Greetings from the free and liberating part of Shaw, Truxton Circle. Pretty much a block or two away from the Convention Center nothing looks different. Well except for police loitering over at Dunbar or in the park across from the Safeway.
I walked around. Ran some errands. The register was down at the 5th St Hardware and I think I saw Michelle Rhee walking out the Safeway with her assistant/ aide/ some random guy pushing her cart. 5th Street is normal. 6th Street appears to have the 70 bus running down it. Military vehicles block 7th and 9th and a tiny portion of 8th for one level of security. The G2 seems to be running normal on P, and taxis were running up and down O. I was able to walk by the Humvees and military personnel towards the checkpoints without showing any ID. The sidewalk is blocked off at 7th and O on both sides and I didn’t test whether ID required to walk to the front door of 1330 7th St. Little matter as you can get to their parking lot from the rear.
I spoke with one resident living in the militarized zone and he pretty much had a good spirit about it all. Of course he complained about the set up noise and the helicopters flying overhead kept him up at night. Also he’s happy he’s parked in just the right space where it is close enough, but doesn’t require the military to unblock his way.
Also I noticed on my walk, some hangerouters moved to sitting in cars and throwing chicken bones out of open windows. I nearly got hit by a bone. The grocery stores were busy. Azi’s didn’t look busy. But it was 11 something and one guy in there. I don’t know how busy they are normally.
Some others have reported on the security around the area. Such as Economic Policy Journal looking more at the south end. The BAANC blog editor worries about fire safety. CCCA has a clever SHAW MASH post but I’m guessing the military medical vehicle wasn’t sitting in front of Kennedy when the Prez was out there. Cause that would have been a good picture. Maybe I should walk out again (I forgot something at the store) and take a picture of it.
Category: Old Blog Posts Reposted
More follow-up
Well I never thought DCRA could actually work this quickly. If DCRA wants to take a look at the vacant store at P and North Cap with the big dent in the side, that would be nice, thanks! I’m guessing this removal of the roof and part of the 2nd floor is the work of DCRA or one of it’s contractors because there were cones and yellow tape blocking the alley. If the 1st floor of the house crumbles, I gather there’s less of a danger. But the thing I wonder is if the estate of the owner has been informed of this?
Regarding the big Nuclear to-do over at the Convention Center, it appears that fewer people will have their Constitutional rights violated and Jack Evans is trying to help with parking woes. According to the press release ““This Summit , while good for the District, will be an inconvenience for many in the neighborhood,” said Evans. “Suspending street sweeping will at least allow cars to remain parked and help ease this burden on those who live and work around the Convention Center.”
DPW will post signs in the following areas stating that residents do not have to relocate their vehicles for street sweeping: Florida Avenue, NW (northern boundary), H Street, NW (southern boundary), 5th Street, NW (eastern boundary), and 15th Street, NW (western boundary).”
From reading the Post and other media it appears the ID checking will be on the sidewalk side of the Convention Center, so possibly persons going to Subway Sandwiches, that dance studio, the cigar place, church for noontime mass might not have to show ID. Just the unfortunate saps who live on the same block as the Convention Center. Do I think that all this trouble will be worth it? The Convention Center has been open for how many years now? And hosting how many large conferences and events and has any of that really helped the northern end? I don’t know about you but on days when I walk home I notice the conference badged hordes heading south to Chinatown and crowding the eateries there.
Lastly, I’d been meaning to clean up and address some emails I got about schools, particularly the Center City School, formerly the Immaculate Conception Catholic School. But at a certain point I gotta admit I’m never going to get to or follow up on certain things and just clean out my mailbox.
BACA meeting tonight
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.
