Author: Mari

House of the Week



Although I try to keep to houses in the uncool sections of Shaw, avoiding Logan and U ST, here is a U Street area house.

The reason I chose this because it was a harbinger of the gentrification that came. Let me explain. Since 1995, I’ve been getting my hair done at a U St beauty shop. The area didn’t look like much in those early years. I would get on the green line, get lost and try to remember where on Earth was the shop, so that’s how I saw the area, as a lost person. Upon leaving the shop I would usually pass this house on T and Vermont, as I headed towards the Vermont street side of the U St metro station. I noticed it mainly because it stood out. The gate was high and the yard was pretty. Now it is just another pretty house, but years ago it was the only house that didn’t look run down and tired.

So the house at T and Vermont is the In Shaw house of the week.

Lazy butt and my neighborhood

Civilization is electronic crack.

There were a few things I could have done, running around the hood and doing things to the house, but no. I played Civ. So maybe no matter what great venues pop up around the neighborhood, I might not enjoy them because my sweet addiction to Civ will keep my lazy butt in the house.

It occured to me that I might should wander by Gallery-Place to check out the progress of the movie theater going in there. When it is there and the top box office hits are playing, will I get on my bike and venture down? Or will I be glued to the computer trying to subdue the Romans? If a cool sit down restaurant, that isn’t a Chinese, Sub, or Grease-R-Us eatery, some how settles in between S and M, 8th and 1st streets, will I go? Or will I forego food so I can just get the Hoover Dam built before the Mongols?

It’s 8am. And I’m thinking about Civ. Good G-d help me.

Homeless policy

This morning on the way to work I saw a woman I immediately thought was a prositute. Why? Because she was white, way too old to be a hipster, tugging at her dress all weird, kinda skinny (nothing says crack ho like skinny) and butt ugly. Not too many of those types in Shaw. But apparently she was homeless and some distance from her shelter. She started with a question regarding directions, but it just went into the “if you have something to help me out” part of begging.

As a policy I never give money. Never. I will however give away food or metro passes or tokens.

More than just black and white

The Intowner just briefly touched on it in this month’s article about gentrification in Shaw. One little thing is that it is not just a phenomenon of white people moving in and kicking out black people. There is an element of class and general self interest within the African American community that adds to the mix.

Who do you think owns the land
There are a lot of renters in Shaw. These not only include apartment buildings but also houses converted into apartments or whole townhomes rented out to families or made into boarding/group homes. Who owns those houses? Who owns the houses where people are getting pushed out by gentrification? It may be wrong to assume it is always “THE MAN”, the unknown white WASPY figure in the shadowy background ever exploiting minorities. It isn’t always so. If my own block is a good example, two Section 8 houses are owned by a man of African decent (can’t remember if he’s from the islands or from Africa), and the other is owned by the Jamaican lawyer. There are plenty of houses rented out to poorer Afro-Americans owned by middle class African Americans, who live elsewhere. So when the economic revival comes, do you think Black solidarity will keep black landlords from kicking out their tenants?

Two good examples are the building that once housed Sisterspace and the Kesley Garden apartments. The Sisterspace building is owned by an elderly African American man. Sisterspace, was a bookstore catering to the Black community. After many years of disagreement about the lease and a legal battle, Sisterspace was kicked to the curb. Gentrification was to blame. Yes, the economic revival was to blame, but the person removing this black business was another black business. The apartment building Kesley Gardens is owned by an African American church in SE DC. The church is working toward removing the tenants so the building can be converted into luxury condos.

The Good Thing About Gentrification Is….
When Whole Foods first moved in my Aunt was doubtful that blacks would take to it. The conversation didn’t get past, “Black folk, um, I don’t know…” Go into the Whole Foods/Fresh Fields on the weekend when it is packed, you will see a diversity of black faces, and I’m not talking about the ones behind the counters. There are African cabbies, who have discovered the joys of a central location with parking, eating in the booths near the cashiers. There are the all-natural brothers and sistahs, in search of the veggie/vegan organic food you cannot get at the corner quickie mart deep in Shaw. Products of Jack & Jill wander the aisles, possibly in search of something for a dinner party? Oh, yeah and me blowing no less than $12 on wine, fish, fruit, or chocolate. Occasionally, there may be a woman in FF with kids, whose class background could be middle class to working class, but hard to tell.

For those of us who survive the wave of gentrification or are waving it in, the fruits of it are enjoyed. The equity in the house is much appreciated. The new eatery that serves good food, and maybe a place to sit, is nice too. The shops catering to the middle and upper classes that come into Shaw do not have “Whites Only” signs in front. The only signs are for VISA, MasterCard, and American Express, because the only color that counts is green.

