On Saturday I got a flier advertising the Mt. Sinai Baptist Church Nurses’ Ministry’s Church and Community Health Fair. What I really wanted to do Saturday was ask questions of what I’m assuming is some clothing ministry that was out on the corner of 3rd and Q that day. But I was running errands and trying to catch buses so that didn’t happen.
If you haven’t seen them or ever walked by that corner when they are out, every so often (it seems monthly or quarterly) on a Saturday there will be free clothing offered. The couple of times I’ve passed there have been people fingering through the racks of clothes. When I walked by this weekend there were “gently used” (got that phrase from EBay) women’s and children’s shoes. There were children’s clothing as well as adult clothing. And then there is the big chalkboard saying “Free Clothes” just so it is clear of what’ going on and offered.
The flier I got is for free health screenings and some shots & tests that are to occur on the 26th from 10AM to 3PM. The screenings are for prostate cancer, glucose (for diabetes, body fats or lipids), and blood pressure. The tests are for HIV, urine, and hearing. The shots are for the flu and tetanus. This is to occur in their lower auditorium. I’m guessing that’s the same area where we have the BACA meetings.
For more information I gather one would contact Mt. Sinai and their office # is 2/ 667-1833.
Month: September 2009
Domestic Violence Event
Event Announcement
No one should have to choose between living with abuse or living without a home. Please join the supporters of DASH, District Alliance for Safe Housing, the fastest growing provider of housing for domestic violence survivors and their children, at our annual fundraiser which will take place at Ulah Bistro, 1214 U Street, NW, on Wed, September 23 from 6:00 to 9:23 pm. Call 462-3274 for more information.
Heart of DC Dog Show
Saturday, September 19Check-In Time 11am-12pm
• Dog Show Starts at 12:30pmThe Carnegie Library on Mt Vernon Place
801 K Street NW (one block south of the Walter E Washington Convention Center)
Simply download registration form, fill out pdf and save to your computer (or simply include answers to form items in the body of your email) and send to:MtVernonSqDogShow@gmail.com.You may also simply fill out the form and bring it with you on Saturday when you sign in.Prizes and gifts from Wagtime will be available.Sign up for any of the following contests and bring home great prizes for pets and owners:Cutest Pup (4 months to 1.5 years)Best Looking Dog (1.5 years +)Pet and Owner LookalikeBest KisserBest Performer (can be obedience, demos, tricks)Best in Show (audience choice award)The dog show will be conducted by our friends at FurPals and Fetch Pet Care.All dogs must be on leash at all times. All dogs must be up to date on all vaccinations.
Schools and Rec 1968
Okay, not as exciting as the segregation map, but this is of the neighborhood. The actual map is bigger but there is only so much that will fit on a photocopy machine or scanner, so deal. This is a National Capital Planning Commission map from 1968. Please take care to look at where Bundy is. That shading that is on its western and northern sides is recreational land. The land the school building sits on is school land.
I also uploaded some maps of the elementary, ,junior high, and senior high school borders in Shaw in 1968 on to Flickr. Just look in my DC maps set.
Free Walking Tours In Shaw
Get your kicks with WalkingTown, DC Fall Edition, Saturday, September 19 and Sunday, September 20!
Fleeting fall weather provides the perfect backdrop for DC locals to explore their city with more than 120 free, guided walking and bike tours! Discover a new spot or revisit old favorites with professional tour guides and community leaders.
Search tours by theme to find your favorite topic!
Check the schedule at www.WalkingTownDC.org or call 202-661-7581
Sample tours of Shaw:
Shaw: Where DC Comes Together, Part I
Saturday, September 19
10 am – 12:30 pm
Meet inside Great Hall, Historical Society of Washington, DC, 801 K Street, NW
Nearest Metrorail/Metrobus: Mt Vernon Sq 7th St-Convention Center Metro station (Green and Yellow lines)
End at Azi’s Café, 1336 Ninth Street, NW
Shaw has always been a crossroads. Today, the Washington Convention Center dominates Shaw’s southern half, but it once consisted of woods and a few farms. Notable historic figures lived and worked in lower central Shaw, including explorer John Wesley Powell, African American U.S. Senator Blanche K. Bruce, and historian Carter G. Woodson. This half-mile walk includes visits to view selected building interiors. Led by Shaw Main Streets Executive Director Alexander M. Padro and presented by Shaw Main Streets.
