Category: Uncategorized

Big Bear Beer?

I noticed this in the announcement for today’s BACA meeting:

(b) Ms. Elizabeth Lyttleton, an Eckington resident who provides occasional consulting services to Big Bear Café, asked for time on our agenda to apprise our group of the status of the cafe’s current efforts to acquire a license from the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. I am advised that Ms. Lyttleton developed a scheduling conflict that won’t allow her to attend Monday’s meeting in person; however, she plans to identify someone else to make her expected presentation and to answer any questions that it might generate.

TODAY! 7PM Mt. Sinai Baptist Church, in the basement cafeteria.

Taxes

Let’s get personal at first, then we’ll get real.
In my general tradition I have finished my personal federal and DC taxes in the last week of February. I sort of did my federal taxes during the blizzard of 2010, but as always, there are forms and papers that trickle in the mail reminding me of donations and income I’ve completely forgotten about. But once you’ve done your federal taxes you can file your DC individual taxes on-line, for free. To do so you will need your federal Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) you entered on your 2008 DC tax return (form D-40EZ, line 3 or form D-40, line 3). If you didn’t file last year in DC then you can’t use the on-line feature. A quick review of my taxes (I used H&R Block’s software) shows that I could have donated more to charity, and put more in my retirement plan.
My biggest tax break came from real estate. I paid somewhere around 11K or 13K in mortgage interest, which knocked about 2K off in personal taxes. Maybe I can use that savings to make up for the noticeable jump in real estate taxes levied by the District.
If you haven’t got your assessment, be prepared. You know that 10% cap? Yeah, forget about it. There’s now a minimum tax floor, 40% of the assessed value of the home. Not even the senior citizens’ are safe. I noticed they’re getting hit with the same floor, so not so great news for granny. But on the plus side, it does make some problem houses have an incentive to sell.
My own feelings about it are mixed. I liked having a lower tax rate because I bought before the RE boom but at the same time the low tax was like a pair of golden shackles. The tax was a great incentive not to even think of moving. But as certain things in my life change, and I can anticipate that my housing needs may change, making the tax difference from one house to another a minor factor, frees me up to ponder living elsewhere, even if that elsewhere is down the block or off in PG.

I'm just saying


R St and NJ
Originally uploaded by In Shaw

1701 NJ Ave NW is up for sale, again. I swore I’ve seen this place pop up everyso often. Even though there is an open house for this it’s priced at a 2008 “make me move” price, $729K . Considering a more spacious and private home across the street at 1718 NJ Ave sold for less than $600K (with parking, small back yard and a separate rental unit), it’s not signaling that the owners are in any hurry to move.
During our last big snowstorm the owners had their own private walkways shoveled but failed to make any effort to shovel at least one of their sidewalks. Amazingly, the shoveling went about 1 foot past the front gate and stopped about 5-6 inches from the neighbor’s sidewalk shoveling efforts, creating something very uneven. The rear of the house is nothing but parking, and whomever was hired to shovel the driveway parking and just enough of the alley for a car, dumped some of the ice right in front of the path of the unshoveled sidewalk. Bad, enough not to shovel the sidewalk, but to dump and block, that’s bad.

Please secure your rear

I just came from a unrewarding task. While putting my trash can away I noticed not 1, not 2, but about 4 home security issues of concern that could result in a break in or theft from a home or yard. Now if it was just one house, I would go to that person’s house and knock on their door and point out that their back gate latch is unlatched, their rear security door (iron door) is wide open or any of the other concerns I noticed. But with 4, screw it. I’m just doing one and that one, the person wasn’t at home. I left a note.
I’m not repeating it with 3 more houses.
So folks I know the snow probably kept you out of your back yard and away from your alley access. Well the alleys are mostly walkable now and wood warps (why your back fence gate is open), so check your rear.

BACA block captains wanted

There is a workshop for folks interesting in becoming block captains on March 11 from 7-9PM at the 5th District police headquarters. I gather the goal is to improve the safety of the community. If interested please contact Jim Berry at jamojam at msn periodthingy com. Ask about the car pool.

