Truxton Is In Shaw – Page 75

Why you can’t compare a pre-gentrification house to today

Vacant house on P — *214 P St NW with broken windows in 2008*.

When I read studies about housing, housing stock and affordable housing, as it applies to areas like Shaw, I can’t help feeling there is a very wrong assumption flowing through them all. I encountered, that feeling when talking to a renter on my street who would love to buy, but was unaware of what some of us did to make affordable homes livable, and once they became livable, unaffordable to people like him. A house that was affordable in Shaw in the 80s or 90s is probably not the same house that stands today.

In the 1940s-50s Shaw was described as a slum. A slum was defined in some writings as an area where a significant number of houses lacked indoor plumbing or interior toilets, thus slummy Shaw. I want you, dear reader, to think about that. Living somewhere, when you have to go, you’ve got to go….. outside. But now there are laws and regulations so when you rent a place, you get that fancy pants indoor bathroom with hot water.

But there are other housing deficiencies that houses in the 90s and early 00s suffered from because of the history of disinvestment in the neighborhood. Disinvestment meaning, landlords and homeowners had no incentive to maintain properties, beyond necessity, with little to no equity gained. Not updating kitchens, or electrical wiring, or plumbing, resulting in cramped little kitchens, wiring that would fry your electronics, and leaky pipes.

Renovation_0045 — *House under renovation*.

Then came the renovations and the gentrification. Some were crappy and cosmetic, like my house when I bought it, and some actually fixed long neglected problems or updated systems. Even crappy renovations cost money and those costs are pushed onto the end user, the home buyer or the renter. Yes, there are places where there has been no, to little reinvestment, and the prices act as if there were.

So next time you read a report that assumes the equity gained due to gentrification is unearned, question if the house that was affordable in year X is of the same quality, with the same features, when it is unaffordable in year Y.

Church Survey Northwest Urban Renewal Area October 1957

A copy of the National Capital Planning Commission’s October 1957 Church Survey that I copied part of is sitting on DDot’s website. But it is a partial copy of the whole report. One of my bad habits, not citing where I got the document, has bitten me in the butt, and I never got around to copying the whole thing. Until now.

Thanks to interlibrary loans, I have been able to get my hands on a copy from a college library several states away. I don’t know why I couldn’t find a copy of this book locally.

The Church Survey has data on 108 63 churches that were in the Northwest Urban Renewal Area. The powers that be decided to shrink the urban renewal area down, and out of it, we get the Shaw School Urban Renewal Area, that became known simply as Shaw.

The survey looked at all kinds of religious houses, from steeple churches, storefront churches to house churches. There are several churches mentioned in the 1957 survey that no longer exist. I notice this as I copy each page. A lot can happen in 62 years. There are others where the church changed hands or names. The quality of the surveys vary from church to church. Some entries give great demographic information about the church, parishioners, staff, and programing. Most entries give the address of the pastor, size of membership, a short list of types of programs, and publicly available information. The sparse entries are just publicly available land information and maybe whatever could be observed from the outside.

So far my plan is to copy the whole book, splice in what I previously copied and, since it was a government document, put it on-line.

So the Government is Closed- Longterm Plans

This is a personal blog and I am a federal employee who has found she has more time on her hands. But this is not a woe is me post. Nah, this is my 6th government shutdown. I’d been employed less than a year when I survived the 1995-1996 shutdowns (5 and 21 days) as a GS-5 step 1 temp employee with fresh student loans. The 21 day shutdown between December 5, 1995-January 6, 1996 was bad, but I survived. Somewhere in the archives of the Washington Post, there is a quote of the younger me bitching about it.

Mentally, I’m prepping for a long shutdown and praying for something shorter. Thankfully this time around there is another income to lean on. Typically, although there is no guarantee, we get paid, eventually for those shutdown days. Knowing that the contractors I work with, who do building maintenance, security, and other stuff won’t get paid, at all, makes it really hard for me to feel bad for myself and most other feds.

