Author: Mari

ANCs- A really short history

The following is a very simplified history, which hopefully will give some understanding of the present. During the Big Bear ABC license kerfuffle there were a few emailers questioning the rationale for ANCs or Advisory Neighborhood Commissions.
ANCs are a product of Home Rule. Prior to Home Rule (via the Home Rule Act of 1973) Congress (the Federal government) ran the city. It wasn’t until 1974 that DC residents were able to vote and have some real say in how the city ran. Before Home Rule the mayor and the city council were federally appointed. Neighborhood wise there were citizens (white) and civic (black) associations that appealed to Congress and city government officials for things like neighborhood improvements, traffic, crime and so forth. As far as I can tell civic and citizen association leaders were elected by the association’s membership. These groups could only beg or appeal to bodies and officials whom they could neither vote for or vote out of office.
With Home Rule, neighborhoods got something new:

… the Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANCs), brought the city administration closer to ordinary voters than any other elective units. The city council created 36 ANCs and 376 smaller single member districts, each representing about two thousand residents. The ANCs were intended to serve as neighborhood mini councils that advised the council on local problems.
—City of Magnificent Intentions: A history of Washington, District of Columbia 2nd edition P.584

BACA/ NE Shaw- I wanna have a small canning party

Here’s the thing. I want to have a small canning party. Thing #1 my kitchen is crowded with 2 people in it and three people it just isn’t happening. Thing #2 I know some folks out there are curious about small scale canning, which is what I tend to do as I hardly ever use up a whole pint of anything to justify canning that much and I’d like to share what I know. Thing #3, I’d like to share my knowledge close to home.

Yeah, I could post what I know on-line but there is something about hands on learning.

So if anyone has a kitchen that would work well for show and tell and wants an intro to canning (I’m no Master, I just do my own canning and so far, so good) and has a few friends who want to learn as well,

UPDATE- A canning party has been organized. Thank you.

Do you give a fig?

Lunch today will be some goat cheese from the 14th & U St farmer’s market, some charcuterie boar meat stuff from the Cork Market on 14th, and some figs from the next block. I can’t believe I have never noticed this fig tree in all the years I lived here. I know about the plum tree at 3rd & Q, but the fruit is too high and the resident at the place there couldn’t tell me if the fruit was any good. But a few days back  I was running some finishing things related to Flower Power that was held back on June 26th. While running around I noticed this fig tree, with rip figs, and picked a few that were hanging over the sidewalk and they were delicious. I snuck back the next day picked a few and more from the sidewalk. Today I noticed signs of someone being home, knocked on the door and asked if I could pick their figs.
I was given permission and started throwing figs in my bag. About halfway in my picking another family member came out and asked how would you know when they were ripe for picking. It’s just like tomatoes, you give a gentle tug and if they come off, they are ready. I will wash them, as I also picked up some of the perfectly fine looking fruit that fell to the ground (I trashed the ones that looked like the birds or ants got to them).
The take away from this experience is to ask people with fruit trees if you can pick and the reward is some sweet lunch.

One aspect of “better” and ‘changing for the better’

I’ve only been here in the Shaw neighborhood for 10 years, so here are a few observations that I think the changes in the neighborhood has brought that is an improvement due to the demographic changes sometimes known as gentrification.

For one, the drug dealers are not a regular presence at the corner I turn at to come home from work. Almost every friggin day, there they would be, leaning on a fence, littering up the treebox, hanging around. You know how depressing and anxiety producing that is to have to walk by that every single day? The only good thing about it was if you left them alone, they’d leave you alone. And the block up from me was ugly, unfriendly and just had a bad feeling about it. I wouldn’t even walk down that block in the daytime. It also had dealers. Older residents had been fighting the good fight but had figured to pick their battles, what was needed was new blood that wasn’t burned out.

Second, gunfire is no longer a nightly sound. Okay, maybe where you are, but in my section it is no longer every single night. A couple of years ago a guy was shot in the butt in a drive by that then continued to shoot my street (thankfully shooting the asphalt) as they speeded off. Fewer (though none would be nice) incidences and gun shots is an improvement for the better.

A reduction in crime and gun shots may relate to the area being more politically active. One of the reasons why I dislike Vincent Orange so much is that I remember him not really caring that much for our area. When he was running for Mayor the last time, in 2006, he didn’t seem grass roots at all, and didn’t seem all that particularly interested in us over here in the TC. Now, if we were Brookland, different story. With the 2006 election we flexed some muscle, then candidate Fenty came to a fundraiser at a Richardson Pl home, the candidates for Ward 5 were falling all over themselves to be a part of BACA garden walks, clean ups, what-have you. Other positive in 2006 2C ANC Leroy Thorpe was ousted, sorta. With politicians discovering we existed and voted and not ignoring us we got more attention with city services. Cars get ticketed now. No longer do I have to deal with more-than-likely stolen/ obviously abandoned cars sitting on my street for weeks on end.

