Richard of Rebuilding Space, the lovely Elise of Frozen Tropics, and some guy named Ken Firestone will be once again leading a tour of the Capitol City Market, so you too may discover the joy that is cheap meat and veggies. The tour, which Richard & Elise started back in 2006 (I think), gives the uninitiated a quick review of what’s available to retail customers. I’ve done a bulk of my regular shopping there since I’ve been familiarized with what’s there. The prices there have spoiled me, with beef tenderloin for less than $5 lb, blocks of butter for $2, lemons for about .22c and avocados for way less than $1. Tours end at Litteri’s, and that’s where I tend to wrap up my market shopping for some cheap and not so cheap wine, pasta, and a sub.
Anyway, according to Richard the tour will be on the 23rd of this month, starting at 10AM at the corner of 4th and Morse Sts NE. I’m guessing along the chain link fence on 4th St NE, where I joined one of their tours one time. Or, if you get there early at 9AM go to K Young’s at 300 Morse St (on the other side of chained linked vacant lot past the little guard shack) and join Richard for Korean food.
A few things I should tell you to lessen the culture shock when dealing with the market area. One, it is a working warehouse area not a tourist spot. It isn’t squeaky clean and watch out for the forklifts and guys moving boxes. Second, many of the businesses are cash only. Third, 70% of the time there is no price on anything. Trust me, most of the time it is way cheaper than the Giant. Lastly, for several places you will need your receipt checked by the guy at the door.
Month: February 2008
More voting harassment
Not like you haven’t been bugged enough, but I’m going to add my 2c. Dunbar is open, try the last door to your right because of the 10 million red doors to get in, only 1 or 2 will open for you and you get to waste 20 seconds trying almost all of them trying to break in to do your civic duty.
Last night I came home to two calls on my answering machine. One from Ron Paul and the other from Mayor Fenty. Fenty wanted me to vote for Obama, which though I would have loved nothing more than to vote for Obama, DC is a closed primary, and I’m not a Democrat.
Anyway, if you are registered for either the Republican or Democratic party go and vote. If you are an Independent or Statehood Greenie you’re screwed till November.
1225 1st St NW for sale
Okay last house for sale of the day. I will post no more till, maybe Friday or next week. Red house is for sale. Red, not vacant house, is on the market for $599,900. It is a two unit building with a paying tenant in one unit. The other unit I guess could go to the new owner or be rented out as well. But honestly, I rather have owner occupiers. Not that there is anything wrong with renters. Sometimes renters become owners.
Nother 4th St house for sale
I need to find another street to hawk.
Anyway, vacant house 1721 4th St NW (the blue-gray one) is up for sale for the lovely price of $368,000. Apparently it is all historic being a two unit investment rental building, the way the developer intended it to be back in nineteen oh something. It’s also an historic mess needing some structural work done on it. Other houses on the block are assessed in the $400-500K range so you can be somewhat justified in the $100-$200K you’re going to have to sink into this thing to get it suitable for human habitation. Thankfully, this is not an HD so your rehab won’t be too costly or lengthy. Sadly, the backyard is just big enough for a lawn chair and a tiny toy-sized dog.
Your Privacy is in Your Hands
In a professional seminar sometime back when I was working for an association and not the govt. the topic was keeping confidential and company secrets. One of the main things about keeping company or organizational secrets is identifying what those secrets are and having a system in place that keeps private things private. It basically boiled down to you are in charge and you have to take charge in keeping your secrets. So to the young man on the bus today, the reason why everybody knows your business is because you keep broadcasting private things in public.
For one Mr. Brown (I think that’s the name you said), keep your voice down. Yes, it is a bus, and you got to compete with the noise. The problem is though, although you are talking to your buddy who may be in the seat next to you or on the other side of the aisle, those of us a few seats up could hear you quite nicely. Second, try to be uninteresting or vague. The story of your arrest this weekend on a violation of a stay away order, the failure of the police to find whatever it was that you wanted to smoke and or sell after several searches, and the cops failure on other occasions to find either a gun or clips on you, does perk up the ears of strangers. Your storytelling is quite engaging. Thirdly, leave out some details. Your story included your age (18), your school (I didn’t recognize the name so it didn’t stick with me), where your stay away order was, your court date, the fact that you have a CO (whatever that it) and possibly your last name.
Maybe the reason everyone knows your business, is you. I didn’t go looking for this info. You put it out there. Don’t feel bad, there are others who complain about people being up all in their business, who also, for their own reasons also broadcast their business.
