7PM basement of Mt. Sinai Baptist Church.
Of the most interesting things is the speaker coming to talk about the MM Washington building which is slated to become senior housing.
Category: Housing
A plan for Bates Street
I have the 1968-1974 (the dates I’m unsure of) brochure of “A Plan for Bates Street” in PDF form. It’s a big file and because it is so large, I’m not posting here. However, I will mail it to folks who ask (offer expires in 30 days). Basically, like the title says, it was the government’s plan for the two blocks of Bates, to improve the housing.
Houses on Bates Street (well the houses on Bates I’ve been in) are deep and some of them are divided into two units. It seems that when they were initially built by Washington Sanitary Housing (or Washington Sanitary Improvement, I’m still working on the facts of this), they may have all been two unit structures. You can see it in the placement of windows and doors.
The wonderful fellows at Truxton Circle have a few pictures from the brochure. This first one shows the street plan for squares 552 & 615. It appears there was the intention to remove some structures for the creation of small parks, a tot lot, a teen lot and parking. Spaces for adults apparently were to be carved out of existing space. The second picture, shows a typical Bates Street house prior to any renovation. The first and second floor are two separate units with their own living rooms and kitchens. The plan was to combine the two to make one unit, replace 2nd unit doors with windows, move the kitchen to the 1st floor center, and create more bedrooms, going from 1 to 3 or 4, as seen here.
Looking around Bates Street now, there seem to be fewer 2 unit houses than 1 units.
U.G.L.Y. you ain't got no alibi
This picture was taken some 3 years back of a house on the 1500 block of 3rd Street, NW. Since this picture was taken and I ranted about it’s ugliness in 2004, I have yet to see anybody living in it. Three years and nothing, all that ugly for naught. Of course the house might have other problems.
Another house that has seemingly sat vacant for years is at the corner of Marion and Q Sts NW. It is not so much ugly as it is confusing. There are two windows, one sitting on top of the other, allowing light into a space, well I’m not sure how that space is to be used. It would make a lovely spot for a spiral staircase, but I’m not sure where one would be going and the reasons for traffic flow in and out are not obvious. Now, it looks like there might have been a door there long time ago, and maybe the house was renovated to look like this but it just don’t make no sense.
Lastly, not a house but a business, is the Check ‘n’ Go or the rob people of their paycheck with usury fees. Note the top portions where windows have been busted in and out and the masonry (you may need to click on the photo to get to a bigger image). Yes, I know Historic Districts would prevent the remuddling, and make my whites whiter, my brights brighter and reduce crime by 98%. But some of you know how I hate history being prostituted out for reasons other than strong history. Besides, ugly remuddling would be true to the historic slum look because the ‘Shaw’ identity seems to be more 1960s urban renewal than 1890s Victorian. And what’s more true to the story than a check cashing place in a messed up building?
I believe in the invisible hand of the market coming down and smiting those who would make the ugly. They have been punished by their wickedness with properties that bear little fruit. May those who screwed up residential properties wail and nash their teeth and pay the vacant property tax. As for the ugly commercial property, maybe location, location, location may override the ugly when a business is looking for a place to be (and I don’t see a long life for the check cashing place), or maybe not.
Dead Body in a bathtub lottery
In yesterday’s Washington Post there was the District of Columbia Notice of Real Property Tax Sale (J section). It lists the properties for which taxes or other things owed to the city have not been paid and their liens are up for auction. As you may remember the Tax auction was how Edmund A. Wilson lost his house. But he had left this earthly plane (or is it plain?) without notice and material things like houses probably meant little to him afterwards. Yes, he was the dead body, found in the bathtub, when the new owners took possession.
The tax sale is from July 10 till all the tax liens have been auctioned off. Most people, particularly in this Real Estate market, like ninety someodd percent, pay their delinquent taxes or what have you. The tiny percentage of properties where the owners don’t pay their taxes are up for foreclosure. The problem with foreclosure is that there might be a huge mortgage on the property or other liabilities, would would need to be paid by the foreclosurer. But sometimes, like the lottery, you win big, and you get a property.
