Truxton Is In Shaw

Crime, bad schools, a government that doesn’t seem to work, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I live in the city because I wanted to not have a bad commute.

I live in the city because DC made it easier to buy my home.

I live in the city because it is easier to get around to Maryland and Virigina.

I am close to learning opportunities, cultural events and other high minded stuff I am too lazy to leave the house for. But should I sum up enough energy to drag my butt out of the house it is not that far away.

I live in Shaw because it has 3 metro stations, has many bus lines and in theory I can walk to the Greyhound bus terminal and Union Station. In theory. On a warm sunny day.

I live in Shaw because I could afford it.

I live in Shaw because of its history, because of Duke Ellington, and its past as a Black neighborhood.

I live in Shaw because, despite what you see from the inside of your car at 30-40 mph it really is not that bad.

from a e-mail from Jim

Neighbors,

Due to a last minute glitch in the availability of space at Mount Sinai

Baptist Church, the Bates Area Civic Association, Inc. is postponing

tonight’s meeting until Monday, January 8, 2005. Please note that this

departure from our first Monday of the month meeting schedule is for

January

2005 only. That is, we will return to this schedule on Monday,

February 7,

2005.

Please accept my apology for any disruption that this change may cause

for

your schedule this evening.

Best,

Jim Berry

Jimbo this is for you.

Okay folks a little something somethin’ about cabs and the city. First DC is split into zones. I think of them as 4 zones that are then split into smaller ones, but the subzone split is meaningless and only serves to confuse, so there are just 4 zones.

Please open another browser and use this link to the DC Taxicab Commission and find the zone map or open the PDF file of the taxicab map at this link. You may recognize this map from the back of a dark cab when you couldn’t make anything out to save your life. Lucky you this is your chance to see the map and figure out where those friggin zones are.

Most of Shaw is squarely in Zone 1. Zone one is from Florida Avenue and U Street and Florida again, down 2nd Street NE, then E Street and Constitution after 17th St, and then 22nd Ave NW on the west. If you stay within these borders, your fare is $5.50, tip whatever you want.

Some of you are on the otherside of Florida, that puts you in zone 2 and paying $2.10 more. If you are cheap like me and your starting point or destination is 1 or 2 blocks near or on the border, you move or stop short of crossing over. So when I’m in Dupont Circle or Foggy Bottom I make sure I catch a cab on 21st St. when heading back home.

Now I am so cheap I have only once traveled more than 2 zones, and that was a long time ago so past two zones my judgment is iffy. I gather that if you travel from zone 2D in Capitol Hill over to mainstreet Georgetown in zone 3A then your base fare is $11.40 because you might travel through zone 1 & zone 2A to get to your destination, traveling through 4 zones. Anyway the maximum that one person picking the cab off the street could be charged (not traveling during rush hour) is $17.20 if traveling through 8 zones. I’ve played with the map the max appears to be just 8 zones. You can play with the fare calculator and see what you come up with. There are other add ons. Each extra person is $1.50. Rush hour is 7-9:30AM and 4-6:30PM and that’s $1 extra. Calling the cab will cost you $2.00 if they bother to show up.

Now that you have the map, study it, use it, it will come in handy when arguing with the cabby.

At the Ghetto Giant there are snow shovels for $8 and ice melting products for $4. Prepare for ice and snow. Also stock up on TP and I believe you can freeze milk.

Never go into the Whole Foods store between 4-7pm on a holiday or the day before the holiday. Just as bad as trying to get mixed paint at the Home Depot on a Saturday.

I just want to wish you all a happy new year.

In the New Year….

May your alley be free of prostitutes

May you never find crackheads on your front porch

May your home value go up just enough to get a good loan but not so high that you’re taxed out of the city

May you find peace with your neighbors

May your plumbing magically fix itself

May your gardens explode with fruit and color

May the abandoned houses get fixed and occupied

May the police always show up less than 20 minutes after you called them

May all your neighborhood construction get completed on time

May you find parking in front of your house

and may you have a blessed 2005.

I caught part of the second half of Kojo Nnamdi’s DC Politics Hour with Jonetta when they were talking with former Mayor soon to be Councilman Marion Barry. Well he will be on the council, so there’s nothing to be done about that as the people of Ward 8 have spoken. Yet listening to him attempt to dance around Jonetta’s questions was very entertaining. Sad, but entertaining. Unfortunately for former Mayor4life Marion Barry, he has a past. Not just the crack, cause even if we forgot about the crack, and the crack girlfriend, there is still the running the city into the ground and the culture of cronyism. No Barry did not run the city into the ground all by himself, he had friends. Then there is his general political past of failed plans and promises. So he goes in with all this baggage, this glorious or horrendous past, that well, people are going to bring up. Even if we forgot about the crack there is this other stuff and when people like Jonetta and Kojo bring it up all he can tell us is to forget it and that it is all in the past. What kinda skilled politico are you Barry? You have got to do better.

