There is a hole on 9th and Q

Barriers in hole. Taken 2006.

Beware of the big hole in the ground.
I’m posting Sunday because I plan to sleep late so I may dream. But anyway, Sunday morning the wind was gusting pretty mighty. My ride to church took twice as long because I could not breathe. The wind was blowing in such a way that I could not get any air into me and I tried gasping for air. I had to stop and turn my head or cup my hands over my mouth. Also it was a pain trying to stay upright and balanced on the bike. In a skirt. In heels.

Hole at the corner of Q and 9th. Taken Jan 15, 2006

The wind was fairly strong. Strong enough to blow down the barriers on 9th and Q? On my way back home I noticed that the boards and all that around the big hole on 9th and Q were down in the hole. The building the hole had eaten was gone but so was the gate. With the strong winds it would not be too hard to imagine someone’s small dog or child gusted into the hole from the sidewalk. Really there was little between the sidewalk and the hole. The picture with the boards on the ground, that grey image in the corner, that’s public sidewalk. Next to it, 6 ft hole. Yes, I did call 311 about it. I’m not sure what they can do about it with the winds. Yellow warning tape will blow away if the winds keep blowing the way they have.

The InShaw Podcast TC vol1

Yes, I don’t sound like black but I don’t care. It took me a week to make and here it is TC1. I now have a greater respect for recording and radio professionals. I realize that my talent, if you want to call it that, is in listening and writing, not talking. Also I want to apologize for a certain tone in my voice when talking about the name “Truxton Circle” and my pronunciation of Karl’s name I just didn’t feel like recording those segments again. The repetative background music might be annoying but it covers the whine of the computer fan. I might need to find another loop. Also what do you want with a dying Windows 98 PC and a Radio Shack microphone?
Pod notes:
*Intro
*Song -If the metro don’t go there it don’t exist by Andrew Pants of songstowearpantsto.com
*Truxton Circle news and announcements
*Shaw and gentrification. What is Shaw, neighborhoods within Shaw and a small bit about gentrification.

Direct Download (Right Click and Save As)

Gentrification: That pesky school thing… coping patterns pt 2

Disclaimer- I’m not a parent so I know squat.
Disclaimer II- Catholic Schools mentioned.

Extra intro: I was looking for a book on DC private schools to go along with this posting but didn’t find it in the bookstore where I had last seen it (darned it someone bought it!) and I couldn’t remember the title or describe what it looked like so I couldn’t ask the nice people at the bookstore, lest I look like a complete idiot. I found something close “Georgia Irvin’s Guide to Schools: Metropolitan Washington Independent and Public/Pre-K-12” but it wasn’t the same book because the book I wanted had Immaculate Conception Catholic Church over on N St, by the Giant. Georgia Irvin didn’t have that. Doing a search with Amazon I found “Independent School Guide for Washington, D.C. and Surrounding Area” by Jill Zacharie and I think that is the book I wanted. Once I get my hands on it I will more than likely give it to Nathan, so he may do something on his blog.

