Category: Uncategorized

Mt. Sinai Baptist Church, good neighbor

Shaw has a lot of churches. Many range from the ones housed in rowhouses to storefronts and churches that look like churches. Some churches, as they act in their own interest (nothing wrong with that) have been deaf to the concerns of the residents who they share the neighborhood with, and others have been a bit better at listening. Mt. Sinai has been one of those better churches.
Back when portions of the TC was in the 3rd Police District, Mt. Sinai allowed for PSA (police service area) meetings. This is in addition to the Bates Area Civic Association meetings that are usually held on the 1st Monday of every month, unless it falls near a holiday or there is inclement weather. Provided that you can make arrangements, the church has so far been very willing to provide free meeting space to community groups.
Though the church owns a number of homes along 3rd Street, and unlike some churches I can think of, Mt. Sinai has maintained these properties#, paid their taxes*, and keeps them in use for various ministries and functions. Except for the two properties bookending the 1600 block of 3rd St, the others don’t particularly stick out. One of the reasons I prefer the bus stop at 3rd and Q is that their place on that corner is somewhat populated, not as cut off and isolated as 3rd and R. Yes, the education center at 3rd and R does stick out. But after a while you get used to it.
They also, as do other Shaw churches, engage in community or local charity. Be it with their benevolence fund or the offer of free clothing. I can’t remember if they have a small food bank or not. They might not need to as the Fourth Street 7th Day Adventists, on the other side of the block has a soup kitchen on Sundays.
As they have grown from a storefront** to a full sized church with auxillary buildings, they have not turned themselves into a fortress. They have not fought neighborhood efforts to better itself, nor has it forgotten those left behind. Mt. Sinai, seems to know where it is in the community.

# 1630 3rd is listed as a vacant property and is taxed as such. From pictures of the house, it doesn’t strike me as looking vacant.
*Yes, despite being owned by the church, taxes are paid on almost all the 3rd Street properties, save but one.
** A 1950s NW area church survey classified Mt. Sinai on the 1600 blk of 3rd as a ‘storefront’ chruch.

Property Values

Well like many people I got my tax bill and my assessment. It seems that, according to the city, my house will be worth almost $10K less in 2010, compared to 2009. Oh well.
I’m not too concerned as it is not a jump but a shuffle. When I bought the house, several years ago, I’ve seen the city assessment of the value jump $50-$100K each year. This might be the first sign that the peak is over. It doesn’t however slow the 10% increase cap, which I noticed continues to go up. I bought the house before prices in the neighborhood shot up, and it is that lower value the cap was based on. That lower value has gone up about 10%.
Looking at my neighbors assessments, and really who doesn’t look at the neighbor’s assessments, the increases and decreases have been minimal on my block. Minimal as in a couple hundred dollars, $1K max, if any change.
Oh for anyone planning to fight their assessment, note that the city is placing a greater value on the land, not the house (aka improvements). So it won’t matter too much if the house next door is nicer. For some odd reason your land is worth $200K and your house is worth $100K. Same with the badly maintained rental up the street. See for yourself at the DC Assessment database.

Historic Preservation & Sex: Never underestimate the power of spite

As reported in the Sunday Washington Post, the owner of a hunting and fishing store in Old Town Alexandria wanted to expand, was told by the city he couldn’t, so he rented the space to a shop specializing in lingerie and ‘martial aids’. The then owner of the hunting & fishing shop, Michael Zarlenga, according to the Post did work with city historic preservation staff and a staff member of the Alexandria Board of Architectural Review in developing his plans for expansion of the sporting store. When the plans came up for the Board of Architectural Review to review in 2007, they rejected it The Board staff member Zarlenga was working with decided that the changes would cause an “unreasonable loss of [the] historic fabric.” The Board chairman said that the changes would have changed the roof structure.
What makes me feel badly for Zarlenga is that he was supposedly working with city staff and taking their advice and the city just strung him along. Any way the city of Alexandria was mean and made him cry. He closed his store, and until this year it was vacant. And this is where the spite comes in….
Zarlenga rented his space to an adult store, and is thinking of selling the property to them. The owners of the adult store have several other locations in NoVa and was able to get into Old Town because unlike other landlords, Zarlenga was willing to rent to them. The city of Alexandria has received complaints about the store’s presence. However, in the long run this may be much ado about nothing. The Pleasure Place, a similar establishment, in DC has two locations, both in historic districts. In addition Zarlenga has another Alexandria property, I’m not sure if it is a part of Old Town, that he’s leaving derelict and apparently patching up with duct tape. So with the adult store and the vacant property, that seems like spite.
+++++++
For clarification I am not supporting spite, nor supporting stringing people along.

Farewell to the best IKEA pot ever


IKEA, being IKEA, seems to have discontinued the bestest pot ever, their PS Fejo. A few days ago I noticed that it was not part of their 2009 catalog.
What’s so great about it? It is a self watering pot on wheels. Plastic wheels that don’t rust. Wheels that have rarely given me any problem. As I like to move my plants around in the backyard, the wheels are an important feature.
I usually drill three small holes near the bottom side of the pot, a bit above the reservoir, so I can keep them outside. The little indicator, that pops up when the reservoir is full, sometimes fails after a few seasons, bit the main thing, the wheels and the integrity of the pot is longer lasting.
So I went to IKEA and bought 5 Fejos, seeing that the College Park location had about 100 in stock.

S.O.M.E. and cleaning

I’ve been meaning to mention something I’ve noticed, and despite the rocky relationship the neighborhood has with S.O.M.E., this should be mentioned. Several weekends when I’m running errands on the eastern end of the TC and NE DC I see a gentleman in a S.O.M.E. apron pushing along a cleaning cart sweeping up the sidewalks along North Capitol. I have seen him as far as the 100-200 block of P Street.
I’ve noticed this within the past year or so. In the earlier part of the decade, residents in the Hanover region would constantly complain about S.O.M.E. One of the complaints being about S.O.M.E. meal-related trash. Shall I gather things have gotten better?