Uncategorized – Page 212 – Truxton Is In Shaw

Tired of selling Shaw

I like Shaw. It’s my neighborhood. It is close to the metro, so I can ponder getting a car, and not get one. It is within biking distance of Dupont and Downtown. The buses take me straight through Dupont to Georgetown, or the Business district, or Catholic U, or Adams Morgan. But I think I have gotten tired of trying to sell it to middle class suburbanites who like a Disneyfied DC.

There are certain people who should stay in Arlington and Alexandria. Those areas fit them. There’s parking and lots of winding roads. At 40 mph you can ignore the immigrants. Oh and there are good schools for the children they hope to have. In DC, now I don’t want to seem as if I’m hating ’cause I do like a lot of NW DC. But parts of NW DC is too homogeneous and doesn’t reflect the diversity of the city. Some areas do, but we must face some folks aren’t comfy with a lot of diversity. That diversity could be economic, age, family, orientation, and race.

Shaw is a wonderful neighborhood. It is a very diverse neighborhood. It might not fit some folks vision of a “nice safe” neighborhood, but it is mine.

Keeping up with the Joneses

Observed this morning, good landscaping in the yard of a house of folks who never seemed to care for the years I’ve been here. Yardwork seems to be catching on.

Dang Kids

The house that we were all hoping that would sell, didn’t. The owners, developers were too greedy. It was on the market for $400K, the highest offer was $380K, and that was generous, ’cause the quality of the house wasn’t that good. So the owners rented out the two unit property to a working class family and some guys.

With the family came a new crop of kids. Now I can’t say for sure that the crop of kids all live in the house. As these things go you have cousins, playmates, what have you who join the kids who do live there. They have been playing with the crop of kids who normally play on their block. 90% of these kids are boys. Little boys. So you have a gaggle of rough housing, ball throwing, ball bouncing, fight starting, highly competitive boys. One block cannot hold all this energy.

Most of the families on the block, I speak of, have been there for a while. Majority of the boys’ families are home owners and longtime residents. They know better than to run into their neighbors’ yards and tree boxes while playing. Yet, with the arrival of the new family this ‘knowing better’ seems to have gone out the window.

It is true that it takes a village to raise a child. It takes several adults who happen to be outside observing this bad behavior to yell at the kids. Apparently one lone adult isn’t enough. By yelling, I mean asking “what are you doing?” or saying loudly, “get out of Mr. X’s yard” or “why don’t you play over there?”. Kids.

Uncomfy aspect of gentrification

There was another post but I think it is lost to the ether that is the Internet. Anyway, despite my odd posts about gentrification, I haven’t been able to define it in a way that is simple and oh, politics-free and maybe even free of racial context. I don’t think gender or orientation have a lot to do with it, but plays a minor but maybe pivotal role. I’m more than happy to define gentrification as an economic thing. Face it when the real estate taxes go up 200%, believe me it is very much related to money.

My own problem relates to where I fit in all this. I was raised in a working class family in a poor black neighborhood in the South. Currently, I guess you can call me middle class, definately a professional (if I’m not can I stop paying the student loans?), and still black. I laud the arrival of folks who are “middle class like me” regardless of color or orientation. But I do admit it is troublesome to those who have been here longer, who now have to keep up with the newcomers who have raised the value of the properties and rents. None of us who are middle class come in with the intention of pushing out the oldtimers or the poor. (We won’t cry a tear, however, should the loud section 8 house, or the drug dealers get moved out.)

The visuals of this gentrification are seen in the homes and in the people. Abandoned homes are restored to their former glory, or torn down to make way for something better. Other homes are bought, rehabbed, and made to look nicer. These homes sit near, or are right next to homes that are still abandoned, falling down, or just ghetto looking. The front yards are different, some with dirt patches made from years of hanging out in front, others with many dollars worth of plants, or new walkways and fencing. Oldtimers might keep up, or join in, if they had given up the effort before. The face of gentrification, is white. Despite a fair number of blacks such as myself moving into these ‘up and coming’ neighborhoods, we blend in with the old population. The ones who stick out a bit more are my white neighbors.

Please keep note that whites are a minority in the District of Columbia, making up 30% of the population. Blacks are 60%, Latinos about 8% and the rest being everybody else. In my little area of Truxton Circle (still Shaw dammit) in 2000 the Afr-American population was 90%. So when whites move in, it is very noticable. So far that group has been very middle class.

