Category: Uncategorized

Robbie pointed out in the comments a post on the DCist site about the city’s redevelopment plan for Shaw. Well that’s Ward 2’s Shaw. Those of us over on the other side of New Jersey Ave are just screwed or not, depending on how you look at it. Also I feel a bit slighted because one could come away looking at this plan that Truxton Circle isn’t in Shaw.
I took a quick look and I’ll make a few quick comments, with the choice of coming back to this topic and posting at length when I’ve read the whole plan. First, I am very wary of an Eastern Shaw Historical District. I love history but it can be a burden. I’ll write later this week on this. Second, I see the recommendations for the area around the Convention Center are okay but I worry about the type of retail. Hair & nail salons are retail. Got them a plenty. There is a coffeeshop (Warehouse)but it needs something, what I don’t know. But anyway it is something beyond signage and facades that the 7th and 9th street areas around the Convention Center need.

For those who are slightly following the SCOTUS arguments of Kelo vs City of New London, the Post has an article in it’s business section about how the outcome could impact the Nationals Stadium and the Skyland shopping center over in Anacostia. Yet I am trying to figure out how the stadium fits into all this, as I thought (correct me if I am wrong) the stadium would remain the property of the city. My idea of public use does include stadiums, provided they are publicly owned so if the city needed to, it could have other city functions during the off season or decide to blow it up when the Nats leave DC for a prettier much younger city.
The area in SE where the city is thinking about plopping the stadium is not the greatest part of town, but that’s just my outdated opinion. I haven’t been out there since Tracks closed down. Wait? Am I thinking of the right neighborhood? And really I’m a bit less sympathetic to commercial property being seized for a commercial but publicly owned project. I do feel a bit bad for the sculptor working over there, as good studio spaces are hard to find and art a pain to move.
I am very thankful that areas around and near southern Shaw were nixed as places for a stadium. Shaw is coming out of it’s blighted stage. We haven’t reached the non-blighted, non-transitional stage yet, but at least we are in little danger of the the city grabbing large parcels of land.

Comment policy: No cussin’, no name callin’, no spittin’. Anonymous posters must use initials at the end of their post or risk having that post deleted.

Okay, I’m walking home with my neighbor B and there is this guy in a big black SUV honking in front of the house across the street from ours and he’s just honking. B remarks that this has been going on since Valentine’s Day with the guy and the on going honking.
Honk
Me (loudly): Little pig, little pig let me in
Honk, honk
Me: Little pig, little pig, let me in!
Honk, honk, honk
Me: Then I’ll blow
Honk
Me: And I’ll blow
B: I think I saw movement
Me: And I’ll blow my horn and your house down
guy drives off
Me: House of bricks, still standing

And the big bad SUV wolf sped away and the little piggies inside the 100 year old brick house lived happily ever after.
THE END

I really hate it when people use their car horns instead of walking up to the house and knocking. I can understand it for cabbies. Maybe I can forgive one honk, but honking over and over deserves an egging.

Today the US Supreme Court, over where the 96 bus passes, will be hearing arguments of Kelo vs New London. This case regards the rights of the city to prostitute itself to private developers so that they can seize people’s private property for a private entity’s gain. The libertarian Institute for Justice is representing the homeowners who don’t want to sell. I’ve commented on this situation before here and here and figured I could follow up.
No comments please, not really feeling tolerant of other opinions on this topic. But feel free to strongly disagree with me on Thai food or the blue recycle carts.

Right now I’m taking a break from doing anything with the house. I’ve been lazy and enjoying the other parts of life that include socializing, dancing, and gardening. I had the energy to do everything, where did it go?
Anyway, if you really want to deal with house fixing drama, wait till Spring because I need to start painting the rear of the house. Otherwise you can visit House In Progress, a Chicago blog about a married couple with bungalow who have been fixin’ up their place and documenting it. Everyso often they mention products they’ve been using (hey there is an idea…) and really that is incredibly useful when you are trying to fix up an older home.

We got our shiny bright blue recycle bins. I dragged “George” my bin, down to the basement to tag him as my own because looking at it, this would make a great little old lady cart. Really. And I already had one recycle bin stolen (gone missing) and I don’t want to be without the power to recycle again.
I was looking around the house for a good marker. I thought about one of those stickers I get from WAMU or my alma mater (the one I give money to, not the other 2 I ignore) and slapping it on my bin to show my Terrapin pride or support of public radio. Sadly, I remembered I toss those things as soon as I get them. But next time, something is getting bumper sticker stuck to it so when DPW throws it back on to the sidewalk, I’ll know which is “George”.
Anyway, the old brown recycle bin has been sent to the backyard and looks as if it will begin a new life as a planter box. I need more planter boxes. Um, I guess I can go around asking neighbors, “hey whatcha’ gonna do wit cher old bin?”

