Truxton Is In Shaw

Last night I went to a function, but apparently the wrong one, and ran into [Bush cabinet member] and spouse. I met [Bush cabinet member] on my way out, after seeing through the window that folks were going into the other building to the other function that I had intended to go to. But before I could leave I had to ditch my wine glass, so I had to head back into the crowd, and then [Bush cabinet member] introduced himself, his wife and friend. He’s a charming gentleman. Thank goodness for name tags because, I was looking at his tag before and thinking “that name, that face, they look familiar.” Anyway what did I and one of the nation’s top mover and shaker talk about? Dogs and charitable giving.
I’m hoping that one day I’ll wander into a function and chat up George Clooney about fresh basil and simple pasta dishes.

RE: Queen of Sheba and Vegetate

Some neighbors are trying to get together to support economic development on 9th Street. Particularly, to maybe make contact with Shiloh Baptist Church to see if we can all work together as neighbors. According to last week’s City Paper Shiloh has been quite active in opposing the liquor licenses of the Queen of Sheba and Vegetate.
Personally, I can’t really get behind Queen of Sheba (too close to the day care) but I think we really do need an upscale, smoke-free veggie restaurant on 9th. Anyway, if you want to try to see what you can possibly do as a Shaw resident contact Rachel Cornwell @ 604 Q St by Tuesday. She has a letter of petition (see below) for folks to sign. Or you can draft your own letter, which is what I’m going to do.
If you do draft a letter keep this in mind, Shiloh is a Baptist church. As a part of being Baptist they are to refrain from the selling, distribution or promotion of alcohol. The best that we can ask for is that they just not fight neighborhood efforts of economic development. Also, in this case please be respectful, I’d like us to work with Shiloh and not make it an us vs them battle.

Rev. Dr. Wallace Charles Smith
Senior Pastor
Shiloh Baptist Church
9th and P Streets NW
Washington, DC 20001

Dear Rev. Smith,

We are residents of the historic Shaw neighborhood where your church is located, and we have read the articles about the conflict between your church and the proprietors of Queen of Sheba and Vegetate restaurants. We are truly grateful for the presence of Shiloh Baptist Church in Shaw, your concerns for this neighborhood, and your long-standing outreach ministry to Shaw residents. We share your concern for this neighborhood and its development. We view Shiloh Baptist Church as a partner in the redevelopment of Shaw.

However, we are excited to see new businesses coming to the neighborhood, especially sit-down restaurants. We view these restaurants not as negative influences on the neighborhood, but as gathering places where community can be fostered. In our view, they are a great improvement over abandoned buildings.

We respect your church’s long history in this neighborhood. Therefore, we request that a representative group from our neighborhood have the chance to meet with you, to hear your concerns about these restaurants, and to hear your vision for the future of Shaw. We would also like to share with you our concerns and hopes for this place we call home. Please contact Rachel Cornwell at 202-***-**** (604 Q Street NW) to make arrangements for a meeting that suits your schedule.

Sincerely,

Comments are closed. If you want to comment email me.

BACA meeting
There was a Bates Area Civic Assoc meeting, but I wasn’t there. Anyone care to tell me the highlights?

If this keeps up I’m changing the title and posting less…
Okay I have not seen the office of the firm Crack, Smak, & Hoe set up on the corner lately. Before the Summer they would have the corner, with associates sitting on chairs and milk crates conducting their pharmaceutical business. I sort of suspect that they have moved their operation a bit off the corner to the middle of the block where I don’t see them. Or they are just more mobile, because I sense a drug dealing element. Am I wrong?

Speaking of Crack
We haven’t seen our block’s resident crackhead in about a month. But I have faith that if she has left, Gemma (evil lawyer/landlady) will put in another Section 8’er with issues. In this I hope I am wrong. I hope she rents out the place to a nice little old couple or a hard working mother and elementary aged kid. Would Gemma sell instead? I wish.

Barry
Marion on taxes. I can totally support him as a candidate with his ‘no taxation without representation’ platform.

TC will be having a happy hour (no discounts on booze) Friday. Click here for more info (you must be registered to Truxton Circle.Org).