2010 Census Take II
I got a second census form in the mail yesterday. I guess I didn’t send in the first one quickly enough. Though I got the first form a good while ago, I waited because I honestly did not know who was going to be living with me April 1st. Was it going to be my cousin or a roommate or nobody. Well as soon as I got back from my Florida vacation my cousin left and returned to the housing farm of upper PG County to be with her parents. My roommate, who I didn’t know I was going to have until a week before his move in (he’s a returning roommie so all the background checks were done before), arrived shortly after she left. Census wants age and date of birth, and though it is on an application somewhere, lost in a pile somewhere in the house, I figure it is just easier to ask the second occupant of the house to fill that part out. So a few days before the 1st I asked him to fill out his portion and I mailed it back.
Now I got another form sitting in the living room. Apparently, according to the Census blog, it is a replacement form and I can disregard it.
WMATA woes in the hood
There are a few things WMATA is proposing that will reduce service to Shaw residents, one of them dangerous.
1. G2 bus service will be reduced. All you people partying in Georgetown will have to take a taxi when it gets close to midnight.
2. Closing the R Street exit of the Shaw metro station after 8pm. That to me is dangerous. The intersection at RI Ave and 7th seems to have more eyes on the street and my path from the other exit home is a little too dark and deserted for my tastes. Would be different if the Wonderbread warehouse wasn’t a heaping mass of decay.
There is a meeting tonight if you want to voice your concerns at All Souls Unitarian Church, Pierce Hall (1500 Harvard St. NW) at 7pm. You can also mail your concerns to:
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
600 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20001
or public-hearing-testimony@wmata.com
by April 6th.
More info at the CCCA blog
Continuing with the Doctor Who Theme
Me (aged 14); Peter Davison, the 5th Doctor Who Doctor, and yes, those are a box of Jelly Babies in my hand. I think this was taken at a Sci-Fi convention or just a straight up Dr. Who convention.
I was such a dweeb.
As picked off the Logan Circle Listserv
As picked off the Logan Circle Listserv
RE: “New Kids On The Block – 14th Street (Travel+Leisure)
Travel + Leisure Magazine
September 2003
New Kids on the Block
http://www.travelandleisure.com/invoke.cfm?ObjectID=5BE8A9F9-DF27-49A4-BB2D85A91D8B5FAE
Before the big developers move in and the name-brand coffee shops muscle onto every corner, T+L takes a tour through three emerging scenes in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Detroit where art meets commerce.
By Lauren Paige Kennedy
[ Excerpt ]
Washington, D.C. | 14th Street
Always a magnet for the pinstripes-and-pearls set, the District is now attracting a fashion-forward faction rather than just the usual Capitol Hill conservatives. Instead of working for the government, they’re opening shops and galleries on the once-shunned stretch of 14th Street that connects U Street to the Logan Circle area. In just two years, 14th has evolved from a dreary no-man’s-land into a destination for independent spirits.
THE BACKSTORY
The 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. ignited a three-day firestorm of destruction on and off U Street, an area once hailed as “Black Broadway” (it was a favorite haunt of Duke Ellington and other jazz greats in the 1910’s). U Street’s 14th Street offshoot is finally bouncing back, fueled by entrepreneurial pioneers undeterred by the occasional empty lot. The only protests they’re staging are aimed at keeping the enclave free of cookie-cutter chain stores.
LOCAL FAUNA
Newly transplanted young families of every ethnicity, a gay community, and young business owners have taken over old storefronts. “Most of the owners live within blocks of their shops-one more reason we’re so committed to seeing this place thrive,” says Eric Kole, co-owner of Vastu (1829 14th St.; 202/234-8344), a shop specializing in custom furniture made of aluminum, cork, and microsuede.
THE EPICENTER
Café Saint-Ex, where young artists with goatees, retro-chic swingers, and stylish gay men all belly up to the bar for late-night cocktails.
Restaurants
HAMBURGER MARY’S
202/232-7010; brunch for two $30. The juiciest, messiest burgers and the greasiest chile-cheese fries in the District. Sunday brunch is a neighborhood tradition.
SPARKY’S ESPRESSO CAFÉ
202/332-9334; lunch for two $15. The café looks like a postcard of a fifties diner (red pleather booths, checkerboard floors). On weekend nights, fledgling rock bands amp up and aspiring poets share their verse; canvases by local artists are always on display.
