Category: Uncategorized

You can’t always get whacha wannnahant

…but if you try sometime
you just might find
you get what you need

Richard Layman has a pretty good post over on his blog RPiUS, “Retail you want vs the retail the market can support”. It is something to think about, particularly when we talk improving our commercial strip (N.Cap) options. Richard sorta makes another point in the comments about retail vs office in taxes and leasing and how beauty salons and offices have it easier (in terms of revenue) than retail.
I know what I want, I’m quite sure I won’t really get it, and I’m relatively happy with what I got. I think, I hope we wander in enough to support the Big Bear so that it is worth it as a business venture. There are concerns about the Bloomingdale & TC hoods being able to support both the Bear and Windows, and as much, as much as I would love to have another coffee shop like place pop up in the near vicinity, I don’t know if we could keep it. I eye the slight changes on New Jersey Ave over on the corner of R and in that little strip mall where G&G sits, and wonder what’s that going to be. On the 1500 blk of NJ they’ve removed the signs and whatnot from the old art deco store that did not survive. I don’t know if something is going to go in soon or if they are cleaning it up to make it attractive to potential businesses. A little farther down on R St, the old dry cleaners was getting cleaned out, maybe it’s something, maybe nothing. Whatever goes in, I hope it is something that the area can support and something that would be an asset to the neighborhood.

Book drive

Too many books taking up too much room at home?

This week you can do something about it—and help benefit local kids in need!

First Book, a nonprofit organization, has teamed up with the Veterans of Foreign Wars, SunTrust Bank and SunTrust Mortgage to host a book drive in Washington , DC up through this Sunday, September 23rd. The drive will enable First Book to achieve its mission of providing children in low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. Social venture company Better World Books will sell the books online and First Book will use the proceeds to bring thousands of new books to children in need in the DC community.

Between now and this Sunday, September 23rd, you can drop off your used books at DC SunTrust locations, or, if you don’t live in the area, donate them by following the instructions on our webpage: www.firstbook.org/betterworld. This site also provides guidelines on which kinds of books are most helpful.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Thank you,

Erin

Erin Tyler
Campus Advisory Board Manager
First Book
1319 F Street, NW
Suite 1000
Washington DC, 20004
Phone: 866-393-1222, ext. 109
Fax: 202-628-1258
etyler AT firstbook.org
IM: ErinatFB
www.firstbook.org

Slummy history: 1944

In my occasion search to find the earliest time the neighborhood was started to be called by it’s school border’s name, Shaw, I find stuff. So in the March 11, 1944 issue of the Washington Post, an article titled “Alley Dwellers in Slum Areas Sordid, Senate Group Hears.” It begins, “sordid conditions in the slum area in the heart of Washington– streets on which it was decent women feared for their safety and ‘real men’ avoided to escape prostitutes…” The Thomas C.R. Gray the then president of the East Central Civic Association, which claimed its borders as 3rd St NE, FL Ave, 7th St NW, and Mass Ave, testified to the deplorable housing conditions of alley houses with no heat, no indoor plumbing, no bathtubs, no electricity, and infested with vermin.
Along with poor housing, there was crime. Prostitutes on Pierce St, in Glicks Alley & on Fenton Ct, and some sort of dangerous condition (not really stated clearly in the article) along the east side of 7th St between L & O Sts.

Home Rule

For work, I’m trying to get a better understanding of Home Rule. Not the cool store on 14th, but the District of Columbia getting more control over local functions that were run/directed by the Federal government. The District of Columbia Self-Government and Reorganization Act of 1973 (Public Law 93-198, 93rd Congress, S. 1435, 12/24/1973) was the thing that gave us Home Rule. Home Rule as in getting a city elected mayor (before, they were appointed) and city council. Also in the period of Home Rule we got our beloved Advisory Neighborhood Commissions in 1975, boundaries established and the system started in 1975, ANCs got elected the following year.
Though I’m not seeing a direct 1 to 1, it seems that ANCs replaced the old civic/citizen association role. The civic/citizen associations were the neighborhood level (there were also block groups, but that’s too small) advocacy groups.

References:
“Civic groups vie with neighborhood commissions” Washington Post, Walterene Swanston: Jul 21, 1977. (p. DC-6)

Lunchbreak history: The Big Bear

I’m calling this lunchbreak history as this is something I can churn out on my lunchbreak. Anyway, somewhere on the Big Bear site, which has now disappeared (as the right hand column, with the history, was not there when I went there last) was a history of the Big Bear Cafe, which was the Big Bear Market, and that sort of was the history. So that inspired me to wander down to the library in the building and check out the city directories.
1919 was the first year I grabbed. The index by street is available in earlier years, but I can’t remember how early. Anyway, in 1919 at 1700 1st there was a man by the name of Earnest D. Thorne, and he was a grocer.
Second book, was 1930 and the next guy at 1700 1st NW was Oscar Bernard Diskin. He was also a grocer. I looked for a Big Bear Market, but none was listed.
The last book I grabbed because well, lunch is nearly over, was 1967. At 1700 1st Street NW was the Fairway Market Grocers, telephone number DU7-7969. I did see a listing for a Big Bear Market in 1967, listed at 1018 North Capitol owned by Jack Mehlman. Well Big Bear Cafe, sounds way more interesting than Fairway Cafe, so I’m glad it eventually became the Bear. I wonder if Big Bear Market moved to 1st Street or if it is just a coincidence? The directories go up to 1970something. However, lunch over, back to work.

Are we there yet?

