Category: Uncategorized

Slummy history

Okay I think I now know what direction I want to go with my blogging. I have been thinking of ending InShaw, as we know it, sometime next year. Well I might just put InShaw in semi-retirement, just reporting on the TC side of things and things close to the TC borders. What I may replace it with is good old Shaw history since I’m finding the stuff I find so friggin interesting.
I’m not talking Victoriana or great people history. I don’t subscribe too much to the idea that history is a glorifying narrative, nah. To me it is an explanation of why this world is broken, and screwed up. Why my house was designed by crackheads. We hear the phrase ‘we read about history so that we may learn from it’, well this is what I’m learning, and I enjoy sharing it with you.
Looking for more info on the Shaw School Urban Renewal Plan, I found a master’s thesis from M.I.T. “The influence of meaningful citizen participation on the urban renewal process and the renewal of the inner-city’s black community: a case study – Washington, D.C.’s Shaw School urban renewal area – MICCO, a unique experiment.” by Reginald Wilbert Griffith, written in 1969. I want to thank MIT for putting out those papers that normally only 5 people tops (10 people for PhD dissertations) would ever see, because it is a jewel, even though it is a quite biased bit of work, or “limited objectivity on the part of the author,…”
The PDF file MIT provides to non-MIT people doesn’t allow printing, but it is worth the read for two bits that I found enlightening. One was a late 1960s description of the area on page 20:

The Shaw School area, named after an aged and dilapidated junior high school known as ‘Shameful Shaw’ is third in terms of the evolution of communities in the District of Columbia and was the fifth blighted section of Washington to be studied and the latest to be approved, for urban renewal. It was planned from a ‘black community’ and ‘advocacy planning’ point of view.

And on page 15, the author mentions “Concentrations and/or differences in land uses, physical conditions and building types, income property ownership and race coupled with identifiable places of community activity, all combine to suggest several communities within the Shaw area (see map 3).” However, he doesn’t try to name them, which I found frustrating.

Walking & Water Aerobics

From Jim:
Neighbors,

For the fifth consecutive evening over the course of the past three weeks, a number of residents of the area walked 1.5 miles around the community. Specifically, the group meets at the corner of 3rd and Q Street, N.W., in front of Mount Sinai Baptist Church, every Tuesday and Thursday at 6:30 p.m. to begin their walk. If you are interested in participating in this exercise regimen, please mark your calendar and show up on any Tuesday and/or Thursday to join us.

On a parallel track, efforts are being made to determine whether there is enough interest among residents of the area to also organize a water aerobics class one or two evenings per night at Dunbar Senior High School, New Jersey Avenue and O Street, N.W. If you would be interested in participating in such a class, please send me an email at jamojam at msn.com. If we get the critical mass of interested folks that is needed to start a class, then we will identify an instructor and attempt to implement this program within the next 30 days.

Here’s to your good health!

Best,

Jim Berry
Bates Area Civic Association, Inc.

Renovation 2007: Whoo, hoo, drywall and insulation


I went back to the house Monday to pick up an ingredient from the kitchen* and noticed there was something a little different. Hey, insulation! Work continues, despite waiting on the plumbing inspector. The electrical inspection was fine so there was no need to keep the wires exposed, however I noticed that the piping for plumbing was still visible.
So there looks like R-15 insulation along the problem party wall. So hopefully that will deal with any exotic smells and noise. When I ventured upstairs to see if they did anything up there, I saw the crawlspace with insulation, and lots of drywall in place.
It is now amazing to see the rooms with drywall . I can see how small the 2nd bedroom/ study/ walk-in closet/ whatever is going to be. I had planned to have made it smaller, and I’m glad my contractor convinced me otherwise.
This project is moving along quite quickly. Well, it has been going in fits and starts. Last week was a lot of nothing, waiting on the inspector and letting the plumber do his thing. At some point I’ll be getting my pine floor back. It will need to be sanded, so another layer of dust on top of the dust that already covered the kitchen.

*Almost everything is covered in a thick layer of dust or dirt in the one room I thought they wouldn’t need to touch.

BAA meeting

|—————————————–|
| Blagden Alley Association |
| Monthly Meeting |
| |
| THURSDAY, May 24, 2007 |
| 7:00-8:30 pm |
| Paul and Nez’s |
| 932 O Street Street, NW |
|—————————————–|

The newsletter is at

http://www.pro-messenger.com/Blagden/Monthly%20Pages/2007%20Monthly%20Pages/BAN_2007_05_P1.html

Topics:
1. Jack Evans. Ward II City Council.
2. Christopher Ziemann, DC DOT Ward II Planner.
3. Walnut Street development at 917 M Street.
4. New liquor on Ninth Street?.
5. Police.
6. More.

