Christmas with the family or as I sometimes call it, the meeting of the angry black people (Stay Black! Stay Angry!), brought up another crime the white man committed against our family. This year it was farmland Great Grandpa Kelly had, that the white man took away, sold for a pittance and cut Great Grandpa a small check for. Two relatives, whipped themselves up into a frenzy about how they were going to get the land back. Which will be hard considering it is currently part of a municipal airport. Dibs on the middle of runway 2.
History is filled with tons of stories of injustices, conflicts, and lots of things left unresolved. This just not the great man on the horse history, it is also relatively unknown individuals, their descendants, or their associates (connected by membership, ethnicity, nationality, local ties, etc). Descendants may file/make claims of restitution or restoration, digging in courthouses, libraries and archives to find evidence to support them. Or associates hold past wrongs done to them as justification to fight, to resist, or to distrust.
Playing out on the neighborhood level or in local politics, old (shall I call them ‘historic’?) arguments get dusted off, and are given new life in current fights against or for initiatives, as with the proposed tax on grocery bags. Historically, the municipal government has not always been fair, equitable or just with the Black and struggling populations, and that history has been well ‘preserved’ for the present day pastime of bringing class and race into the discussion.
Present day DC bureaucrats and politicians will be/are judged by the misdeeds of their associates (who have yet to be let go or voted out of office) as well as their predecessors dating back to the establishment of the federal city. I wonder how many DC citizens are still smarting from unanswered phone calls, poor city services, and other negativies occurring years ago, possibly several administrations ago, forgetting the positive efforts, mad at the present office holder?
It is history. It is not the great man on the horse history, but is part of the narrative of how we live today. Things might have been different for me if Great Grandpa Kelly never lost his land. Maybe my grandfather, his son, would have been something other than a North Carolina sharecropper, working his own land as opposed to the land of a white landlord. It’s not great history, but a chapter in my family’s history. Who knows maybe my aunt and cousin will find the documents and make a case against the county, or the bank (or the bank that bought that bank) or whomever ‘stole’ the land. I doubt it, but on the off chance they win, dibs on the runway.
Category: Uncategorized
April day with kids
Neighbor kids, under the watchful eye of their parents, ride tricycles on the sidewalk.
History
This morning I had in mind to write one thing but read in today’s Washington Post “D.C.’s Past Is Prologue,” about the Historical Society of Washington D.C. over on Mt. Vernon Sq. Reading the article I’m a bit concerned about the paragraph:
Thomas said he envisions a place where more records could be archived, such as papers from neighborhood associations — and that could increase the annual line item. The society’s supporters are suggesting an appropriation of $2.5 million to $4 million.
I have no problem with the city supporting and funding some of the Historical Society’s functions, but I’m concerned about what this would mean for the DC Archives (Naylor Ct) and the Washingtonia Division at the Martin Luther King Library (Gallery Place), both under the DC government’s jurisdiction. Does it mean the problems of the DC Archives can be ignored?
The article also says the Historical Society tells the city’s non federal stories and “the King public library and the Jewish Historical Society… have archives, theirs are more specialized.” When the author writes the “King public library” can I assume that’s the Washingtonia division at the MLK? And if so, what exactly is it’s speciality that makes it so different from the Historical Society’s archives? More printed and published material at the MLK? A better set of census microfilms at the MLK? Just for my own research I found a lot of overlap. With maps they and the Library of Congress overlap. The major differences were in quality of the document, ease and price of making duplicates, access, staffing and hours. However each repository has its own particular strengths that don’t overlap. The Historical’s on-line catalog makes it a superior resource as well as its fantastic photo collection. The Washingtonia’s strength is that it gets down to the neighborhood level in organization and has a great library of published resources. But they both cover DC history.
Also DC history is all over the city. It’s at the Historical Society, in the Washingtonia division of the MLK, the Library of Congress, George Washington University, Georgetown, Catholic, National Archives, and the DC Archives.
Robbery on R
I saw it on the TruxtonCircle.org discussion list and there was this on the 5D listserv:
PSA: 501
CCN: 09042554
RPT DATE: Mar 31, 2009
SHIFT: EVN
OFFENSE: Robbery
METHOD: Gun
BLOCK:
LOCATION: Sidewalk
START DT: 03/31/2009
START TM: 20:57:00
END DT: 03/31/2009
END TM:
There is no street or block but the time and the sidewalk location makes me think that it is the same sad crime that occurred Tuesday when a man was collecting his garbage can near his home. It makes no sense, but DC criminals have their own logic.
I pray this is an isolated crime. But I know that the stretch to the better and safer neighborhood we deserve will have these set backs.
Speaking of crime in the TC, I was informed of two incidents, I think happening in the same month of burglaries on Sq 509E. One was where the thief got in through a tiny back window and stole cash from a New Jersey Avenue home. The other was another burglary on 4th, I don’t know the specifics but it occurred when the occupant was out of town. I can’t stress the importance of having a neighbor look in on your place when you’re on vacation or a business trip. Papers, chinese restuarant menus, and gold and brown notes from the UPS guy pile up and scream ‘We’re not home!’