THAI TANIC
202/588-1795; dinner for two $30. The wall-sized mural of cavorting dolphins and goldfish is so kitschy it’s cool; the rest of the joint is Caribbean turquoise and ship-hull steel. Aromas of Bangkok waft in from the kitchen: coconut-milk curries, minty spring rolls, and spicy-sweet pad thai.
Shopping
GO MAMA GO!
202/299-0850. Noi Chudnoff began selling her collection of Japanese ceramics at Eastern Market, an outdoor bazaar on Capitol Hill. Two years ago, she set up shop on 14th, filling her shelves with eclectic Asian objets d’art, furoshiki (crepe) wall hangings, and Indonesian furniture.
MULÉH
202/667-3440. “Modern Zen” is how owner Christopher Reiter describes his Asian-infused recycled-teak dining tables, solid mahogany benches, and trellis-like screens.
TIMOTHY PAUL CARPETS & TEXTILES
202/319-1100. Featuring custom textiles, unusual lighting fixtures, and hard-to-find carpets such as TriBeCa-based Carini Lang’s pieces and $20,000 antique Turkish Oushak rugs. The owners will happily assist the design-challenged with decorating tips.
PULP
202/462-7857. The serene space is stocked with one-of-a-kind, handcrafted greeting cards that speak to every race, size, shape, and inclination. There’s even a “card bar,” with dictionaries, writing tools, and swivel seats, inviting patrons to spend an afternoon inscribing messages or just hanging out.
Nightlife
CAFÉ SAINT-EX
202/265-7839; dinner for two $64. Owner Mike Benson’s casual American bistro serves simple steaks, risotto, and seared tuna with wasabi sauce, but its yellow walls and dark-wood bar are pure Parisian Latin Quarter. Named for the author of The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Benson’s favorite writer), the restaurant also has a smoky downstairs den with DJ’s spinning Kool & the Gang, Edith Piaf, and Moby seven nights a week.
Artbeat
FUSEBOX
202/299-9220. Since opening in 2001, Fusebox has made itself D.C.’s top gallery for emerging artists. This fall, the space mounts “Sculpture Gardens,” by photographer Vesna Pavlovic (September 13-October 26).
STUDIO THEATRE
1333 P St. (at 14th St.); 202/332-3300. Works by Neil LaBute, Tom Stoppard, and other contemporary playwrights are produced in this popular theater, which is currently undergoing an $11 million expansion. Two new stages, a lobby, and a marquee entrance on 14th Street will be added to the existing building, even as the regular season commences. Catch this month’s staging of Topdog/Underdog, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Suzan-Lori Parks (September 3-October 19).
ON THE SCENE
They may live just blocks from the White House, yet 14th Street residents are anything but right-wing in style. Most common look on the block: downtown denim paired with a vintage item, and a dash of tongue-in-cheek raciness.
Trading Up – Neighbors move
Trading Up
I told my neighbor I wouldn’t tell anyone how much she’s selling her house for, so I won’t. But it is a sh*tload of $$. She deserves every single cent of it. She lived in the house for a little under 9 years. She’s going to trade in a townhouse with leaky basement and no parking for a house with a yard and a garage in BFE Maryland. All the cool stuff in the city that is attracting people means nothing to her. She has a car and kids. Metro and clubs don’t mean squat. Good schools and no shooting and no (as my Daddy would put it) dumbas$ n*ggas hanging out, that is what she wants and needs.
At the price the house is going for apparently only whites can afford it, so the demographics of the block will head in a particular direction. Called ET and told her to score one point for her people. Last month a white couple moved in on one end of the block, changing the trend of houses on the north end changing demographically from black renters to white homeowners and renters, so now the Euro-Americans are coming from both ends.
I am so thankful she did not decide to rent the house out to get Section 8 money. I pray to G-d above that Mr. Mesfin will sell his house too. Last I spoke to him he STILL had not decided if he was going to rent or sell. I hope he sells because I can tell he’s cheap and will be a slumlord.