Truxton Is In Shaw

The City Paper has an article on a fellow who want to open up an establishment at 9th and P. Across the street from the Shiloh Baptist Church. Shiloh, understandably as a Baptist church is blocking it.
Now I’m keeping this short because I have family members who trek all the way from MD to go to Shiloh….
But really!

“The very idea that rampant restaurant, lounge, bar, nightclubs are what are [sic] youth need to see is a total insult to this historic African American Community,” wrote Johnny Howard, chair of Shiloh’s Board of Deacons in an Aug. 9 letter regarding Vegetate.

Oh yeah the vacant and shoddy looking church owned properties that have been shoddy for as long as I can remember, are uplifting to the neighborhood youths. I shudder to think what would be if Shiloh owned the Carter G. Woodson house, also along 9th. Also, according to the article, something will be happening to the properties in the next 6 months. Hey anyone want to take a bet that in 7 months it will be the same old same old?
Now I don’t think the problem is simply that Shiloh is a church. There are other church bodies that keep their properties up and make them lucrative investment, no I think the problem relates to the fact that many of tparishionersers don’t live in Shaw. What is it to them if a row of buildings stand idle when you only have to see it once a week? I mean [sarcasm] who are we to tell them what to do with their property?[/sarcasm].
Comment policy- email me for this one.

Okay, so you’re two badass guys from the burbs and you want to come in the city to do some slumming. Well, don’t get off at the Shaw/Howard station ’cause there’s nothing here. Really.
Last night after coming from a late lecture downtown I spotted two white males, mid twenties, long khaki shorts, flip flops, baseball caps, t-shirts, and ‘tude. They were spoiling my quiet metro ride by yakking. Anyway, they convince themselves to get off at the Shaw station, R St side. As I headed back home I noticed they seemed a little lost going through the crowd of teens that hang out near 8th and R and then wandering over to the 7-11. Yup, that’s it. Not much to see here, go home.
Or get off at another stop. You see if they got off at Mt. Vernon Square, they could have gone to Warehouse. There are a bunch of other clubs around there but, they wouldn’t have gotten in the way they were dressed. Then there is U Street, lots to do on U Street, restaurants, some with bars, if you want something edgier looking (are they edgy? I don’t know) I guess you could wander down to the Velvet Lounge or DC9. But really, R Street exit of Shaw metro….. 7-11 is the hottest thing going. Pick up a Pepsi, some chips and hang out in the parking lot.
East of 8th Street, there isn’t alot in the whole entertainment section on this end of Shaw. If you want to walk around Shaw to be all bad and do some slumming, you’re going to have to get off somewhere else.

For all who are interested yesterday there was an article in the Post about Sursum Corda and the plans for the area to save it from foreclosure and rebuild mixed income residences. The resident’s will get $50K (per household) which they can use to purchase units, or whatever, and they also will have the right to rent there. This does bring up some other questions, but since I’m not a resident of that complex or area, I’m not going to ask them.
Sursum Corda is a bit odd, it is a cooperative, as is Truxton Circle’s Northwest Cooperative that sits in the 200 block of Q and R Streets. I’m going to take an educated guess here and say that if it is a co-op then there are people who “own” shares in the apartment complex and “rent” their unit. They are a condo alternative and there are tons of them in New York City, a few here in the District. Once I tried renting a unit in a SW co-op, the people sub-leasing the unit were fine with me, but I made too little money for the co-op board and they said no. But I digress. I’m a bit confused though of how it all works with HUD funds and Section 8 vouchers. Can you be a co-op shareholder and a Section 8 recipient? Is everyone living in the co-op owners of the co-op? I don’t know. Probably would help if I asked somebody.
Like Sursum Corda, the Northwest Cooperative in Truxton (there is another NW Co-op on 400 block O & N) is affordable housing. And as far as non-market rate complexes go, it seems to be fairly maintained. If the walk though during the Flower Power walk proved anything, some residents there do try to make their area nice. Investing a little fertilizer and a little water here and there does go a long way.

