Month: August 2009

Stabbing on 200 blk of Q St NW

This is important enough to leave sleep mode.August 26, 2009

Fatal Stabbing on Q Street, NW

Detectives assigned to the Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Branch are currently
investigating a homicide which occurred this afternoon on Q Street, NW .

On Wednesday, August 26, 2009, at approximately 2:33 pm, officers assigned to the Fifth District and DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department personnel responded the 200 block of Q Street, NW for the report of an aggravated assault. Upon arrival, they located two adults suffering from apparent stab wounds in front of 209 Q Street .

One of the victims was transported to Howard University Hospital and pronounced dead at 3:02 pm.  The identity of the victim is being withheld pending positive identification and notification of next of-kin.

The second victim was transported to an area hospital and admitted in stable condition for treatment of apparently non-life-threatenin g injuries. The identity of this victim is being withheld due to witness status. 

Anyone with information about this case is asked to call police at (202) 727-9099 or 1-888-919- CRIM [E] (1-888-919-2746) .
 The Metropolitan Police Department is currently offering a reward of up to $25,000 to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for any homicide committed in the District of Columbia .

Accord to Si and the referenced blog there will be a vigil Friday.:
There will be a candlelight vigil for the trans victims tomorrow night 8/28 (Friday) at 6:30pm 209 Q ST NW. Wash, DC.

http://dc.bilerico.com/2009/08/update_police_searching_for_killer_of_tr.php

Anonymous information may also be forwarded to DC Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS and to the department’s TEXT TIP LINE by text messaging 50411. If the information provided by a caller to Crime Solvers leads to an arrest and indictment, that caller will be eligible for a reward of up to $1,000.

Sibling Rivalry & Slumlording All In One

I’ve been debating about if I should post this bit of family business on the blog. Everyso often I might mention my sister and my nieces, one of whom is my blog icon. But so I’m not explaining the story over and over, as I have forgotten who I’ve told and when and how much, I’m going to try here.

Shaw has a fair amount of subsidized housing, it is the thing that keeps the neighborhood economically diverse, which is good. However, I don’t believe subsidized housing is a good long term solution for individual families. At least not my family. It’s fine for seniors, as we do need to care for our elderly, but for young families with developing children, no. Not long term. My sister and her husband and her daughters (my nieces) live in subsidized housing in Florida, and finally G-d has provided the means for me to get them out of there.
My sister’s family live in a run down apartment complex. Earlier this year the local paper announced that the conditions were so bad that HUD was going to revoke federal funding for that and another complex. From my own visits I observed poorly maintained parking lots with tons of pot holes, and a blue tarp covering the roof that had been there for a while.
Also going on is the Real Estate troubles which have hit Florida really hard. Poking around on-line I discovered a house near my mother’s house for $7,500. Yes, $7,500 for a stick structure and a little plot of land. But the stick structure needed lots of work and in inquiring about it I hooked up with a Realtor. Bob, the Realtor worked with my Mom and my sister and found us a foreclosure that was clean and in almost move in condition for well under $40K. However, I’ve had to destroy all my savings and investments to make it happen. So there is some good in the foreclosure crisis.
So once I get some minor repairs done (some leaks, a hole in the wall, etc), figure out how to hook up the utilities, and get her to sign the lease, I will be my sister’s landlord. She and the family will move to a working/middle class and diverse neighborhood. And if she can manage not to stiff me for the rent (taxes & insurance mainly), she will be able to buy the house at a discounted price after a number of years. Which is fair since she’s in charge of all the maintenance. This moves my nieces out of an area of concentrated poverty and into an environment where they can be free to run in their own yard. The yard also give my BIL a place to garden.
This is not charity, it’s taking care of family and an opportunity to live out my beliefs. As a society we should take care of the least fortunate, but we should also encourage them to become strong and independent so they on an individual level can help others as well. I see independence as freedom, and everyone should be free.
I want to thank my roommate whose help has been invaluable as she drove me to the inconvenient bank and the other places I needed to get to. And I need to thank my supervisor, who let me leave work with a moment’s notice to deal with this.
So I’m going to put the blog in sleep mode while I take care of my new house, so the comments are in moderated mode. I’ll be back to the blog in a week or so.

Benifit for DC Homeless

Hello!

Please come out for a great night of local music this Friday, August 27th at 8:30pm to benefit the DC Coalition for the Homeless (http://www.dccfh.org/).

The event will be held at the Electric Maid (http://electricmaid.org/), which is located at 268 Carroll St NW, conveniently located one block from the Takoma Metro station. The show is all ages and $5 at the door.

The show will feature:

* Bellman Barker (http://www.myspace.com/bellmanbarker)
* the Jet Age (http://www.myspace.com/thejetage)
* Little Bigheart and the Wilderbeast (http://littlebigheartmusic.com/)
* Daddy Lion (http://www.myspace.com/daddylionmusic)

Hope to see you there!

