Author: Mari

Flower Power Awards

Neighbors,

There will be a reception that acknowledges those residents who were

nominated for an award during the Bates Area Civic Association’s

“Flower

Power 2004″ beautification campaign. The reception will take place on

Thursday, September 2, 2004 at Ella’s Coffee and Fine Art, 1506 North

Capitol Street, N.W., from 6:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m.

It was decided that we would not tax the very limited funds in the BACA

treasury to produce this event; hence, we have sought in-kind

contributions

that we will use as prizes for the honorees. Therefore, BACA members

who

attend are being asked for a $7.00 donation to help defray the costs of

the

refreshments for the evening.

To RSVP, please contact MaryAnn Wilmer at (202) 328-0389. Hope to see

you

there!

Best,

Jim Berry

Statement

Recently I’ve been looking at my web stats for In Shaw and well I figure I should address some things:

A few people have subscribed to this blog and I am humbled that my rants would merit consideration. I looked at the other blogs In Shaw is grouped with and well, I don’t know if I fit. I’m not a radical. My politics can be described as moderate/ conservative. I’m straight. I’m in my mid 30s. Black. I don’t go clubbing. I am not cool. The In Shaw blog sorta reflects that, in that I’m against laws that would make it easier to get a liquor license, or anti-nightlife as some may say. I’m conflicted about the gentrification I write about, less crime good, people being displaced bad. I’m very conflicted about the rise in the Anglo population and the decrease of Black and Latino groups in Shaw as the sign of things “getting better”. Or as my Anglo friends have heard me mumble, “who are these white people and what are they doing in my neighborhood?” I’m not a Socialist, and although I sympathize with folks being pushed out because of gentrification, I do not believe in undermining a property owner’s right to sell his/her house at market rates, or rent their property at market rates. However, failure to maintain and secure property makes me less sympathetic to the owner and by all means the govt/community should be able to step in.
But those 20 or so of you who do read my blog I hope you do enjoy it and my snarky comments about my neighborhood. Feel free to comment or email me, or not, whatever makes you happy. And if you are a neighbor and I have made snarky judgemental comments about your house…. well that’s just my opinion. If YOU like your house, then it doen’t matter what I think. If I’ve bad mouthed you, then feel free to bad mouth me on your blog, then we’ll be even.

How to Gentrify a neighborhood: pt 2 1/2 the gentrifier

Warning: I’m writing this after 3 glasses of wine. I could be crazy.

In a followup to Gentrify yo hood:pt 1 this part briefy looks at the gentrifier.
First, money. Do you have it or don’t you. If you have money you might have choices, you could live in the “nicer” parts of the city, or you could buy bigger digs in the hood. Then there are the people like me, who don’t have a lot of money and the hood was the only affordable thing. So you move in and make the best of it. I didn’t move in to displace the poor. I moved into Shaw, because it was along the Green and Yellow lines (metro), close to a grocery store, decent for my car-less lifestyle, and oh I could afford it as a single person.
Second, tolerance level. The white bread population that loves the suburbs don’t cotton the city. Scared white people need not apply either. Scared [any other ethnic group] should keep to the ‘burbs as well. To be and urban pioneer and gentrify the city you need to put up with the crime, the trash, the bamas, the crackheads, the vacant houses, the whatever, until the day the neighborhood turns “nice”.
third, and last (cause I really need to go to bed), the gentrifier needs to be an object of change. This can range from the small and the really local aspect of investing in your home and inspiring others to do the same. Or harassing neighbors to be in compliance with the DC laws by calling the authorities constantly. Or it can range on the larger scale as to being involved in neighborhood wide revilization programs.
Bed.Now.

Good R-key-tex-ure

Ran round Shaw taking pictures for a project I will never finish (at this rate). As I snapped, or in the case of the mix of the digital cameras, pressed-waited-snapped I noticed some pretty cool buildings on the borders of Shaw. The image above is a firehouse, turned warehouse(?) on New York Avenue. I would have the whole image, but I forgot I left it on zoom. A little paint, new windows, total rehab, it would make a supercool loft. All the old firehouses would make supercool lofts. There is a firehouse, a block north of Shaw in Eckington on North Capitol, that is just begging for something to be redone. It did get a paint job, raising hopes that they’ll be more improvement, but alas, no.
Beyond firehouses there were homes with turrets and homes with built in porches (see below). Luckily there are some that remain open. I’m thinking of at least one house that barred the porch and it looks just horrid.

Let there be light/ New features

The trees I was complaining about yesterday. 90% gone. The other 10% of the tree fell into someone elses yard and is still hanging in the phone and cable wires out back.

Besides the tree being totally chopped down, and this was one huge mother of a tree, I noticed light. Wonderful, glorious light pouring down into the alley. It seemed sunnier. Warmer. At night, more light. This tree also was growing around the street light in the alley blocking the light so it was dark and dangerous looking down there.

I noticed the same thing when the city FINALLY, came around and trimmed the trees in the front. Light. It is still kinda dark in front of the house, but not as dark. Also another good thing, I could see further down the street from the upstairs window, the better to see things that need to be reported to the police.

Anywho with all this new light I might consider some sun loving varieties of plants for the back yard. Tomato. Salad greens. Maybe even fruit.

