Category: Uncategorized

One Sunday after church I’m walking around Logan Circle heading to the Whole Foods when I ponder a question. What does Logan have that Truxton doesn’t? And lo, the heavens opened up. Clouds moved back and a strong ray of light had doth shone upon the mass of condo buildings across the road from the store of expensive healthy food.
Density, was the answer. I think. That or 21st century architecture. Signs from heaven are rarely clear. But I think density was the answer. I mean it is one thing to have one obnoxiously expensive house, or even a whole block of obnoxiously expensive houses, but a building filled with several blocks worth of condos no one can afford is a whole ‘nother thing.
Think, people who make enough money to afford these ‘luxury’ condos, and the condo fees, concentrated in a small space. People who don’t need to set aside time and money for household repairs we silly fee-simple owners have to deal with. One or two condo buildings with 100+ upper middle income residents each vs a low density block with a wide range of incomes. Those higher density ‘luxury’ condos can be like the 300 lb economic gorilla when it comes to bringing and attracting new businesses.
On my end of Shaw, we have a few condos but none of them as big as the ones along U Street and over by the Whole Foods. Many condos in or by Truxton are just converted row houses or old 4-6 unit apartment buildings, not really enough to pump up the density of people who aren’t poor. I don’t know if the Urban Land Company’s proposed Monique’s is going to bring enough people in to make a major difference with its 12 units.
Anyway, just wondering. Of course, it could still be the 21st century architecture.

There is truely nothing to compare a fresh salad, just picked 30 minutes ago from your own garden. For the past couple of weeks I have been enjoying small almost micro salads from thinings. Recently this week I’m getting close to full salad.
I attack the three or so pots where I’m growing spinach, bibb lettuce and arugula with a pair of scissors and a salad plate. I try to leave 1 leaf on the plant so there is more to come back to later. Then after washing off the dirt and bugs, I throw on some goat cheese, shake on some balsamic vinager and olive oil, and sprinkle on some salt. The leaves are so delicate. Slightly crispy but definately not limp. It just makes me wish I dedicated more pots to salad.
Elsewhere in the garden things are progressing well. I am using fertilizer on a weekly basis, a first for me. But I figure the stuff in the pots, in the backyard, needs it. I’m using a fish emulsion and also a non-organic compound (not Miracle Gro- not that stuff is like crack for plants). The nasturtiums are all leafy and taking over various pots. The French Maragolds have just flowered. Everything else is going at a good clip. With all the greenery the backyard is looking kind of nice.

Well I was chatting on the phone with Nora Bombay and she related to me what was going on in Alexandria. Only Nora can make a tale of fearful urban suburbanites and MS-13 funny. You can read it for yourself, it is number #3 on her list. Apparently, MS-13 gang members have been hanging around the local 7-11 in near-Fairfax Alexandria trying to shoot at each other. The problem is, these guys don’t know how to shoot and keep missing, thusly making themselves very dangerous to everyone else who is around. Nora is not afraid. Then again, Nora watches COPS to see if she recognizes anyone from her high school on the program.
Of course Nora is not the only suburbanite I know with a slightly apathetic view of the crime in their area. Glenn up in southern Maryland, sometimes throws in “well at least there wasn’t a dead body in the parking lot” in conversations. He says that because, occasionally, a dead body or bodies, wind up in his apartment’s parking lot. Crime doesn’t scare him, trying to move all his crap does, and that’s why he stays there.
Now I live in the city. I knew this area had a higher crime rate when I moved in. I live where crime doesn’t usually make the evening news. So I will admit that I do have schadenfruede moments when I hear of crimes in the supposedly safer suburbs. Te he.

Yesterday I was able to enjoy my patio in peace. I would have fallen asleep in the backyard of only my chair reclined back, which it didn’t, so I had to go in the house and nap on the couch. But before retreating, I just took in the joy of undisturbed laziness. And the main reason why I could enjoy my patio boiled down to the fact that screaming woman and her family moved away and so their house sits empty.
Well it also helped that the on again, off again, rehabbers were also not there. Yesterday was off. I gather they will finish doing the house by Christmas next year at this rate. The guy doing it can be fairly loud, with the radio blasting and various power tools going.
There weren’t a lot of people passing through the alley either. I counted 2 cars and two or four people walking through and not stopping.
Throw in good weather, blue skies, a gentle breeze and it was all good.

From Jim

Neighbors,

Below please find a public notice concerning the next meeting of ANC
5C.
Hope to see you there!

Best,

Jim Berry
ANC 5C

GOVERNMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
ADVISORY NEIGHBORHOOD COMMISSION 5C
POST OFFICE BOX 77761
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20013
TELEPHONE: (202) 832-1965/1966
www.anc5c.org

PUBLIC NOTICE

Monthly Meeting

Invited guests include representatives from the following:

Metropolitan Police Department
DC Department of Parks and Recreation
A&R Development Corp
re. The Rhode Island Avenue Metro Station Retail and Residential
Development

Where: First New Hope Baptist Church
1822 3rd Street, NW
When: Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Time: 7:00 P.M. until 9:00 P.M.