With Spring the visuals are all there. Well the “For Sale” signs are. The building and rehabbing continue. Yards in the winter that have much in common with the ghetto looking yards, bound forward with color and other greenery. And I see joggers. Joggers? Where the heck are these people jogging to? I see more dog walkers. In Winter they seem to be the most miserable sort, now, all happy with their pooches, meeting up with others pooches for doggie smootches. Then there is what I don’t see. There are places where crowds of black teens would congregate in large numbers. I see fewer of them, of course, it is still early. I hope that I will see fewer kids hanging out on street corners.

I guess I have been running around the topic of race and gentrification. As far as I see, so far I’ll probably keep circling.

Spring Clean-up Day

Neighbors,

Saturday, May 1, 2004 has been declared “Spring Clean-up Day” in our

neighborhood. This is the 10th consecutive year that this event has

been promoted in the community by North Capitol Neighborhood Development,

ANC 5C, the Bates Area Civic Association, and other neighborhood groups. In

this regard, residents are asked to use the day as an opportunity to begin

the process of “spring cleaning” by also sprucing-up and/or fixing-up

things around their respective properties or households. Where possible,

residents are asked to perform these tasks between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and

1:00 p.m. on Saturday to show solidarity with this community-wide

initiative.

And, it is hoped that this type of clean-up activity will be ritualized

on every Saturday morning until the Fall.

Best,

Jim Berry

ANC 5C

Gentrification and British people: Or gentrification and me with an accent

Allo Govener’

Went looking for some gentrification sites again and came across a British site What is gentrification? There is a mild hostility towards gentrification with a bit of Marxist theory. Oh I miss Marxist theory, makes me pine for grad school again. A tad different than some other sites, the creator throws in how gender adds to gentrification, which gave me a bit of pause.

As the theory goes if you look at gentrifying couples they are DINKs (double income, no kids) so they have greater spending power over working class families because the woman in the DINK couple is not tied up with childrearing. Nor is the woman’s or family’s resources eaten by childrearing that could better be used in home buying and home improvement. I also found this statement of interest: “Tim Butler and Chris Hamnett have stated that gentrification is “not solely a class process, but neither is it solely a gender process. It involves the consumption of inner-city housing by middle-class people who have an identifiable class and cultural formation, one of whose major identifying characteristics centres around the occupational identity of its female members” (Butler and Hamnett, 1994, p.491). ”

Spring you lying season you

This weekend I fell for the warm weather and bought many plants. Now it’s getting colder again. WTF? So I had to cover my semi-hardy plants. Come on Spring, get back to the warming, chop-chop.

Realtors on Crack
I’ve been looking at what’s for sale in my section of Shaw. And I must say someone has been smoking some serious crack when they thought of the prices for some of the homes.
Let’s look shall we.

MLS #:DC4805985 – 611 S St.- I pass it all the time. It is close to the metro, about one block, so yes, that counts for something. But 335K? It’s a little wooden detached (it’s wood, everything else is brick) with no basement. Nothing special about the house, slightly on the ugly side. I remember when it was around 100K 3 years ago.

MLS #:DC4795165 – 1254 NJ Ave. It’s short, it’s got a big front, it’s $695K. Over half a million dollars and you’re still in the hood! On a busy street… over 1/2 a mil, crazy crack.

MLS #:DC4790758 -1718 4th St- On a block I don’t even like walking down in the daytime. Nearly 1/2 a mil at $485K. Yes, nice rehab, but for that price?

Serious. Crack.

Church

Church
Honestly I am trying to find a decent Episcopal church in DC, but I’m aiming for Shaw. In this search I have been to St. Paul’s in Foggy Bottom, St. George’s on U Street, and recently St. Agnes (?) on 12th and Mass. St. Pauls- love the people there, love the incense, not too keen on the mass. Too high church and not even Rite I (I’m totally Rite II). St. George’s is near by and African American. It is Rite II and seems traditional. Yet, I am so, so sad to say, I was bored to tears in mass. That pains me, ’cause it would be so cool to just walk to church and be amongst my people and be ‘home’.

The past 2 sundays I’ve been to St. Agnes. The first time, high mass. Okay, I can pretty much say that besides the incense, I hate high mass. This week I did their low mass. I gather because of the march downtown there was a very low turnout. For the whole mass there were 5 of us, counting the priest, and worse, it was like high mass but without the music. Arrgh! There were a few good points, I got more sherry, it was over with quickly, and it was at 12:30.

