Category: Uncategorized

Some Housing alert

Extended deadline:

October 20

Urgent:

Preserve CRA in 1O minutes

Please

take a few minutes right now to write a brief e-mail comment and ask all

your colleagues to write one to preserve the Community Reinvestment Act

against a very serious threat. Comments are due October 20. Thank

you to the 861 people who responded to our first Alert in September.  We

need another big effort in the next week.

Background

Under current rules, small banks with assets under $250 million undergo a

limited CRA exam that covers only some basic lending activities. Larger

banks undergo a full CRA exam that covers lending, investments, and

services. Now the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) has proposed

to allow all banks with assets under $1 billion to have the limited exam.

Only 4% of FDIC-regulated banks would face a full CRA exam. This change

would harm low- and moderate-income communities, and leave some states with

no banks subject to a full CRA exam. The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS)

has already finalized a similar rule. The two other regulators, the Federal

Reserve Board and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, are

considering a similar change. Other changes could also follow.

It is critical that including community organizations and the general

public submit comments to the FDIC opposing the proposed change. The

FDIC has already received a record 7,000 comments, but the majority are

from small banks supporting the FDIC’s proposal. The Fed and the OCC are

watching closely to see whether community groups care. This is an

important moment for maintaining and expanding bank involvement in

communities.

How To Send a Comment
It is really

quick and easy. Just visit the target=”_blank” href=”http://lisc.org/cgi-bin/tr.pl?date=2004/oct/13&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Efdic%2Egov%2Fregulations%2Flaws%2Ffederal%2Fpropose%2Ehtml”

>FDIC website and find “Community Reinvestment 12 CFR

Part 345″. Click on “Submit Comment” and type in your comment. Your comment

can be very simple. For example:

“I oppose the FDIC’s proposal to

allow banks with assets above $250 million to be examined as small banks

under the Community Reinvestment Act. This policy would reduce lending,

investments and services in low-income communities.”

That’s all

there is to it. Of course, feel free to write more if you wish.

For more information on this issue, please go to target=”_blank” href=”http://lisc.org/cgi-bin/tr.pl?date=2004/oct/13&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Encrc%2Eorg”>National Community Reinvestment Coalition or target=”_blank” href=”http://lisc.org/cgi-bin/tr.pl?date=2004/oct/13&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Enaahl%2Eorg”>National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders. We

also encourage you sign on to group letters that organizations may have,

but that is no substitute for sending individual letters.

THANK

YOU.

 


Big pile of mouse dung

That’s what the Pro-Tech guy found in the corner of the basement. A big pile of mouse dung. I thought it was wood rot.
This Summer we got a mouse problem. The last straw occurred last week when I went in the kitchen, turned on the light and saw 2 mice scurry into the stove. That and the ever increasing mouse evidence I see in the kitchen. Absolutely unacceptable. That’s and my traps don’t seem to be working. Darned things have eaten the peanut butter off the traps without getting snapped. There is a glue trap that keeps moving to various spots under the fridge. Time to call the professionals.
The guy came out yesterday and looked in the basement and the first level. He did ask about the top level but didn’t venture there. There is evidence of mouse invasion up there too. I had a bar of Ivory soap under my bed, 1/2 eaten. Unacceptable.
Sitting down to tell me about the different packages and what the company does to deal with my mice problem the guy decided to try humor. He said the initial job is $2,800. As I mentioned before in a previous post, thousand is a very bad word in my house. I reacted by arching my eyebrow. He tried to explain his joke and I explained that “thousand” is verboten. The actual price is $280something with followups being $80some odd dollars every quarter.
Not only will he deal with the mice, he said they deal with spiders and other bugs. I have no real problem with the spiders in the house, provided they stay in the basement, and out of my way. I’ve been lucky in that I rarely see bugs in the house.
Anyway, they worked miracles in M&K’s house where there were rats and many roaches. I hope they can get rid of our mice, so there will be no more huge piles of mouse dung.

