September 2007 – Truxton Is In Shaw

BACA Meeting This Monday

The featured speaker for the evening will be:

Commander Lamar Greene

Fifth District MPD

There will also be an MPD presentation re. the:

“Bias-Related Crimes Act of 1989”

And, there will be updates from the following committees:

Public Safety

Membership

Youth Services

Transportation

Environmental Services

Land Use, Planning and Economic Development

Monday, OCTOBER 1, 2007
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 or at jamojam@msn.com

Community Update

By J. Berry, President

www.dcbaca.org

Recent Transition in Leadership at the Fifth District MPD – Commander Lamar D. Greene:

On September 23, 2007, MPD Police Chief Cathy Lanier announced a major restructuring of the police department. As this reorganization specifically pertains to us, a new commander has been assigned to lead the Fifth District. Commander Lamar D. Greene offers more than a decade of accomplishment and experience in the arena of law enforcement. He was a key contributor to the establishment of the MPD’s community policing efforts as they are known today. He supervised one of the first community policing beat pilot projects that helped lead to the development of Police Service Areas (PSA’s). Throughout Commander Greene’s career, he has served in the following areas: patrol services, investigative branches, executive protection, business services and the recruiting branch of the MPD. Commander Greene attained a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration at Saint Paul ’s College; he has completed the FBI LEEDA training program; and he has received various department awards, including the Lifesaving Medal and the Sustained Superior Performance Award.

What is a Hate Crime?:

A hate crime is a criminal offense committed against persons, property or society that is motivated, in whole or in part, by an offender’s bias against an individual’s or a group’s race, religion, ethnic/national origin, gender, age, disability or sexual orientation. Hate crimes include not only violence against individuals or groups but also crimes against property, such as arson or vandalism, particularly those directed against community centers or houses of worship.

The “Bias-Related Crimes Act of 1989:”

The hate crime statute in the District of Columbia , the Bias-Related Crime Act of 1989, 22 D.C. Code 3701 – 3704, is one of the most far-reaching and comprehensive hate crime statutes in the nation. It broadly defines a bias-related crime as a “designated act that demonstrates an accused’s prejudice based on the actual of perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, marital status, personal appearance, sexual orientation, family responsibility, physical handicap, matriculation or political affiliation of a victim of the subject designated act.” A “designated act” is defined as a criminal act, including arson, assault, burglary, injury to property, kidnapping, manslaughter, murder, rape, robbery, theft or unlawful entry or attempting, aiding, abetting, advising, inciting, conniving or conspiracy to commit any of these criminal acts.

Under the statute, a person found guilty of committing a designated act with a bias-related motive is subject to a prison term and/or a fine that is 1.5 times higher than the maximum that could be imposed upon conviction of the designated act. In addition to the enhanced penalties for crimes motivated by hate, the statute also provides hate crime victims with the opportunity to seek civil damages from their victimizers.

Fifth District Police Citizens’ Advisory Council Awards Banquet: 10/18/2007

The Fifth District Police Citizen’s Advisory Council is hosting its annual awards banquet on the evening of Thursday, October 18, 2007, between the hours of 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm, at the Washington Navy Yard Catering and Conference Center , 6th and M Streets, SW. The purpose of the event is to honor the men and women of the Fifth District who have distinguished themselves from their colleagues over the past year. Mr. Chris Geldart, Director, Department of Homeland Security, Office of National Capital Region Coordination, is slated to be the featured speaker for the evening and Ms. Nikole Killion, former Anchor and Reporter for WJLA/News Channel 8, will serve as Mistress of Ceremonies. Tickets for this event are $40 dollars per person. If enough residents respond, a table of ten seats can and will be reserved in the name of the BACA. Importantly, tickets will also be available for purchase at the upcoming meeting.

Thought for the Month: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy!” – Martin Luther King, Jr.

FYI- MPD’s GLLU contact info

Because of a recent incident/crime that hasn’t been reported in the paper (just to differentiate from those that have been reported in the MSM), I just want to provide these numbers for the Police Department’s Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit. Even if it was just pushing or shoving or something like that, please consider calling, if only to help determine if there is a pattern developing in the area.

Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit
300 Indiana Avenue NW, Rm 5125, WDC20001
Phone: 202 727 5427
Pager: 1-877-495-5995
Fax: 202 724 4120

BAA meeting TODAY

The newsletter is at

http://www.pro-messenger.com/Blagden/Monthly%20Pages/2007%20Monthly%20Pages/BAN_2007_09_P1.html

Featured Speaker: None
Trying to get someone to discuss the new convention center hotel.

Topics:
1. Discussion and Questions with the Mayor
2. Police
3. NIMA Voluntary Agreement progress.
4. Getting Organized. Bylaws. Elections. Incorporation.
5. More.