In Closing
The point I have tried to make is that gentrification is not necessarily anti-African American. Gentrification isn’t necessarily pushed and helped by Anglos only either. It is economic. But in Shaw the victims of gentrification have a black face and the new residents tend to be white, so it is easy to simply it and say that blacks are being pushed out by whites. It’s economic. People who do not have the means to stay are leaving, people who do have the means come and stay, and because the middle class in dominated by one racial group it is easy to lose site of the incoming minorities.

Yes the hood is dangerous

One of my neighbors nearly got mugged. Well it sounded like a near mugging.

He was walking home and this kid, about 15 years old, came up beside him and asked him for money. He said no, and there was another kid behind him that egged the other kid to rob him. The kid asking for money decided not to and they went their merry way. My neighbor, understandably is angry and a bit more wary of his route home. Then the whole discussion went to the topic of what’s wrong with kids today.

Another neighbor, as neighborhood rumor has it, was mugged some time ago. But despite this my neighbors do not view the neighborhood as an unlivable scary place. We all are aware that crime is higher in our neck of the woods as compared to west of Rock Creek Park. I’ve had my bike vandalized. Other neighbors have experienced other forms of property crime. We mark it as just one of those things, deal with it, and move on.

My neighbor telling his tale joked you’d think this was Capitol Hill.

Closet Space, possibly the secret to a happy marriage

Yeah, who am I to say as a single person. But that is the lesson I come away with after seeing the Madison condo across the street from Shaw in Eckington on the corner of Florida and Quincy, NW.

It was a 1 bedroom going for about $265K. Tiny bedroom, small apartment, almost no closet space. The hall closet was just enough for a couple of winter coats. The bedroom closet, small, suitable for one person. The agent told me a couple did live there but annulled their marriage soon after moving in.

Makes sense as this place was small. You gotta really LOVE, the person you’re with. However I see the closet thing as an argument waiting to happen. I just can’t see how married people do it. Share closet space. My parents had a lovely system, my mom’s clothes went into the closet, everything my dad wore, could be folded and put into a drawer. You couldn’t even do that in this place.

Oh, can we also talk condo fee? $365 a month. It includes everything but electricity. Did I mention that the whole condo is run on electricity, no gas. Now there is no parking lot. No pool. No grounds, except that little strip of dirt between the sidewalk and the building. It includes snow removal. $50 will get you 2 winos in the park kitty corner to the Madison to clean the sidewalk around the whole building. Also for those of you not familiar with DC weather, it snows so little that the city near bout closes when we get anything over 2 inches. A fact that stuns folks from hardier regions where 2 feet of snow wouldn’t close jack.

I’d like to compare that to the Mercury in Shaw on 5th Street. Condo fee of about $230. About 20 feet of sidewalk, 2 parking spaces (gone), and fewer bums. The only unit available going for $450K, seemed less of a realtor on crack deal. I could believe this 3 bedroom 2 bath condo was possibly worth $450K. So I’ll just say, “Realtors on Coke” or “Reefer Realtors”, ’cause we’re still talking Eastern Shaw. $350K, would be a good deal. The two back bedrooms were suburban sized. It was like wow, you could fit a king sized bed and some other furniture back here and still have room to walk around. The master bath was also big. If it weren’t for the stairs, I’d say the size of the condo almost made it wheelchair friendly. The front bedroom, slightly bigger than a walk in closet, with glass doors and set up to be an office. It was a really cool condo.

In Shaw Channel’s Bill Cosby

I was going to write about to condos up for sale in the Shaw and Eckington neighborhoods but no. I’m going to write up some poor behavior and address some thinking by some members of my ethinic group.

I went to view the Mercury Condos at 1413 5th St. Well 1 condo as the other 3 units had sold. It was a lovely looking condo, spacious, as compared to the one on Quincy. The agent was in the back with another person when I walked in. When I saw the crowd she was with I thought, “oh, no you didn’t”. The woman viewing the condo came with her two sons and she was wearing curlers in her hair. Curlers. I don’t like running outside my house to grab the paper in curlers. The only place outside your home you should be seen in curlers is the ER, the laundramat, and the Piggly Wiggly, maybe the Dollar Store, maybe. That is too ghetto. Oh by the by, all of us were black, the woman, the kids, the agent and me.

The kids wandered outside and after taking a look at the condo so did I. There was a streetperson. He asked the boys, “you live there?” Even though there was no contract on it the boys answered yes. The streetperson didn’t believe them, and said no black people lived there. The gentrification discussion sometimes gets into the relm of black and white. But people forget there is a black middle class, even Blacks.

Wondering about the Bill Cosby reference? Y’all haven’t been reading the Boondocks comic lately have you?

Cleaning day

Sort of. Cleaned the fridge of the last bits of my roommate’s spill. My roommie did to attempt to clean it but failed to clean all of it. This along with a couple of other things remind me why I should never get a roommate under 25 again. Really. It’s the cleaning issue.

I need to look at the lease again.

I did not clean as much as I wanted today. Laziness got in the way.