Category: Uncategorized

Okay I’m going to use this space for my own personal gain. 1st. I have a mountain bike to sell, it is a red Trek, about 17 inches, very little rust and has a rack on the back. $50. Also red, but a giveaway, is a rain barrel to be hooked up to one’s gutter system. The barrel is too high for my current gutter system. Last but not least my old 20 gallon garbage can I used for compost is available to any who will take it. A co-worker gave me his old commercially made compost bin so now I’m composting in that and it has been a thrill. Well, as thrilling as composting can get.
So if you want to buy my bike or take my compost bin or rain barrel off my hands e-mail me at inshaw at att period net.

This started out as a garbage can fire and spread to the fence and almost to the overhanging tree. Yesterday, about 4-5pm I was out in the backyard collecting salad greens for dinner when I smelled smoke. At first I thought it was someone lighting up for a ciggy and went back to clipping. Later I looked up and saw smoke but no fire, thinking it could be someone firing up the grill. But something seemed wrong. So I grabbed my keys and went into the alley. At the area where there was smoke there were three boys on bikes between the ages of 9-13, one threw something in the smoky garbage can and they sauntered off very quickly as I headed up the alley. I saw fire in the garbage can. I went and alerted the authorities. The time it took the firetruck on NJ Ave to appear near the alley was about 5 minutes, but in that time the fire had engulfed the big green trash can, the trash near it and was on the fence and licking the tree. Problem. Alley too small for the fire truck to come down. So it took another minute to get the truck were they could bring the hose over to put out the fire. They didn’t seem particularly rushed. Not like the house was on fire or in danger of catching on fire.

It speaks volumes when you roll out of bed, put on some shoes then drag yourself outside to grab the paper and you see your neighbor and say ‘hi’ without a thought of how crappy you look. And then later, still no adjustment in the crap look, wander down a few doors to some other neighbors just getting over a hangover to chat over nothing much over breakfast. It is 10:30AM I have yet to brush, wash or anything and I’ve already carried on a conversation with several people on my block. Of course, come noon I will have no excuse and will need to clean up. But I just thought about how comfortable we are with each other, letting each other into our homes, and such and it is wonderful.
Yes, I normally don’t post on the weekends but I had to share.

Just to get a feel for rents in DC, I was looking at the rentals in the City Paper and found:

SHAW/ BATES ST. NW. Large, sunny apt. in 2nd floor of townhouse. W/D, CAC, $700/mo.+. Habitat Real Estate, 202/232-XXXX

Damned we’re cheap.
So people of Bates, if you have a poor college grad you want in your hood, see if s/he’ll take this.

I don’t have any particular project or property in mind. I’m just musing. But face it. For those of us in the transitional neighborhoods, when we hear the words “affordable housing” we get anxious, defensive and just plain angry. If you are currently living or have lived next door to a Section 8 crackhead and their little crack buddies that come by, I understand your anger.
Maybe you can get in affordable housing with a mixed income project or say it’s for seniors. ‘Cause really how much trouble is grandpa gonna give you? Yeah, old folks do drugs, but most of those drugs are illegals from Canada. Mixed income projects give hope that the non-poor residents will balance out the poor ones and that spaces are limited enough that crack heads and touble makers need not apply.
I know that the city is in desperate need for affordable housing and should have affordable housing. Yet, it seems like it may get in the way for the big reward that transitioning neighborhoods move towards. If big building is market rate then it brings people who can attract the businesses some of us want. But going the affordable housing route brings worry, worry that it may turn into a housing project where there is this pocket of poverty. Housing projects do not seem to attract coffeehouses or bookstores. They seem to attract explotive businesses like check cashing stores or liquor stores that only stock things that get you drunk or drunker.
But we must face the need (on moral or logicistical grounds) to provide affordable housing. Problem is, how to balance it with the desire to become a ‘nicer’ neighborhood.

Yesterday morning there were a row of townhouses on the 400 block of Rhode Island by the Lowest Price Gas Station. Yesterday afternoon, gone. Now just a pile of rubble and construction equipment to make way for ‘The Danielle’. I’m quite sure The Danielle and the Urban Land Company’s Monique (wait, what is this girlie name crap?) on the same square will go well together.