Restaurant Review: Windows Market & Deli

I’m going to try something, restaurant reviewing. I will attempt to go to places in eastern Shaw or on the border of Shaw in LeDriot, Bloomingdale, Eckington, or within a 4 block radius of my house. The general criteria is that there must be seating and cannot be a carry out. The list of places to go is very short.
Yesterday I wandered over to the corner of 1st and Rhode Island to the Windows Deli. It is a very new looking place. I was attracted to it by its big windows that looked out on to Rhode Island Avenue and it’s bright interior. Inside the decor says Ethopian/ Swedish, mainly because I recognize the furniture being IKEA and the staff is pretty much Ethopian. In the corner there is a display case of tiny coffee cups and an African(?) vase. You have a choice of about 3 blonde wood tables to sit at or two other chairs sans table. The table near the window is good for people watching.
The menu is extremely limited. Basically you have coffee, tea, and cold sandwiches made to order. This is more coffee shop than restaurant. I had a tuna sandwich. The tuna was ok, a little heavy on the relishy ingredient and a bit more soupy than I am accustomed.
Looking around and thinking about it a bit more, the place seems very cabbie friendly. If your main thing is to sit, wait, get coffee, leave, then this is a suitable spot. Sunday, when I spotted this place, I noticed a decent mixed crowd sitting, reading the paper, drinking coffee.
Up the stairs (3 steps) is the market part of Windows, which is a quickie mart with drinkable wine and a few veggies. I saw tomatoes and onions. I didn’t look too hard at the wine, but it wasn’t Boones Farm or wino wine (that I can recognize easy). Not to be too out of place there were some ghetto drinks and single cans of beer for sale in the refrigerated cases.
I hope this business does well. It is good to have a big windowed people watching coffee shop so close. I wanna ‘nother, closer to my house.

Next time I might try B&J or BJ’s on 3rd and Rhode Island.

Brrrr

Okay it isn’t that cold but I’ve put it off long enough. I’m going to have to clean the furnace, and turn it on. When I first moved in I had a guy come over, look at the furnace and tell me it needed replacing. He said a bad word to me… “four thousand dollars.” OK, 3 bad words, the worst of them being “thousand.” Since then I have cleaned it myself. I’ll replace the furnace, in 3 years or so.

House o the fortnight

229 R Street is the house of the 1/2 month, for the first part of October. I just like this building. It’s got a turret, and a little courtyard.

Walk by it and notice how it looks like it may have been a store when you see te corner has been bricked up. Just notice the house. There is a lot one could do to gussy it up, make it look 10,000 times better. But then, it looks fine now unadorned.

Oktoberfest

Bates Area Civic Assoc is PLANNING Oktoberfest
According to the little yellow flyer on my fence:
The Bates Area Civic Association is planning an Oktoberfest for Saturday October 30th. Their current ideas include a:
Chili Cook-off
Cornbread
Bratwurst and Sauerkraut
Hot Cider
Flea market
Live Music
Health and Wellness Table
Games
Prizes
and more
If you are interested in volunteering or renting space for the flea market contact the planning committee at oktoberfest AT arachnophile dot com.

Bates Area Civic Assoc is PLANNING Oktoberfest

According to the little yellow flyer on my fence:

The Bates Area Civic Association is planning an Oktoberfest for Saturday October 30th. Their current ideas include a:

Chili Cook-off

Cornbread

Bratwurst and Sauerkraut

Hot Cider

Flea market

Live Music

Health and Wellness Table

Games

Prizes

and more

If you are interested in volunteering or renting space for the flea market contact the planning committee at oktoberfest AT arachnophile dot com.

This IS a great neighborhood

Once you get past some of the houses and some of the people with chemical problems, and you stick around a while, you will discover that this is a great neighborhood.
Why?
The people. People make a neighborhood all worth while, of course a good coffee shop or other neighborhood hang out helps too.
I’m in this I love my neighborhood mood because something dear has been returned to me, my palm pilot. I lost it on the street, my street, getting out the car. Apparently a fellow named Larry found it. He contacted some of the people in the address book (note: remove some people) and one was a neighbor who picked it up and returned it.
The palm wasn’t the first thing I lost around here. I have lost my wallet a couple of times. Once the wallet was returned to me by a kindly old lady who lived on 5th Street, showing me the importance of having your business cards in your wallet is a good thing.
I need to learn to keep up with my stuff better.

Scenes in Shaw

Scene 1
Driving down New Jersey Ave to attempt to turn on New York I spy three street vendors under the shade of a tree. One is a Salvadorian(?) woman selling flowers. The other is a guy selling bootleg CDs. The other guy, it looks like he’s selling bootlegs too.

Scene 2
There are a gaggle of kids running up and down the stair case of a house. I see the white occupants sitting on the stoop as the neighborhood kids run around. One kid is fooling around with one of the occupant’s hair. It looks liek she’s trying to plait the hair.

Scene 3
Over at the Florida Avenue park I spotted three people walking out of the park. Two of the people are holding up the one in the middle. Apparently middle guy can’t walk. No one seems phased by the scene. Just another day in the park.

Anyone need a trash can?

Anyone need an extra big green city trash can?
They cost $60 to replace.
Really we have an extra one.
It is currently sitting on the corner of 4th and Q. It has an address written on it, but if you go by the address you will see a much nicer can in the yard.
I called the city 2x about picking it up. It has been on the block, unclaimed for 3 weeks. So if you think you may need it, feel free to grab it. It may have trash in it considering it is a trash can on a corner. But trash day was yesterday so it shouldn’t have too much trash.
If you do grab it, spray paint your house numbers on it, so it won’t wander back here.