So in the vein of when life hands you lemons, make lemonade, or lemon tea, or lemon pasta, I’m making the most of it. On the first real day of the shutdown the Help and I went on a day-date and saw a movie. The rest of the week has been mainly about cleaning. Deep cleaning. The kind of cleaning a maid service typically won’t do. We got one of those dinner and a movie gift cards, so we may see another movie. If the shutdown goes past January 3rd, I informed the Help he was going to get a very expensive hausfrau. I may tackle somethings I’ve been avoiding, some sink repair, window cleaning, and bookshelf dusting (requires moving a ton of books and my MILs ashes).

I’ll probably check out some Shaw stuff, but seriously, there are a lot deferred cleaning jobs around the house demanding my attention. And now those unpaid jobs have it.

Silent Night

A few nights when going to bed I have marveled at how quiet it was, and I fear by mentioning it, I’m going to jinx it.

When lying down in bed I noticed how I heard nothing. My neighbors who will at times blast their music have been really conscientious and turned it off before we head to bed. The Loudmouth Buppy Lawyer is either out of town or deciding it is too cold for a one sided profanity laced cell phone conversation on the street. And by shear fate, there have been no ambulances or cop cars blaring sirens on the major road nearby. Normally the sirens pierce through the house but for a few nights, I’ve heard nothing while lying in bed, closing my eyes and nodding off to sleep.

A city can be loud. Doesn’t mean it has to be all the time. There can be moments when no one is screaming or hollering as they wander down the sidewalk. The sounds of a motorbike without a muffler isn’t heard as it makes its way through the neighborhood. Chatter from someone’s backyard bouncing off the rear walls is non-existent. There are beautiful moments of quiet, silence.

Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate and Happy Day Off to those who don’t.

509 O St NW- Finally

I’m hoping this was not a hallucination but in a cab, back from the doctor’s I spotted a pile of rubble where 509 O Street NW stood. Upon seeing it I exclaimed, “Finally”.

I would have investigated further, but I’m contagious and need to avoid people. And stay home and do this thing called resting. So I don’t have an updated image of 509 O Street.

If you are newish, you may wonder, what’s the big deal?

The problem with 509 O Street was that it was stuck as a vacant property for at least 20 years. That means it was vacant when the neighborhood started gentrifying. It was vacant when shells in the area cost half a million. It has been vacant now, still vacant. Now a vacant lot. It had the resistance to development like a Shiloh Baptist property. And even some Shiloh properties not on 9th, managed to get developed.

I have my opinions. And it was my opinion that the woman who owned the property was crazy. Whether bat-shyte crazy or crazy like a fox, I don’t know. But the crazy was the only thing to explain why this property managed to stay vacant despite legal action from the lender, vacant rate taxes and a white hot real estate market.

Just for my records, the lot number for 509 O Street NW is a PITA to locate. In the tax assessment database searching for O St lots on Square 0479, all I could find was lot #0818. In the DC Atlas I found 3, lots 0044, 2001, & 2002. This makes me wonder if the taxes could be wiped out with a shell game of lose the lot number? Looking at the Recorder of Deeds paperwork, that’s a confusing mess and introduced more lot numbers. Lot number 0813 for condo unit (yeah it was a ‘condo’) A. sigh.

So in summary, I seriously hope that pile of rubble was 509 O Street NW. Hopefully, it can move on. Maybe there is a serious developer behind this who will plop another million dollar condo on the spot with quartz countertops and Lutron light switches.

I’ll probably cross post this with DC Vacant Properties.

Circle of Life for Local Businesses

Well if all goes as planned my hairdresser will retire and sell her building at the end of this month. She’d been in Shaw since the 1970s, which is around about the time my aunt started working in DC. My aunt recommended the S&M Salon to me back in the 1990s when I moved here for work. I do not look forward to finding another hairdresser.