This is just an illustration. Considering the city hasn’t acknowledged my real estate relief program for dead people find, I highly doubt MPD will bother reading this, check their records for an 18 yr old (you have an alto voice, and at first I thought you were a woman, but your details say male) who was arrested and held this weekend for violating a stay away, to get a warrant to check your dad’s house for an unregistered weapon.
For anyone about to suggest I call 911 to report this, I say, no. It doesn’t have enough to pass the ‘is it worth getting into an argument with the dispatcher’ test. No, I’m saving up my future 9111 call for where I can get into a discussion with the dispatcher where I am questioned if a crime is really actually taking place, or just my imagination or misinterpretation of the law.
More houses on sale
1620 (the tan house on the far left) and 1624 (the red painted with white trim) 4th St NW are up for sale.
1620 is a foreclosure and is the cheapest at $275,000. Now you might be thinking “Wow, $275,000 what an affordable bargain.” Well I’ve been inside. Add $60-100K in repairs because that’s what you’ll need to make it decent. If you click on the full sized picture you might be able to see on the top right window, the bricks are doing something and look like they are about to pop out. Let’s say there are issues the house has that aren’t cosmetic. But neither are those things something that need to be addressed right now, but they need to be addressed in the next few years.
I’ve been inside 1624 too and I could have sworn it had AC, so I don’t know why there is a window unit in the top window. It is going for $390K. It’s not fancy. It’s got renters in it, so it is in a livable condition, unlike 1620. It’s okay looking and I’m not really sure what justifies that price. Of course it has only been on the market for 2 weeks.
Both 1620 and 1624 4th St have backyards big enough to fit a compact car in, and nothing else. Well maybe a Mini Cooper and a deck chair. Or enough of a rear yard to send the dog out back to do the doo when you’re too cold or too busy to take him out.
Both also have a one story kitchen attached to the main part of the house. Three houses further down the block have expanded, replacing the one story part to a two story, adding more square footage and look quite nice from the alley. So that is a possibility, more so with 1620 because of its price and its need for repair.
Seed swap sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY
Well the Bloomingdale Garden Club is having a seed swap, but sadly I’ll be unavailable.
February 10th Garden Club Meeting
Novices take note: It’s not too soon to start thinking, planning, and doing something to make your spring gardening experience a cost-effective pleasure. Experienced gardeners hoping to keep the cost of gardening in check begin prepping now to grow their spring plants from seeds. So, to get the party started, the Greater Bloomingdale-Area Garden Club invites all gardeners to Windows Café & Market (1st & RI Ave NW) from 2:00-3:30 p.m. on Sunday, February 10th for a Spring Seed Exchange & Giveaway.
The Club will have loads of flower and vegetable seeds to give away. Members and others are invited to bring plant cuttings and any seeds they have to share. This is a golden opportunity to network with other gardening neighbors, give and get advice, and share your gardening war stories. I’ve got a few stories of my own to share, like the one where all of my house flowers died and… Shucks, gotta go. If you want to hear the end of that story I’ll see you at Windows on the 10th.
1631 4th ST NW for sale
I had a longer post on this but accidentally closed the window and lost it all. So a summary from what I remember: Not a foreclosure but a bank short sale. House is $415K, a down payment of 20% or 83K, would possibly make it $1,990 a month. Monthly RE taxes would be $315.00. There are renters in the house now and I have no idea of what a 3 bedroom 2 bath house rents for around these here parts to know if the house is actually a decent investment.
Now let us dare to dream
Open thread on this building at the corner of New Jersey Ave NW and R St. So what do you think? What do you know?
Books & seeds
I stopped by the Big Bear to check out their little library and pickup some coffee grounds for ye olde compost bin. Not much there on the bookshelf so I’ll be seeing what I can spare from my shelves, that might make for an interesting coffeehouse read.
Currently I’m reading Sudhir A. Venkatesh’s American Project and I’m only at page 87. It isn’t as much of a page turner as his Gang Leader for a Day, it covers around about the same material but is more academic, and talks more about the governmental bodies that play a role in the history and operations of the Robert Taylor Homes in Chicago. There were a few things that have caught my attention so far in the book. One was the story of the Robert Taylor Homes starting off as mixed income housing and how policies helped turned it into a poor people warehouse. The second thing is the underground economy developing and the incentives for relatively benign activities to be driven underground. On this second thing, the underground economy included child care services, food and craft production, car repair, hair styling, subleasing, and under the table labor as well as criminal commerce such as selling stolen items, drugs, gambling, prostitution and ‘protection.’ What I find fascinating are the incentives that keep the non-criminal stuff underground. Anyway, when I’m done with the book I will add it to the BB library.
On seeds, I only got one bite for an exchange. I’ll try again. Any one want to engage in a seed swap meet?