Shaw: Where DC Comes Together, Part II
Saturday, September 19
1 – 3:30 pm
Meet on northwest corner of Seventh and R Streets, NW
Nearest Metrorail/Metrobus: Shaw-Howard U Metro station (Green and Yellow lines)
End at Nellie’s Sports Bar, 900 U Street, 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 Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington decided to become a musician, to two sites that hosted baseball teams. Highlights of this half- mile tour include a renovated movie theater building and the city’s first African American YWCA. Led by Shaw Main Streets Executive Director Alexander M. Padro and presented by Shaw Main Streets.
Rediscovering Mount Vernon
Saturday, September 19
12 noon – 1:30 pm
Meet and end at Carnegie Library, south side, Eighth and K Streets, NW
Nearest Metrorail/Metrobus: Gallery Pl-Chinatown Metro station (Green, Yellow, and Red lines)
Walk the Mount Vernon Triangle to learn about its history and rebirth, and the new retail, offices, and condos of this once forgotten neighborhood. This one-mile tour will include a walk past remaining historic buildings and discussion about the market forces that lead to its decline and current revitalization. The tour may stop at a new condo, office building or historic church. Led by Bill McLeod and presented by Mount Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District.
No more cinder block windows
For the longest time, or as long as I’ve been around, this house on R St NW, sported a cinderblocked front window. In the past month or so I’ve seen workmen gussying up the front. There are windows with actual glass. In the windows are curtains. It got a paint job and a little bricked paved yard.
But is it vacant no more? Can it unshackle itself from the hated vacant tax? Regardless, it looks much, much nicer. But if you really want me to believe it isn’t vacant. Get a mail box.
Trash and the new people
One tell a tale sign of a new neighbor, should the movements of a house absolutely escape us, is trash.
If you have a big alley, your trash tends to get picked up in the rear of the house. If you have a small (too small for a truck) alley or no alley your trash tends to get picked up in the front. And if you are in a multi-unit building your trash might get picked up by a private contractor.
So when you dump your bags of trash onto the sidewalk, where it awaits the cats, squirrels, and birds to put holes in them, you have revealed that you are new. I’m waiting to see if one of your closer neighbors is going to pin a sign on your pile of trash informing you of the proper trash disposal. Like they did the last time a new person set out trash on the sidewalk.
Find a home for Turtlegirl
Turtle Girl seems to have found something. My former supervisor’s daughter just got a job working at National Airport and needs a place to stay. I’m calling said daughter Turtlegirl, because she likes to stay in her room on her computer. For some people she’d make an excellent roommate mainly for her keen staying the hell out of the way & being quiet superpowers. Like the mighty turtle she tends to retreat into her shell. She’ll need to emerge for heating food up, laundry and hygienic activities.
If my room were available I would house her, but alas it is occupied by someone else. So I am calling out to those of you in Shaw or at least a 10 minute walk from a yellow, green or blue line station who is charging less than $800 and has Internet, cable, washer and dryer and kitchen privileges. Please email me – mari at inshaw dot com if you have room for Turtlegirl.
Segregation Map
I got excited when I discovered this map from 1938. It is a hand drawn map of Southwest DC, much of which really doesn’t exist anymore. What it shows are negro and white commerical and residential areas as well as black occupied alley dwellings.
Demographic info is so cool.
I find it facinating because it further chips away at the ideas I had about Southern segregation. I always imagined it as very distinct, blacks on one side of town, whites on another and you won’t find one in the other’s neighborhood. My own (on again/ off again) study of Truxton Circle and this map shows a little mixture. The brown represents Afro-American street facing residences, black for black alley dwellings, and the yellow for white street facing residents. There are a few all yellow blocks, but there are plenty of yellow and black blocks, and yellow/ black/ brown blocks. The blue os commerical space.
Housing Under $250K
I was noticing a photo, more like a screen shot, from Scenic Artisan of the Redfin graphic showing housing under $250K. They are pretty much all east of the Park. Rock Creek Park, the one of several big dividing lines. The other things that divide are 16th Street NW and the Anacostia River.
And there is a big ole cluster of under $250K 2 bedroom, 1 bath houses east of the River, over near Capitol Heights. There are a few in what looks to be Petworth, parts of Columbia Heights and Brightwood. There are a couple in Truxton Circle proper. One is on the corner of 3rd and P as an as is. There is another on Florida Ave. But the problem with Florida Avenue, well a problem for me, is that there is almost no space between your front door and the sidewalk of a very busy street. In the NE, non-Shaw part of Truxton (see I love confusing y’all) on Florida is another house for $170K. Also no room between the front door and the crappy sidewalk.