At this rate I’m almost headed towards the Luthuran church.

Next month I’ll try Georgetown churches.

An exchange

Below, for your enjoyment is an exchange on a discussion board for dancers. Some of the handles have been changed. I’m MM or O M. The issue is ABC licenses and live music and dancing. I’ve publically disagreed with the DC Nightlife folks because of their disregard for residents’ input on being able to challenge ABC licenses. But the thing here is an arguement is presented to appeal to the group’s activist side, but I argue that suburbanites freedom to dance infringes on DC resident’s right to safety and decent neighborhoods.

Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 9:28 pm Post subject: NIGHTLIFE ALERT – Defend Music and Dancing

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Please join thousands of others in sending a message in support of common-sense reform to restore fairness and balance to nightlife laws and end the unpopular and unprecedented prohibitions against music, dancing, DJs, entertainment, and operating hours imposed by anti-nightlife citizen groups as small as three people.

The D.C. Council will begin voting this week on new nightlife laws and proposed legislative reforms. Don’t let them turn out the lights on nightlife!

You do *NOT* need to be a D.C. resident to participate!

RIGHT NOW your support is needed!

“SIGN and SEND” an electronic auto-message to city officials by clicking on this

link:

http://www.CommitteeforaLivingDC.org/NightlifeAlert

________________________________________

DEFEND NIGHTLIFE IN THE NATION’S CAPITAL!

________________________________________

YOUR SUPPORT IS NEEDED RIGHT NOW!

________________________________________

*** You do NOT need to be a D.C. resident ***

________________________________________

WE HAVE MADE IT EASY TO PARTICIPATE!

< SIGN and SEND a NEW auto-message >

. . . . . at the following direct link . . . . .

http://www.CommitteeforaLivingDC.org/NightlifeAlert

IT’S TIME TO RESTORE SOME BALANCE

TO D.C. NIGHTLIFE LAWS!

Support Common Sense, Fairness,

and Regulatory Reform for DC Nightlife!

Community advocacy for regulatory reform

is supported by a large and growing city-wide

coalition of neighborhood residents, community

reform advocates, popular local nightlife venues,

event producers, DJs, and industry professionals,

proponents of local economic development, and,

like yourself — D.C. nightlife consumers.

“SIGN and SEND” an auto-message NOW!

* You do NOT need to be a DC resident *

< SIGN and SEND >

an auto-message at the following direct link:

http://www.CommitteeforaLivingDC.org/NightlifeAlert

THANK YOU for your continued support!

— Committee for a Living DC (CLDC)

http://www.CommitteeforaLivingDC.org

_________________

*Bal hugs*

Lily DINNER SHOW! Bakadu! Strongbad!

Vermont

Location: Living in TKPK MD, when not living at CUA Law.

Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 9:47 pm Post subject:

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Done!

After several weeks on nuisance and zoning laws in property class, I’m pretty skeptical about overly restrictive zoning ordinances.

Susan

_________________

“If the apocalypse comes, beep me.” –Buffy

O M

Location: Gentrified Shaw, DC

Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 7:00 am Post subject:

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The other side of the coin….

The laws that the “DC Nightlife” people are attacking are the ABC liquor licensing laws that also regulate liquor stores, not just restaurants. What it really is all about are the volunteer agreements that businesses engage in with the residents of the community where they operate. The volunteer agreement is the only effective tool some communities have in dealing with the numerous liquor stores. If a business fails to agree to the volunteer agreement the community challenges their ABC license. DC is not the only place that has volunteer agreements, but our rights to have them are being attacked under the guise of protecting nightlife.

Residents, like myself, worry about trash, public urination, traffic, rats, noise, oh and the odd shooting. The volunteer agreements are our (residents’) one shot at addressing those issues, when we ask the business to discourage loitering, keep the thumping music down after 11, make sure that trash doesn’t build up, etc. You want to take that away, thanks. Coffee houses, places that don’t sell liquor don’t have to deal with volunteer agreements and could host live music. The law is not about live music, it’s about liqour. Booze, pure and simple.

Go ahead, not like I have a vote in Congress anyway. Seems that those in Maryland and Virginia have a greater say over DC than the people who live here.

