Truxton Is In Shaw

Last night, while my neighbors were entertaining guests on the patio I wandered out onto mine to… I forget, dump trash in the big green bin? Anywho I get out there and though parts of the fence I noticed the alley cleaning man has taped up a sign.

At this time it is dark and the only light is from my back porch. So with the comfort of knowing there are 2-3 men sipping wine on the next patio to save me (ok maybe not)/call 9-1-1 should I come to harm, I wander out into the dark alley.

I read the sign “DO NOT LEAVE YOUR TRASH IN THE ALLEY!”

Now alley cleaning man normally leaves little paper signs in the alley typically saying “NO DUMPING” which gets washed away with the next rain. But this sign was different, and I was the only one with it. I checked ’cause wine sipping Brett asked. I checked his fence and everyone elses, no one else had this sign. Of course there is a big green trash bin opposite my property in the alley. But it is not mine. I don’t know whose it is. I was thinking of getting the contents dumped and taking it, ’cause it don’t belong in the alley and anything left on public property is fair game.

Now tiffed at the sign on my fence, I wrote back. I don’t remember the exact words but they went along the lines of: To whom it may concern I take offense of you saying that I’m leaving my trash here, if you bother to check my can is still in my yard, if you have a problem please speak to me directly.

Yes, now I feel better, I have pissed off alley cleaning man.

I heard a quick blurb on WAMU that there was a study that there are huge drug markets near drug treatment centers in the city. Duuuuuuuh! Was my silent reponse. When I still attended police community meetings it was mentioned often that there was a brisk trade near the methodone clinic ’round here.

I just have to remember how to tweak the html coding to put it in the menu, but I bothered setting up an e-mail for this page, so if you’d like you could e-mail me and if I so chose, I could respond, or not.

So inshaw AT att.net (since I’m going to get charged extra now, bastards!) is where you, the five to 10 people who view this blog and already have my other various e-mails can write me.

Neighbors,

Below please find a copy of the public notices that are being

circulated around the community in connection with the next two meetings of ANC 5C.

Please pass the word to our neighbors and encourage them to attend this meeting.

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 MEETING NOTICES

Monthly Forum

Invited guests include representatives from the following

organizations:

NAACP

KADYGROUP

Builders/Developers

METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPARTMENT

Where: Saint Paul’s College

3015 4th Street, N.E.

When: Tuesday, July 6, 2004

Time: 7:00 P.M. until 9:00 P.M.

_______________________________________

Monthly Meeting

Where: Trinity College

125 Michigan Avenue, N.E.

When: Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Time: 7:00 P.M. until 9:00 P.M.

It’s going to get worse this weekend.

I saw a fireworks stand on the corner of 7th and S and last night a hail of fire sounded. The days leading up to the 4th and a few days after the fourth are going to be bad. The odd days before the 4th it hasn’t been as bad as the previous years. But I know the 4th will be bad and I haven’t heard from Jimabeth if they are going to have their annual 4th of July party, I still have no where to go. So if I’m stuck here I’m just going to drink myself silly, that way I won’t care about the noise.

I was listening to part of the Diane Rehm Show on WAMU with her guest David Brooks and his new book On Paradise Drive : How We Live Now (And Always Have) in the Future Tense. He mentioned how it used to be that people wanted to live near golf courses because that was the status symbol, but when speaking with builders he found that now people want Starbucks and Kinkos and trails, they want community.

They want to go to certain centers and see their neighbors and friends, like you’d probably find in oh, I don’t know, the city? The last kind of place where I just ran into people I knew was Gainesville, FL in the student ghetto. Maybe Northampton, MA, the five college area. Well college towns were the one industry was the school and you lived your life around it. I never just ran into people in Hyattsville, rarely Arlington (you’d think I would but no), but yes, more so in College Park, well because of the University of Maryland. Do I run into people I know in DC. Well not so much DC but Shaw and sometimes it’s surrounding other ‘hoods. You go to the same damned meetings and you see the same damned people, some you don’t even know, but you see them. Sometimes I’d see Ms. Betsy at the Whole Foods, or Sylvia biking down the street. Lawyer boy (bad-with-names ok?)on his moped is a semi-common sight. I went to the local ECUSA church and saw a woman I normally see at the community meetings. Walking around and frequenting the local businesses you run into your neighbors. I’ll probably bump into Chris at the G & G Market (the one without the 40s), I saw him just the other day with milk and smokes, obviously from the market.