From an e-mail

Hello All,

This is as serious campaign effort. We need 1,000 people to sign-up as soon as possible– especially since Jim Graham is holding a hearing on October 11th to strengthen rent control and to introduce the “Right of Tenants to Organize Act. Ask five to 10 of your friends who rent in the District to visit www.tenac.org and pass this e-mail along. Signing-up to support this campaign is urgent between now and October 11th and we need your help. There’s power in numbers. For those of you who are getting this message again, I apologize, but we need your support!

Thanks,

Jacqueline

Earlier, before Tony announced that he was not going to run I noticed a lot of green Fenty signs in people’s yards. Time passed, Cropp threw her hat in the ring, and the mayor elected not to run a 3rd term. Now I’m seeing a fair number of red Linda Cropp signs (way better than the stupid black “Think Cropp” signs). What’s funny though is that I’ve noticed that some of the yards in Shaw that once sported Fenty green have gone Cropp red.
Regardless, it is still way too early for all of this.

For news about what’s going on in the eastern end of Shaw I recommend that you check out Truxton Circle particularly the Daily Dispatch. There is some news in the Dispatch about the Giant on O Street and how it is going to be something…. Of course they said that last year and had no solid plans. But something must be done because I’m reading on the Mount Vernon Sq. Listserv about how many new units are supposed to get built down and around there, such as the Yale laundry, and I’m thinking, where are these people going to do their grocery shopping? I bet they’ll all want to shop Saturday morning when I’m shopping. Long lines at that Giant ain’t pretty and I can’t keep trying to get out the house earlier and earlier just to avoid the crowds.
Also, SunTrust bank was robbed. From the Logan Circle Listserv:

Business Owners and Neighbors,
This makes the fourth business in two weeks, Candida’s Bookstore, at 14th & Q, the Subway on New Hampshire, Barber Shop at 14th & T, and now Suntrust right across from Ben’s Chili Bowl. These are the robberies that we know of that has been the subject of an armed robbery. The robberies have occurred from 11:00am 9:00 pm.
–Scott Pomeroy

In other news I ran into B&L (not to be confused with BL or B.) and someone wants to build a small handful condos on that empty lot on Richardson Place, but needs a zoning variance. All I can think is more people, crowding the Giant. We’ll see how this develops.

Lastly, My Mayor, Tony, Tony, Tony isn’t running for a 3rd term. Now it is just 2 bald guys, 2 chicks and citrus fruit running. I don’t know how much will get done by the DC Council with 3 members trying to outdo each other and undercut each other just so they can look good enough to replace Tony. Any guesses of who it will come down to? I say Cropp vs Fenty.

After 2 glasses of wine and a deep thoughtful reading of the DCist post and comments on Saint Ex’s ruling against popped collars I issue this: no more baby hipsters in Shaw.
Street credits- you can not pick up Shaw street credits or “street cred” in Shaw. We don’t issue these credits. Unlike the rocks for jocks class you went to, you don’t get credit for just showing up. Want credit? Hang out on Martin Luther King Ave/Blvd/St in any town, doesn’t have to be DC, could be BFE, GA. But if you find a MLK street hang out there, call your friends and you’ll get credit when you ‘get’ what I’m referencing. About .005 st. creds.
Please I beg you stop using my ‘hood to boost your sense of self worth or hipness or what ever because face it, you’re just gonna turn around and leave me for some newer younger prettier neighborhood with better parking. And all you guys ever care about is parking. And, you know, you’ll be all like, “You used to be cool. You changed. You’re not the same neighborhood I knew. Blah, blah, blah.” The only thing Shaw can be is Shaw. We can’t go around trying to make you hipsters happy by being locked in some time warp of ‘used to be’, you gotta like this hood for what it is now. Baby, things change, people change. If you think this thing we got going is all played out, then I guess we’re played out and we got to go our separate ways.
Call me.

