Category: Uncategorized

I don’t remember if it was News 4 or some other local news channel that had a report last night about it, and then I get an e-mail about it, so I guess I should talk about it.
Mother’s Day (May 8th) is coming up and crackheads gotta give mom something too. This year I’m sending my mom roses via FTD, though I believe she’d rather have a gas card. But what does the local crackhead or heroin junkie give his or her mother after they’ve spent every last dime on their fix? So they walk down the street, pondering what to give mom when they notice the pansies you planted in your yard or the petunias in the treebox or the hanging basket of impatiens on your porch. With a scoop of the hand and a discarded BIG GULP cup (or those empty plastic pots sitting in your front yard) they have the perfect junkie arrangement.
So it is suggested that you bring in the prized plants or hold off from putting some flowers in the front yard or treebox until Mother’s day has come and gone. Right now I have $2.00 flowers from Giant in my treebox, along with some mint & thyme. I could try deadheading (cutting off the flowers) all the flowers so that there is only greenery and the plants are less appealing, but I’m too lazy for that. If flowers get stolen I’ll just fill the hole with thyme or mint or throw in some seeds. The rule of the treebox is not to put anything in there I really like. The only thing flowering in my yard is a tomato plant and the peas. I have a hanging basket but nothing is flowering in that, just greenery. Stuff in the backyard has yet to flower, so I’m good. But if they steal my veggies I’m gonna be pissed.

Some time ago the Washington City Paper mined several years of the Columbia Heights listserv for comments and published them. It did not make the citizens, particularly the newer citizens of the gentrifying neighborhood of Columbia Heights look good, especially with old vs new tensions. Upon reading some posts on a certain Shaw discussion forum makes me cringe a bit and I thought of the City Paper piece.
I do acknowledge everyone’s right to vent. I mean isn’t this blog just me venting? Yet since I have gathered more readers than the 5 or so circle of friends who read the earlier stuff, I am a bit more careful in my venting.
What makes me cringe? Well, I will admit I am a bit classist, it is a sin I comfortably live with most of the time. However when I see something that can be summed up to say “our neighborhood is changing so poor people don’t belong here and they need to go.” I grow uncomfortable and must reassess my own classism.
In some ways I do side with those annoyed with the old timers and the poor. Some in that grouping can be the most annoying and frustrating types. On my own block alone there are a couple of folks, the screamer, DM, and the crackhead who aggravate me and other neighbors and make the block less inviting. Yet, I would never (at least I don’t think I would) bluntly say (with the exception of the crackhead) that they do not belong and need to be pushed out. The crackhead does have to go, simply because of stupid crackhead logic that makes her & her friends a danger (like leaving your crack friend 1/2 dead on sidewalk) and a nuisance. The screamer and DM just need a little behavior modification, like not screaming at your kids for hours and not falling off the wagon. Yet I’ll admit that having them move away is a whole lot easier than waiting and encouraging changes in behavior.
I guess my other fear is that comments made on public boards, or in some electronic form that can be stored and distributed, is that these comments do feed the worst arguments about gentrifiers, even if it does not reflect all who help gentrify a neighborhood. From those who are in anti-gentrification camp, these comments prove that gentrifiers want to kick the poor and the old out of their homes. No really, I don’t want to kick the seniors out, I want their drug dealing grandkids out. The trick is trying to figure out how do that without making innocent people suffer just because they are older or poorer.

Scott posted notes from the Bates Area Civic Association Meeting in the Daily Dispatch .

And I’m not going because B. has lured me away to another DC event.
But this is what I am missing:
MONTHLY MEETING NOTICE

Guest Speakers Include:
William O. Howland, Jr., Director DC Department of Public Works and
Raman Bhatia Community Greens

Agenda Includes:
Public Safety Committee Report
Land Use, Planning and Economic Development Committee Report
Introduction of “Flower Power 2005”

Monday, May 2, 2005
Mount Sinai Baptist Church
3rd and Q Streets, N.W.
Rooms 1 and 2
7:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.

BATES AREA CIVIC ASSOCIATION, INC.
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20001