In the last posting, I shared what I found in the book London Calling regarding the coping strategies of middle class parents in gentrifing neighborhoods. Their options were to move when their kids became school aged, do a bit of public primary schooling then switch to private or selective secondary schooling, or just opt out and go private school all the way.
Even if a school was in a good gentrifying neighborhood, parents would note that a number of kids attending came from other poorer neighborhoods. It was not so much the poverty that bugged parents but the school ethos, the environment for learning that was important to parents. The authors wrote that “…primary schools, particularly faith schools, have maintained what is seen as an acceptable normative atmosphere in relation to learning and behaviour.” (p. 141) Which takes me to the story of my associate….
Let’s call him Bob (names changed to protect the innocent, blah, blah, blah).
Bob lived in PG County with his wife and two children. When the first one entered school it was fine for kindergarten and the first grade. In the second grade he noticed that his daughter was repeating lessons she had learned in the first grade. Worried that she might have a learning problem he approached the teacher and found out that the whole class was repeating the lesson because not all the kids had caught up and his daughter was fine. Well this was unacceptable, because it was like going backwards. So he pulled his daughter out of public school and put her in Catholic school. At this point I should note that Bob is an atheist, but would have rather send his daughter to a religious school than keep her hindered in a public school. Telling me this he also described some of his values and beliefs regarding education. Like some of the parents in my part 1 segment, he was not thrilled about shelling out money for private school, because he said at the time he and his wife didn’t have a lot of money. But they valued a good education and they valued the arts, which meant they supplemented their kids’ arts education with piano lesson. [insert Bob’s tirade about lack of school funding for the arts]. Bob happlily told me that after putting two kids through Catholic school neither one of them is Catholic, or particularly religious for that matter. Bob also pointed out another virtue of the school, it was 1/2 black (music classes were also majority Asian) so it had the desired diversity along with that ethos. One kid grew up to be a local musician, the other just finished college.
I only bring up Catholic schools because they tend to be the cheapest of the private schools, not so much my own bias (I think, but I could be wrong). I realize that because of different factors Catholic schools are not an option for some households. Flipping through Georgia Irvin’s book on private schools in DC I saw that there is financial aid and some schools have a decent financial aid package to off set costs. But then again if parents have ideological objections to private school altogether then it doesn’t matter.
Ok, now tying this back to gentrification, middle class parents like Bob sometimes bite the bullet after giving the public schools a chance and go private. Yes, moving was an option. Bob had considered moving to MoCo or NoVa, but there was a strong tie to the area where he lived, a treasured babysitter. The parents in London Calling are tied to their neighborhoods because they highly value aspects of diverse city living over the comforts of homogeneous middle class areas with good schools.
Thinking back to earlier impressions of London Calling, there was also this thing of supplementing the kids’ education where the public system fell through. Part-time homeschooling? Or doing what Bob did, send the kids to music classes? The problem is still there with the ethos in the main school if kids make fun of you because you play the flute or piano.
Usually there is a hope that as more of the middle classes move back into DC the schools will get better. If London is an example, then that ain’t going to happen. In gentrifying neighborhoods the middle class is not the numerical majority. In their neighborhood schools they aren’t a big enough group to make much of a difference either.

Gentrification: That pesky school thing … coping patterns, part 1

Big disclaimer: I am not a parent. Therefore, I know squat about education and parenting.

Well I finished a chapter in the London Calling book about the middle classes in gentrifying neighborhoods regarding education. Education, apparently everywhere, is a major concern of middle class parents. In DC it is one of the big reasons people mention in saying why they wouldn’t move to the city. Even associates who didn’t have kids or weren’t even sure they were going to have children would bring up the DC schools. And it is well known that the DC schools suck. Yeah, there are nicer ways of saying it but compared to MoCo and NoVa. Compared to PG Co., we’re not that bad, we might even rock.
Anyway, back to the book…. The parents in the various neighborhoods profiled had different coping strategies when living in gentrified neighborhoods while still trying to do right by their children’s education. The one strategy, which most of us assume many DC parents will take is to move. That is move away and out of the gentrifying neighborhood. For one, parents who have ideological qualms about selective schools and private education, they will send their kids to the non-selective public/state schools. However, when the kids age out of the primary schools there is a great impulse to move. Rather than stick around and send their children to selective or private secondary schools, they move. Of course, one could see that as a glass is half empty or half full thing. The parents do take a chance on the local public schools and send their kids to schools where they interact with kids from different classes and ethnic backgrounds. But this only lasts for so long and parents do not have any faith in the area secondary schools. From the book I am left with the impression that families wind up moving to staunchly middle class homogeneous neighborhoods with good public secondary schools. That way the parents do not have to compromise their ideological beliefs regarding public education for the sake of their children’s education.
Another coping method was similar to the first but with no qualms about selective state or private schools. Parents would send their kids to public primary schools with the plan to send them to selective or private secondary schools later. Interestingly enough, the primary schools served a purpose by helping middle class parents find each other and provide support and information regarding the move to secondary schools. The DC equivalent of a selective secondary school might be the Ellington School. I need to point out that in gentrifying neighborhoods (in this study) the middle class is not the numerical majority, and apparently middle class parents are an even smaller minority, so they need a way make the connection with others in the same boat. Those who later send their kids to private school aren’t particularly thrilled to do so and would rather spend the money in other ways. Yet the option is pay up or move.
The last option is private school all the way. This option was chosen by parents who didn’t live in an area with any primary school infrastructure and where the number of middle class families with children was really low. There are no networks of other parents in the area to tap into and it is a given that the kids will go to private school.
So there are your options parents, move, mix public and private or just suck it up and do private K-12. As this post is running a little long I’m going to do part 2 covering an associate of mine’s story of educating his kids in private school (and reasons why that do apply to gentrification) and also briefly why (according to my reading of London Calling) an influx of middle class residents don’t necessarily improve the schools in a gentrifying area.

