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.

Housing census 1950- Bad bones

This PDF you can find wandering around www.census.gov/prod/www/abs/decennial/index.html
the census website and look at the data and come to your own conclusions. Because
I have a bias, you have a bias, and we filter information differently.

This is for housing, looking at the condition of
houses in the TC part of Shaw, enumeration district 46. ED 46 goes from New
Jersey Ave NW to Florida Ave NW to New York Ave NW. Other parts of Shaw are in
EDs 44, 48, 45, 49, and 50. But I live in ED 46 so that’s what I’m looking at.

In 1950 there were 1766 housing units in Truxton
Circle total. Only 385 of those units were owner occupied, 1,297 rentals, the
rest vacant. What does this mean? If you’re living in the TC the house you’re
in was probably a rental for years because of what I’ve seen in other Census housing
reports. And that means the landlord more than likely didn’t live near the
house and didn’t give the house the same level of attention that a owner
occupied house would get. Of 1720 units, 439 had no bathroom and or was dilapidated,
268 no running water at all and or was considered dilapidated.

Let’s look at a couple of blocks. Census block 2,
Square 507 and Census block 20, Square #617. Block #2 is bordered by NJ, RI, FL
and 4th St. Of 106 units on that block, 26 were owner occupied, 78
rentals, 2 vacant/for sale. Of the occupied units, 47 had no private bath/ dilapidated,
and 7 had no running water/ dilapidated. 100% of the block was non-white, read
African American more than likely. Average rent $37.56 a month. Block #20
bounded by N St, North Cap, O and 1st Streets. Of 189 units, 31 were
owner occupied, 155 rentals, 2 vacant/for sale, and 1 other type of vacant. Of
186 reported occupied units, 90 had no private bath/ dilapidated, 86 had no running
water/dilapidated . 153 were non-white and the average rent was $36.80. To get
a sense, city wide there were 223,675 units, 27,727 with no private bath and 10,965
with no running water, average monthly rent $57.42.

The funny thing is whether a house is considered
dilapidated based on if there was decent plumbing. The actual phrasing is “No
private bath or dilap.”/ “No running water or dilap.” According to the report, “a
dwelling unit is ‘dilapidated’ when it is run down or neglected or is of
inadequate original construction, so that it does not provide adequate shelter
or protection against the elements or it endangers the safety of the occupants.”

In 1960 Block 2 had
77 units, 69 sound, 7 deteriorating, 1 dilapidated. Block 20, 180 units, 45
sound, 86 deteriorating, 49 dilapidated, and a majority of occupied housing
rented. Both majority non-white but not 100% non-white. For both, the number of
units went down, block 2 the most. Renters were the majority still.

College not just for the upper and middle classes

The difficult, I’ll do right now

The impossible, will take a little while

-Billie Holiday

There was a comment on another blog that just
annoyed the crap out of me and continued to bug me. It insinuated that lower
income kids can’t go to college and that college only has middle and upper
middle class kids running around it. My own and the experiences of friends
proves that so wrong and I am so sick of that mindset. Also since this is
Inshaw, the quick tie in to this is a) it’s my blog and b) Shaw and other
gentrifying neighborhoods have lower income kids, who may wind up going to
college.

Let me start with my aunts and mom. They were girls,
in the late 60s. The family was black and sharecroppers in rural North Carolina.
My oldest aunt only had two dresses, everyone else got hand-me-downs. Not
exactly rolling in dough. My aunts went to small black colleges and became
teachers. They helped fund their education by working at colored resorts, one
in NY state. Mom didn’t go to college because grandpa, on his deathbed, asked
her to take care of grandma. Mom did however, many years later went to
community college and became a CNA.

Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Atonement

As far as I can tell this church no longer exists. Well in Washington DC. Not anymore.
The reason why I’m typing this up is because someone. I can’t say who. Annoyingly has a lot of personal chaff included in federal records. Some of that chaff, provides glimpses of a life partially lived at Rhode Island and North Capitol streets. The person in question was white, college educated, married and is currently very dead. He was the head, for a number of years of a Federal agency. He resided in various parts of Alexandria during the 40s and 50s. And he went to church in Edgewood? Eckington?
His church home was the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Atonement. I can tell because of other chaff and detritus left behind, such as church programs, pledge statement, and Lutheran publications.
What does this stuff, which personally we should really throw out our own light and gas bills at least 5 years after they’ve been paid, tell me about a ELCotA parishioner? Apparently you didn’t have to live near the church. You could just drive in from Alexandria, worship in DC and I guess go to the office. Because seriously, how does this stuff wind up in your working files?
Anyway, commuting church goers aren’t new and we still deal with them to this day. I just hope none are not the head of a government agency and have a habit of stuffing church crap in their office files.

Scraps of DC History- RLA

If I ever, ever, which looks like not at all on my current path, write a history of urban renewal from the neighborhood perspective in Washington, DC I will have to include the District of Columbia Redevelopment Agency (RLA). According to the US Government Organization Manual the RLA was:

Created by act of Aug 2, 1946 (60 Stat. 790), to provide for replanning, rebuilding, and rehabilitation of slum and blighted areas in the District of Columbia. The District of Columbia Self-Government and Governmental Reorganization Act of Dec 24, 1973 (87 Stat. 774), established the agency as an instrumentality of the District of Columbia government, effective July 1, 1974

A post war agency to deal with slums turned into something that helped with the destruction of SW. Which who knows, may have needed destroying in parts, but not to the extent it did with the SW Urban renewal in the 50s and 60s.

Warning- UHOP parade May 29th

That’s the date mentioned on the MVSNA listserv. For you new people this is what usually happens. The church has a parade. A big parade. A long parade that crosses Rhode Island, snarling traffic. I think last year they went up to Florida Avenue. Also last year, they worked with the city. As opposed to previous years where deacons and other church people blocked streets and directed traffic.

