Author: Mari

Join Solidarity DC for another rockin’ happy hour!

Help DC youth develop community organizing skills for economic,

environmental, and social change!

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Shaw EcoVillage Benefit

Tuesday, July 27th, 6pm

Mackey’s Public House

1823 L St Northwest, Washington DC

Solidarity Drink Specials All Night!

Musical Entertainment!

$5+ suggested donation (no one turned away)

View or print the flier here:

http://www.shawecovillage.com/happy%20hour%20flier.pdf

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SEV trains youth to be catalysts for sustainable

change in Washington, DC’s urban neighborhoods.

SEV has two main programs, EcoDesign Corps

and Chain Reaction. To learn more, check

out www.shawecovillage.com

Solidarity DC is a new group committed to bringing

the DC metropolitan area’s progressive community

together to have fun and achieve justice, one

Happy Hour at a time! This will be our 4th Happy

Hour. Sign up for email updates at

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/SolidarityDC/

Sponsored by Solidarity DC and Shaw EcoVillage.

To learn more or to help out, contact Michael

at artzm@seiu.org.

Okay anyone who reads this knows my occassional rant about realtors on crack. Well I was looking at the houses for sale in my hood and noticed this beauty on the 1700 block of 4th St. 1700 block is the block I don’t like walking through but I’ll ride down hill very fast through. Anyway read the following:

“First open sunday 2-4. Please stop by this renovated town home in shaw with 4 brs, 2.5 bths, fireplace, hardwoods, w/d, cute front yard and fenced back, all just 4 blocks to the metro. Currently rented for $2400 a month, this home makes a great rental or that place to call your own. Tenants move 8/31/04. Decorated in cool pastels, this home really shows well and offers so many possibilities”

$2400 for rent! Okay, my bad math skills tell me that works out to $600 per room. Reasonable price for say, 2 blocks over. But for the block *with* the crackheads AND dealers. A bit much.

Note that it is in one of those thin townhomes, you ain’t getting much for your $2400.

Also I remember looking at the house across the street when it was for sale, it was reasonable size. Compare to the little red dot house, smaller. @ $350K, I guess the price for a buyer/ non-future landlord it’s ok.

The route to the metro in Shaw is littered with the signs of discontent. Literally littered. Last I looked there is part of the poster to impeach/recall (I forget) laying on the corner of R and 6th. They are all up and down the non-white non-Logan Circle part of Shaw. They are black, white and red signs calling for the removal of the world’s least charismatic politician, really, dead people are more exciting than Tony.

Walking with my neighbor, he wondered if the people responsible for the signs want to go back to the way things were with high crime and the control board. Playing a weak devil’s advocate I mentioned how, at least in Ward 8, the same Ward former Mayor for Life Barry has a chance to get on the council, people are not happy with Williams. Under Williams the city has become more unaffordable. I have heard the other side’s argument and I feel for them, I don’t agree and think the fight may be quixtoxic, but I feel for them.

For those of you who don’t know the story, Tony Williams came to DC during the 2nd reign of Marion “the bitch set me up” Barry (aka Mayor for Life) to get the city’s finances in order. It got so bad that there was a Control Board dictating to the city how it could spend it’s money and what it could do, as money and programs were both interrelated. Well Tony saved the day. Marion, suprisingly decided to not run for another umteenth term and Tony was urged to run, which he did and won. Unlike the previous Mayor, Tony was not warm and friendly, he was an accountant. Tony does not pretend to feel your pain, nor look remotely interested in you. No Tony is a facts and figures man, the kind of man business people and developers like; the kind of man that turns the older Black residents off. Oh one small thing, Tony is Black. Yes, someone may have revoked his “black-enough” card, but according to the adoption papers his mom got, he is in fact Black, no matter what the folks in Ward 8 say.

Under the rule of Mayor Tony Williams the Control Board went away, the overlords in Congress gave the city a tad bit more respect, and the city began attracting capital. Unfortunately, fortunately, depending on who you are, the capital included the gentrifacting development kind. Parts of the city people wouldn’t bother with were getting facelifts and rent increases, yadda, yadda, yadda- gentrified Shaw. So I’m gathering parts of the city undergoing gentrification where there is still a sizable African American population will see tons of these signs, as the message is more welcomed there.