Well I decided to try to gain some perspective and instead of just going around Shaw, LeDroit Park and Eckington complaining about open houses, I went around other parts of DC looking at open houses. I decided to look at a few homes in well established, non-gentrifying, been done gentrified decades ago neighborhoods of Historic Capitol Hill (as opposed to that other Capitol Hill that runs all the way to RFK) and Georgetown. I tried looking at homes in the general $600K range that I had seen some Shaw homes advertised for, but with Georgetown, $600K is rock bottom cheap.
First home I looked at was a Georgetown home at 1634 33rd St, which is a 2 bedroom 1.5 bath priced at $799K. I have a 2 bedroom 1.5 bath, I wanted to compare. Nice house and it presented well. It still looked occupied and it was very nicely decorated and very clean. The painted glass was a little cheesy but from a distance looked nice. Screw it, you’re paying to live in Georgetown, close to the expensive stores and cool restaurants. The house was very nice. It looked like a friend’s house. Nothing wrong with it. Nothing glaring. I could imagine it looks much nicer in Spring with the flowers out.
I grabbed the 30something bus and went to Capitol Hill and got off around Eastern Market. That is a nice neighborhood. Now Capitol Hill as I know and remember has some good spots and it has some not so good spots and this can vary from block to block. When I mean not so good in the Historic Capitol Hill area, I’m talking dark streets and blocks that give off a bad vibe, particularly at night. In the day, it is all good. I envied the Hill people for having restaurants, with wait service, and outdoor cafes, parks, argh!!!
Anywho, looked at 540 7th St SE a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath going for $699,900. It had a funky setup with an office like area on the bottom first level and the living quarters upstairs. This house also showed very well. The paint job was new and well done. The fireplaces were going, the house was clean and had a minimal amount of furniture but didn’t look empty. The french doors sparkled, the patio was neat, the various colors of the wall and wainscoting worked well. It was a very nice house. And the location couldn’t be beat being not that far from the metro.
A few steps away at 625 South Carolina Avenue SE I entered the house that time forgot. A house trapped in the past. And that past was the Ford administration. At $659K this 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath with unfinished basement wasn’t a bad house, it showed as well as a house of it’s decor could show and I bet it was a shining jewel back in 1975, but it could use some updating. The addition on the back gave me some ideas and looked okay, but overall, it cried to be updated. In general it looked like a decently maintained house. Like the Georgetown house the main attraction is that you are not far from the Capitol, parks, museums, a bunch of cafes… good stuff.
I came back on the 90 bus and good Lord, I hate the 90 bus. Men drinking malt liquor in brown paper bags, and a guy selling DVDs (yes on the bus) who sat down next to me, pulled out a bunch of pungent smelling BBQ chicken wings and chowed down while mumbling and cursing. I hate the 90 bus.
In Shaw I quickly visited 1726 4th St, NW, a 2 bedroom 2 bath on the corner of 4th and Florida going for $429K. Now with the perspective gained from looking at the other houses I have to say…. still a little bit overpriced. I will say it showed well, like the Georgetown house (not as well as the best Cap Hill house) being clean and accenting the positives of the occupied house. I will cut this house some slack as it has one of those big, almost big enough to be a room, hallways on the second floor, and the agent was kinda guapo and friendly. But location, location, location. This doesn’t have what the other neighborhoods have and that is some sort of stability and services that are in the here and now. Prices here in this part of Shaw are banking on what could be.
So today’s lesson is clean the house top to bottom before selling, making sure all contracting work is done, and if the house is occupied go for the minimalist look. It also helps when the layouts make sense, the bedrooms (or any other rooms in the house) don’t look cramp, and the design and feel is livable.

Well I guess it was good I missed the 90 bus, sort of. Because it gave me a chance to notice this sign on the sidewalk of Florida Avenue (400 or 500 block).
Ohmygawd, ohmygawd, ohmygawd! THAI FOOD! Now they aren’t open. Well they didn’t seem open when I passed.
All I ask for are a few things:

1. Have one good dish, & let it be Pad Thai
2. Be fully running by Easter ’cause I kinda gave up carbs for Lent and it would be so great if I could have almost in Truxton Circle pad thai on Easter
3. Have a veggie version of pad thai and the Shrimp version
4. Post hours of operation and keep to them so I know when it is too late for pad thai

Larb gai would be nice too, but I’d settle for decent pad thai.

Last night I heard a ruckus in the alley behind the house. The yelling and loud vocal expressions for a brief moment made me think that prostitution had made its way back into the alley. So I turned on the back porch light and moved upstairs to observe what I could from the 2nd floor window. The noise continued and I could see movement, but I couldn’t tell what it was. Then I saw him. A kid, about 8-12 years old, ran partway up the alley then hid himself in an alcove between the fences holding a fat long stick like a rifle. His further movements reminded me of footage of American soldiers in Iraq fighting in urban settings. Listening a bit more clearly I could hear the voices of another boy. What were they playing? Cops and robbers? GIs and insurgents? Some live action version of one of those shoot em up games? I was happy that it wasn’t what I thought it was, but then, it was late, it was dark, and those kids should be in the house.
The alley behind the house has improved a lot since I moved in. When I first came, there was prostitution (there is no consensus among neighbors if it’s gone or not) and a big dumping problem. HUGE dumping problem. I once caught a guy dumping plumbing pipe in the open yard of a vacant house, and he was so emboldened he gave me attitude. When the owners of vacant property would finally clean their yards, it wouldn’t be too long before something else got dumped in the yard, starting the whole process over again. What didn’t fit in the yard, overflowed into the alley. Old appliances, trash bags of clothes, building materials, you name it was dumped in our alley. Recently, that has all changed. First, it helped that almost everyone now has their backyard fenced in. There are no obvious spaces when dumping. Second, several of the vacant houses are in the process of being fixed up, so their yards aren’t attracting foreign trash, just their own. Then, the trees have been trimmed away making the alley more light and allowing light from the alley light to brighten the alley. Lastly, last year the alley was repaved, so it looks nicer.

The City Comfort’s Blog has a post or two on crime and neighborhood design. Well that’s how my little non-design brain interpreted the postings. But City Comfort’s posting as well as something briefly mentioned at the Mt. Vernon Square meeting had me thinking about the Shaw envirnonment and crime.
It was such a big help when the city finally got around to trimming the trees on our block. I realized the difference when calling 311 about the everso present gang of kids, who mind you did not live on any of the adjoining blocks. From my 2nd floor window I could only see about a few doors down because of the tree branches, and couldn’t get a description of the hangerouts. After the trimming I could see further down the block and accurately tell the operator what was going on when I called later about a domestic dispute playing itself out.