But that’s the circle of life. Local businesses start, fail, succeed, merge, get way too big, move, and eventually close. Sometimes it’s a couple of months, years, or decades.

The Eckington business Workafrolic, which was an awesome idea of workspace, workout space for parents, is closed. I saw on the Bloomingdale parent’s list that this Saturday, (12/15/18) between 11am – 2pm they are selling off their inventory of yoga mats, toddler stuff, bouncers, etc. Cash or Venmo only. Maybe it was the location. North Capitol Street is a tough road.

Richard Layman had a post about the revitalization of 9th Street, that reminded me of businesses gone or moved that helped make that foodie part of Shaw (I’m ignoring 14th St) what it is. Anyone remember Vegetate? They had to battle the churches (Shiloh) for their place on 9th over liquor licenses. That battle needed to happen. Queen of Sheba was part of it, and it remains. In 2010/2011 there was Rogue 24 hidden in Blagden Alley. Now that was some fancy expensive eatin’, and it still is with the Dabney. But I guess I should credit one of the earlier 9th Street restaurants, Corduroy, who is still there and managed to open Baby Wale nearby. Now there are wonderful restaurant options in walking distance should I chose to spend $30-$80 on babysitters.

I’m just thankful entrepreneurs are taking a chance over and over in the eastern parts of Shaw (east of 9th & Truxton Circle), Bloomingdale, LeDroit and Eckington. Some will do okay, some will fail, and others will become so much a part of the neighborhood it will seem that they’ve always been there.

The People of Metro are Telling Me Something

…and I think that something is that I’m old.

This is going to come across as complaining. But I’m not complaining. Not really. This is a behavior I know I need to encourage.

For the past two weeks, during my commute into work, people keep offering me their seats. I don’t think I look pregnant. I actually have lost 20 lbs since last year (cutting out sugar, eating less, etc), so that can’t be it. But I am getting old. I don’t dye my hair, and I stopped keeping track of my grey hairs after I turned 40. I probably doesn’t help that I don’t wear make-up and I guess my resting-b*tch-face is haggard hag face. That is the conclusion I’ve come to, people are offering their seat to the poor old woman, who apparently is me.

I typically stand close to the door because I just have to go a few stops and I like to work my core surfing the train. Also we have a rule in our house against sitting on the bed if we’ve sat on any public transit in those same clothes.

But back to people offering their seats. That’s sweet. I’ve had young black men, older non-black men, and women of various ethnicities signal and offer their seat on a crowded morning train. Every time, I’ve declined. However my lovely spouse suggested that I just once take someone up on their offer. I told him that I try to decline as nicely as possible and sometimes I remember to say that I appreciate the offer. But it’s 7 something AM in the morning, my brain isn’t 100% on and I don’t drink coffee.

So if you’ve offered me your seat, I just want to say, “Thank you very much. I really do appreciate the offer, but I only have a few stops to go. Thank you.”

Glass half full Shaw Story

Looking at the title of Living in Shaw- As a Senior Citizen, which I discovered via DCist’s more click-baity title of What’s it like to live in Shaw as a senior citizen on a fixed income? I geared up for another paint by the numbers article on gentrification in Shaw. But as I read the piece by Susannah Herrada, I was most pleasantly surprised. The gentleman at the focus of it, Hodge resident, Bernard Johnson, reminded me of my late Uncle Jimmy.

My Uncle Jimmy was a retiree who lived in Queens. He had a saying, “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” He said it like a motivational speaker, and talked about how he would try to get other retirees to make use of all the great senior citizen and NYC city programs available to them. Men like Mr. Johnson and my late Uncle Jimmy have a certain love of life that we should only be so lucky to have a smidge of.

Mr. Johnson is going to the free wine tastings and is knowledgeable of the happy hours around the neighborhood. Sounds a heck of a lot better than my parent’s regular treks to the Golden Corral. And he’s aware of the free activities available to him in walking distance. He makes use of the wonderful Shaw Library and I suspect he’s going to openings at the Longview Gallery.

