Category: Uncategorized

BAA meeting

|—————————————–|
| Blagden Alley Association |
| Monthly Meeting |
| |
| THURSDAY, January 25, 2007 |
| 7:30-9:00 pm |
| Sherri and Bob’s |
| 945 O Street, NW |
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The newsletter is at

http://www.pro-messenger.com/Blagden/Monthly%20Pages/2007%20Monthly%20Pages/BAN_2007_01_P1.html

Topics:
1. The West Side of the 1200 block of Ninth Street…More upgrades?
2. Naylor Court. Graffitti.
3. District Liquors. Get your block’s petition.
4. 916 N Street, NW. The lawsuit. A resolution (to be voted on.)
4. Police.
5. More.

Body and Spirit

This weekend I got B and IT (and later BL) to join me at the Florida Ave Market (or Capitol City Market). The plan was to hit three or four stores to show them what was there. I forgot my shopping bag, so I didn’t buy anything at the places I normally shop. B was in one of his smart-alec moods pointing out what would not appeal to yuppies. No prices on things, no clear lines, etc. He also suggested that if we wanted to save the market the historic preservation people should be brought in. I think I may have actually growled at him.
While the HP people are good at protecting the body, that is the buildings and the structures, I don’t think they can preserve the spirit. The market for me is not a collection of warehouse buildings, instead they are a Hodge podge of businesses, a mix of wholesale and retail banded together, the spirit. What they are housed in to me seems fairly irrelevant. The 19th century structures that are there have attached to them squat ugly cinder block, cinder block that seems to distract the eye from the brick.
The spirit is that thing that is when you have these warehouse businesses all together in one place, some providing retail services, selling goods at a low price, in a central DC location. It is my inner libertarian screaming that if the government places some extra burden on the businesses there, be they HP regs or a ‘temporary’ move or rules to make residential possible, those businesses may fold, leave permanently or pass the expense on to consumers in a way that makes the market less attractive to those consumers.
Even in theological discussions with friends I have trouble defining and describing the spirit. It is a fuzzy thing that I sense and feel. I sense the energy radiating from the people working, pushing handcarts, yelling in a variety of languages. The consumers give off an international, down to business (as the market does service restaurants and other businesses), utilitarian vibe that I feel. And you have the two interacting with each other in a central DC location. If you change the type of business, you screw with the spirit. Change the type of consumers, you change the vibe. Change the location, same thing.
My fear of the city coming in and changing the area is that it will kill the spirit. New businesses would replace the old ones and those new businesses would appeal to a different type of consumer (or a different side of some consumers who do use the market).
At the end of the shopping, at Litteri’s we noticed a petition on the counter. So if you’d like, stop in, by a sub or some pasta or wine and sign the petition to preserve the spirit of the market.

Friday Miscellany

Frozen Tropics and Rebuilding Space have created an information blog about the Capitol City Market. Part of the on going effort to save what makes the market good from the suburbasantanitizing forces.
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How long has it been since I’ve been able to turn on my furnace? For a moment I thought it was fixed, but alas no. The family next door moving out was not helpful either. The thing about rowhouses is that the heat from the house next door helps heat your house, or a least keeps it from freezing. So I got heat on one side, and the other, no idea. Don’t worry because I invested in that wonderful warm fabric cashmere. 62F is tolerable in toasty warm socks, a wool skirt and several layers of tops. It also helped that the kitchen is on a different heating system and when worse gets to worse, I just go in there.

More 1890 Fun

I’m kinda forgetful as in where this falls in the wonderful world of copyright, but until I’m feeling like clarifying (or someone else clarifies it) I give to you, the 1890-1891 City Directory for the area I call Truxton Circle. This is a Google Spreadsheet and it seems it helps to have a Google account.
Not all addresses are listed and not all addresses clearly fall in the strict definitions of the TC…. and I might have left out whole sections of the ‘hood. For the most part it is the TC, circa 1890. Enjoy.

New Bloomingdale blogger has 5C meeting notes

A new blog with the name of Bloomingdale (for now) has a review of the 5C meeting posted. A quick look at the notes show there is some desire for brick sidewalks by folks. Yeah, they look nice but they are a %$!@# to shovel when it snows and during icy weather I find them to be more slippery than concrete sidewalks. Also if they are not properly maintained, there are bricks jutting out, just so, to trip you up.