In the 50s-60s the Feds and locals came up with the Shaw School Urban Renewal Area (SSURA) plan. My question, it being 2007 and all, well I was wondering, are we done yet? Has Shaw been urbanly renewed? Or is it one of those government things that will never die and 30 years from now Shaw will still be renewing? Is there a DC neighborhood that has been renewed and the authors of it have placed their hands on their hips, struck a profile, and announced that their work is now done? If so did they get what they planned for?

DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS ANNOUNCES FREE GRAFFITI REMOVAL VOUCHER

(Washington, DC) The DC Department of Public Works announced
September 7 its Graffiti Removal Voucher Program for District
residents and business owners whose property has been defaced by
graffiti. Beginning Monday, September 10, they may call the Citywide
Call Center at 202.727.1000 to obtain a voucher to be redeemed at
McCormick Paints located at 15th and P Streets, NW and Duron Paints
located at 14th and Clifton Streets, NW.

The paint store will match the color of the paint of the property and
will provide property owners with paint, primer, a brush, roller,
pan, drop cloth and graffiti scrubs free of charge.

The voucher program is part of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s aggressive
graffiti abatement plan, announced in June 2007, which will allow the
city to remove graffiti on private property more quickly and help
property owners remove graffiti themselves.

“Offering property owners the voucher for paint and other materials
is a fast way to remove graffiti, which is a rising problem in our
city,” said DPW Director William O. Howland, Jr. “The voucher
program also will relieve some of the financial burden that causes
residential and business property owners to delay removing the
graffiti themselves. Not only will this program help to keep our
city cleaner, it will help us keep it safer.”

For more information, or to receive a graffiti removal voucher, call
the Citywide Call Center at 202.727.1000. Property owners should
expect to receive the voucher within five days of making the request,
and they will need to sign the voucher when they redeem it at the
paint store.

# # #

Linda Grant
Public Information Officer
DC Department of Public Works
2000 14th Street, NW, 6th Floor
Washington, DC 20009
202/671-2375/ desk
202/497-1080/ cell
202/671-0642/ fax
www.dpw.dc.gov

BACA meeting 9/10

I’ll get my skimpy notes up later on the super secret site later. Yet there are two things I want to address.
Just for the love of G-d say no to chain emails.
The email the woman mentioned prior to the official start of the meeting, I believe is a hoax. But this one has the anti-illegal immigrant flava crystals. Warning emails like this are half the time false, clog up inboxes, and only serve to unsettle the receiver’s nerves. Not like we don’t have enough crime in our own little section of the world to worry about much less some story in another time zone.


Churches need to better publicize their local mission work.
Attending the BACA meeting was the pastor of Mt. Sinai. Mt. Sinai Baptist Church has been hosting the BACA and back when the PSA meetings since as long as I can remember. And the pastor asked the tiny assembly what the church could do to help the community (in addition to keep allowing BACA to meet). A fair amount of discussion was on social services and there was some back and forth with the Ward 5 representatives from the mayor and Mr. Thomas’ office, regarding a person the govt people are trying to find help for.
In that discussion I found out about some of the services that some of us could refer folks to in dire need.
Shelter– The church has a men’s shelter in the neighborhood with a handful of beds and it is staffed by a church volunteer. They used to have a women’s shelter but that apparently had too many complex issues (children, family, spouses, etc) and they just did not have the volunteers.
Clothes closet– You’ve seen it though the window. Free clothes to anyone who asks. There are no regular hours, but if you go to the educational center on R and 3rd or call the church office at 202 667-1833 or get a staff person at the church building who can call the person with the keys and let the person who needs it come in and pick out what they need.
Food pantry– Like the clothes closet.
Benevolence Committee There are funds to help with utility bills of persons in need. There are some questions the applicant needs to answer. Also one does not need to be a member of Mt. Sinai to request the help of the Benevolence Committee, but if the person is a member of another church community, Mt. Sinai would ask that the other church be asked first. It seems that Ebeneezer Baptist on the unit block of Q, also has a similar Benevolence fund.
I want to state that I know most of you reading this blog won’t probably ever need to use the church’s services, but from time to time bump into other residents who do need emergency food, clothing or a little help with the light bill.
There are plenty of churches…. plenty…and a mosque, around here that I know offer a hodgepodge of social services that can be tapped by those of our neighbors’ in need, it just that we don’t know or are not sure how they operate. There are also the odd program sponsored or hosted by churches that people of various income levels, such as AA meetings, Girl Scouts (yummmm cookies) and Boy Scouts.
Since I’m on hodgepodge, I believe the church on the 1200 blk of New Jersey Avenue on the Ward 2 side, offers a free breakfast. Or at least did offer a free weekday prayer (okay not completely free if prayer is costly) breakfast. And the 4th St 7th Day Advents on the 1600 blk of 4th has an early morning breakfast (with sermon) for the homeless/hungry on Sunday to feed a handful of people. The Korean Protestants at 4th and R offer free legal help.

Shaw Clean up

Please post info to your blog about this week’s upcoming Shaw Monthly Clean Up!

We are very excited to continue our Shaw Monthly Clean Up into its second month. The August turn-out was great with around 15 people and we hope to have even more this time around.

We will be focusing on the upper 9th street corridor. Activities will include working with Shaw Main Streets to plant flowers into newly installed treeboxes, picking up litter, and general street clean ups.

The specifics of the event:
When: 9 AM, Saturday, September 15th
Where: Meetup at 9th & Q streets NW (Park Area)
Why: To clean up the community, meet people, do good!
Bring: Gloves are good. Water is good.
What will be provided: Clean up tongs, trash bags, volunteer vests, a few extra gloves will be on hand.
Current weather forecast: Partly cloudy, high of 76f.

Please forward this to any other interested bloggers!

See you there
Jason