Note: BYOB, Ice, cups for yourself and others. This is al freco,
and very nice.

Home Depot as a labor site

Okay I am wondering if I haven’t been observant, but this weekend I and my hosts went out to the Home Despot on Rhode Island Ave and nearly got mobbed by Latino laborers. When did this HD become a labor site?
I could have sworn that I’ve been to that HD before, in the morning, mid-day but mostly after work, when it first opened and years after and I don’t remember seeing a small crowd of laborer before. Did another labor site close somewhere and the demand switched over to the HD that never seems to have the small specific part you want? Well, it is a metro-accessible site, I guess that’s a plus in its favor. But really, anyone know?

Renovation 2007: Radiators

I am keeping my radiators. I love my radiators.
During this renovation the radiators have been moved around and are no longer sitting right up on the walls. I figured this was an excellent time to remove the several layers of paint on them. So I spent an afternoon stripping the paint off of them with a heat gun and a metal scrapper.
I know the top layer of paint was good old latex paint, as it was the same color of paint that covered the whole house. However, that bottom layer, the layer above the rust colored metal…. I don’t know what the heck that was, and it was a pain to get off. The latex bubbled a little but the paint under it just had to be burned off. Which then made me wonder if taking a flaming torch to the blasted thing would make my job easier. However, the risk of burning down the house, greater.
While I was scraping I was wondering about the history of the radiators in the house. Wondering when were they put in, were they painted then? Were they new or some old used ones the landlord dug up from somewhere? Then who put on the first coat of paint, and did that paint have lead? That’s the question that made me hunt the job site for a facial mask.

Renovation 2007: Inspections & Miss. Cel Lany

Well my contractor called and said that the electrical inspection passed. Yay. And because they can’t do anything until the plumbing inspection there has been a lull in the amount of work they are doing at the house. Meaning, no one is around when say the plumbing inspector drops by. So there was a big red sticker (not orange but red) on the door saying that the plumbing inspector was by and there was no one to let him in. So that holds back the work until sometime next week when the contractor will wait around the house for the city inspector to come by and look at the plumbing.
The plumbing looks, interesting. He’s using plastic or pvc or whatever the heck that is, instead of copper in some spots. I guess that saves me money, considering the price of copper. The radiator lines do have copper.
Once the plumbing inspection goes through then they will begin the dizzying fast paced work of insulating and sticking up drywall. That’s when the walls will seem more real and I get closer to moving back into my house.
****
On the TC front it looks like the grant for the Hanover Civic people and their Truxton Circle confirming beautification project will go through. I say, looks like. Given that the city already calls the area Truxton Circle and the Hanover people need the money and a few of us sent letters in support of the Hanover grant, I think we should be good.
****
In the Shaw history research area I went to look for Shaw, Washington’s premier Black neighborhood : an examination of the origins and development of a Black business movement, 1880-1920 by Michael Fitzpatrick at the MLK and it is lost. It might be misfiled but it wasn’t behind the desk, like it was supposed to be. Nor was it on the shelf in the Washingtonia room. Confronted with this problem, I decided to leave the MLK, hop on the yellow line and go to VA to buy shoes. Cloth flats totally make up for a disappointing research outing.

Blagden Alley alert

|————————————————-|
| Blagden Alley Association |
| |
| See the |
| Washington Post Article |
| Today, concerning |
| The proposed charter school |
| as 1234 Ninth Street |
|————————————————-|

There is an article in the WaPo today
on the proposed charter school
that we have all been tracking for the last few years.

See

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/16/AR2007051603207.html

In particular, the article has

Last night’s decision came too late for SAIL, whose board of directors voted two weeks ago to close its upper school, affecting students in grades 8 to 11. SAIL, which also serves students in kindergarten through seventh grade, had to move out of its location on H Street NW, where the older students were.

Because SAIL could not settle on financing for its new facility on Ninth Street NW and the Fletcher-Johnson option was still pending, its board of directors decided
two weeks ago to sell the Ninth Street property and close the upper school.

(The above is also in the deadtree version of today’s WaPo.)

Also, don’t forget the meeting on the 24th with Jack Evans.
–>The start for the meeting will be 7:00, not 7:30

More details in this weekend’s email and newsletter.