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From Jim:

COMMUNITY UPDATE

By Jim Berry, ANC 5C01

PSA 501 Meeting: Thursday, May 18, 2006
Please be advised that the PSA 501 community meeting for our area will be held on 5/18/2006 at St. Martin’s Catholic Church, 1908 North Capitol Street, N.W., between the hours of 7:00 and 8:00 p.m. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this monthly meeting forum, it provides an opportunity for residents to meet and interact with the leader of PSA 501, Lt. Dean Welch, as well as officers under his command who patrol our neighborhoods. More specifically, these meetings offer residents and others the chance to share their public safety concerns with the Metropolitan Police Department at the neighborhood level, and an opportunity to engage in a “Partnership for Problem-Solving” process that is a collaborative strategy of community policing which is designed to lead to their eventual resolution. For more information concerning PSA 501, you may contact Lt. Welch at (202) 698-0268.

Annual Ward Five Cookout and Spring Cleaning: Saturday, May 20, 2006, from 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.
Ward Five Council Member Vincent B. Orange will be hosting his annual cookout and spring cleanup this coming Saturday, at Langdon Park & Recreation Center, 20th and Franklin Streets, N.E. In addition to refreshments and entertainment, Behnke’s Nurseries will be sponsoring a plant give-away.

Fifth District Police Citizen’s Advisory Council (CAC) Meeting: Thursday, May 25, 2006
Much like the PSA meeting, the CAC monthly meeting allows for a personal interface with officers from the Fifth District Metropolitan Police Department, but at the command level. That is, this process involves a focus on issues and matters of public safety that tend to have a MPD District-wide effect upon residents and other stakeholders. As suggested, the opportunity routinely exists for residents to present any major concerns that they might have, directly to the Commander of the Fifth District, Jennifer Greene, and there are a number of committees through which the CAC pursues and accomplishes the various goals that it sets for itself.

Help Send a Kid to Camp: Benefit Dinner on June 2, 2006
The MPD Police Chief’s Citizen Advisory Council is sponsoring their annual Joseph K. Smith Memorial Summer Camp Fund Dinner on Friday, June 2, 2006, between the hours of 6:30 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., at The Washington Navy Yard, Washington/Commodore/Anacostia Banquet Room, 8th and M Streets, S.E. Tickets for this affair are $40.00 per person. Proceeds from the dinner will be used to (1) send inner-city youths to Camp Brown; (2) to construct additional cabins at Camp Brown; as well as to (3) assist in the renovation of any cabins that are in a current state of disrepair. Those of you who are interested in purchasing tickets to this dinner may contact me at (202) 387-8520 as soon as possible.

Fee Cat and Dog Vaccinations: Saturday, June 3, 2006 for Ward Five Residents

District law requires that all cats and dogs be vaccinated against rabies and distemper by four (4) months of age, and be kept current. The best thing you can do to protect yourself and your family from rabies is to vaccinate your cats and dogs against this fatal disease. In addition, all dogs must have a current dog license.

Puppies and kittens 8 weeks old need Distemper shots. Then a booster every three weeks until 12 to 16 weeks.
Their first Rabies shot is at 14 to 16 weeks and it is good for one (1) year only.
After receiving the second Rabies shot a dog or cat must be re-vaccinated at least every three (3) years.
All pets must be brought to the clinic by a responsible adult.
Dogs must be secured on a leash and cats must be in a carrier box
This is your opportunity to buy a license(s) for your dog(s) and get free shots too.
Dog licenses cost $13.00 for spayed or neutered dog and $46.00 for an unsprayed or unneutered dog.

On 6/3/2006, residents may get their dogs and cats vaccinated at Fire Station Engine 26, 1340 Rhode Island Avenue, N.E., between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. and they may purchase licenses as well as other relevant services, if needed.

You could buy a house in Shaw.
First, is 1417 1st St NW in the TC. $500K, four bedrooms, two baths near red line metro, 395 for those quick escapes to Virginie, and possibly one of the problem houses. We don’t know. (‘Cause Truxtionan was all like “hey look.” And I’m all like, “you wanna post it?” and he’s like “nah, busy.”) Requires work. $500K and still needs work. People of 1st street, what do you know?

Instead of the TC you could for $70,000 more blow your cash on 1910 Vermont Ave, in the U Street area of Shaw, the former home of opera star Lilian Evanti. It is in the National Registry of Historic Places. It is three bedrooms, one full bath and one half bath and a heck of a lot closer to the metro than 1417 1st to one. Anyway it boasts of original details, generous rooms, and a 1990s kitchen and bath. But really is it worth $70k more than a non-descript house, in a non-historic district with 1 bed and .5 baths more in Truxton? We will see in time.