Last night’s BACA meeting

I’m going to go on what is still left in my head as I didn’t write notes (it would have helped to have brought a pen).
Jim, our fearless leader, showed up late so Art Slater led the meeting for the most part. Yay Art! The topic of the day BACA committees. Thinking of it now as I sit in front of this computer I wonder if you can be on a committee without having to show up at the main BACA meetings? We do that for our alumni chapter and professional committee, it makes it easy to grab folks for projects. But anyway, talked about the various committees.
First Public Safety. We had two police officers, who were not really prepared to say anything. The female officer said she got notice at 6pm to be there at 7pm. But they did participate in the discussion regarding strategies to deal with crime. Suggestions were to make sure there is more lighting in the streets and alleys, such as having motion sensing lights. A Neighborhood Watch as was the orange hats were mentioned but I can’t remember if then problem with that is lack of volunteers. Block captains got another mention. Other things were said.
Second, Youth Services. Many things were said. Some things I remember, many things I don’t, and some things remembered that I don’t care to write down. A few things that I do care to write down include the idea of trying to get some of clearinghouse to match kids up with small odd jobs in the neighborhood. I’ll admit I tend to do a lot of my own yard work but if I could schedule it, I’d be willing to pay $5 -$10 for jobs for kids within the borders of Truxton. It was mentioned that we need something like a Craigslist just for the neighborhood. At this point I wished TruxtonCircle.Org’s Scott & Matt were there. BACA might want it’s own website but anyway… Yeah, I’d do classifieds here if I could figure out how to do it. Anywho, also mentioned during this portion of the meeting a fellow who manages/d Cada Vez is interested in opening a dinner theater on the 1400 block of North Cap talked about his work with hiring young people. Talking a little bit about his plans he said wants to have a dinner theater with ‘female illusionists’. Okay that’s a new one. Is drag queen a bad word now? I don’t know. I don’t keep up with those things. After that little exchange I couldn’t get out of my head a restaurant in Capitol Hill I went to one night with friends where there were (as hinted) a fair number of transgendered youth working as wait staff. Anyway, moving right along.
Was next transportation. Can’t remember much something about where permit parking was and something about people parking in the hood because of the new metro station (NYAFAGU) on Florida Ave. Also folks wanted to be able to make left handed turns on North Cap and New York to get into the neighborhood.
Then Land Use. A bright new resident has taken on the task of surveying the green spaces in Truxton. Something about Clear Channel and those billboards. And I asked about the firehouse on North Cap. Answer was with Brown and Benson.
Membership. Mary Ann would like more dues paying members. Memembership is $20. Was the garden club talked about? Yes. The wreath project was mentioned. It would be nice if someone could store all or some of the wreaths used to decorate the hood this Christmas.
Yeah, that was the meeting as I remember it.

Blagden Alley Area Announcement

|—————————————-|
| Pre-Monthly Meeting |
| Announcement |
| For |
| THURSDAY, January 26, 2006 |
| 7:30-9:00 pm |
| 905 M Street, NW |
| |
| 7:00-10:00 pm |
|—————————————-|
| No “Street Cleaning” |
| Tickets till St. Paddy’s Day |
|—————————————-|
|—————————————-|
| Stoney’s Last Day |
| Saturday, January 14, 2006 |
|—————————————-|

Reminder of the annual suspension of street parking tickets.

The semi-newsletter is at

http://www.pro-messenger.com/Blagden/Monthly%20Pages/2006%20Monthly%20Pages/BAN_
2006_01_P1.html

Probable topic of meeting:
The redevelopment of another major piece of the 1200 block of Ninth Street.
(Yes, that’s NW)

Do hope to see you there.