Month: August 2009

Farewell to interns

Today we are saying goodbye to a few of our interns here at Fight Club* and at the good bye party we had for the gaggle of them there was one that stood out. This guy was passionate and infectiously enthusiastic about what we do here. Infectiously enthusiastic. His love of history just constantly beamed unashamedly from his face and was expressed in his movements when he talked about being in DC and going to the other cultural institutions. When I saw him a day or so later I said, “Don’t ever lose that enthusiasm.” He plans to become a teacher.
We’ve had a great batch of students this year. They were good natured, followed instructions, had a great interest in the work we did here, got along with each other, and tore through projects with amazing speed and accuracy.

*I’m just going to refer to the place I work as Fight Club or the Bureau of Fight Club, because the boss told me the 1st rule about Fight Club.

Bundy stuff

First the bad from Mr. Moulton:

Dear Ms Choke,

With a shooting in broad daylight yesterday afternoon, in DPR’s park within yards of the Bundy School (future home of Safe Shores) on O Street NW, hundreds of local residents hope your office will consider public safety when making a final determination of parking options for Bundy School tenants in the next few days. A police report from the Third District MPD is copied below.

As you know, many residents in our community are happy to share the responsibility for working collaboratively with our local MPD officials to make our community as safe as possible and enliven dead zones around our homes for the sake of our families and children as well as those who will receive necessary services at Safe Shores.

Will OPM be sound proofing the windows at Bundy School?

Daily Crime Report – 3D
Thu Aug 6, 2009 10:00 am
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MPD-3d/message/6856

PSA: 308
CCN: 09110947
RPT DATE: Aug 05, 2009
OFFENSE: ADW – Assault With A Deadly Weapon
METHOD: Gun
BLOCK: 400 B/O O ST NW
LOCATION: Park Area
START DT: 08/05/2009
START TM: 14:42:00

Hopefully there will be the staffing necessary around after this fiscal year is over to address this. At the BACA meeting the OPM rep tried to make the audience understand that the office is cutting about 9 (if I remember right) positions and that has consequences.

Good news also from Mr. Moulton of CCCA or an event announcement that there will be a Jazz on the Green event at Bundy Park August 21st at 6:30 with a Brazilian jazz ensemble. See more here (PDF). It is great that groups and individuals are putting on outdoor arts events around the neighborhood. The First on First, over in Bloomingdale was a blast. Hopefully this will be a fun little event.

Billboards

At the corner of P and 4th or New Jersey (4th Street starts up again at that intersection), you may have noticed there are billboards there. BACA, I know has been working to do something about the billboards and the space that it sits on for several years, with limited success. There is another group trying there hand at eliminating the billboards called End Shaw Billboard blight. They’ve got a petition going, but I think their biggest coup is discovering that the billboards are not grandfathered in, which had been a stumbling block for BACA.

Shopping for Groceries in A Washington, District of Columbia Supermarket. 07/1974

No plastic.
No credit card reader.
Closes at 6pm on Sunday.
Love the past. Nice place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there.

BACA meeting with puppies for everyone

Okay, you won’t get puppies but pups will be a topic.
This next BACA meeting which is today (Aug 3rd) in the basement of the Mt. Sinai Baptist Church at 3rd & Q has some rather interesting topics. One of those topics being, the dog park idea @ Bundy. Please people if you are in the northern (above P)and you want to support a dog park over at Bundy get your butt to the meeting. I’m sure that the voices against such an idea will be there, and no one is going to speak for you but you.
The guy who is doing up the old Bates Market, Mamuka Tsereteli, is coming to speak. Come on admit it, you’re curious of what exactly he’s going to do on that corner. For those of you getting to the party late the old Bates Market is on the corner of 3rd and P, and when it was open as a ghetto mart, young men, old guys would hang out there. Or just hang, almost constantly on that corner. That corner even hosted a big ole shooting. The story is that it is to become a Georgian social club. Georgia as in homeland of Stalin, former soviet republic. Not the state above Florida.
Also BACA is gathering any information about illegal activity occurring at the billboards at 4th/Islamic Way and P.