From the Mt. Vernon Square Listserv:

The MVSNA board will propose to the membership at the meeting tonight [5/16] that the association pledge $500 to help, and we will seek matching donations from neighbors. Thanks to those who already made pledges through this listserve. Donations can be made to the Mount Vernon Square Neighborhood Association and given to Jeff Parke, our treasurer, at the meeting tonight, or mailed to Mount Vernon Square Neighborhood Association, P.O. Box 50526, Washington, D.C. 20091-0526. Just note “NJ Ave Donation” on the memo line and 100% of your donation will be passed on as part of the MVSNA gift. I am in the process of tracking down the woman who lived there.

…don’t move into this neighborhood. More particularly, don’t move into Northern Truxton Circle. So yesterday I go out back to get my garbage can to bring to the front (because if you haven’t gotten the 10 zillion e-mails from Jim Berry reminding you that Wednesday is the new trash day, today, trash day) when I find 4 puffy little kittens on my doorstep. They were feral kitties, because one of the little guys hissed at me. If trapped, and spayed and neutered, they might be able to be adopted and turned into fat lazy house cats. I was describing this to the cat people of Square 507 and started off with, “they are black and white…” Yeah. Stop right there. Most of the feral cats around here are black and white. It is like a rule that you can’t be a cat unless you are black and white. So, I really should have known better with describing them as black and white, which is as descriptive as “cat with a tail.”
Sometime back someone lost their black and white house cat and put up signs. Sadly, it was a black and white cat. The difference between that cat and the NoTC colony, it was fatter. But with the cat people feeding the alley cats, fat is sort of relative.

News 4 reported a house on the 1200 block of New Jersey Ave has slid off it’s foundation. I was chatting with Truxtonian and he mentioned how the bricks of this houses are not built on a slab. Just bricks on dirt. Yes, people, some of you are just living on bricks, on dirt. You have no real stable foundation. Throw in a little digging, a little rain, you’ve got either a collapsed wall or, in this case, a leaning rowhouse. Looks like it may have been 1242 NJ Ave NW.
Unless you have seen your foundation, your rafters, the bones of your house, just accept that it may just be standing by the grace of G-d, and not because it has strong bones.
The DCFD also has coverage of the house as well.

Via Jim:
Neighbors,

Below please find a flyer for the MPD annual fundraiser to send kids to camp. If you or someone you know is interested in supporting this activity, please let me know at your earliest convenience.

Best,

Jim Berry
ANC 5C
——
The Chief of Police Citizens Advisory Council -Invites You to a Benefit Dinner to Send Kids to Camp

When: Friday, June 02, 2006 6:30 p.m. . 10:00 p.m.

Where: The Washington Navy Yard
Washington / Commodore / Anacostia Banquet Room
8th & .M. Streets, SE
(Use 8th Street Gate . A Picture I.D. is required)

Cost: $40.00 Per Ticket
$400.00 Per Table of 10
Door Prizes

Proceeds will be used to:

1. Send Inner-City Youth to Camp Brown
2. Construct Additional Cabins
3. Repair Hurricane Damage

Sponsored By: The Chief of Police Citizens Advisory Council

Make Checks payable to:

Joseph K. Smith Memorial Summer Camp Fund.
For More Information Please Contact:
Stanley J. Mayes – Treasurer (202) 773-3217
Rev. Thomas S. Alston – Secretary . (202) 584-4431

I’ve been looking at my backyard trying to figure out what I’m going to have for dinner and I’m stumped. I thinned out the chard and the spinach a couple of days ago and they made wonderful dishes. But those plants need more time to grow and take advantage of the space made. There are a few pea pods but really, a dish of just pea pods? I already had a big salad for lunch, so no salad. Also I want to give that some time to grow as well. The salad is beginning to look a little ragged. I have no tomatoes. The squash are still seedlings. I’m not sure what the broccoli plant is doing and the brussels sprouts are a lost cause. The strawberries are not big producers. Besides I have a whole slew of strawberries from the farmer’s market. If I take a few pea pods, a spring onion and a few spinach leaves I can greatly improve some ramen noodles. But I’m not in the mood for lots of salt.
I could defrost the trout in the freezer and make a really great dish with spring onions. The spring onions from last year are getting quite big and are begging to be used. I don’t feel like fish tonight.
Maybe I will just eat a bunch of pea pods. That, and heat up some croissants, make a cup of tea and call it a night.

