Category: Uncategorized

Back in March of this year I went on the open house for 1536 New Jersey Avenue, now it has been renovated and is up for sale. I wish I could be at the open house tomorrow (noon till 3pm), but I have another appointment. I would love to see what the investors did with it and if they actually did truly improve the property.
Back when I reviewed it the house was up for sale for $429K. After renovations, it is about $870K. As the house was huge and the amount of work needed to make the house habitable, I’m going to hold off from saying the price is crack fueled. It may be well worth it.

Dear Second Rate Construction Crew,
Last night was the last straw. Shoveling glass on concrete at 2am in the morning, there is no excuse for that. And no, I wasn’t the one who yelled out the window that hey, it’s 2 o’clock in the morning, but I do applaud whomever did.
Sincerely,
InShaw

For about a year now the house at 1617 New Jersey Avenue, NW has been under some level of crackhead construction. The house had been gutted and at one point they completely knocked out the rear wall, yes, the whole back wall. The back wall was rebuilt with concrete blocks and covered up with stucco. Then for a while nothing.
Later, construction began again with a loud and annoying crew. Sadly the loudness didn’t make them work faster. Because other projects in the neighborhood progressed at a quicker rate and went up for sale as these guys were still fooling around. Cause really, yakking on the phone to your girlfriend does not get the drywall up any faster.
As Spring turned to Summer it got worse. The loud and slow construction crew started working more and more outside the 7 to 7 rules. 7 to 7 means construction is not to start before 7AM and is supposed to end after 7PM. In the past month, the fat shirtless guy doing the ‘work’ would try his hand at hammering or sawing something at 10PM. Really, when it is dark and all you are going by is the alley light, building a deck is not the smartest thing. In the past month or more there have been signs that this is not this guy’s primary job. Apparently there is a more important job somewhere else and he get to this house afterwards, after 7 or on the weekends. That does not bode well for whomever will live in it.
I have called the DCRA’s (202) 442-STOP or 7867 number to report the illegal construction for about 2 weeks now and nothing. I’ve also called the cops, citing it as a noise complaint and that it is illegal construction. Once I got an operator questioning me wondering if the hammering at 10pm was actually ok. It’s crap like that that makes me so unhappy with the city government.
But now I’m pissed. So looking up all the information I can on the property I find that the owner,(you can find all this at the DC Govt’s website) is receiving a homestead deduction. Oh hell no. No one has been living in that house for well over a year and I suspect the folks in it before were renters. Tax fraud, nothing brings a smile to a girl’s face like discovering tax fraud. Ah!
And to any poor schmuck who decides to buy this property, go over it with a fine tooth comb and a damned good inspector because it looks like corners were cut. Or if you have a choice of another house, choose the other house.

This is totally an Eckington thing but reported in the District section of today’s Post in the “Animal Watch” section is the strange case of a little red hen attempting to cross the road at North Capitol and S Street, NE.
The blurb does not even attempt to answer the age old question of WHY? Why did the chicken cross the road, or attempt to cross the road? I suspect a coverup because she was captured by an animal control officer, holed up in the District’s animal shelter then later whisked away to an unnamed poultry rescue group.
Then there is another question, why are there chickens in the District? It is against the law to have chickens. It’s also against the law to have handguns but apparently that doesn’t stop some people.
Well I guess we’ll never know what over at S & North Cap made the chicken want to cross the road. Or even how many roads did she cross before her final capture.

There is nothing to knock down your pride about your hood when you talk to other people and they give you this blank stare, as if you mentioned some rare medical disease, when you say “I’m from Shaw.”
Stare.
Then I go to explain where Shaw is and there is a slight effort to try to map it out in their heads. This is more depressing when the people you are talking to are other Washingtonians.
Suburbanites I can totally understand. Really, I do the same thing. My excuse is most of suburbia lacks a metro, thus I don’t go there. So anything along Quaker Lane in VA, I got no clue. Seminary Road. I’ve heard of it. I think there is a seminary on it. Duke Street? Yes, I know Duke Street, well at least the parts near the King Street metro, and Nora Bombay’s condo. Rockville Pike? Just the parts near Grovsner and White Flint. My familiarity with MD has more to do with having the stable of friends & family with cars living out there.
Maybe we gotta do more PR work to help suburbanites and Washingtonians who know nothing past 16th Street, NW. Maybe throw in phrases like, “There is a great play over in Shaw at the Studio Theater.” Or, “I’m going to Shaw to catch M.I.A. at the 9:30 Club.”

Okay kids, don’t hang out in front of my house, late at night, talking loud, ’cause I’ll write about you.
One of the neighborhood teenage kids was hanging out last night (within curfew) with two of his school associates out on the sidewalk. Maybe the nature of their discussions was the reason why they weren’t in front of neighborhood kid’s (NK) house.
From what I could make out (ah the joy of a house with no insulation) was NK’s friends was trying to convince him that he should join up with them for his own protection against other gangs of kids who would jump him. NK was evasive and confident that he could handle his own.
The funny thing is these kids no older than 16 were calling each other ‘son’. I realize that ‘son’ is a form of address used by popular rap artists. But really, what are you? 15? 14? Calling someone son? Well it is at least better than the ‘N’ word. But they were using a lot of that too.
Anyway, I digress. NK’s mom has stepped in before to shoo gang recruiters, like the kids hanging out, away. I think, observing NK, that she has possibly instilled in him a good reason to rebuff his little gang friends.