Since more than likely one won’t get a property at auction the reason to participate is the interest rate. According to what I could pull out of the tax sale rules (pdf) interest accrues at 1.5% per month. My poor math skills tell me that is 18% a year. Not bad considering my credit union is offering about 4.5% on a 6 month CD. But, that is only on the taxes owed, not the amount you bid over, or that nasty $150 auction fee added to the bidding. Because the auction room includes idiots who believe they will actually get a house with the auction (no just a lien) they tend to bid the properties above an amount that would give back a decent return in interest. But not for all properties, so it is possible to make a little money on the tax sale.
I’m debating about participating this year. I have to see what extra money I have laying around that can be tied up for 6 months. Last year I bid but didn’t get anything because the bids went above a decent rate of return (is that the right term?) and I wasn’t going to bid just to bid.
Update: I noticed that the DC.Gov doesn’t have the list of properties up and there doesn’t seem to be an electronic version of it on the Post or Times websites. There are several properties owing the tax man. 1419 and 1421 3rd St are on the list, so is 206 Bates, 1504 1st St, 142 Bates, and many more. Let’s say, more than I’d rather list.
Real Estate Agents on Crack again
There is a house at 1611 New Jersey Avenue for sale for, get this, $798,000. Crack, crack, PCP with an LSD chaser Crack is what the Realtors are smoking. And they must be giving it to their buyers. Yeah, it has 3 bedrooms and 2 baths, and I’m quite sure they are big and everything, but $800K? I know this place has no parking. For $800 grand you should have parking and your own personal crack ho. For less you can get a 5 bedroom 4 bath at 34 Quincy for less than $500K, or at $500K 69 Florida Ave. With the extra $300K you could buy an extra condo or for a tad more 1647 New Jersey Ave (a 2 bedroom 1 bath) for $310K.
Please stop the maddness, just say no to the real estate crack.
11/29/05
2 anon comments are 2 too many
Jim Berry fighting against more Section 8 housing
Jim Berry fighting against more Section 8 housing
From: “JBerry”
To: “‘Jeannette.Johnson
Subject: North Capitol Townhomes Limited Partnership Affordable Housing Production Project
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 20:12:31 -0400
Ms. Johnson,
Thank you for establishing contact with me concerning the above-referenced subject. There is a glitch in ANC 5C’s telephone service with Verizon that we are in the process of correcting. That is, the telephone mail box for ANC 5C is shared between 12 commissioners and due to a progressive increase in the volume of calls that we have been receiving from members of the
general public over the last six months, we plan to significantly expand its capacity in the immediate future. Nevertheless, for your information and future reference, I can be reached daily, between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. at (202) *******and at (202) ******** during the evening hours.
As you may know, I volunteer my time and talents to my neighbors via my service to Advisory Neighborhood Commission 5C and, because we don’t have an office manager at the time, there is a predictable delay in my receipt of calls transmitted to our office number.
I appreciate your advising me of Ms. Matthias’ availability next week, but my written request of the DHCD was to meet with its Director, Mr. Stanley Jackson. Hence, I am at a loss to understand why a meeting with Ms. Matthias is being offered as a preliminary step towards the attainment of this goal.
It appears that the DHCD intends to move with dispatch to facilitate the release of Community Block Grant Funds in order that an out of town developer can implement the proposed North Capitol Townhomes Project and, frankly, I fear that it may succeed with this unfortunate and
unacceptable plan while I am engaged in and, possibly, being distracted by offers and arrangements to meet with surrogates of Mr. Jackson’s.
As I have previously indicated, DHCD’s existing plans to continue a subsidized housing program for the next 30 years in my neighborhood, that has not yielded a single homeowner as a result of its implementation over the past 21, strikes me as an abomination that I/we who are also
heavily invested in this community, must resist by all possible means. Indeed, I have shared this position with Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton’s representative, with Ward Five Council Member Vincent B. Orange and other members of the D.C. City Council, and I plan to elaborate on this position in a meeting with officials from the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development that I plan to have in the immediate future.
It is my hope that reason will ultimately prevail in this unfortunate situation and that the DHCD will abandon its current plan, in favor of one that promotes and facilitates homeownership (especially, for those participants in the Bates Street Limited Townhomes Project of
longstanding). Indeed, if the DHCD and the local government is serious about and
committed to the goal of helping those who live in subsidized housing to evolve
into homeowners, now is the ideal time to implement such a program which, I believe, would represent a “win-win” situation for all of the stakeholders involved.
Sincerely,
James D. Berry, Jr.
Chairperson, ANC 5C