Last year the Help and I got a crash course in eldercare with moving his mom to the DC area. I had looked into the Hodge. My pot-headed Korean sister-in-law had a better chance of getting into Harvard than my mother in law into the Hodge. The Hodge is one of several senior citizen residences around. Not as modern is Asbury Dwellings in the old Shaw Junior High School. They never got back to me when I asked about a unit for her. I did not consider House of Lebanon in Truxton Circle because there are ‘issues’ (*cough *S.O.M.E.* cough) in that area. Maybe Chapman Stables might help. Have a senior special at Republic Cantina?

In writing this I was looking for a picture of my Uncle Jimmy and well I don’t have one. But I did manage to find on-line pix of his son, my 2nd cousin Jarvis. Cousin Jarvis is a working actor in New York. If you are looking for a 40-ish bald brown man of medium build with a beautiful smile, hire him. He’s a member of whatever stage and screen guild-union-whatever in NYC, Jarvis Smith (IMDb) (Stage32). Speaking roles, non-speaking roles in the the New York area.

An usual murder in Shaw

As far as I can tell, and I can’t tell much, a man was murdered on the 1600 block of New Jersey Avenue NW. The MPD press release has the 3rd District responding so, I’ll guess it is the even side of the street.

Noe Alberto Gallardo Ponce was attacked somewhere on the 1600 blk of NJ Ave NW and first responders found him in his home? The press release says a residence. What makes his death unusual among Shaw deaths is that a suspect was arrested the same day the victim died, and the suspect shares a name with the victim, William Alexander Marrouquin Gallardo. And as far as I can tell this wasn’t a firearms related death. Actually no cause of death was stated.

MPD Press Release “Arrest Made in a Homicide: 1600 Block of New Jersey Avenue, Northwest“

Strong Start Program

There is a disclaimer at the end.

So I had some interest in Bill B22-0203 – Infant and Toddler Developmental Health Services Act of 2017 or Act 22-453, Birth-to-Three for All DC Amendment Act of 2018 when I saw it mentioned on DCist. Perusing through the amended version of B22-203 I noticed a mention of Strong Start, a program Destructo-Baby participates in, so let me give you the low down on it.

Because of several factors (long hospital stay, being a premmie, and some prenatal things) our adoption agency social worker and later a pediatrician suggested the OSSE Strong Start program. So I filled out the application and got our social worker to sign off on it (I could have used the pediatrician). Eventually they got back to me and had an initial interview in our home. This was followed by an evaluation by an occupational therapist and a physical therapist.

Destructo-Baby was about a month under baked, so he qualified because he was developmentally delayed, compared to babies who pop out at 40 weeks. Looking at his report he needed to be 50% delayed or 25% delayed 2 areas. He was 3 months at the time, so he was delayed in everything, because he was developmentally 2 months.

So what did this mean? For the past 10 months he’s had monthly, and early on bi-monthly visits with a occupational and physical therapist. Some of the visits were at our home, but later several sessions were at the day care. At our home the therapist gave us tips and activities to work on to strengthen the baby. As first time parents, those tips became priceless.

Strong Start is a great program and it only costs us our sick leave. Our precious, precious, precious sick leave. I love my son. I also love my annual leave and my sick leave. Those visits at our home were in the day, during the work week, so yeah, that had its cost in leave. That’s why I began pushing more visits over to the day care, who were happy to accommodate whichever therapist.

This program does not (as far as I can remember) consider parents’ income. Which is good because trying to see the developmental specialist through our HMO has been darned near impossible. Destructo’s doctor is aware of this, and isn’t too concerned because he’s been working with Strong Start.

Disclaimer- If we don’t get renewed for the next year, that’s fine. He’s a little behind in a few things, but not so much that we’re concerned. He’s in the system and if things get serious, I know who to contact. This post is just to share our experience.