The relationship I and some folks in the neighborhood have with the drug dealers on the corner is odd. We do call the cops. I sometimes spend more time than I meant to in the front yard observing them seeing if there is anything I can report as a crime. But when we, the neighbors, pass them, the dealers, the exchange is cordial or at least non-hostile, and that’s just weird.
Sometimes hello’s are exchanged, if only as a reflex reaction. But maybe it is just both parties trying to make the best of a situation, eventhough one party would really like it if the other just went away and took their crackhead customers with them. Correction. I’d really like it if they were arrested and thrown in jail and the area got a rep as a bad place to try to sell drugs. But if they say ‘hello’ I’ll say ‘hello’ back. Just ’cause I want to see them rot in jail is no excuse to be rude.

Most of the time it is best to have extremely low expectations of 3-1-1. I have been told by some not to even bother with 3-1-1, the DC non-emergency number. But I must report a good 3-1-1 moment, when I wasn’t belittled by the 3-1-1 operator or never saw the police.
It began when I was in the backyard checking on the plants when I heard some neighborhood boys going in and out of screaming woman’s yard. It seemed very odd because screaming woman wasn’t home. She’s usually home at that time and well… screaming at someone, sometimes screaming at her kids who then run out to the back. Probably to escape from the screaming. But there were kids but no screaming woman and the house was dark inside.
So I wandered upstairs to get a better look at the alley to see what the kids were up to. Two kids were acting as look outs as three other kids entered the basement door. I watched the kids in the alley, aged between 10-13, peering up and down the alley looking out for something unknown. Then one kid looked up and saw me in the window. I waved ‘hi’ and asked “whatcha doing?” and the two kids bolted down the alley. That’s weird. So I called 3-1-1.
I talked to the operator and as I was on the phone the two kids came back and eyed my window but didn’t see me behind the blind. I described what the kids were doing and then in about 5-10 minutes there were two policemen walking up my alley (the kids had run off again). I pointed out the house they needed to check and they checked the door and went around to check the front. They counted off to figure out which house is the front, as I didn’t know what was the house number for the other side. They came back around and told me the doors on both sides were secure and it looked ok. I thanked them and went back to fooling around with the plants in the backyard.
The next day I went over to the front and discovered the window to the basement was busted and the iron security bars were laid aside. I guess the cops checked the wrong house. Which is easy to do.
But it was still a good 3-1-1 experience none the less.

Impatiens
Well I don’t think I will try growing impatiens from seed again. Those are a pain. Well with the exception of the heirloom Balsam variety of impatien that seems to be doing ok.
Marigolds
The gem variety of marigolds that were the first flower I was growing this season from seed are doing well in their south facing hanging basket. I hope to get some tasty (remember everything is to be edible) flowers fairly soon! I have planted some more seed in the same pot where I am growing a bush bean. So far a bunch of little seedlings have come up, but for the past week they haven’t done much.
The pot marigolds, another variety, they haven’t done much for several weeks. They came up, looked healthy and kinda just stayed immature looking. I’m sure later on they will spring forth with something.
Squash
I’m afraid if I pot another squash plant I will find myself sneaking around at night dumping zucchini on unsuspecting peoples’ doors. I planted one directly into the ground in the front yard, I don’t know if it is green or yellow squash. I also failed to note it in the little notebook I have tracking what I’ve planted where. I have 4 varieties of squash planted in pots in the backyard. They have taken their sweet time germinating. I was worried so I started a plant inside and transplanted it. Then several days later, one squash I had started directly starting poking up. I suppose the others will poke up next week.
Tomatoes
I’ll admit I was weak. I bought some tomato plants. I still have the little seedlings from seed in various parts of the yard just being and waiting for heat or something to get growing. So I have a few heirlooms, a lemon boy (what I think is a lemon boy), a patio and some funky variety that’s supposed to produce purple fruit. They haven’t done much either lately.
Peas
My peas are so exciting! I have some peas. The currently equal one bite. I’ve gotten some nice flowers but really, I’m interested in eating some sweet peas. I’ll have to wait for them to mature. They are grabbing at anything they can, grass, spider web, other vines, anything. I’m trying to get them to go up the trellis but they seem to have other ideas. They also are serving as food for some aphids. I sprayed them with insecticide soap. Maybe that will help.
Spinach and Salad
Well they are bigger than seedlings but smaller than the baby salad type you get at the store. That hasn’t stopped me from eating them though. I made a salad of the first leaves of spinach (not the true leaves that come later) along with baby, almost premie, argulua and Bibb lettuce. Some I ate simple because I had to thin out my plantings, so don’t worry, there should be enough lettuce and spinach to last me until the weather gets hot and everything begins to bolt.
Herbs
Peppermint is a weed. It needs no help. So it is in the treebox.
Thyme is okay. I bought some French and English thyme. The Winter Thyme I’m growing from seed is kinda small and thin but I have used a little in my cooking. Maybe as the year goes on it will get robust.
I have yet to plant dill.
The basil is very so, so. Maybe it is too early, but the seedlings are doing a whole lotta nothin’.
Onions
When I buy spring onions and I have some left over I typically plant them in the ground. When I need one onion, I then go out and pull it up from the ground, take the bottom part with the roots and bury that. They are still doing ok.
The bunching onions I’m growing are small and I worry about them.

Well it has only been a few months but I think I’m on the right track.

From Jim
Neighbors,

At the BACA meeting on Monday, PSA 501 Sgt. Mitchell asked those in
attendance what they felt were the top five public safety priorites in
our part of PSA 501. Hence, I pose this question to you for your input.

At your earliest convenience, please give me some feedback on this
question.

I plan to get back with Sgt. Mitchell on or about May 10, 2005, so
please have your input into me before this date.

Best,

Jim Berry
ANC 5C