Truxton Is In Shaw

Housing Needs for the City and Region:

Does the superheated housing market in Logan Circle contribute to

concentrated poverty in Ivy City?

A discussion with Margery Turner, Urban Institute

October 21, 2003

John A. Wilson Building

1350 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Room 412

6:30 pm, Refreshments; 7 pm, Program

A new study led by Margery Turner shows a troubling trend in the rise in

concentrated poverty in certain D.C. neighborhoods. Evidence suggests that

displacement of poor families from strong housing markets in neighborhoods

like Logan Circle might contribute to the concentration of poverty in

neighborhoods like Ivy City. What are the implications of these trends for

housing policy in the City and region? Join us for a discussion with

Margery Turner as she presents her findings and considers strategies to

address current challenges. See Housing in the Nation’s Capital 2003,

prepared by the Urban Institute for the Fannie Mae Foundation at:

http://www.fanniemaefoundation.org/publications/reports/hnc/2003/hnc2003.sht

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This effort builds on Ms. Turner’s earlier analysis on gentrification, and

how its negative consequences can be avoided if affordable housing is

preserved in areas facing high demand for homeownership. See: Leading

Indicators of Gentrification in D.C. Neighborhoods,

http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=900461

RSVP (attendance only): WRN, 202/667-5445, or e-mail:

staff@washingtonregion.net. This event is free of charge. For more about

WRN, see: www.washingtonregion.net

__________________________________________________

This event is second in a series of four on Housing for the City presented

by the Washington Regional Network for Livable Communities (WRN). The Fall

2003 WRN Forum Series: Housing for the City focuses on the critical issue of

affordable housing in the District of Columbia. The Washington Regional

Network for Livable Communities’ Forum program engages activists,

decision-makers, and business leaders in discussions of state-of-the-art

practices for accommodating regional growth and creating diverse, livable

communities.

This series is sponsored by the Enterprise Foundation and the Fannie Mae

Foundation

Ghetto Marts

Yes, it is confirmed that the new little mom & pop is a ghetto mart. This is how the definitions go:

Quickie Mart- 7-11 or something like that. Prices high, selection low. Must have aisles, must have essentials like TP, milk, eggs, coffee or other hot food item, and mac & cheese.

Ghetto Mart- similar to the quickie mart, except it has one or several of the following traits: a fine varied selection of 40s; cashier in a plastic box to prevent any human contact; dark store with bad lighting.

The new store has the people in the plastic box. But they have eggs and milk so I will likely wander over despite the insulting people in a box set up.

Yes, I have a problem with the plastic box. I understand the plastic box, but I hate the plastic box. What I hate even more is plastic box with lazy susan feature, to take out all human contact. Such features run against my image of the neighborhood. The plastic box, along with the selection of 40s screams GHETTO. The plastic box say, I don’t trust none of you and this is a bad neighborhood. The 40s, say you just want to get drunk real quick, bunch of alcoholics.

October 20, 2003 — Garden Resources of Washington announces —

SPRING-BLOOMING BULBS ARE AVAILABLE FOR COMMUNITY & YOUTH GARDENING PROJECTS IN WASHINGTON, DC

What kind of bulbs? A mix of daffodils, tulips, crocuses, etc.

How many can we have? Depends upon the area you plan to plant.

When should they be planted? As soon as possible.

When will they bloom? At different bloom times, ranging from early March to late May.

Who can get bulbs? Groups engaging neighbors, youth, adults, club members, etc. in community & youth garden projects at diverse locations such as: parks, schools, community facilities, nursing homes, public housing, etc. These can be located in any part of the city, but priority will be given to projects located on Capitol Hill and projects benefitting low-income city residents.

How do we get the bulbs? Contact GROW (see details below) to place a request and to set up an appointment for bulb pickup.

How do we plant bulbs? GROW will provide easy to follow soil preparation and planting instructions.

What if we don’t have funds for soil preparation or tools? GROW may be able to provide these materials. Contact GROW (see details below) for simple application information on getting this extra help.

How to contact GROW: E-mail grow19@aol.com or call 202-234-0591 (don’t stop by the office; the bulbs are not there!)

GOVERNMENT OF 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 Meeting

Invited guests include representatives from the following

organizations:

Metropolitan Police Department

Office of the People’s Counsel

North Capitol Neighborhood Development, Inc.

North Capitol Collaborative, Inc.

North Capitol Area Business Association, Inc.

North Capitol Main Streets

Where: Paul Laurence Dunbar High School

1301 New Jersey Avenue, N.W.

When: Tuesday, October 21, 2003

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

__________________________________________________________

Monthly Forum

Where: Trinity College

125 Michigan Avenue, N. E.

When: Tuesday, November 4, 2003

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

Ricky Raccoon

I heard him 3AM this morning kicking about in that crawl space between the ceiling and the roof. Did the one thing that I knew what to do in such situations, get up and turn on the bathroom fan, go back to bed. Apparently, the raccoon does not like bathroom fans.

