Category: 2010 Posts

I’m slowly adding the blog posts from 2010-2017, until I can find an easier way. Otherwise people can just go to inshaw.com/weblog/2010 or inshaw.com/weblog/2011 and so on for the files to the old blog.

Tomorrow is BACA’s Flower Power

The only thing that will post-pone it is rain, not soaring temperatures.

Just to remind you, if you plan to join us, that we’ll meet up in front of the Armstrong (CAPCS) School on the 100 Block of P St NW. Look for a table and some people at 3PM. You wouldn’t think it but groups walk incredibly slow, but, they, do, so the walk may take a while, thus the 3-5 time slot.

Tickets the day of are $6. Monies go to support BACA beautification.

This page contains a single entry by Mari published on June 25, 2010 8:31 AM.

Kids and the Florida Avenue Park

Yesterday I went to the Bloomingdale Farmers Market and decided to buy stuff till I ran out of money, which was about $45. Painted Hand was selling a chicken for less than $4 a pound so I had to hop on that. And I bought carrots, celery that doesn’t look like the celery at the store, onions, cherries, blueberries, baked goods and string beans. I had two bags full of stuff. While I was at the market I ran into some of the neighborhood munchkins and their parents. When I was done shopping I noticed a bunch of kids and parents had wandered over the the playground at the Florida Avenue Park on the other side of Florida Ave. There was a whole gaggle of kids on the kiddie swings running around, doing the things that make the Pre-K crowd happy.

I remember when this would not have happened. When parents would not have taken their precious charges to the park where odd old dudes hung out. I remember back when a parent told me she found human poop on the play equipment and swore off ever returning there. Well in the meantime the park has improved a bit, but there are still complaints. Apparently, shards of glass can be found in the mulch that covers the play area. I didn’t see any, but then again I don’t have a kid running around in the stuff. Also it is said the trash cans are overrun with sharp things.

Anyway, according to a post on the BACA blog, the park is slated to get a $1.2 million dollar makeover. Hopefully that may include something addressing the suitability of the play area.

This page contains a single entry by Mari published on June 21, 2010 8:15 AM.

And Mt. Vernon Triangle is where?

I don’t know who edits these things, but I’m looking at the graphic for the article about the new influx of registered voters in the District. Precinct 143 looks an awfully like Penn Quarter/ Gallery Place/ Chinablock, not Mt. Vernon Square nor Mt. Vernon Triangle. It’s labeled as Mt. Vernon Square, which isn’t right as the Square is the actual square between 9th & 7th and Mass and NY Aves and points north til N & O Streets.  Mt. Vernon Triangle… It’s a new neighborhood name, I have no clue where it’s borders are, southeast of the square. South is Chinatown. You will know Chinatown is Chinatown, not because of it’s Asian populace masquerading as young black fashionistas, but due to the fun Chinese characters on signs as mandated by the city.

I guess I endorse Fenty

It’s still early, but if the reports from the MVSA meeting reports are anything to go by people are more supportive of Fenty than Gray, or more accurately, people are less enthused by Gray. Apparently Vincent Gray failed to make an appearance at the meeting, which folks were fine with, but the staff member sent was a disaster. The staffer was unfamiliar with MVSq/Shaw and was from Tenlytown. There is no shame in being from Tenlytown. However, know your hoods. Congress Heights is not Anacostia. Brookland is not Brightwood. And Mt. Vernon Square is not some other random part of NW.

Anyway, the staffer was more familiar with Wards 3 and 7. Not so great for a meeting with residents in Ward 2. And it seems there was a fair amount of Fenty bashing from the staffer which was a turn off. One commenter mentioned that the candidate was only as good as the people he has working under him. Considering Rhee comes with Fenty, I guess I endorse Fenty.

Seriously, it doesn’t matter what I think because I’m not a registered Democrat, so I can’t vote for him the in the election that matters. Add to it that I’m even less enthused about the mayoral candidates. It’s like a contest between shyte and crap. For all the things I dislike from the Fenty camp, with the J.F. Cook school for one, I do appreciate the turn around with the school system and the making government a little bit more open and web friendly. But this is not a ringing endorsement or love-fest, Fenty is no longer a bald hot cup of cocoa. He’s just bald. And really campaigning on the fact that one is not Fenty isn’t that great. I’m not Fenty and that wouldn’t qualify me as a candidate. If you can’t stand either write in Jack Evans, just to torture the poor man. Heck write in his name for both mayor and council chair, because if the mayoral contest is bad the one for chair is a choice between unripe fruit and something too rotten to compost. 