Misc. file cleaning

Because I plan to move out of the house for renovations I’ve been cleaning up and offering friends my stuff.
It seemed far easier to just give away my crap rather than move it into storage only to move it back into the house. I offered my things to Jimbo who said he’s still trying to get rid of his stuff and so he didn’t want any of my stuff. I got a similar message from a lot of friends. So far I’ve only been able to give away my electronics and a big maybe on the furniture. One big piece of furniture I can’t give away because it is such a large piece of pressboard crap. The drawers on it are, how shall I say, wookey. They don’t slide right because the cheap plastic broke and I quickly fixed them with scrap bamboo. But it has a nice big mirror and the side cabinets are good. So if you can get it out of my house (takes 2 big guys and a pickup truck or old style station wagon) email me and you can have it for free.
Today, I decided cleaning out my file cabinet would be a good idea. One of the many files I’ve tossed was information I’ve picked up over the years about the neighborhood. I did keep the Shaw East Survey, only because I know I’ve printed the thing out a couple of times before, and every time I do, a tree dies. There were a ton of Wash Post articles about the neighborhood and all sorts of projects and plans that did/ did not/ has yet to come, tossed. Thankfully, I have access to ProQuest, so I don’t have to keep these acidic* papers around. The fliers for programs passed out at BACA and other community meetings also found themselves in the recycle bin. They did take me down memory lane. Some problems just don’t seem to go away, some programs lose steam, and occasionally progress is made.

*Newspaper paper is crap conservation-wise. It requires too much effort & $$ to preserve in its original form so it is better to reformat it as an electronic file, microform image or a decent photocopy.

Trash Day and trash cans

Because today is a holiday, your normal trash day will be the next day. Like if today was your trash day, then tomorrow your trash will get picked up. So that’s when your trash cans should be out on the curb or in the alley. But you can be like a lot of people and ignore all that and put it out when you normally set it out and let it sit for an extra day. Then while it is bulging with trash the feral cats, the psycho squirrels, and birds will check it out and strew garbage all out on the street.
Over on one of the hood listservs trashcans seem to getting kidnapped by handimen. I’m amazed how few of the cans on my block get napped. I mean they sit on the sidewalk, not inside the yards, and unmarked. If that don’t scream TAKE ME, I don’t know what does. I guess it depends on who is doing work in your area and if they need to “borrow” your can.

This house is crap

I’ve been listening to something. Good Lord only knows what but I suspect mortar, falling from the top to the bottom in between my walls. I need to rehab this house, immediately before the damned thing falls on my head. Good bones my ass.
Maybe it is because of my job and what I do, but the ancestors, the people who came before were not mini-gods to be worshipped automatically for their works. People who lived 100 or more years ago were just as lazy, stupid, underhanded, dishonest, and on a good day, mediocre as the people who roam the earth today. Those same sort of people built this house, and maybe it was a good set of days when they built this row of affordable housing. But I’m seriously doubting that, as what sounds like a good sized chunk of WTF comes tumbling down between me and the house next door, this worker’s housing unit was supposed to be standing 130 years later.
I’m possibly in a bad mood because something died or enough mortar fell into the chimney cavity so I haven’t been able to work my furnace for nearly a month. I’m keeping the house at 66F by running two little heater fans at full blast.
Okay, I’m going to bed and praying that the damned house can hold itself up for at least 3 more months, or that it doesn’t get any colder before one of these heater fans decides to give up the ghost.

Planning to move outta the basement

This is more a testament to how small this city is because I got wind of it from my co-worker. Our favorite Thai in a basement carry out is making plans to expand to a spot on 9th St. It would be a bigger spot. It wouldn’t be anytime soon, possibly not even this calendar year, because as you know, speedy and slap dash are not the Thai Xing way. Slow and tasty, is more like it. Taw did confirm that sometime in the future he would move to a bigger space. He asked me if I still would come to a new location. Admittedly, 9th Street is a bit out of my lazy walk zone. Hopefully, he may have a delivery guy.