This weekend I did something I wouldn’t even think about 4 years ago. I walked up to the Dunkin Donuts around dusk, then took a different route back home, going down the 1700 block of 4th Street. Four years ago there was no Dunkin Donuts, and the 1700 block of 4th would sometimes be a wild party zone of shady-looking characters hanging out. For about a couple of years a non-resident tranny would take it upon herself to illegally block the street and have a block party. On a block that wasn’t hers. This weekend the block was very, very dull and quiet. Four years ago several of the homes on the block were vacant and lots of guys of various ages hang out. There are still the old guys who hang out, but when you’re retired, old and craggly, what are you going to do? The younger neighborhood drug dealers who ruled the block are seen less often, they aren’t gone because I do see them, but not as much. Menacing looking teens mingled in, but now, they seem to congregate near their friends houses, hanging out in the front yard and leaning on the fence.
A more disturbing change since 2001 I’m noticing near the R Street side of the metro station. When the Waltha T. Daniels library, across the street from the station, was open, scraggly looking folk who hang out near the bus stop. Sometimes, they’d get on the bus. This year I’m noticing a camp of homeless and hanger outs taking over the rear courtyard of a now closed library. I swear as time goes on more people keep hanging out there. This week, in the morning on the way to work, in the small park between Marion and 6th along Rhode Island I’m noticing a guy who has been sleeping in the park. This is odd considering there is a men’s homeless shelter across the street. Time has seemed not to have changed the park at 1st and Florida. Same old group. New fence put in. Same old group still hanging out.
One last change I want to recognize is the Korean Protestants. They served the homeless and needy out of their “House of Peace” on the 1700 block of 4th four years ago. The problem, from my perspective was that it was not run very well and just served as a hangout joint for the dealers, users, and other downtrodden with little supervision from the church. Now the “House of Peace” is gone, replaced by a dry cleaners that has been threatening to open for months. The Koreans now operate out of a large townhome around the corner, where they are more involved in their missionary work and being better neighbors.

I know it’s Tuesday but I’m posting anyways

Well Summer is over and the Fall is not quite bad. Not as humid, which makes me want to spend some time outdoors….. then I get bit by mosquitoes and that just drives me back into the house.

Squash– B. and I agree that squash were a miserable failure. I was able to get a few fruits off the plants but the squash borers did them in and made it bad, making the fruit shrivel. B. he, I gather, got nearly nil in the squash department and has sworn that he will not grow squash next year. I’m not ready to write them off. I think next year I’ll try them in the front, in the ground.

Tomatoes– Not as good as last year but good none the less. I’ve been most successful in the back with the potted tomatoes even though most of them look sickly and crappy. Right now they are getting their 2nd wind. In the past month I’ve been able to harvest 1 tomato, the rest are green and deciding if they want to turn red, or not. Surprising to me is the tomato vine in the front as it competes with the passion fruit vine that popped up from last year. It has been a pretty good producer. The Zebra tomato has been a great producer of flowers but not fruit. Yet when it does produce fruit it is the best tasting stuff ever. A cherry tomato vine appeared out of nowhere and it is not a great producer either, maybe it is time to do something with the soil.

Salads– A lesson I learned was when you stop watering salads they turn on you. All the other plants are more forgiving, Bibb the other mixed greens, no, they just got bitter and no matter how much I watered afterwards, they stayed bitter. Even new growth was bitter. Spinach, just bolted or died in the last bits of summer.
So I planted a new bunch of salad greens in the mid-summer months. Well the inch worms got to the Cobb and Bibb, only the arugula survived and thrived. I planted a few spinach seeds, they are okay for now.

Radishes & Carrots– I don’t like radishes. So it doesn’t matter. I planted them as a companion crop. I have learned that if I want edible radish looking radishes I need to bury the roots better, same for carrots. Carrots were a disappointment.

Cucumbers– I grew them in a pot and got good results from the 2 vines then they were recently brought down by cutworms.

Edible Flowers– The marigolds I didn’t care for as a snack, but I did love them as a cutting flower and I enjoyed running my hand over the foliage to smell their lemony fragrance. The pot marigolds, ditto as far as a cutting flower goes. The heriloom impatiens, not that tasty. The regular old impatiens were a pain to grow all Spring and did not spring forth as a wonderful flower till mid Summer. They are very tasty.

Beans– String beans good. I need to grow more because I just didn’t have enough to justify dirtying up a pot.

Herbs– As many of you know I got more basil than I know what to do with. I did make pesto, and used it to add to salads, but still too much basil. When the peppermint went to flower then I stopped harvesting them. So no more mojitos. The creeping thyme is doing well. I am wondering if I should replace my lawn with creeping thyme.

Normally this would go over to the semi-neglected announcements section of InShaw but I figured this message from Jim should be posted here. I believe the meeting is tonight, Tuesday 9/20 at 7pm (ignore the word “tomorrow”).