Yes, and some improvements to my quality of life came from some neighbors leaving, and here the ‘better’ gets dicey. The neighbors who will not be missed are the crackheads. Which crackheads you may ask as we had several. Not Velveeta (yes, that was her name), but the ones who left their friend for dead bleeding on the sidewalk outside their house. I suspect down in the southern tip of the TC (unit blocks from Bates to N) do not miss the clusters of subsidized housing that housed loud, drugged out if not drunk poor excuses for parents and their feral children. Not to say everything is rosy now, there still is the odd halfway house and the people who cluster around S.O.M.E. Yet the poor, including crackheads and people who can’t keep it together need housing too.

Write in Jack Evans

Kwame, Kwame, Kwame. Your financial life is more of a mess than we first thought. But it is still normal, if you were like a normal citizen of the District who is underwater with his mortgage, leasing vehicles, buying crap you couldn’t afford with money you ain’t got, along with student loan debt, and credit card debit that is a crazy scary amount. But hey, you’re not Marion Barry, because if you were him you could fail to pay your taxes. Hold up, somebody check to see if he’s cool with the IRS.
However, Brown is still better than Orange, as poo is better than toxic waste. Face it the choices were crap and shyte before this, and I still think old Jack over in Georgetown is a far, far, far better choice than these two. Briefly V. Orange was my councilman over here in Ward 5 and he didn’t seem to know we were a part of his ward and were ignored. Brown has been to a few civic association meetings so he has a better awareness of the neighborhood than Orange. But still, Brown not necessarily my first choice.
So is being $700K in debit a deal breaker? Well the bulk of that is his mortgage. Like many normal Americans he used his house as an ATM, as it is worth about $350-$420K and has a mortgage of about $500K. Okay maybe he put in a bitchin kitchen and maybe one day it will be worth $500K. But the boat, that was just stupid. From the Post article it appears the Browns were trying to keep up with the Jones. As far as I can tell the Jones either have money or are in debt to their eyeballs, I’m guessing the latter. I also suspect there are a lot of Joneses in DC who will be voting in the Democratic primaries and picking the candidate who most represents them.
Orange does have a point about leadership and keeping one’s personal finances in order, and a broken clock is right twice a day. If DC Council members practice bad judgment, such as overvaluing an asset, ignoring the risk when income is loss (Brown’s wife left the workforce in all this) and more responsibilities (2 kids) added. Then there is taking on liabilities for well meaning reasons (the stupid boat), that come with extra costs (maintenance) that are ignored at the time of purchase due to newbie ignorance. Still Brown is better than Orange. Orange proved that he was out of touch with reality with his failed, failed, failed mayoral campaign. It wasn’t that he didn’t win, it’s just that he only got 2.9% of the vote and spent money trying to get elected as if he were a real front runner.

More thoughts on the Camp Protest

Protest bannerThis morning I awoke to an NPR report on the OneDC protest at 7th and R/ RI Ave. Or at least I thought I heard a story as I can’t find a link on either the NPR site nor the WAMU site about it. Anyway, the Shaw area does not lack affordable housing. Now I say that as in there are buildings that take up square footage and whole blocks in Shaw that were built as affordable housing, take government money to subsidize rents, are public housing, and/or are subsidized senior housing. If you are going by market rates, then it all depends on how much you’re willing to spend and what living conditions you can deal with. Playing around with DC Housing Search I see there are individual landlords and other entities that rent out individual rooms, individual houses, and small typically 4 unit apartment buildings. So when a group is protesting for more non-market rate housing, I’m thinking how much more affordable housing in this neighborhood do we need? And concentrating poverty isn’t doing anyone any favors. The protesters are nicely caged up on the lot and so far aren’t a nuisance so I have no problem with their protest. I just disagree with their demands. I am part of the Shaw community as I live here, I shop here, I vote here, and what the city or other powers that be plop down has an impact on my quality of life. Concentrating dis-empowerment and dependency near a transportation hub will continue to hamper the neighborhood’s ability to succeed.

Another Fundraiser for Martin

Hopefully we will be nearing the end of this. But the legal bills for CCCA Prez Martin Moulton to defend himself against the accusations of the former SMD ANC Leroy Thorpe, who is suing him for a kajillion dollars because Martin was demanding an accountable government. Attached is a PDF about the July 15th fundraiser. June15Fundraiser.pdf

They claim this land in the name of Spain (Winners of the World Cup)

No not really.
Protest sign 2 ONE DC a local wayward child of Manna DC is staging a protest summer camp at the corner of 7th and R/Rhode Island, NW. I will admit I really haven’t paid much attention to what has been going on with that parcel. I am gathering some deal fell through and that primo spot is back in play. Yay! Can you tell I’m not too keen on a mirror for that other example of a human right in action, Lincoln-Westmoreland which sits across the street.