May 2, 2005

Monthly Meeting Agenda

1. Meeting Called to Order 7:00 p.m.

2. Opening Comments

3 Public Safety Report Fifth District Police

4. Remarks: William O. Howland, Jr.,Director, DPW
Insp. Jacqueline Brooks, DPW

5. Remarks: Raman Bhatia
Community Greens

6. “Flower Power 2005” Mary Ann Wilmer

7. Land Use, Planning, and Art Slater
Economic Development
Committee Report

8. Office of C/M Orange Linda Perkins, Director
Constituent Services

9. BACA Housekeeping J. Berry

10. Announcements:

(a) Next BACA Meeting – Monday, June 6, 2005

11. Adjournment 8:30 p.m.

12. Social Period 9:00 p.m.

This is not a post to pick on one person or punish them for crimes where they have already paid their debt to society…..
Anyway.
So I’m looking at the DC Police Department’s Sex Offender Registry and I see there is a guy who reportedly lives on my block who is listed in the registry because of “attempted second degree child sexual abuse against a person under 16 years of age”. But I’m looking at the picture and saying, who is that guy?
I don’t know every single person on my block but I believe I have never seen the fellow the registry says lives on the unit block of my street. This makes me question the accuracy of the registry. That or he is really good about keeping his head low and out of sight or I just haven’t noticed him.
So what am I going to do with this info? Well besides being a blog topic for today, nothing. He has not wanted by the police and has a right to live in the neighborhood. I might mention it to some parents because of the nature of the crime.

From Jim

Guest Speakers Include:
William O. Howland, Jr., Director
DC Department of Public Works
and
Raman Bhatia
Community Greens

Agenda Includes:
Public Safety Committee Report
Land Use, Planning and Economic Development Committee Report
Introduction of “Flower Power 2005”

Monday, May 2, 2005
Mount Sinai Baptist Church
3rd and Q Streets, N.W.
Rooms 1 and 2
7:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.

NEIGHBORHOOD UPDATE

Summer Job Fair for Ward Five High School Students: On Wednesday, May
4, 2005, between the hours of 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., Council Member
Vincent B. Orange is sponsoring a job fair for high school students with GUEST
SERVICES, INC. The job fair will take place in the John Wilson
Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 103. On-the-spot interviews will be
conducted for jobs as cashiers/servers and ice cream cart attendants at
a rate of $8.00 per hour. Applicants must bring two forms of identification – i.e., a social security card and a valid driver’s license or any other government issued photo identification. Background checks will be conducted following a successful interview. For more information, call (202)724-8028.

Ward Five Picnic: On Saturday, May 14, 2005, from Noon until Dusk,
Council Member Orange is sponsoring his annual picnic and plant giveaway. The
picnic will be held at the Langdon Park and Recreation Center, 20th and
Franklin Streets, NE. In addition to the plant giveaway, there will be
food and music as well as a moon bounce, pony rides, bingo and other
activities for children. This picnic represents the kickoff of the spring and
summer cleanup campaigns that Mr. Orange would like to stimulate in every
neighborhood in Ward Five.

Household Hazardous Waste Collection Day: On Saturday, May 14, 2005,
from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m., Washington, DC residents may dispose of
household hazardous waste items at Carter Barron Amphitheater Parking Lot, 16th
and Kennedy Streets, NW. Items that will be collected for recycling are:
(1) acids; (2) aerosols; (3) antifreeze; (4) asbestos tile; (5) batteries;
(6) cleaning chemicals; (7) drain openers; (8a) furniture stripper; (9)
ink; (10) varnish; lawn and garden chemicals; (12) fertilizer; (13) lighter
fluid; (14) mercury themometers; (15) moth balls; (16) motor oil; (17)
paint; (18) pesticides and poisons; (19 roofing tar; (20)
solvents/thinners; (21) transmission, windshield wiper and brake fluids; (22) wood
preservatives; and (23) your old green or maroon recycling bin. This
event is being sponsored by the DC Department of Public Works. For more
information call (202) 727-1000.

Police Service Area (PSA) 501 Monthly Meeting: The next PSA 501 meeting
will take place on Thursday, May 19, 2005, from 7:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.,
at the Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church’s Bishop Alfred Owens Family Life
Center, 609 Rhode Island Avenue, NE. This meeting represents an important
opportunity for residents to share their public safety concerns with
the MPD official who is directly responsible for providing police coverage to
our area. In addition, residents can be exposed to “best practices” that
are being implemented by citizens in other parts of the city to combat
crime.

Senior Citizens’ Police Academy: In partnership with the DC Office on
Aging, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) has created a unique
opportunity for seniors to understand the operations of the Department,
develop problem-solving skills and strategies, become ambassadors to
their communities, and volunteer to help solve crime. The MPD’s Senior
Citizens’ Police Academy program was developed in concert with the Partnership
Academy, a crime prevention leadership training program for community
residents and other stakeholders in the District of Columbia. MPD will provide
senior citizens with free courses that enable them to understand each other,
their role in neighborhood safety and health, and the role of their MPD
partners; courses that build the capacity of neighborhood residents to impact
crime and disorder problems; and courses that support the leadership that is
necessary for systemic change. The program runs for 12 weeks on
Tuesday mornings for approximately three hours. Classes will begin in June
2005.
Participants must be 50 years of age and older, express a willingness
to complete the entire program, be a resident of the District, and consent
to a background check. For more information, please contact Marsh Hott at
(202) 727-8751 or the Office on Aging’s Information and Assistance Unit on
(202) 724-5626.