Not with the Historic Districting of Columbia

I have faith that the Invisible Hand will ball up into a fist and smite the creators of the ugly.
Yes, I saw the Washington Post article about ugly tops. Pop up roofs are ugly in suburbia when they plopped on top of bungelows, and they are ugly in the city. It’s just ugly all around.
However, I don’t believe, that the hammer of historic districting is the solution. Maybe the screwdriver of zoning, is a better tool. And then there is the chisle of legistlation to allow just banning, if not regulating, the use of the hated vinyl siding, like single beers and go cups?
Really, what inch of the District isn’t historic? Okay, maybe bits of Ward 8 which were developed in the middle of the 20th century, but what isn’t over 50 years old with some sort of from the bottom up people’s history?
Instead, I believe the truly ugly will come at a price to the developer and the seller. For one tack off points for curb appeal. Yes, they get to say that they’ve added a bedroom, more space, what have you, but then they are also competing with other say 3 bedroom, 2,000 sq ft houses that were designed to be those kinds of houses. Secondly, even when the market was hot, I’ve seen ugly houses just sit. But that’s only in my area, maybe ugly sells like hotcakes in Columbia Heights. There are also other things that developers, or others getting a house ready to sell do that are useless, like large decks off bedrooms.
Also, I believe what has been done can, with the will and money, can be undone. True window sizes can be restored, proper turrets returned (unless there is something in the DC building code against them), bricks replaced, siding removed, and better design implemented. We renovate kitchens, transform yards, add things, remove things over the years, as occupants change things. You truly lose something when the thing is completly demolished.
So lets start the petition to ban vinyl siding and regulate extra floor additions to pre-exisiting housing since the goal isn’t to preserve some vague history but rather to prevent that which is an abomination in your eyes.

Sample of Shaw, 1880-1920

G-d Bless doctoral dissertations, gives people something to do, something to write and sometimes, it is of interest to people outside of academia.
The dissertation that may be of interest to y’all is “Changing Race, Changing Place: Racial, occupational, and residential patterns in Shaw, Washington, DC, 1880-1920” by Karl John Byrand, Doctor of Philosophy, Univ of Maryland, Department of Geography. Byrand does what I’m planning/ trying to do, but on a smaller scale. I didn’t photocopy all the pages (’cause that would violate copyright and I didn’t have enough cash to copy all I needed anyway), but he looks at the 1300 block of T, 1200 blk of 13th and the 900 blk of R, and if he looked at other blocks I don’t know. What I do know is that it was a small sample and he was mainly interested in alleys, and alley dwellers.
The abstract of this reads as such:

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, increasing black migration from the South changed the social structure of border cities such as Washington, DC. Prior to 1880, many of the District’s black residents were confined to mini-ghettos within alleys; however, around the turn of the century, specific sections of the city underwent the process of racial concentration, forming large, predominantly black enclaves. Shaw, a neighborhood in northwest Washington, DC, was one of these areas.

The summary of this paper, just in case you never make it over to Hornbake Library, where this sits is:

The study area’s overall population had grown by 18.5 percent since 1910, as compared to the 32.2 percent increase by 24 percent, as compared to the District’s 16 percent growth between 1910 and 1920….. The data show increasing residential clustering based on skin tone, and perhaps ethnicity, over the previous periods with whites clustering together even more than previously, with more packing onto fewer blocks, perhaps in reaction to the other blocks becoming black/ mulatto dominated. Moreover, the rate of address sharing by white household heads had progressively increased from 12.7 percent in 1880 to 41.2 percent; now, a greater proportion of whites shared single residences than did blacks or mulattoes…. By 1920, Shaw had become the black business, entertainment, and residential community in Washington, DC. It would remain a lively center for black activity until after the Second World War, when many of Shaw’s middle-class black residents would seek housing further from the city’s core. After that, businesses and other services in the neighborhood would decline.

Walk around Shaw

The full schedule can be found at www.WalkingTownDC.org.

Shaw: Where DC Comes Together, Part I ( 10 am – 12:30 pm, meet at the northwest corner of Seventh and R Streets, NW)

Shaw has always been a crossroads. Today, the Washington Convention Center dominates Shaw’s southern half, once woods and a few farms. Notable historic figures lived and worked in lower central Shaw, including explorer John Wesley Powell, African American US Senator Blanche K. Bruce, and historian Carter G. Woodson. Led by volunteer Alexander M. Padro and presented by Shaw Main Streets.

Shaw: Where DC Comes Together, Part II ( 1 – 3:30 pm, meet at the northwest corner of Seventh and R Streets, NW)

Entertainment has long been the focus of central Shaw’s northern half – from the Howard Theater, where every star in the black entertainment pantheon performed, and the pool hall where Duke Ellington decided to become a musician, to two sites that hosted baseball teams. Highlights include a renovated movie theater building and the city’s first African American YWCA. Led by volunteer Alexander M. Padro and presented by Shaw Main Streets.