Anywho, one of the questions raised in the show was did Barry have mayorial aspirations? This had to be brought up because Barry has launched his mayorial bids from his base in Ward 8, one has to, despite Barry’s age, wonder if he’s going to try for a threefer in 2006 based on his track record. He said no, and he has said no before. To be fair there was another segment that asked the same question of Councilmen Jack Evans and Adrian Fenty. Jack, love you, but don’t run. Ain’t no Georgetown white boy gonna be mayor of this majority black city for a while. Adrian, love you, run. Of course, Fenty’s handlers have advised him on the correct answer of if he was going to run for mayor in 2006, which is that he is to focus all of his attention on the citizens of Ward 4. The answer to has he thought about running for mayor in 2006 is, he is to focus all of his attention to servicing the citizens of Ward 4. Rinse & repeat. He’s smart I tell you.

Tobago’s barely fits as a nearby restaurant and a restaurant as it is a half block outside my willingness to walk radius and has only two tables. Yet the extra effort was worth it for the carryout I decided to pick up.

I chose chicken curry. You are given a choice between vegetables and rice or plantains and rice with this dish, I chose vegetables. In a few minutes of ordering I had about 3-4 large bits of chicken, vegetables, spicy rice, and beans crammed into a tin carryout platter ready to go.

The vegetables seemed to be crispy cabbage, carrots, and maybe carmelized onions in a brown slightly sweet sauce. All the vegetables were thinly sliced and made for a crispy salad. There were two green things, they might have been bell pepper, but experience has taught me when dealing with cultures known for their spice, avoid the green.

Somewhere in the brownish colored peppery (think black pepper, not red pepper) rice were some beans. I could taste them, but I couldn’t see them. They completmented the chicken and the rice.

The main portion, the curried chicken was very good, or I was very hungry. No, it was good. The dark soft green or brown coating wasn’t spicy but it was flavorful. The chicken was well cooked falling off the bone at times. The downside were the bones, small bones, bone particles, and other hard bony bits I kept picking from my mouth. Understandably, the bones gives the dish it’s flavor, but it is something to be aware of.

Outside of the meal a small downside for Tobago’s are their hours. They are open Tuesday through Thursday & Saturday from 11:30 to 6pm, Friday they stay open 1 hour later till 7pm. This is not so great for the residents of Shaw who may get back to the hood a bit later. Yet the lucky people of Howard University and those who work in the surrounding area have a good and tropical lunchtime option.

I go through phases where I cannot get enough of one subject. The history of this sometimes single mindedness can be found on my book shelves. When I was looking to buy a house I bought Tips & Traps When Buying A Condo, Co-op, or Townhouse by Robert Irwin, Ilyce Glink’s 100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask a homebuying must read and several other Irwin books. I have given away some of those books because they will serve someone else better in their hands rather than on my shelves. I remember giving much away to Nora Bombay when she was buying her condo in Alexandria and gave The Virgin Homeowner to my next door neighbors.

After getting the house, came the fixing of the house, and so I have many many books on home repair, because you just can not have one book on plumbing. There are books on plumbing, wiring, trimwork, flooring, and doors and windows, in addition to the general DIY books. Among the DIY there is diversity. I have an incredibly useful book put out by Old House Journal on home repair and with a 100+ year old house, it has at times been helpful explaining “what the heck is that?” and dealing with the ancient stuff still in the house. Then there are the general DIY books put out by Home Depot and the UK version of Home Depot, B&Q. I like the B&Q book as it sometimes tackles old building issues like plaster and hot water heating.

Currently, I’m not interested in fooling with the house for a while. Now my interest is gardening. This year I got a bunch of good fruit from my tomato plants and I am inspired to try some more food crops in 2005. For Christmas Nathan and BL got me a month by month gardening book and that was a lovely addition to the small number of gardening books I do have. So far in December, according to the book, I do squat. Also for Christmas my cousins got me a Border’s gift card. Now when I walked into the store I was going to buy a Ray Charles CD and maybe a small C.S. Lewis book, but music and philosophy are downstairs and gardening is ground level. I am now the proud owner of two books on container gardening. One being one of those general on sale books you find in the front of the store, the other being The Bountiful Container by McGee & Stuckey. So far so good, with recommendations on the type of container or soil depth needed to grow potatoes, squash, collards and the like.

Right now I am barely talking to my neighbor because of thisarticle(Tiny Car to Test U.S. Tastes (washingtonpost.com)). I got all excited seeing that the Smart car and he just dismissed it as another ugly car.

First, it gets 60 miles to the gallon.

Second, it is perfect for the city as it is smaller than a Mini Cooper.

Third, loved them in Britian.

Fourth, you don’t like the color you can change the panels.