A gold plated DC education

My friend Nathan of DC Education Blog is back and blogging and reports here and here, that DCPS spends about $28,000 a student. Not that each student gets $28,000 worth of school, books, facilities, teachers, as there is the court ordered Special Education which costs more.
I took a look at the numbers, which is almost pointless because I don’t do math. The libertarian Cato Institute’s look at the numbers are in this Excel spreadsheet. Which somehow led me to the audited enrollment for DC Schools because I wanted to know the number of students behind those numbers which I don’t really comprehend. Something else I wanted to understand but didn’t see numbers were comparisons of how much per student was spent in NoVa or PG or Montgomery counties.

Marion Barry

Marion has mojo, a particular political mojo that allows him to get away with anything. If you could bottle his mojo it would be as valuable as that unobtainium stuff in the movie Avatar. It would make any politician invincible, so they can sleep with anyone, not bother with federal taxes, be sloppy with city funds and be a shoo in around election time. If you could bottle his power, you can rule the world, or Ward 8.

A few things revisited

a grocery store in ne
On the Eckington listserv there is all this back and forth about the old Safeway and hoped for replacement. Please take the Harris Teeter off the list. According to an old press release HT is scheduled to open Winter 2010/2011. According to a recent DCMUD post (hat tip eckington blog), that date could be November 2010.
Honestly Eckington/Edgewood area, I don’t see what that area has to attract the kind of store y’all think you deserve. The two favorites according to Debbie Smith’s poll were Trader Joe’s (which tends to like small spaces with hidden parking) and Wegmans. What no Balducci’s? I left the Logan Circle are a few months after the Whole Foods opened, and from what I remember the civic authorities of that area showed how the population of Logan/Shaw (and Dupont) could support a Whole Foods. The Soviet Safeway, the O Street Giant, and the no-name grocery in the area were no competition for the kind of shopper that would support WF. If y’all can prove that a national or regional grocery chain can thrive there despite a Giant nearby that happens to be very convenient to a metro station with many buses, go for it.

and regarding sidewalks and the problems for those in wheelchairs (from Scott Roberts list)

See this 2/17/2010 message from ANC 5C04 Commissioner John Salatti:

Bloomingdale does it again: another resident is helped!

Once again, Bloomingdale residents have shown their concern for their neighbors and done it with more than just words. This past weekend I heard from Angela xxxxxxx who uses a motorized wheelchair to get to and from college in Rockville, MD. She makes that daily trip using Metro. That trip is long and difficult on the best of days (Angela has some hairy stories of having to drive her wheelchair down Michigan Avenue from the Brookland Metro Station when the buses have not run), her trip became impossible after the snow storm because she could travel barely 20 feet from her property before the sidewalk became impassable for her wheelchair.

After meeting with Angela and hearing her situation and what she needs to go back to school, I called on a number of residents for a major operation: get Angela from her home in the xxxx block of Flagler Place to the bus stop at North Capitol and W Street, about a third of mile. And once again Bloomingdale responded. Many, many thanks to Sara Kaufman and Mike McNeil of the Unit block of W Street, and Dodd Naiser, Alastair Pakiam, and Brandon Skall of Flagler Place for joining me to widen the path on the sidewalk and for chopping out a lot of ice so that Angela could make her way safely to the bus stop and back. We went with her on a test drive back and forth. She couldn’t believe that people would do so much to help her.

Thanks everyone!

Please clear the sidewalks.

Owner of 304 Q Seeks Zoning Variance


100_0691.JPG
Originally uploaded by In Shaw

Anyone know what this is about?
I just noticed “Zoning Variance for Renovation of 304 Q Street, NW ……Jason Bonnet, owner (5c01)” as an agenda item on the ANC 5C agenda. If there is a zoning application it isn’t on the BZA schedule as far as I can tell. Good lord knows I don’t want to go to the ANC meeting just to find out. But on the other hand, if there is a plan to squeeze a bunch of people into a smaller space than is suitable for the neighborhood, then that needs to quashed asap.