1236 New Jersey Ave NW, late 19th century

I found something today and I’m all excited. There was a Navy file where the applicant threw in his home address, though it wasn’t required….
Albert W. Evans lived at 1236 New Jersey Avenue in 1898 with his wife and child, applied to become a Hospital Apprentice First Class in late 1898 at the age of 26. He was born in Alexandria, VA. Wore glasses (according to other paperwork in his file) and had not so great vision even with them. Of his education he wrote that he went to, “the public High School, and was graduated in Medicine in 1894, from the National Medical College [in] this city.”
He was applying to the position because he wrote that the money he was getting in his then current wasn’t enough to support a family.

38-P9-Bx1

Housing Dirt

Yesterday I was looking at my rear kitchen wall which has some fairly new and widening cracks (ah the joys of home ownership). Because of some funky fencing, part of my wall is on my neighbor’s side of the fence. So I went over to his place and took a look at the part of the wall I couldn’t see from my side of the fence. While I was over on his side chatting with him I did mention some of the dirt some of the other neighbors were saying about the construction quality of his place. From what I can remember the guys said that the contractor didn’t make the foundation for the addition deep enough and the addition violated the 60-40 rule.
I’m glad I mentioned it as I felt bad about warning/ telling him early on as a buyer. But really how do you which people are actually going to buy the house?
And yesterday I got an email asking about a house, that is up for sale. The email wanted to know about the neighborhood and the street and so on, but the description of the house was close enough to a house I know that more than likely has some serious structural issues. So let me say if you’re thinking of buying a house on the 100-200 block of Q Street, check the roof structure. If you or your home inspector can’t see the roof joists, don’t buy unless you are prepared to replace the whole roof.

Couple of weekend things

Several communities near and in Shaw will be having clean ups. In the Truxton part of Shaw on the 22nd is the Bates Area Clean Up to take place between 10AM and 1PM. One may gather at 1st and P. Now the thing about this clean up is you can join a group and clean up, over at 1st and P and work your way from that point. Or you can clean up your own street, sidewalk, front yard, whatever. The idea is to clean up and beautify the neighborhood.
From Anita:

Dear Neighbors,
This is a friendly reminder that our individual undivided attention is needed in front of our homes, the sidewalks, curbs and gutter, alleyways, treeboxes and flower gardens. Additionally, we can do “first-hand observation about the appearance and safety features requiring service in our community” — areas missing grass, broken sidewalks, overrun tree boxes, inoperative fire hydrants, etc. Lets join together in the Neighborhood Clean up by giving whatever amount of time you can spare to helping to keep our community clean, safe and a great place to live for all.

Since I had mentioned canning this week and since I have a novice’s idea of what I’m doing, may I suggest the canning lecture at the Historical Society (801 K Street, NW) at 1PM (yeah you can do it right after cleaning the community). Specifically it’s called Family Urban Gardening: Cooking & Preserving Summer Bounties.

Community Buy In

If you want residential parking for the block, you have to go around and encounter your neighbors. I don’t remember what the percentage, probably 50%, have to sign on to it. Literally sign your petition, with their addresses, to show the city that the community actually wants it. Same thing with speed humps. Walk around, talk to the neighbors, and get the signatures of about half of them. Just a vocal few can’t demand it, like some other things, it requires the consent of some of the other neighbors that don’t go to the civic or ANC, PSA, or district meetings.
I’ve remember going around to neighbors to get petitions sign for things I was against, like a zoning variance. A developer can gather the signatures of whomever happen to be around, and in our neighborhood that can include our loitering masses. Fighting it, meant knocking on doors, introducing yourself and talking with neighbors and convincing them that your cause is right and you really could use their support.
There are just some things that you need the community’s support and buy in for political cover (particularly for contentious topics where there is a sizable/loud contingent against the idea), and permissions (zoning, ABC licensing).

Can Can pt 2


Crushed tomatoes
Originally uploaded by spinnerin

Okay picking up from the last post, BL arrived and I aready had peeled, cored and sorta un-seeded the tomatoes. I also had going a boiling pot of hot water, a small sauce pan of hot water with the lids in them and the canner boiling with empty glass jars in them.
The way we did it was I would take out a jar, empty it of water, put it on a towel and BL would fill it with raw tomatoes and remove air bubbles. Then I would pour water from the pot into the jar giving it 1/2 inch of head space. BL would put on the lid, and screw on the band. We did this and put all the jars in the canner when I realized I forgot a step.
I was supposed to add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. So all the jars had to come back out and I put the missing stuff in and then they went back into the canner. There was about 1-2 inches of boiling water covering the jars. I put the lid on and boiled them for 40 minutes. Once 40 minutes was up, we took them out tightened the bands, and let them cool. Once cooled, they got labeled.
So now I have lots of locally grown shelf stable tomatoes available for recipies and sauce making.