It is interesting and it brings in a lot of United House of Prayer folks.

Comment Spam

There aren’t a lot of comments here. Because I get a lot of comment spam that doesn’t make it to the blog. I just got this:

This is my first time I have visited {here|this site|your site}. I found a lot of interesting {stuff|information} in your blog. From the {tons|volume} of comments on your {articles|posts}, I guess I am not the only one! keep up the {good|great|impressive} work.

Gee, a comment form.

Noise

Apparently from the Shaw listserv and a conversation/discussion/ friendly debate I had with Truxton Circle Scott about the BBC liquor license, noise is a theme.

It seems that someone was having a party. A loud one somewhere around N and 6th Streets. It went a little late, late enough for someone to take the mike and tell their fellow party attendees to keep it down for the neighbors before blasting more music. Loud enough for people to call the cops. If the cops came or not, little matter. In my own experience the problem is cops come, the music may get turned down, cops leave, music/noise goes back up. Neighbors lash out in variety of ways, one is cultivating deep hatred that may manifest itself at the next community ‘we all need to work together’ thing.

Scott and I were talking about some of the concerns surrounding the Big Bear Café liquor license. Scott is completely for it, even though the hours on the application go way past their current to the witching hours. And we got to talking about volunteer agreements and how they are applied where he works and where his tenant/housemate works. He’s in a completely commercial area, they close fairly early 10-11PM though they can go to 2AM, housemate in a very mixed part of Dupont, where they shut down at 10-11PM and have to gently put glass bottles in receptacles because of noise. Both are restaurants.

Scotty (you know I love you) was being dismissive of my noise concerns, saying we live in a city, it’s noisy. I was trying to relate how with different noises, some bother me, others don’t. Sirens blaring on the next street, the now rare gunshots, sometimes the call to prayer from the mosque, cars passing, odd firecrackers a block off, and buses I can tolerate enough to sleep though. Of course the 5AM-ish call to prayer has a 25% chance of waking me up a good hour before my alarm goes off and pissing me off enough to write a terse letter to the imam. People carrying on a prolonged BS session in their yards (patios/ decks) along the alley will keep me up. Dumping your glass recyclables in the alley at 2AM will definitely wake me up. Base, I can feel through my bed and is simply intolerable. If it is a car, I let it pass. If it is a neighbor I debate whether I want to get dressed and ask them to turn it down or do I want to reach over to the phone and call the cops?

There was an illegal night club on P St. near North Cap. I passed by it once when someone with drums was practicing. My impression was that it was being used as band practice space and seemed buffered by the Slater and Langston schools to be no bother to the residents of the area. Imagine my surprise when a resident who lives way on the other end of P said he could hear the music inside his house. He made an effort to shut the place down.

Some parts of the city are louder than others and the type of noise is different depending where you go.

Days of Art

I haven’t been at the computer for a couple of days and I really enjoyed having a pretty computer free weekend. From about Thursday to Saturday was kinda art intensive for me.

Thursday I attended the Tactile Dinner at the Big Bear Café with the Help. We were seated separately, but he enjoyed himself and his tablemate. Having had experienced the Fringe Festival version and this, maybe not having any expectations helps. This second go around had me missing some things from the first, but couldn’t be done with the space. Instead of a projection, as in the Fringe production, F.T. Marinetti, walked amongst us. We enjoyed ourselves; though the Help was a little sad he was not picked to perform an embarrassing task (arm flapping or hula hoop motions). Yes, audience participation was a part of it; the dinner is experienced with the eyes and the tongue, not so much the nose this time around. I was sitting next to the Washington Post reporter so, read her article for more on that.

Friday I decided to walk home and I wanted to duck away from the main strip of 7th Street and wandered into a pop up art project at 625 E St NW, and was really struck by the work of artist Margaret Bowland.

Dear Washington Post- Stop killing yourself

Last night I got a phone call from someone trying to get me to subscribe to your new “Capital Business” publication, most likely because I am a regular weekly & weekend subscriber. I told the woman on the other end no and explained why and mentioned that I have pondered canceling my regular subscription all together.

The “Capital Business” publication lacks what I liked about your old business section, before you gutted it. I want to look at a list of stocks. I want to see what are their dividends if any, and their P/E ratios. I can’t get that in your daily minuscule section of business in the A section of the paper, and it doesn’t appear in “Capital Business” either. I don’t buy what I don’t want.

This call happened while ‘the Help’ was over for dinner. He’s got a few friends in the newspaper/ broadcasting paid-journalism field. He told me of a conversation he’s had with these friends, and how they mentioned your editorial staff is paying more attention to the online side than to the print side, which might explain the typos and other errors. And there was something about your copywriters, can’t remember what, but there is something wrong there. Those friends were frightened about the path your paper seems to be taking. “Frightened” was the word they used and they have been inside. The quality of the paper has gone downhill really fast in the 15 years I’ve been reading it. It may have started with the buy-outs.

As I’ve said, I pondered canceling my weekday subscription. Want to know what’s keeping me, so far? Comics, metro, and food. In that order. Sometimes the theater listings. If the Washington Times ever vamped up and expanded their comics you’d be in trouble. I also value the Post as fish wrap. It’s handing for wetness in the basement, wrapping packages, soaking up bacon grease or other fried foods, paint projects, washing windows, weed-block, and a variety of projects around the house. For that I could use any newspaper, except the City Paper for the food things, that paper seems unclean.

Maybe your business model or some consultant has told you that the Internets is where it’s at. Ok. I hope that’s bringing in money and justifying your $490 a share price. Maybe you don’t need paper subscribers, with our need for deliverymen who knock over our pots and break our plants.