put out a call to friends to give me (or loan me) furniture to help fill it out. One friend has been trying to pawn off a few wood table pieces on me for years. Another is preparing to move next year to Chicago and is willing to part with things not worth moving. Though I have my limits, I will not take anything the dog has peed on. I do have some of my own furniture that I couldn’t find homes for before the move but I have yet to see if it has survived unprotected storage.
Lastly, I want to thank Scott and Matt for keeping a roof over my head for the past 3 months during the renovations. They were wonderful hosts. Because of them I was able to live a short distance from my house, so I could see the changes and address other issues that came up, quickly. Also since I wasn’t living in the house, the work went faster, and I was saner.

July 5th

Well last night I occupied my house because there was no way in hell I was going to leave it unguarded on July 4th. Neighbors lighting off fireworks on the sidewalk is a given, I just wanted to be there to ask that the ‘fun’ not extend to in front of my house. And unlike years before the people actually living here did limit their lightings to their own fronts and rear yards. Those people on the corner shooting off the big display, I don’t know where they came from.
My block, well one corner of my block, was the site of one of the many, many, many neighborhood fireworks shows, that was best appreciated from someone else’s roofdeck. From the ground it looked and sounded like the city was under seige. Loud booms, far off bursts of light, two ghetto birds (helicopters) whirling all over the place, traffic on Florida tied up (really where are you people going?), kids gone crazy, chaos. However, up 3 floors, with a clear line of sight to the National Mall, all of NE, and northwest NW it was a pretty entertaining show punctuated by the flashing of police lights on the ground highlighting the smoke. Police weren’t stopping the fireworks, they were stopping drivers, hands against the car, whole show.
The official show on the Mall was nice, but you guys in Capitol Hill, y’all were impressive and very illegal looking. We saw fireworks shooting up high from Foggy Bottom, Columbia Heights, Georgetown (maybe), Brookland, Trinidad, SW or SE, and North Capitol. But Capitol Hill takes the cake, almost nonstop fireworks action from the east. There was a brief period when Foggy Bottom shot off a impressive light show with shooting stars and ladyfingers.
Locally, there was the exploding extravaganza on my block and some others I think I can pinpoint around Shaw. It looked like there were fireworks going off near the fire station on New Jersey Ave and Dunbar High School. Someone else in the viewing party guessed NY and North Capitol as well as something around U Street.
We broke it up around 10:30PM, but the fireworks kept going on until July 5th sometime after midnight. From my 2nd floor bedroom window I could see fireworks still going off. Instead of watching, I decided to soak in the tub and have a glass of wine. The AC units in my house are so loud (and the walls well insulated) that the fireworks were just background noise. I fell asleep sometime around 12:30AM.
Lesson of the day, have friends with roof decks.

No BACA meeting tonight

Neighbors,

I have received messages from a number of you inquiring as to whether or note there will be a BACA meeting tonight. The direct response to this question is no! Whenever our meeting conflicts with a national holiday that falls on a Monday or, in the instant case, of its close proximity to a holiday like the July 4, 2007, the civic association meeting is typically postponed until the following Monday in order to allow those who might be inspired to make a “long weekend” of the holiday to do so. Next year, because 7/4/2008 falls on a Thursday, we will not exercise this prerogative.

I apologize for any confusion that has been generated by this situation. But, this is a practice that we have engaged in for many years. Hope to see you next Monday!

Best,

Jim Berry
Bates Area Civic Association, Inc.