Couple buys house, plans to restore to former glory
Natasha and Boris Petersson will close on a 400 block Florida Ave townhouse today if all goes well. I ran into them as they finished up their final walk through and asked them about their plans. They hope to restore this three storied structure to it’s former glory as a crackhouse.
For over 60 years the property has served as some sort of illegal operation. In the 1930s it was a gin joint, after the repeal of Prohibition the house manufactured artisanal grain liquor that sometimes made customers blind. In the 40s and 50s sales began to include marijuana and other drugs. Drug sales continued out of the house and in the 80s and 90s crack was the main drug. During the crack years the residence served as temporary housing for its customers who sometimes supplemented their income with sex work. In 2005 the house was finally shut down when the property was lost in a tax sale and when the buyers got the city to evict the residents. In 2008 those buyers lost the house in foreclosure, allowing the Peterssons to place a bid.
The Peterssons general plans for restoring the property are to allow their 3 dogs to trample every single blade of grass in the backyard to give back that dirt patch look. They hope to install bare plywood on one of the windows and get the exterior paint to peel. Boris is going to start looking for a empty oil drum so he and Natasha can warm themselves with an outdoor fire in the Fall.
April Fools y’all.
Chickens in the City II
A follow up to Chickens in the City.
I found some language that looks like backyard chickens would be illegal in the District. In the “District of Columbia Municipal Regulations for Animal Control” (PDF)in sections 902 and 903 the language seems to say no fowl and they’re not too keen on pigeons either. 902.7 (a) states regarding a coop, “The proposed location is not within fifty feet (50 ft.) of any building used for human habitation;” and (b) says, “The proposed location is not within two hundred and fifty feet (250 ft.) of any property line or, if this is not the case, the applicant has furnished to the Director with the written consents of all householders and owners of property located within one hundred feet (100 ft.) of the boundaries of the premises upon which fowl are to be kept, and within the same square.” Sounds like the language for dogs parks in that by placing high barriers you essentially make them illegal.
It also looks like keeping bees is illegal too.
I consider those regulations unjust.
Small house design is a talent
Sometimes you don’t realize that certain things require talent until you’ve seen the task carried out so badly, you wanna cry. I pitty the real estate agent trying to push 1708 4th St NW, because it is 1,326 sq ft squandered. It’s supposed to be a three bedroom, more accurately, it is one bedroom and two small offices. Okay one of those offices could have a twin bed or child’s bed, but it would be tight and the closet door would need to be removed. I’m trying to think if my cubicle at work has more square footage than the other bedroom.
I could design something better than that with a pencil some paper and a copy of Not So Big House. Heck, with my own house, I think I did. Though the living area is about 1000 sq ft., I don’t think it feels cramped. Yes, my bedroom is the size of a nice walk in closet, but it is big enough for a bed, a small wardrobe, small dresser and a big pile of dirty clothes that I really need to wash.
There were several mistakes, in my opinion, with 1708 4th St. Let’s start with the 1st floor. The stairs are not up to code, maybe because to get anything big (couch, fridge, etc) through the front door and into the house, you’re taking out part of the stair railing. The fireplace is in a wierd spot. Does a gas fireplace add so much to a property that even a tiny wierdly placed one works? The kitchen is okay. I recognize it as an IKEA Akurum/Rationell style kitchen. IKEA understands small spaces. The second floor is where the tiny bedroom/offices are. The hallway is nice and big, but there is something wrong when the bathroom on that floor seems bigger than one of the bedrooms. I kid. However, I would have made the bathroom a 3/4 bath to get a few more feet for the bedroom. If a tub is needed, use the one on the 3rd floor. The thrid floor bathroom is big and the window faces the street. Plantation shutters will be required. Outside the back and front yards are paved with concrete. These can be improved with some container plants.
Affordable Housing in DC online
I have finally done my taxes and as I wandered over the the DC.Gov website to fill in the blank to do my DC income tax on line I noticed something on the front page about searching affordable housing on-line. Going back to search for the announcement, I can’t seem to find it but the link is on the Department of Housing and Community Development’s page.
It appears that the DC Dept of Housing and Community Development has partnered/contracted (I can’t tell) with Social Serve.Com in listing affordable housing in DC that is either for sale or for rent with the site DC Housing Search.Org. For fun I played around with it looking for ‘affordable’ housing for sale then plugging in some numbers for rent. I also searched to see what’s affordable in the 20001 zip code. The results were a bit wrong, bringing up some NE (20001 is Old City NW) addresses. Among the misses were some hits like a couple of 2 bedrooms on the 200 blk of Florida Avenue for $1,500, an apartment at 413 P St., Golden Rule Plaza, and the studios in the Phyllis Weatley YWCA on Rhode Island Avenue. I also fooled around with the 20009 and 20011 zip codes and found properties there too, but the search feature has more so one could search by distance to public transit, handicap accessibility, pets, security deposit needed, criminal check and you can exclude the properties on the waiting list. There is also a neat little chart to decide how much rent you should pay based on your hourly wage.