Author: Mari

Yesterday I tried to make a map from the DC Gov site to figure out where different neighborhoods are. The picture on the side is of the different real estate assessment neighborhoods (tags are mine). I broke Old City 2, up into it’s subneighborhoods because it is so big.

There is a funky way of adding neighborhoods but you can’t get an outline of where a neighborhood is. You’d have to go block by block. In Old City 2 A the blocks above S Street and south of Florida are in Cardozo/Shaw. South of S, west of New Jersey is Logan/Shaw. But suprising to me Truxton Circle is east of New Jersey, south of Florida, north of New York AND (the surprising bit) includes the area on the other side of North Capitol…. according to the DC Citizen Atlas map.

Off the top of my head and skimming the newspaper databases, Shaw, as it was defined was the Shaw Junior High Urban Renewal Area. According to 5 Housing Plans Win Approval; 1,589 Housing Units Cleared Here by RLA in the Washington Post May 16, 1974. p. C1 areas in the NW side of Truxton are in Shaw.

Well that’s enough for today, I’ll investigate neighborhood borderline some more later.

S*n*o*w.

I waited till the snow stopped before heading out. The snow that fell was light enough to attack with a broom. My neighbor B helped out as we shoveled and swept a wide path that connected 4 houses. A bit later, a new neighbor, who I don’t know that well since he moved in when it started getting cold (I’ll be all neighborly when the weather warms up), he shoveled more than a path, he shoveled the complete sidewalk for 2-3 houses.

Across the street the kids were playing in the white stuff, trying to get decent snowballs to whack each other with. As I said, this was light snow and not the weighty snow that makes for a really good snowball. Each throw resulted in the ball disinegrating in the air. They tussled in the snow, falling on what normally would be hard sidewalk, buffered by snow and several layers of bulky clothes. Playtime ceased when an adult figured this boundless energy could be used to shovel the sidewalk and clean off the family car.

I called a friend to figure out if I should try to go to church tomorrow. I played with the idea of trekking over to St. George’s in LeDroit.

Looking outside at snow

I’m thinking 8:30 Mass for Shut-ins @ channel 32, ’cause I’m gonna stay shut in the house.

This morning I was slightly awake already when the house alarm system went off.

I ran down to find my solid door slightly open. I checked the security door which was locked. After turning off the system I looked for the thing that set it off. The newspaper. The last time I was drawn out of bed due to the alarm going off was when the newspaper flew through the metal bars of the security door and hit the front door hard enough for it to set off the alarm.

Well there was no newspaper. And I’m just befuddled at what could have opened the door. The security door was locked and the alarm system works so I not really worried. But it did get me thinking.

When I bought my house, Sonny, the Nigerian who hires crackheads, and had worked on my house, was still on the block screwing up other houses for sale. Neighborhood gossip said that he still had keys for all the houses he had worked on and had entered one house unannounced and unwelcomed. Upon hearing that I changed almost all the locks on the doors in the house. Almost all. So I’m wondering, did I change that one on the door? Was I visited by Sonny the evil contractor? Anyway, I’ll be visiting our friends at Home Depot or Logan Hardware to change the lock on the door.

Despite this I am still thinking of changing alarm monitoring companies. $32 a month is too much in my book and just to be the people who call the police, not like they’re patrolling my house. I can get basic cable or DSL for that much a month, and I’d use it.

Change locks. Change alarm.

I was going to complain about ice on the southern side of the 500 block of R street, but no.

I’ve been thinking about development. There is big development going on on the other side of the North Cap, over by the NY Ave metro station and smaller, more residential development on our side, in Truxton Circle. I’ve been trying to imagine what a future North Capitol (NE & NW) would look like. I’ve tried thinking of it in terms of watching one of those time lapsed films where the changes that take over a year or two are seen in a matter of minutes. If I had a camera facing North Capitol what would unfold in front of the camera?

In my imagination I haven’t gotten a full picture, but so far I came up with a little something. The green and white bakery (can’t think of it’s name) gets a paint job, big open windows, tables and opens itself to retail shoppers. Some large piece of government owned property off North Cap disintegrates and in is place arises a mixed retail building with paid underground parking for the public. Signs directing people to parking appear along North Cap. On the NE side more large holes are dug for more paid underground parking for the employees of XM and the other office buildings and their visitors appear. Along sides of these parking garages appears more retail for the employees and residents of Eckington, Bloomingdale, NoMa and Truxton Circle. In my vision I see the neon lights for a sit down Chinese restaurant, which a little later is followed by the lights of another restaurant and a small bookstore. Traffic patterns change a the intersection of FL and North Cap. Oh boy is it a mess! Busses are rerouted and the crowds waiting for the bus are forced elsewhere while the construction is done. The gas station, the KFC and the other corner of FL and N. Cap are all taken out for the building of a small traffic circle.