The half ripped sign laying on the corner of 6th and R Sts. is also a sign of where the borders of where message might not be welcomed.

Jim Berry is the ANC commissioner for the single member district of 5C01 region of 5C of Ward 5. And really you couldn’t pay me enough money to do what this man does. Really, not even a billion dollars.  Apparently many in 5C01 feel that way because according to my neighbor, he’s not opposed in this year’s elections.  Not even a BILLION dollars. Angry citizens who believe their part is just to call and complain, tons of meetings, personal life? Nope.

Yet if I were in 2C02, that would be another matter. On the other side of New Jersey Ave you have Mr. Leroy Thorpe who people either love or hate. If you are white or gay or both he is not your friend. Or even if you are new, young and middle class, he might not be your friend either as related to me by a resident who attended a neighborhood meeting where she was unwelcomed and then later had a shouting match with Mr. Thorpe in the street. He has his fans, long-time Black residents who see the new residents as invaders.

Anyways shout out to the two folks who e-mailed In Shaw. BB yes, $500K is a lot for peace house and Carola S. thanks now I will say there are 10 to 15 people who read this blog, as opposed to the 5-10 I know.

Neighbors,

Below please find a copy of the notice that is being circulated

throughout

the community regarding the next two meetings of ANC 5C. Please share

these

data with your neighbors and encourage them to attend.

Best,

Jim Berry

ANC 5C

GOVERNMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

ADVISORY NEIGHBORHOOD COMMISSION 5C

POST OFFICE BOX 77761

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20013

TELEPHONE: (202) 832-1965/1966

www.anc5c.org

PUBLIC MEETING NOTICES

Monthly Meeting

Invited guests include representatives from the following

organizations:

DC OFFICE OF PLANNING

METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT

PERRY SCHOOL COMMUNITY SERVICE CENTER

Where: Trinity

College

125

Michigan Avenue, N.E.

When: Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Time: 7:00 P.M. until 9:00 P.M.

___________________________________________

Monthly Forum

Where: First New

Hope Baptist Church

1822 3rd Street,

N.E.

When: Tuesday, September 7, 2004

Time: 7:00 P.M. until 9:00 P.M.

Last night, while my neighbors were entertaining guests on the patio I wandered out onto mine to… I forget, dump trash in the big green bin? Anywho I get out there and though parts of the fence I noticed the alley cleaning man has taped up a sign.

At this time it is dark and the only light is from my back porch. So with the comfort of knowing there are 2-3 men sipping wine on the next patio to save me (ok maybe not)/call 9-1-1 should I come to harm, I wander out into the dark alley.

I read the sign “DO NOT LEAVE YOUR TRASH IN THE ALLEY!”

Now alley cleaning man normally leaves little paper signs in the alley typically saying “NO DUMPING” which gets washed away with the next rain. But this sign was different, and I was the only one with it. I checked ’cause wine sipping Brett asked. I checked his fence and everyone elses, no one else had this sign. Of course there is a big green trash bin opposite my property in the alley. But it is not mine. I don’t know whose it is. I was thinking of getting the contents dumped and taking it, ’cause it don’t belong in the alley and anything left on public property is fair game.

Now tiffed at the sign on my fence, I wrote back. I don’t remember the exact words but they went along the lines of: To whom it may concern I take offense of you saying that I’m leaving my trash here, if you bother to check my can is still in my yard, if you have a problem please speak to me directly.

Yes, now I feel better, I have pissed off alley cleaning man.

I heard a quick blurb on WAMU that there was a study that there are huge drug markets near drug treatment centers in the city. Duuuuuuuh! Was my silent reponse. When I still attended police community meetings it was mentioned often that there was a brisk trade near the methodone clinic ’round here.

I just have to remember how to tweak the html coding to put it in the menu, but I bothered setting up an e-mail for this page, so if you’d like you could e-mail me and if I so chose, I could respond, or not.

So inshaw AT att.net (since I’m going to get charged extra now, bastards!) is where you, the five to 10 people who view this blog and already have my other various e-mails can write me.