Also, some other tours close by:

Artist G. Byron Peck’s Shaw/U Street Mural Tour (1 – 2:30 pm, meet outside the U Street/African-Amer Civil War Memorial/Cardozo Metro station (13th Street exit)
Tour Shaw and Dupont Circle in the company of beloved DC artist G. Byron Peck, and get an eyeful of some of his best-known murals. Begin by looking back on U Street’s history when you consider the Duke Ellington mural. Then consider some of the cultures that contribute to this neighborhood’s character, evident in the Black Family Reunion and Mayan murals. Finally, turn your attention to the area’s architectural legacy at the Dupont Circle mural.

Before Harlem, There Was U Street (check out the preview at dcist!) ( 10:30 am – 12:30 pm, meet and end outside U Street/African-Amer Civil War Memorial/Cardozo Metro station (13th Street exit)
Take a walk along Washington’s “Black Broadway,” where Duke Ellington grew up and was inspired, and where musical greats such as Cab Calloway and Dizzy Gillespie played into the wee hours of the morning. Here in the shadow of Howard University, African Americans created a strong community that produced leaders for the city and the nation. Led by professional guide Amy Kunz and presented by Washington Walks and Cultural Tourism DC.

1889 B/W

Squaresof TCmap
Originally uploaded by In Shaw

I’m finally getting to figuring out where am I with the census research. But it is going to take second place to getting around to writing an article for work. Anyway, cleaning out some of the files I found something I labeled “‘State Censuses’ District of Columbia'” and the title page reads “Index to the EXECUTIVE DOCUMENTS of the House of Representatives for the …” 2nd session of the 15th congress, 1888-’89.
On page 206-207 lists the different blocks and their White/Colored make-up. Just doing the Northern TC and NJ Ave TC Adjacent portions, this is how it breaks down:
Block White Colored
507 157/ 111
508 81/ 0
509 216/ 41
509E 103/ 253
510 306/ 337
511 323/ 173
512 232/ 711
519 11/ 2
520 23/ 124
521 43/ 155
550 98/ 22
551 218(248)/ 417
553 129/ 488
553W 51/ 93
614 47/ 1
615 105/ 104
616 171/ 239

Anybody need sage, rosemary, or thyme?

Or tarragon, or basil? I got too much. So y’all Northern Truxton (aka BACA) or North Truxton Circle adjacent in need of some good legal herb, mon, email me ’cause I have too much of the stuff. I need to cut back seriously on the thyme…. and don’t ask me which type of thyme because I mixed the caraway, the English thymes, and there is a winter thyme, but I think I can ID that. I can sort of ID the French, but I’m not 100% sure of where it is in the yard. Also if you want plant with root, I can do that.
I don’t know why I grow tarragon when I rarely use it.
I got one recipe for sage. And more sage than what is called for. Yeah, I know you can dry it and burn it, but why?
Oh and peppermint and spearmint. Got plenty of that too.
So for herbs (before I toss ’em in the compost) email mari at inshaw period-thingy com.

Kesley Gardens

Today must be quote other people’s blogs day….
anyway over at ANC2C02 there is a post on how Kesley is to look in 2010 after being bulldozed and rebuilt. 2010… that’s 3 years.
I’m a little down on that prediction because, it’s not that I don’t want to see a change there, it’s just that at the place where they pay me, I’ve been working with files covering development in the city and it seems that large things take forever to get built, if they do. Looking at the pictures it sort of looks like a zoning variance may be requested because of the height. Joe Mamo (Mammo? Mambo?) over on Florida and North Cap has been trying to get that for a good while now. And there is something about underground parking, which raises questions about how stable are the houses on the other side of the alley when all this earth gets moved. Oh, and then there is the whole construction mess.
On the upside, when this all does get built and the market rate units get filled, there will be people who may be able to support the kind of retail, I and my neighbors would like to see.

You can’t always get whacha wannnahant

…but if you try sometime
you just might find
you get what you need

Richard Layman has a pretty good post over on his blog RPiUS, “Retail you want vs the retail the market can support”. It is something to think about, particularly when we talk improving our commercial strip (N.Cap) options. Richard sorta makes another point in the comments about retail vs office in taxes and leasing and how beauty salons and offices have it easier (in terms of revenue) than retail.
I know what I want, I’m quite sure I won’t really get it, and I’m relatively happy with what I got. I think, I hope we wander in enough to support the Big Bear so that it is worth it as a business venture. There are concerns about the Bloomingdale & TC hoods being able to support both the Bear and Windows, and as much, as much as I would love to have another coffee shop like place pop up in the near vicinity, I don’t know if we could keep it. I eye the slight changes on New Jersey Ave over on the corner of R and in that little strip mall where G&G sits, and wonder what’s that going to be. On the 1500 blk of NJ they’ve removed the signs and whatnot from the old art deco store that did not survive. I don’t know if something is going to go in soon or if they are cleaning it up to make it attractive to potential businesses. A little farther down on R St, the old dry cleaners was getting cleaned out, maybe it’s something, maybe nothing. Whatever goes in, I hope it is something that the area can support and something that would be an asset to the neighborhood.