Okay this has happened twice on my way to the Shaw metro. There is a green jeep with Maryland plates (M46something 46…)that keeps running through the light at 6th and R. Tuesday, he stopped at the red light and once I passed, he went right through it. Light was still red. Dude, the red light is not like a stop sign where you go after looking both ways, it means stop and stay stopped until the light turns green.
I’ve seen this reinterpretation of the red light at R and New Jersey too. When it happened I really wanted to scream to the on coming traffic “Hit Him!” A 1970s-ish car was sitting on R waiting to cross NJ, when he just. couldn’t. wait. no. more. and crossed despite still being red.
These are not matters of running red lights because it’s too late to stop, no these are cases where the drivers stop and decide that the wait is too long and they need to go through. It also could be a problem with R Street.
So if anyone gets into a car accident with a green jeep, Maryland tags, I’ll be your witness.

From Jim
Neighbors,

I write to make a serious appeal for you to consider the purchase of a ticket to the Fifth District Citizens’ Advisory Council’s Awards Banquet this year and, if possible, the purchase of an advertisement in the souvenir journal that is being produced in association with the event.

I know that I run the risk of wearing out your patience by making this appeal, as there have been a series of announcements concerning the banquet conveyed to you by myself and others in the recent past. But, in my best judgment, the importance of our part of Ward Five making a significant showing at this event has the potential of substantially elevating our status on the city’s political map and it would say to the Metropolitan Police Department as well as to other existing “powers that be” in our ward that what I call “the sleeping giant” is finally awakening to assert
itself.

I would be the first to admit that the services we receive from the Fifth District Police have not always been up to par and, frankly, there is a rare person in this community that has complained about this situation to MPD authorities more vocally and consistently than me over the years.
Nevertheless, there are those within the Fifth District Police who work hard
to protect and serve we citizens of the District of Columbia and it is largely this group of officers whom we will honor on October 20, 2005.

In my considered view, by honoring those who work hard on our behalf we show our appreciation for their efforts and the secondary gain that we are likely to glean from the situation will be to encourage those who may not be currently as committed as we would like, to step up their efforts so as to meet the established and expected standard.

Importantly, the team of 5D CAC members who have taken responsibility for organizing this year’s banquet are residents of ANC 5C. In this regard, we could use this event to show our counterparts in other more stable, established and (politically) empowered sections of Ward Five that our talent pool is as skilled, gifted and rich as any other neighborhood in this city and that the traditional expectation that we will or should take a “back seat” to communities like [snipped by InShaw for sniping], must change and change now!

If we want it to be, it is just as easy to support a cause as it is to oppose or complain about one. In this instance, I urge you to support this activity. If you can purchase a ticket or two to the event that would be excellent. If you find that you have a scheduling conflict on this date, I encourage you to purchase the tickets and to donate them to be used by the honorees and their spouses (who will be attending the affair free of charge).

I know that some of us have agreed to place an advertisement in the souvenir journal in the name of the Bates Area Civic Association, Inc. and at the last meeting of ANC 5C, a number of commissioners agreed to chip in to do the same. If you own a business, are in a private practice, or work for a company that could use some publicity, I encourage you to purchase an ad the size of a business card (at a minimum). Or, if you would like to get together with some of your neighbors to purchase larger space to simply congratulate the honorees, that would be laudable also.

In short, it would make a serious statement to the MPD and other political leaders and figures around the town, if there were two or three tables each of residents from Truxton Circle/Shaw East, Bloomingdale, Eckington, Edgewood, Hanover, as well as the Stronghold, and if the souvenir journal reflected the strong presence of advertisements from residents of these neighborhoods. In my 20+ years of living in the community, it would be a first. And, if it is truly our goal to empower ourselves in Ward Five and in Washington, DC politically, the awards banquet represents the kind of ward-wide event that can reflect how serious and committed we are to this cause.

I have attached several pieces of information to this email that will help you to understand how to purchase a ticket as well as an advertisement in support of the banquet. If you have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me so that I can try to answer them or get an answer for you.
To make the transaction convenient for you, I will deliver tickets to or pick up ads from your home — just let me know. Please note that tickets will not be available at the door on the date of the affair.

I know we can do this! I think we will do this! How about you?

Best,

Jim Berry
ANC 5C
Attached file:
5 DCAC 2005 Awards Outreach Packet