New Features

I added the e-mail feature so people, if they wanted to, could email the inshaw story to others. I also added the comment field. I don’t know how well that will work as I’m only allowing other Blogger.com bloggers to comment. If it doesn’t holla at me at in shaw (one word) at att dot net.

Section 8 rountable

Emmaus Services for Aging invites community members to:

A Roundtable Discussion on the Future of Section 8 Housing With speakers from Housing Counseling Services, MANNA Community Development Corporation and more…

When: TOMMORROW Saturday August 28th 2pm-4pm

Where: ARTHUR S. FLEMMING CENTER

1426 9TH STREET NW (near 9th & P Streets and Shaw or Mt. Vernon metro;

across street from Giant food store)

Why: Do you want to make sure that seniors who have struggled in our

neighborhoods during hard times are able to stay in their homes now?

Does the possibility of losing thousands of units of affordable housing

even as luxury condominiums seem to rise on every street corner scare

you?

Do you think that the Section 8 program should expand, be made stronger?

For more info, contact Asantewaa Nkrumah-Ture, 202-745-1200,

ru4justice@juno.com;

Transportation provided free for Emmaus seniors, just call Mark Andersen

at 745-1200×15

Ye shall know them by their trail of trash

The thing I hate about some developers is that they don’t clean up. The ones I speak of are bipolar. They’ll work on a house/project at a manic pace and then a few weeks later leave the work exposed and half done and are not seen for weeks. The materials will be all over the yard, maybe overflowing into the alley. The house in question apparently started working on a tree. There are large downed tree branches EVERYWHERE! I’m not talking small branches, I’m talking tree parts as thick as a man’s head. Only good thing…. they may have knocked down the baskeball hoop the kids put up. They have yet to carry away their tree debris.

Well on a happy note about trash, there have been signs that are neighborhood is getting better. If you want really good trash you might have to scope the *better* neighborhoods, like Old Town Alexandria. But on two occassions I have found good trash right here in Shaw. A few months ago I scored a sweet end table made of solid wood. It just needed a new handle, $2 at Home Depot. Today, I found a bag of CDs and books that look like sale-able items on Ebay or Half.

Bad boys, bad boys whatcha gonna do?

…whatcha gonna do when they come for you?

My roommate ventured out the house to grab some groceries with the Flexcar. She had invited me but I was in hair rollers and it was against my religion to been seen in such a state so I passed. A few moments after she locked the door behind her I heard the loud screech of car tires, then a few more. Then some other ruckus, so in near defiance of my faith, risking being seen with pink and green curlers, I opened the front door to see two cops chasing down a guy on foot, screaming “Stop Motherfycker, stop motherfucher*.” I then look for my roommate and the Flexcar hoping she got out before all this went down. I’m looking for the white Honda normally parked at the Shaw/Howard station. I don’t see it and assume she made it out, until I turn my head to see a cop who has secured and blocked one end of the street. My roommate had picked up a darker car and was standing with the car door open. She yells to the cop “I live right there (pointing to the house), can I just go right in?” and she high tails it back into the house with me holding the door wide open. She was seriously scared.

COPS- In Shaw. A bit too close for comfort.

* please note I don’t use profanity when speaking and at times I feel odd typing it.

Darned kids

The neighborhood kids have discovered the alley. A newly cleaned up alley and have taken it into their little heads to turn it into a playground.

I guess on one hand this could be seen as a good thing. If kids are wandering through that means the alley is now safer, even the most negligent mother won’t let their kids play where there are crackheads smoking up.

But no. I see children as the destructive little heathens that they are. I watched them to make sure none of their little basketballs went into my yard. But apparently, some did while I was at work. I found my back gate unlocked and cracked open. At first I thought I may have forgotten to lock it, but I was told the kids went into my yard as well as my neighbor’s to retrieve their ball. I have since bought a locking lock.

I’m pondering a trip to Behnke’s to ask the knowledgeable folks if they know of a nice thorny vine I could grow along the top and sides of the fence to keep the kids out.

I know I should approach the parents and ask them to keep the kids out of my yard. But I’ve observed kids in my hood. Kids do not respect private property. They will trample your flowers and plants to get their ball. They will run into your tree box.

I don’t mind kids playing, but I do mind them coming into my yard.

Good News- Kesley Garden Apts

Stolen from ShawDC.Com

Kelsey Gardens News Flash: HUD Reverses Decision, Tenants Can StayBy Alexander M. Padro

Aug 20, 2004, 17:18

Last night, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that as a result of a July 28, 2004 inspection of Kelsey Gardens Apartments, the agency was reversing its previous decision to terminate the Section 8 contract for the property.

The inspection determined that health and safety issues that prompted the decision earlier this year that would have forced all 54 families to move out of the complex and could have prevented the tenants association from pursuing their rights to purchase the buildings, had been corrected, clearing the way for the Section 8 subsidies to continue.

More information will follow later, but I thought this outstanding news was worthy of sharing immediately. Congratulations to the Kelsey Gardens Tenants Association on this victory. Let’s all support the tenants in their ongoing struggle to purchase their homes and and remain in our community as they build a better future for their families.

–Alex