“Happy are those who dream dreams, and are willing to pay the price to
make
them come true!”

BATES AREA CIVIC ASSOCIATION, INC.
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20001

May 2, 2005

Monthly Meeting Agenda

1. Meeting Called to Order 7:00 p.m.

2. Opening Comments

3.Public Safety Report Fifth District Police

4. Remarks: William O. Howland, Jr.,
Director, DPW
Insp. Jacqueline Brooks
DPW

5. Remarks: Raman Bhatia
Community Greens

6. “Flower Power 2005” Mary Ann Wilmer

7. Land Use, Planning, and Art Slater
Economic Development
Committee Report

8. Office of C/M Orange Linda Perkins, Director
Constituent Services

9. BACA Housekeeping J. Berry

10. Announcements:

(a) Next BACA Meeting – Monday, June 6, 2005

11. Adjournment 8:30 p.m.

12. Social Period 9:00 p.m.

JDB

500 block of R Street.

If you know what supposedly recently happened to the Shaw East area. I say ‘supposedly’ because I can’t find any proof that this zoned restriction has occured yet by the DC gov powers that be… AND if you know my feelings on this, then you know why I don’t care.
If the picture is too fuzzy for you, just know that it looks like vinyl siding is coming up.

Well C moved out this past weekend. She and her kids. I guess the last tax assessment was the last straw. I never saw the house up for sale. There was never a sign out front. Our neighborhood handyman, mentioned it and said ‘everyone has a price.’ It must have been a pretty good price because C had a strong reason to stay. Her parents lived just a couple of doors down. Really. Kids would run from her house to their grandparents house in a matter of seconds. Can you say free babysitting? Her kids seem to play well with the kids already on the block as they would all tear up and down the sidewalk, throwing the ball around, rough housing, doing what kids do. They were good kids. Now she’s gone. One less black family. Fewer kids on the block. Fewer playmates for the kids who remain.
Her replacement, from what I can tell, is European-American, has no kids, but does have a dog (I tell you this block is going to the dogs), and didn’t see a significant other. 1 replaces 3.

You need to wait a year before engaging in any major capitol project on the house in a gentrifying area. Why? Crackheads, it all comes down to crackheads.
Cheap contractors getting houses ready for selling, hire cheap crackhead or questionably legal immigrant help who sometimes do poor work hidden behind the walls where the inspector can’t see it. Also a year allows you to see seasonal screw ups.

Spring- Spring rains show you the gutters were improperly installed and that the yard is poorly graded and sending water towards your foundation.
Summer- Guess what? Air Conditioning doesn’t work, or works so poorly it is not even worth using. Maybe it does work but condensation builds up in the walls and there is this wet spot forming in your ceiling. Or, notice you have no air conditioning?
Fall- Leaves. And the raccoon that moves into your crawl space waking you up at 4 am.
Winter- Furnace works poorly or dies. Windows don’t shut all the way and house gets drafty. House has no insulation and costs more to heat.

Then there is other stuff you don’t notice till you have been in the house a while. About 2 years into living in my house I got neighbors in a previously empty house. They are very nice people but I can hear them clearly through the wall. Lucky for me they are not speaking in English so I have no idea of what they are saying. I hear them come in, go up the stairs…. I can smell when they have burnt the toast, and they are always burning toast. I knew there was only 1 layer of brick between us** and with real live people next door, I now know what 1 layer means as far as noise and smell goes.
When you first see a house, you don’t see its faults. When I saw my house I was so happy it wasn’t a)condemned or b)in the middle of construction and c)it had a basement. I didn’t notice the little things like the toilet being encased in tile or the windows being a little off, or the poor paint job that got paint on stuff I still can’t get off. It’s several months after buying and living in the house you begin to notice these quirks. Like plumbing pipes not being properly installed. They looked ok, but when you go to touch it, it falls apart. Not good.

Some of these houses in the neighborhoods housed the poor and were maintained by landlords who possibly didn’t give a rat’s rear about the house, as long as the section 8 check came in. So then they decide to cash in, get some horrid contractor who is accountable to no one and knows you’re not going to find the faults until long after he and the seller have run off with your money. So beware.

**Yes, I know there is supposed to be two layers of brick, but there isn’t. When I was trying to fix a crack in the wall I discovered the 1 brick situation, so please don’t say anything about there ‘should be 2 bricks’, ’cause there ain’t and you’re not making it any better. Yes, it is a touchy subject with me.

This morning I was running late, again, to work and was running down the sidewalk when my neighbor several doors down saw me as he was heading to his car. He offered me a ride to the metro. That was so nice of him. I have great neighbors.