Yet the community doesn’t come on a silver platter nor is it guaranteed. For one you have to interact with your neighbors. Saying a cursory “hi” helps. There are people in the neighborhood who keep to themselves, and will not recognize that the lady in aisle 5 lives 7 doors down. They don’t say “hello” when they do see their neighbors and lead more solitary lives. That’s their right, and their loss. There is SUV guy who lives about 4 doors down from me. I have tried waving hi, saying hello, but he acts as if I didn’t. He rushes from the house door to the car door. Fine. There is another neighbor who is also a little less interactive. Part of it relates to the fact he is rarely home, visiting Africa, or working odd hours. Since I am out in the front yard and we had a vacant house problem between us we talked. When there was a small fire in one of the rowhouses and everyone near it was flushed out of their homes, I was talking with him pointing out the different neighbors. He reacted saying he had lived there over a decade and didn’t know these people, I’m here about a year and can point people out. Okay, less so now, my newer neighbor has a better grasp of who-is-who (being nosy helps).

It might be the community aspect that makes the crappy part of living in Shaw tolerable. Well that plus knowing my house tripled in value since moving here. Once I get past the teens lounging on milk crates on the corner I hit my block, with pleasant yards and a range of pleasant neighbors. When illegal dumpers dump I can find a sympathetic ear in my neighbors. We grouse together about the teens, the sketchy looking guys, the trash, yes, is the crap brings us together.

On a lovely Summer day, not too hot, not too humid, but just right, also known as Spring, I was over at BL, N& Sprog baby’s (mom, dad, 8 wk old baby) house for BBQ and pie at their Eckington(?)/ Bloomingdale home. Eckington and Bloomingdale are just outside the Shaw borders but with the same fun-fun issues as Eastern Shaw.

Of the many topics covered in the deckside conversation we talked about spending time with family and friends in the area. I then remembered a statement made by a young woman on one of the many discussion boards I haunt, about how she wanted an apartment building that would give her that dorm like living style. She wasn’t waxing for small bedrooms with dirty kitchens and stale smelling common rooms, but the community that the dorm provided. Sadly as we grow up and move around we lose that community and are isolated. There aren’t people you can just drop in on like the dorm. Here, now, you have to make travel plans to see friends or family even if they are just a 15 minute drive away. Everyone is so scattered.

Instead, the best thing to do is make community with your neighbors. I’ll have to credit the Internet with the friendship developed with the Sprog family, but they are close enough to drop in on. Then there are the people on my block. We drop in on each other to borrow tools, exchange ideas, pass along information, examine each other’s projects and just shoot the breeze.

I’ve come as close to the dorm experience as I care to go here. I have a roommate, I have neighbors I can talk to, family being in the area is good too, and I have community.

Take that Crystal City !Bppppppppppht!

The next ANC 2C01 Community Forum will be held on Wednesday, June 30, 2004, at 7:00 PM at the Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Neighborhood Library, 1701 8th Street, NW, Room 1. The focus of the meeting is “Latest Plans for Shaw: Are You For or Against Them?”

The agenda for the meeting is as follows:

Are They Going to Tear Down Seaton Elementary to Build Condos?

DC Public Schools is considering a proposal from Shiloh Baptist Church and Clark Realty to demolish Seaton Elementary School and build new residential buildings on Rhode Island Avenue and a new school on P Street, eliminating the playing field behind the school and the environmental laboratory used by the students, located on some of Shaw’s very limited green space. Should they do this? Here’s your chance to hear preliminary plans and let school officials know what you think. Special Guests: Julie Mikuta, District 1 School Board Representative, and officials from DCPS Facilities Management.

Are They Going to Tear Down Watha T. Daniel Library Instead of Renovating It?

The plans were to renovate Shaw’s neighborhood library, but instead, the library administration is considering demolishing the building and replacing it with one that’s 10,000 square feet smaller. The building is now 24,000 square feet, a size that is appropriate to support the increased population that will result from new development in the area. Hear more about the controversy and find out what you can do to help stop this from happening.

What are They Planning for the O Street Market and Giant Store?

A major new $100 million development would transform the two blocks between 7th, 9th, O and P Streets, with a new Giant store incorporating the historic O Street Market, over 400 new apartments and condos, as many as 700 underground parking spaces, and additional retail, to be completed by 2009. Come hear and see the latest plans and provide your input. Special Guests: Alveraze F. Gonsouland and Armond Spikell, principals, Roadside Development.

Please share this notice with friends and neighbors who may be interested. I look forward to seeing you at the meeting.

Alex

Alexander M. Padro

Commissioner, ANC 2C01

1519 8th Street, NW

Washington, DC 20001-3205

202-518-3794 * Fax: 202-518-0078