Neighbors,

If we have a quorum at tomorrow night’s meeting, it is likely that we will be asked to endorse the concept of building condominiums (with retail establishments on fhe first floor) on the lot that Mr. Mamo owns at Florida Avenue and North Capitol Street, NW. A number of you have expressed concerns to me about the scale of the project (i.e., a nine story building with a foot print that would seem to be out of line with the pre-existing structures on the block) and many of you don’t seem to have a problem with Mr. Mamo’s plans, if they are implemented as presented in various community meetings.
If you feel strongly about this project, one way or the other, I suggest that you attend tomorrow night’s meeting. It will be located at 635 Edgewood Terrace, NW on the 9th floor of the senior building. If you can’t make it to the meeting tomorrow, but have feelings about this project that you want factored into the ANC’s analysis of Mr. Mamo’s proposal, I encourage you to email them to me as soon as possible. If you decide to communicate your feelings by email, I will not consider those that are conveyed to me anonymously to be valid. That is, please put your name and address on this correspondence.
I thank you in advance for your cooperation.
Best,
Jim Berry
Chairperson
ANC 5C

I was just noticing who the mayoral (and still possible ’cause Tony ain’t said nothin’) candidates were. It’s just too early. I know they’ve got to put themselves out there, ‘cept Tony because he’s damned if he does run and damned if he doesn’t run.
But still too early. Partially because the Orange’s signs have already started to fall apart and I don’t know about the sign quality of the other candidates. There was a sign touting the Orange on the median on Rhode Island that, after a few weeks, began to fall apart. The color section separated from the sign base and phppht! No more sign. Just a blank board and some sticks. It’s a good year before the mayoral elections and I don’t know if I want to look at a bunch of weathered signs for a year.

I blantently stole this idea from my neighbor IT. We both grow the same things peppermint (the peppermint that used to grow in my yard, jumped the fence and now grows in their yard), basil, tomatoes, thyme, etc. Well I noticed that IT or B had put some of the flowering peppermint and green basil in a vase.
Well my house got a little musty so I figured I’d take the idea to slightly change the smell by taking a lot of the basil, flowering peppermint and thyme and setting it in the living room. I think it looks nice, and I can smell mint without having to go outside.

From Jim, our great leader.

Neighbors,

Below please find a facsimile of the public notice that is being circulated
in the community in connection with the 9/20/2005 meeting of ANC 5C. Please
make your best effort to attend this meeting and bring your neighbors along
with you.

Hope to see you there!

Best,

Jim Berry
ANC 5C

GOVERNMENT OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
ADVISORY NEIGHBORHOOD COMMISSION 5C
POST OFFICE BOX 77761
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20013
TELEPHONE: (202) 832-1965/1966
www.anc5c.org

PUBLIC NOTICE

Monthly Meeting

Invited guests include representatives from the following:

Metropolitan Police Department
Community Preservation and Development Corporation
DC Emergency Management Agency

Where: Edgewood Terrace Senior Buildin
635 Edgewood Street, NE, 9th Floor
(Crawford Hall)
When: Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Time: 7:00 P.M. until 9:00 P.M.

Just a quick pointer to the Post article about how much it costs to live in the DC metro region at “subsistance” levels. The source of the study is by Wider Opportunities for Women and you can read the full report there. All 97 pages of it. Read page 5 to see what all they calculated.
The amount given for the District of Columbia for a family consisting of one adult, assume single mom, an infant and a pre-schooler is $53,634. Kids are at their most expensive before they’re shoved off to school. Daycare for an infant, way more expensive than an out of diapers pre-schooler. But there are other factors that make being self-sufficent AND at the subsistance level in DC expensive.
People can and do live on less because of various programs that cut down on the price of living here. We pretty much know about various housing programs, such as section 8, but in an earlier article in the Post, the number of affordable housing units is dwindling. In my neighborhood alone several homes that were affordable rentals got fixed up and sold, at some point. Before I bought, the crumbly pile of bricks I call home used to be home to a woman and her mentally disabled son. It was affordable when I bought it. But not all houses fixed up were taken off the affordable housing roster. One house, because it was overpriced wound up becoming a rental. A vacant house was “fixed up” and must be affordable because the jobs the residents have are fast food jobs. The house where the resident crackhead stays gets a new paint job everyso often but never gets sold. There are houses on the block that remain in the affordable housing scene, but not as many as when I moved here.