What shows up in your vision?

I’m just going to avoid the mess that is south of me celebrating the great Darth Lord. Of course I did enjoy the firework display for a full 3 seconds last night, then I decided it was cold so I headed back into the house. I am really enjoying the day off. I can clean the house, do some more census work and curse the name of long dead Irish immigrants.

I have already shoveled my sidewalk. And my neighbors’ sidewalks. Mind you I didn’t do a good job on theirs because, they’re healthy, they can shovel it. As an experiment this morning I tested the usefulness of table salt as a de-icer.



I used about 1/4 of a cup of Giant brand iodized salt and spread it around the neighboring sidewalk, where I had done some minimal shoveling. I went back in, ate a bowl of fruit loops, watched some really bad TV, and came back out and took a picture of the result. See people salt works. Any old salt. Even table salt.

Okay today is supposed to be a tad bit warmer today. But yesterday, I couldn’t feel my face. I wore the wrong shoes and thin hose and my feet were ice blocks.

The good thing about the frigid cold is that it prevents surly teens from hanging out on the corner. You know your block is bad when the dealers are still standing on the corner and it is 15F outside. I don’t know how Truxton/Florida Park looks but it is cold enough that it should be wino free tonight. If it is not wino free then it is time to call the hypothermia hotline (800) 535-7252, so they won’t freeze to death.

Also there is a snow advisory until 6pm today, Wednesday. I hope you bought your $8 shovels from Giant along with your bag of salt.

Thursday, January 20th, DC government will be closed, as will the federal government.

Schools- Closed

Libraries- Closed

Sunday traffic regulations will be in effect and there will be street closings around the Convention Center. Also roads south of Shaw and some roads in Virginia will experience restrictions.

Trash collections will be picked up except on blocks that are closed off. BUT regular trash collection is off one day because of the Monday holiday.

1. The streets around Convention Center will be 7pm Wednesday till 4am Friday. Meaning no buses, no cabs, and as far as I know, that might include bikes and bicycle rickshaws.

2. The Mt. Vernon Square Metro will be closed from 3pm Thursday to 1am Friday. Meaning you can’t metro to the Convention Center, or home if you live around there.

3. The Democracy Ball being held in the Convention Center’s Ballroom and several rooms from 7pm to whenever.

Okay I gotta logistics question.

How are people supposed to get there? If people are going to try to get a cab I see all sorts of traffic evil tying up the Mt. Vernon Square roads that aren’t closed to traffic. In my crystal ball I see a man screaming in Arabic to another man cursing in Hindi to move his cab, blocked by an older white couple in a Ford Expedition who didn’t get the memo that there is no parking around because all the residents who normally park on the closed streets took up every viable and semi-legal parking spot they could find elsewhere.

As I see it if you take the metro to Gallery Place that’s about 4 long blocks. In the cold. Provided that the entrance is on the Mt. Vernon Sq/K Street side. If people have any sort of walking handicap, as I’ve noticed people from suburban areas do, this will be a hardship.

Update

Nora Bombay and I came up with the theory that the security plan was created by a Democrat because there is no friggin’ way to get around and you force people on death marches to the parade area in the cold. Also you could be banned from bringing anything to make sitting through the parade confortable, like chairs. So the plan seems to be to make anyone who supports Mr. Bush, who isn’t a billinaire with a limo, suffer.

I looked again at the Washington Post map in the Metro section and then had to pencil in some road closures for smaller areas and it looks like there is no way to get around the old city in a car. If your coming from the conservative bastion of Virginia, the only way to get into the city is via Georgetown and maybe 395 (wait a road that goes under the Capitol? Isn’t that the greatest security risk EVER?).

My neighbor is an architect and for whatever his reasons were he designed a garage for the Discovery Channel’s Garage Takeover. This will air on the 19th at 4:00pm. I’m gonna have to have someone TIVO this for me as I a) don’t have cable & b)can’t break into my friends’ houses with cable before 4.

When he was doing the job he hinted that the TV people were creating drama and conflict. Okay, can we have a design show without the fake drama? Anyway, Discovery Channel. January 19th. 4PM.

Enjoy your holiday

Lift Every Voice And Sing

Lift every voice and sing, till earth and Heaven ring,

Ring with the harmonies of liberty;

Let our rejoicing rise, high as the listening skies,

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,

Let us march on till victory is won.

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,

Thou Who hast brought us thus far on the way;

Thou Who hast by Thy might, led us into the light,

Keep us forever in the path, we pray.

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee.

Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.

Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand,

True to our God, true to our native land.

Courtesy of the CyberHymnal

And for those of you totally confused by this post, the above is the ‘Negro National Anthem’ and it is my way of celebrating the birth of this great civil rights leader.