_________________

MM

Back to top

Lily

Location: home: Alexandria, VA (Obie Grad ’03) 😉 Virginia Beach, VA for law school

Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 8:27 am Post subject:

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thank you for your clarification of the issues

i wish the vote could be specified more towards the relevant concern for DC nightlife, but unfortunately it doesn’t seem possible

most clubs, especially EDM (electronic dance music) venues, are not located next to residences; coffee houses, on the other hand, are, so it would far more likely to have noise and trash concerns for coffee houses than EDM clubs that are usually next to office buildings or are in their own remote, self-contaned warehouse space, like Nation in DC

at most, i doubt the trash and noise of other dance/club/coffee house/cabaret venues will get out of hand, if the vote favors EDM communities, there are other checks in place for that, but the EDM scene lobbyists are few and far between with little influence in the gov’t

ps. Susan, thanks for your support!

_________________

*Bal hugs*

Lily DINNER SHOW! Bakadu! Strongbad!

Bigg_Al

Location: College Park, MD

Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 9:24 am Post subject:

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The thing is, it just gives neighborhood advisors much too much power. I mean, a classy guy like Breeze can’t keep the Deno’s club going because of NIMBYs (who even try to regulate how loud car doors can close) while real estate impresarios can open a behemoth like Dream with relative impunity.

It’s not just a double-standard, but a multiple standard. Banish the voluntary agreements and set (shock!) one standard throughout the city.

_________________

For the love of God, ask me to hand dance!

COLIN MOCHRIE: “Today, it was announced that John Templeton did kill an ox in a rice field with two small porcelain figurines. Experts are saying this is the first example of a knick-knack paddy whack.”

Help get The Annoying Music Show on the air!

http://www.petitiononline.com/LUVJIM/petition.html

Lisa

Location: Ashburn, Virginia

Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 9:38 am Post subject:

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Lily or M:

Could you post the proposed leg. or a link to it? I’m still not getting a clear picture of what all is involved and I’m curious…

_________________

The Hunger Site – Have You Clicked Lately?

Lily

Location: home: Alexandria, VA (Obie Grad ’03) 😉 Virginia Beach, VA for law school

Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 10:06 am Post subject:

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http://www.committeeforalivingdc.org/NightlifeAlert/

_________________

*Bal hugs*

Lily DINNER SHOW! Bakadu! Strongbad!

Lisa

Location: Ashburn, Virginia

Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 10:10 am Post subject:

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Lily – I didn’t see the proposed legislation there. Did I miss it?

_________________

The Hunger Site – Have You Clicked Lately?

O M

Location: Gentrified Shaw, DC

Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2004 10:17 am Post subject:

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The DC Nightlife folks are challenging 15-516 (see http://www.dccouncil.washington.dc.us/images/00001/20031022175820.pdf )

The introductory letter says its to deal with fake IDs and drinking by minors. Just a quick look shows that the School Board can get into the act of challenging a liquor license.

Another DC Nightlife complaint is that as few as 3 people can challenge a liquor license. Sounds horrid huh? Well here’s my story. On the corner of 4th and Florida is a liquor store. Back when I 1st moved in this store would have all sorts of unsavory characters hanging outside the store, a good number of rough fellows. People living much closer to the store got together to challenge the store’s ABC license because they were almost encouraging the loitering and creating a safe environment for the drug dealers in their parking lot. The neighbors TRIED (I can’t stress that part hard enough) working with the store owner, but were ignored. So when the date comes to challenge the license, we get 2 days warning and the hearing is at 1pm on North Cap. In the middle of the day, I had to take off work early (leaving Alexandria) to attend the hearing and the ABC bastards cancelled on us earlier that morning. You know how hard it is to get people to take off work to attend a hearing? It’s good if you can find three people. Worse yet the block where the liquor store is had a bunch of abandoned houses so the number of people around are few. Good news, a new owner bought the store, is working with the neighbors and I feel safer walking over to the corner of 4th and Florida so I can catch a bus.

_________________

MM

O M

Location: Gentrified Shaw, DC

Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 10:16 pm

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Well, after the DC Council told the Mayor to go screw himself if he wanted take over the schools they delt with the liquor law 15-516 (See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28910-2004Apr20.html ). I’m happy, & some restaurants are happy. I don’t know how exactly the law would hurt EDM communities, but I hope you can keep dancing Lily.

_________________

MM