From the tissue strewn couch of InShaw:
I’m a bit ill this week so not much commentary on this, except to say this is an update on a Marc Fisher article I blogged about before. Mr. Fisher updates us, saying others have gotten involved with the elderly couple, such as HUD and some pro-bono lawyers, after reading his first article. So give “Human Dignity Also Needs to Be Preserved” a read.
Month: January 2008
Gotta love this weather
I know it won’t last, but at least the arugula perked up.
Yesterday I played in the yard pulling out weeds and getting my nails dirty. I also pondered my guerrilla gardening options, surveying the landscape and challenges of a particular lot. I think I will transplant a few of the weedy and aggressive things in my yard over to the place that I intend to, um, partially take over. I’m looking for things that can fend for themselves and survive the occasional city demanded mowing. I know of 2 or 3 plants that can do. Maybe as a lark, I might take a bunch of sunflower seeds and see what happens.
BAA Meeting
|————————————–|
| Blagden Alley Association |
| Monthly Meeting |
| |
| THURSDAY, January 24, 2008 |
| 7:30-9:00 pm |
| The Whitman Community Room |
| 910 M Street Street, NW |
|————————————–|
This is a pre-announcement of the next meeting.
The official announcement will come out the weekend preceding, as
usual.
Mayor Fenty is the featured guest.
He was here in July, and he’s back!
So, if you have any special concerns that the Mayor address, please
email
them as a reply to this email. I will collate them and forward them
to the Mayor’s Myrmadons.
In July they looked like
http://www.pro-messenger.com/Blagden/Monthly%20Pages/2007%20Monthly%20Pages/BAN_2007_07_P2.html
Not that you couldn’t ask anything else, but
for complex matters, it’s only fair to give the Mayor a chance
at a researched answer. We surely won’t get all topics in,
but it ought be toward 80-90%.
I need the concerns and questions by this weekend (Saturday evening).
Hal Davitt
403 R St NW
Well another vacant house for your viewing. This one is at 403 R Street NW, owned by Dorothy Farr of 57th Ave S, Seattle, WA, who got the property in 2003 and surprise there is no available data about a ‘sold for’ amount. But there is something interesting. This property has a Class 3 exception. Class 3 is the vacant property rate where one is charged $5 per $100 in house value. However, one can get an exemption by doing work on the property or having it up for sale. Because the government is way too smart to just take your word for it, you gotta go through the motions, and on the door of 403 R St there are building permits.
Yet, these date back to 2004, and from my observations, not much has happened since 2004, except the yard gets mowed. The windows are broken and the downstairs window is cinder blocked. The building is secure, but I don’t know if that requires a permit. And according to my permits the authorized work must start within one year of the date the permit was issued, or the permit expires. And if the permit is expired then someone shouldn’t be getting a Class 3 exception for construction. Maybe it’s for sale.
Sunday Ponderings
On the bus to Georgetown, going down P Street I gazed at the rear end of Shaw Jr. High, thinking, “gawd what an ugly building, tear that d@mned thing down.” However, I don’t think that will come anytime soon, as it is the school that gives our lovely hood its name. And regardless of the quality of the school people will fight to keep it open.
This weekend over on the Eckington Listserv frequent list contributer Ted McGinn made an excellent argument in support of some school closures. Here’s just the start (because the rest is too long):
We cannot continue to postpone taking the bitter medicine of school reform. When an elementary school’s enrollment falls to 200 or less students, the weighted student formula will not pay for all the bells and whistles of an excellent education. A trend of the declining school age population in many of our neighborhoods together with the draining of the pool of available students into charter schools has left us with grossly under enrolled schools. These schools in many cases have significant infrastructure issues including broken heating/AC systems, leaking roofs, poor plumbing and high maintenance costs. We fired Janey because he allegedly moved too slowly in addressing these pressing concerns. If you recall he had plans for closing schools as well, co-locating to fill buildings and creating school model programs such as K-8th grade to test which direction DCPS should head in for the future. Under Janey, we made our High Schools 9th thru 12th grade and redefined our middle schools as sixth grade thru eighth. There was such a backlash from the public and others about removing 6th grade from elementary schools that DCPS postponed it until the 08/09 school year.
I don’t know the numbers for Shaw Jr. High, but I do know that the regular public schools give some parents and guardians pause for thought. The middle class parents I know have shuffled their school aged kids into some excellent charter schools or considered how nice the public schools are in MD or VA, and moved accordingly. I’m not going to demonize charter schools, because right now they are the thing keeping people I like from moving.
Anyway, back to the late mid-century building that is Shaw Jr. High. In my morning pondering on the bus, I imagined bulldozers going at it and leveling the land and replacing it with a park with a nice big statue of Robert Gould Shaw in the middle.