Urban Spaces|Urban Places’ Frank A. Mills has an excellent post on types of neighborhoods. He starts out talking about hanging out with his neighbor. Which is the same thing I did. Saturday morning, after getting my baked goods at Catania Bakery, stopped by Justin’s as he was sitting in his front yard reading the paper. We just sat there for a while yakking away, one of his neighbors stopped by for a quick talk and later, I called one of my neighbors over (also on his way back from Catania). And like Mills, I saw that it is these relationships that we have with our neighbors that make a good neighborhood. It’s not the buildings, it’s the people.
A relational neighborhood, well in one definition “we find that a relational neighborhood is a neighborhood where residents share a commitment to the neighborhood, to each other, and to joint participation in improving their neighborhood.” One of the building block of creating or supporting the commitment and the relationships is face to face meeting. We need a place where we can meet each other on a regular basis. For some folks it is the park where you let the doggies run free. Others it’s the monthly BACA meetings and other neighborhood civic/political organizations. And maybe this is why we get so excited over businesses in or very near the TC (Truxton Circle), because it would be another place to run into each other and have that face to face contact.
Anyway, read Urban Spaces, it is an excellent post.

If you lose your drivers license on the street, if you haven’t moved there is a good chance it might come back to you. Unfortunately Mr. Joshua [insert middle name here] Meyer moved from his Adams Morgan address and I’m going to either toss it in a mailbox or cut it up as I have tried to return it to him.
Early this morning I found his license and credit cards (no wallet) strewn across the bike lane on my way to church. I’m always finding stuff in the bike lane and this is not the first time I’ve found someone’s credit card on the street. I had found another credit card a few weeks before, also on my way to church, and just dumped it off at the Whole Foods. I didn’t feel like calling the bank. The bank usually tells me to cut up the card. Or sometimes I go to an ATM and press an obvious wrong number like 1-1-1-1 and the machine eats it.
Since I found this guy’s driver’s license, I figured the good thing would be to go to said address as it was a few blocks (4 blocks, up a $#!@ hill) off my route. It was one of those apartment buildings where you have to press in a code. Well, seems the code for his apartment did not match who was in it and the speaker was crap. Short story, he no longer lives there. So I head to my original destination. Do that, go to the market, come home and I do a search for the fellow in the phone book. The number listed for him, not the right number. Later I find out, when I call the banks (why am I going through phone trees for total strangers? I dunno, I’m crazy I guess) they tell me he had a different address and they don’t have a good phone number to inform him of what’s going on. They tell me to either drop the card off at the bank or shred them all.
Why am I doing this? When I was in college I would lose my wallet all the time. It was ridiculus the number of times I misplaced my wallet and had to cancel my cards. Living here I’ve lost my wallet, a couple of times. There was a woman who did some work to hunt me down and return it to me, so I would like to do the same when I find enough information to work with. One time on election day, I found someone’s voter card and insurance card and what have you littering New Jersey Ave, retuned it to their listed address in Mt Vernon Sq after voting. But most times I just find a credit card, a bank card, and usually the name is so common it is not worth it to try to find the person. So I call the bank, they tell me to tear it up. I hate calling the bank. I have to listen to Muzak before getting a human.
Muzak. Really, no good deed goes unpunished.

Before anyone whines that they didn’t see me there, oh, I was there. I ventured into the Corcoran Design Presentations opening of the bear that is big looked around and ventured over to ‘the house of tea and dirty laundry’ and hung out over there. Then went back to a much more crowded Big Bear and hid upstairs with Scott Roberts.
Before I ran out, the first time, I got stopped by the Bear’s Stu and was asked about coffee. I know nothing of coffee. I know it comes in cans, people buy complicated and expensive versions of it, and it can be expensive. However, I don’t drink the stuff. I’m a tea person. So I was asked about tea. Lipton. At least have Lipton. I hate it when I go to a nice restaurant and they have this excellent chocolate dessert but the only tea they have is some herbal stuff (not really tea) or Earl Gray. Earl Gray’s bergmont oil can be overpowering so it is not a tea I drink with milk or anything else. A problem I find is that Earl Grey is my only black tea choice. Lipton people. Lipton. At the least have it, in the back gathering dust. I’d rather have it than a fresh Earl Grey. Add cream, sugar, I’m good. Then I started talking about the kinds of teas I have. There are a few assams, that makes for a nice rich English Breakfast tea. Then there is darjeeling and a bunch of green teas, as well as herbal infusions. You can do a lot with tea. Maybe that’s why I love Teaism so much.
With a packet of Liptons and a bunch of coffee Big Bear could have the makings of a great little neighborhood hangout. Unfortunately, I needed a little bit more light to read the presentation materials (which is why I headed to the House of Tea & Dirty Laundry). I liked the design of ‘1700’ the jazz club, not so much the idea. I like jazz but only of a certain era, and these days the only time I go out for jazz is when I can dance to it. Also one has the consider the noise level (inside and out) for the surrounding residences. I liked any sort of coffeehouse idea. If just a coffeehouse, it would be bigger than Windows (and easier for me to get to) even if only the first floor was in use. The corner space may allow for some outdoor seating as the sidewalk is big enough.