Today’s Washington Post pages G1-G10 is the Notice of Real Property Tax Sale.
What’s that?
Well a) it is a list of people who didn’t pay their property taxes and b) it is a financial opportunity. The opportunity is in the interest paid on the taxable amount owed and on the off chance that the tax is not paid by the property owner a chance to foreclose on the property. When you go to the tax auction what you’re bidding on is a tax lien and you must begin foreclosure procedures after 6 months. Most of the time property owners pay their taxes so it is just a way to earn interest. But still a lot of people believe they are buying the property and that is not so.
There are a few Truxton Circle properties with liens up for bid on Squares 507, 509E, 519, 521, 552, 553, 553W, 555, 614, 615, 616, 617 & 618. A fair number of them are empty lots that cannot be improved on. I was talking with some folks living up around Richardson Place and apparently some folks got the empty land around there thinking they could put a small house on it. Nope. Best thing for those types of properties would be a community garden. A very small community garden.
I’ve done the tax sale once. What I took away from it was that I should never bid angry. My hairdresser used to bid annually, and that was how she acquired some properties, but that was back in the day when no one wanted to live in the city. Will I bid again? Dunno.
For more information on the DC Tax Sale go to DC.Gov or click here. The site is still talking about the 2004 Tax sale but the rules are still valid.

Posting late in the day ’cause I’m sick.

Well I’m getting the summer veggies now. Yes, I could cook up the squash flowers but right now just now in the mood to cook. Anything.

It’s haaaaawht
I have no central air. My house gets hot. The only place for any relief is the cool-cool basement, which can be unbearable when certain people start burning food and the smell seeps through the walls. I’ve discovered that keeping the shades closed and the curtains drawn helps a bit, but it’s nothing like cold air being blow through.
So I have window units that for most of the year sit in the basement and have to be lugged up the stairs by some guy I’ve batted my eyes at, or someone’s husband who’ve I borrowed (no eye batting needed, just a deal made with spouse). If I have 3 of them going, 2 upstairs and 1 big one on the first floor, the house is bearable. Of course, it helps to go outside for a moment, then run back in, so the difference is noticeable and very much appreciated. The house will never, ever get ice cold, but I can sit without the danger of heat stroke.
I keep saying whenever I redo the house, I’m putting in some sort of air system. The problem is, is that I don’t want to rip out the radiators, ’cause I love the radiators. So no central air, because the logical thing would be to rip out the radiators if I did that. Spacpak, has been mentioned, but it ain’t cheap, from what I’ve been told. The good thing about Spacepak is that it can be run through crawlspaces and doesn’t need to be boxed in. Another option is Mr. Slim. I saw a unit in the basement of one open house and was curious and looked it up. I have a small house so I don’t need a big system. Also I tend not to hang out on my top floors for most of the day. Most of the time I’m hanging out on the 1st level, in the kitchen or watching TV in the living room.
Also my house isn’t that big. According to the city I have about 1,000 feet of living space, I don’t think they counted the basement. So I don’t need a really complicated system, and if window units weren’t such a pain to store and lug up and down the stairs I’d stick with them. And the 3 units that I paid less than $100 for each (1 free from co-worker, 1 bought from store, 1 bought used for $50) really doesn’t put me in the mood to spend $12,000 for a cooling system I’ll only use 3 months out of the year.

Everyso often someone mentions it and seems slightly worried about what it is.
The 7th Day Adventist church that had been operating on the corner of 4th and Q for years is expanding. They tore down two units of their 4 unit structure to make way for one part of their church. Sadly, it is eating a parcel of land they were using for parking, so there will be more pressure Saturday mornings, their Sabbath, for parking.
Currently, they have the foundation and skeleton parts up and are putting in the interior systems and putting some hard rock/concrete stuff on the exterior. It’s the yellow thing on the corner. Once that part is done, they will move their operations from the 2 crappy units they are in now and go to the new structure and tear down the crappy units and build something there.
The 7th Day Adv. do some missionary work with the homeless and I gather may continue with the new structure. On Sundays they have a breakfast where patrons have to listen to the Gospel. The people they serve do not hang out near the church, they go in and much later go out and keep going, no hanging about. If they were to expand their services to the poor I believe it would me more of the same, maybe with more of a desire to transform the lives of the people they serve and not just feed them and let them wallow in whatever has led them to the life they lead. Not like some other charities and missions I’ve heard of and noticed…..