DIE RACCOON DIE DIE DIE!!!

If this is an urban area why did I see a raccoon crossing Rhode Island Avenue at 6:40 AM this morning? Rhode Island is a 4 lane road, not counting street parking lanes, with an island. It crossed despite the cars. I was hoping one would hit it.

The Next American City: Gentrification October 15th, City Museum

It turned out better than I figured it would and when I left (a few minutes early) everyone was well behaved

It pays to get reservations. The event was sold out and the auditorium was packed to the gills with people, such as myself, sitting in the aisles. The crowd that came to hear the panelists was mixed. A few familiar faces from other neighborhood summits and events were littered among the sitting and standing.

If I were a good reporter, which I’m not, I’d say who exactly was on the panel. I’ll have to edit this information in later.

Abido of Abido contruction was there, as well as a woman from LA Casa Maryland, two fellows representing Arlington and DC Housing authorities, and a rep from Columbia Heights.

I made no notes from the DC housing speaker. However he did talk about managing the investment and growth coming into the city. He did try to provide some perspective on the problems that DC had in the early days. Back in the bad old days before gentrification you could not get investors (commerical/residential) into areas of DC even with incentives. Later in the quesiton and answer period he illustrated it a bit better. During the Mayor Barry years there was a lot of vacant housing stock, but DC was near bankrupt (think Control Board), and absentee property owners weren’t paying their taxes. DC did not have the money to buy these or any other property in order to rehab them for low income housing. Even if the city wasn’t on the cusp of bankruptcy, banks weren’t interested in investing in those areas. So basically DC didn’t have the power to get ahead of the housing problem. When the markets began turning around, those absentee property owners began selling their shells, banks got interested in investing, and by the time people realized what was going on, it was too late to make a major impact. My own notes, governement moves slow, markets move fast.

Abido, said he first got into development because of historic preservation. He also said, and it explained why he might have been so willing to participate in the forum, that he only develops shells and other places where there is no occupant to displace. He also mentioned that when he started banks were not interested in backing his projects, they weren’t interested in the neighborhoods where he was going.

The La Casa speaker defined gentrification as the replacement of one neighborhood with another. Her thing was with helping immigrants, some who have been in this country for 20 years.

The Columbia Heights speaker provided some examples of people being displaced due to gentrification. One example was of 20 lawyers decending on an apartment building, which intimidated the tenants. Even though the tenants had a legal right to fight what was going on, some just gave up and moved out. Regardless of your income level, lawyers are scary. He touched upon the issue of culture and gentrification. Newcomers describe problems as “those people” when “those people” happen to be the people who lived there before.

The speaker from Arlington gave a regional point of view of things. He threw out a figure of 294,000 units will be needed but are not available.

Good times.

Neighborhood Research

I am happy to work where I work. I have access to things. Things like ILL (interlibrary loan) and our own library and paid databases.

What began as research on my house became research on my neighborhood. With that I got it somehow related to my work. Black people, I’m researching black folk, yeah… So I don’t feel guilty doing it. Supposedly it will be an article for Washington History in 2004 hopefully.

Well as hinted the research gods hated me this weekend. I was looking at the 1930 census (the plan, work backwards from 1930 to 1870) and tried to copy the microfilm. The copier was low on toner. SO the staff person had to take the toner cartrige out, shake it, and put it back in. This action was good for 1 or 2 copies. I had several pages.

I thought, forget this, I’m heading to the Washington Historical Society….. they don’t have the 1930 census, they only go up to 1900.

Can’t go to the National Archives downtown…. research room is closed for 2 weeks.

Research gods hate me, and they hate Truxton Circle.

The thesis of the paper/project? Tracking demographic trends in the neighborhood. So far, as I have done a little from 1890 to 1900 to 1930 and read up on DC history, I’ve seen some things. There is some over crowding. In my house in 1900 there were 11 people in the house. Please note my house is 14 feet wide and only 2 bedrooms. My block, so far, nothing but rental housing. This is a trend. As a homeowner this is disturbing as I have known of some bad cheap landlords.

Warehouse Theater

When the research gods decided I should do no more (long story, I may tell later) I wandered from the Washington DC City Museum and decided I would head home. But on the way I stopped by the Warehouse Theater, which is also a coffee shop. Luckily they have tea since I don’t drink coffee.

Besides coffee they have art. If I had $700 I had nothing to do with and more wall space there was a piece I’d love to have in my house. Sadly, small walls and all money goes to the house.

At the same time they were rehearsing for a political piece of puppet theater. Dialog good, voices not so good.

I looked around and thought this would make a cool meeting spot. It’s close to the Mt. Vernon Sq. metro. There is space to just chill.