Dead body on RI Ave median

I don’t know if anyone from the city still reads my blog, but there is a dead cat on the median of the 600 block of Rhode Island Avenue and today is day 2 of its residence.
Yesterday I called the city 311 number to report the beige beastie, as I noticed it before I went to work and saw it unmoved as I was heading home. As of this morning it is still there. Now once again it was one of those slightly frustrating calls, because kitty had the audacity to die on a median, which the operator seemed very unfamiliar with. I found myself defining what was a median. A median, is sometimes a green patch in the middle of a 4+ lane road. It does not have an address. Because the city sometimes bothers mowing said grass, I take it the city owns the land. No it is not in front of a house. The best address I can give is the closest property that bothered to have address numbers that I can make out.
No it is not on the road it is on the median.
Once again the median does not have an address. It is in the middle of Rhode Island Avenue, which I’m not going to define as a ‘freeway’ as you have as I really don’t want to get into defining different kinds of roadways.
Gaaaah!

Well that explains why kids can’t work in DC

My first regular paid job was as a cashier at the Winn-Dixie when I was 16. I had begun searching after reps from Bob Evans presented several openings at a rally at my high school, looking for dishwashers, bussers, and waiters. Several of us, including me, applied, but I wasn’t chosen. That got me dropping applications at the mall, fast food joints, the dollar store, and the grocery store. During the school year I worked 11-20 hours, mostly weekends when the store was busy. Sometimes at night, cleaning the registers.
Anyway, I have always wondered why I don’t see more teenagers working in DC. Well I got a link from DC Lawyers for Youth (DCLY), and their handbook (PDF). Looking at page 12 it says a kid must be at least 14 years old and can’t work more than 8 hours a day. Fine and good. However the work hours are limited for 16-17 year olds in that they can’t work after 10pm, so they can’t close up at a place that closes at 10PM, and those hours appear to be year round. Also, they would need a permit from DCPS to work. When I was growing up we didn’t need no stinkin’ work permit.
So now I see why teenage employment seems to be limited to DC government sponsored summer programs. That and the flood of immigrant and college student labor.
The job I held in high school was good for me. It taught me how to balance work and school, a very useful skill when doing the same thing in college when you really need the money. It also allowed me to work towards a savings goal of a senior European trip, because heaven knows I wasn’t going to get that money from my parents… and college. Lastly, believe it or not I was able to use my 5 years of cashiering experience on resumes for jobs involving customer service. It has appeared in KSAs when showing that I can communicate verbally with a variety of people.

Small Scale Canning

“The food that we canned from last summer is gone and I’m busted.”

-Song Busted (sung by various but I’m listening to Ray Charles)

Last year I ran out of strawberry and cherry preserves. I tend to use them to flavor yogurt and top ice cream. So this year I’m trying to make sure I’m well stocked. When I do visit the farmer’s markets I’ll go for the cheaper seconds and the nice pints to turn the produce into a simple fruit sauce.

I do have the big canning operation with the large black pot and the rack and all the fun tools. However, when working with smaller batches I turn to the 4 ½ quart pot I cook rice in and ½ pint jars,which hold about 8 oz. It uses less water and is less of a hassle. This week I picked up even smaller jars at 5th St Hardware that hold only 4 ounces. Now I don’t know the official stance on using a smaller pot, but I have used the small pot for dealing with small batches 2 or 3 cans of tomatoes and other things. I’ve gotten some mixed results. Some things sealed nicely, some other things, no so much and I just put them in the fridge.

Cherries are coming into season and I will can a bunch and toss a bunch into a jar of vodka. Yes, my other form of preservation.

This page contains a single entry by Mari published on June 10, 2010 7:57 AM.

Mobility and gentrification

I did a phone interview today with someone doing research on gentrification. I think I overwhelmed them with too much historical information or background. The devil is in the detail.
Anyway one of the popular aspects of gentrification to focus on families and individuals being displaced. The problem with that view is that Americans (and maybe other people) are very mobile, so it is hard to say if ‘genrtrification’ could bear the blame, or is the chief reason a person or a family moves. considering people move all the time. I tried to illustrate the mobility of city residents to the interviewer, but didn’t do such a great job.
Here’s one example. in cleaning up some data from the 1900 census I was looking for a Chinese’s fellow’s address. The Census taker must have been drunk because towards the end of the page he was listed a bunch of people with different street addresses (usually there is a block of addresses) and it was barely legible. So I figured I’d fine Mr. Woon(?) in the city directory. In the directory, there were 2 male Woons of the same name in DC neither of them living in the Enumeration District I was researching. He wasn’t the only one. When I couldn’t read the sheet I would refer to the directory which was 2 or so years off from the Census, and it wasn’t helpful because the people tended to live at a completely different address on a different street.
I’ve lived in Shaw going on 10 years, and compared to others that’s not much time, but I’ve seen neighbors come and go for all different reasons. Renters may leave because they graduated college, because it was a health danger, because their landlord was an ass, or because their landlord decided or sell or the bank decided to foreclose. Owners leave because of job re-locations, marriage, divorce, separation, illness, family changes, desire for something different, taxes, frustrations with neighbors, or because the good Lord decided to call them to eternity. In that gentrification plays a part in the owners’ motivation in selling to cash out and maybe taxes. All the other reasons I’ve observed, family breakup, professional moving on and death have very little to do with the neighborhood and more to do with the individuals.

This page contains a single entry by Mari published on June 8, 2010 11:09 PM.