Games Children Play
From the screaming and yelling the neighborhood kids are engaging in and a certain chant, I believe the kids are playing Jerry Springer. I’m not going to look out the window to see if anyone is playing the role of Trailer Trash Transvestite. And yes, I’m posting this at 10:55PM. And, yes, the kids are outside at 10:55PM. No, I don’t know why the kids aren’t in the house.
Clio shines upon DC History
I got my wish that the Historical Society’s library/archive be open on Saturday and lo and behold I got the following email:
Exciting News from the Historical Society of Washington
Kiplinger Research Library Open FIVE DAYS a week !
Tuesday – Saturday
For the first time in years, beginning tomorrow January 4, the Library will be open on Friday and Saturday in addition to the regular Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday schedule. Open from 10 – 5pm. Come on down! Call 202-383-1850 with questions.
Now another resource to comb for my personal interpretation of history.
Old Landmark Gives Way to Modern Rowhouses
From the Washington Post:
Another old landmark is to disappear soon through the change of ownership of the square bounded by R, Third and Fourth streets, and Florida avenue northwest, and long known as the Glorious property. The land has been occupied as a garden, and by a greenhouse, and a residence, which will be removed to make way for a block of twenty-seven two story dwellings, to be erected by Harry Wardman, who will put them upon the market, Each dwelling will consist of two flats of five rooms and a bath, and be strictly up to date in all features. They will be of press brick.
Work on the structures will begin about October 1, They are intended to be ready for occupancy April 1. Mr. Wardman has just completed, at New Jersey avenue and R street northwest, five two story flat dwellings of the same character as those described above. All these were sold, before being finished. At Thirteenth street and Whitney avenue, Mr. Wardman is erecting five three-story modern press brick and stone front dwellings to be finished November 1. These are to be provided with hot-water heating appliances, and all other conveniences. Another …
-Washington Post, September 21, 1902 p. 16
[sarcasm]
There you go another developer taking over green space throwing up a bunch of cookie-cutter townhouses (of the same character) on the edges of the city and out in the suburban parts of the District*. So in seven months time he’s supposed to tear down a landmark, and quickly construct 27 whole townhouses in move in condition?
And Modern?! Phooey, what’s wrong with the lovely and modest Federalist style that is the charming character of the city. Wardman wants to build these huge monstrosities that dwarf the humble classic styled houses. Modern, well I don’t care for this modernism, not one bit. And two flats? Obviously, these are meant for greedy investors as what appears on the outside to be a single home is nothing but a mini-apartment complex or flop house.
But let us return to what we will lose in all of this, flowers, beautiful locally grown flowers. It is sad that none of the Glorious children have chosen to take up their father’s passion to continue the family business, but I guess this is all what people call progress. [/sarcasm]
*Near the turn of the century, a lot of what was above Florida Avenue (then Boundary Avenue) was farmland and he sub-urban part of the District.
Maybe and very vacant
I have been told that the blue paint peeled house is vacant. It doesn’t look vacant to me, so let’s ignore it, shall we. However the lavender and white house is vacant as it has the plywood that says, “Hi, I’m vacant!”
These are 1721 and 1719 4th St NW, which sit on square 519. Square 519 has a special place in my heart as it was the land owned by German immigrant George Glorius, florist. On this land once upon a time sat his green house and his house where he lived with his wife and children. Now, off the top of my head (note I will probably update later) sometime in 190-something, Mr. & Mrs. Glorius sold most or all of this land to some horrid developer, who changed the character of the block by building a bunch of similar looking houses on it. I believe the developer was Harry Wardman.
Anyway I digress. 1719 4th St NW is owned by a Henry C Gregory of Argyle Terr. NW, WDC 20011. The Atlas Map page for DC.gov lists a transaction date of 1/1/2001 and a sales figure of $0.00. The RE Property database has no date of sale. But long story short Mr. Gregory has owned the property for a while. As of 12/27/07 the property has a “Special Assessment” of $606.00. The 2007 taxes of $4519.24 have been paid and there is no homestead deduction.
[Portion about 1721 4th removed as I’m really not sure it is vacant].
While I’m fooling around with things vacant on square 519, there is a lot to the left of 1719 that is a vacant lot. A Ms. Deborah Lara is listed as the owner of 1717 4th St NW. Ms. Lara of Avalon PL in Hyattsville, MD got possession of the property October 20, 2003 for an unknown amount and currently owes $365.51 in taxes for 2007.
UPDATE: I walked by 1721 and there is definitely a padlock on the door, so I guess it is vacant.