Tag: BACA

BACA meeting notes preview

Well Jim sent out this, which was mentioned at last night’s meeting:

Neighbors,

I write to offer a friendly reminder to you that we will be in the pocket park at First Street and Florida Avenue, N.W. this evening at 7:30 p.m. in recognition of National Night Out. That is, for the 10th time in the past 10 consecutive years, the Bates Area Civic Association, Inc. has sponsored a rally and candle light vigil at this location, essentially, to promote peace and an increased sense of unity in our community. This year, the event is being co-sponsored by ANC 5C Chairperson and SMD 5C01 Commissioner Anita Bonds, along with several indigenous community organizations, like the Hanover Area Civic Association, Inc., Ebenezer Baptist Church, and TruxtonCircle.Org.

During each of the past 10 years that we have held the vigil, we have observed incremental improvements in the quality of social life in the park and, to a large extent, our presence on NNO is a symbolic yet substantive as well as personal statement by everyone who participates, of our desire to see this location completely transformed into the kind of place from which residents of the community of all ages can derive benefit. I know that we are all busy people, but I make this personal appeal for you to take 30 minutes out of your otherwise hectic schedule to be with us tonight. Indeed, visible and tangible opportunities to be in solidarity with your neighbors around a matter of this type of importance (i.e., public safety) do not present themselves everyday. I hope to see you there!

Best,

Jim Berry
Bates Area Civic Association, Inc.

Also three suspects have been arrested in regards to some burglaries in the area. I don’t know if you can contact 5D to see if they got your stuff. I’m guessing whatever was stolen, got hocked.

BACA & Paint

There is a BACA meeting tonight but I will not be in attendance as I have some pressing paint duties. I’ve been painting my house for what seems like a month. I have formed these big nasty callouses all on my hands and I want them gone.
I have told myself I need to finish all my paint jobs by the end of this week, or else I’ll go nuts. First thing that needs to be done tonight (thus not going to the BACA meeting) is the bathroom ceiling needs a coat of paint. There are only so many times you can shower without damaging the ceiling. I hope it is not too late as there are some funny looking marks up there already.
After the bathroom everything else is whenever but I got to end this painting. The baseboards on the 1st floor need a coat, because the paint I put on was damaged by the floor guy’s sander. Also on the first floor I need to paint over the ceiling paint that hit the wall and the doorway between the kitchen and dining area. Upstairs I have to decide if I’m painting the bedroom ceilings or just leaving it primer white. Sections of the brick wall need caulking and painting. The top part of the 2nd floor baseboards need a lick of paint. The top of the wall near the ceilings in both bedrooms and the hallway need paint.
Then once I’m done painting, there is the cleaning.

Drink up, it’s for the kids

Truxton Circle Happy Hour is tonight at Vegetate. I guess we are going gather upstairs near the bar. The webdudes of TruxtonCircle.org are going to pass the hat around to help fund this Saturday’s Fun Fair at 1st and Florida. The Fun Fair will have a moon bounce, hot dogs/ burgers, fire safety for the kids, and some health stuff.

Also my lousy notes from the BACA meeting is up at the supersecret site. And once again the user name is “thismeeting” and psw is “neverhappened”.

Not so lazy Saturday

I took a nap and ate something so I’m not as grumpy as I was Friday. Anyway here’s how today went.
Florida Avenue Market
Maybe it was because I went earlier than usual time. Maybe it was because the market has been receiving extra attention. I don’t know, but the people who work there seemed…. friendlier. I was greeted, there was smiling. What’s up with that?

Tile Shopping
Well my tile shopping has been more complicated than it really needs to be. I have gotten tile for the upstairs bathroom and the foyer, from two different places. The tile place I went to today, I should have gone to before and saved myself the headache. Morris Tile is in PG County and requires 3 buses to get to from the TC. I thought I would stay 20-30 minutes, but it was over an hour. My contractor said (more like suggested) the 1/2 bath tile should match the kitchen tile. Problem is I like my kitchen tile for the kitchen. The bathroom? Not so much. I found a 12×12 match for my 6×6 sample. But looking at it, I honestly wasn’t too keen on it. If the kitchen tile wasn’t an issue I’d pick small 4×4 or 2×2 mosaic and go for the subway tile look. The other problem was I haven’t given any thought to the 1/2 bathroom’s colors. I don’t know what color I’m painting the wall. I haven’t decided if I’m tiling the wall (more tile shopping, whoo-hoo!) or what color tile I’d use if I did.
After hemming and hawing for a while I picked a small 3×3 tile that matched and had a really cool pattern. When I went to ask how much it was $18 per sq foot. Yeah, a little rich for my blood. I need 47 sq feet plus 15-20% more to cover mistakes, waste, whatever reason my contractor gave me. The same color, but regular 12×12 size, just $3 per sq ft. I just didn’t feel good about ordering a tile that did not make me happy. So after all the time I spent at the tile place, I left. The $3 tile is in stock, so if worse comes to worse, I’ll have the contractor pick up that and suck it up.

100_0395.JPGMt. Rainier
After one bus back, on my three bus trip back home, I got off in Mt. Rainier, MD. I didn’t see a bus to take me to Rhode Island Avenue so I wandered over to The Glut, a funky little all-natural co-op, round the corner and up the hill a ways from the Mt. Rainier Route 1 Circle of Doom. The Glut is one of those things that makes Mt. Rainier, funky. Just on the Route 1 Circle of Doom is a new (within the last year) coffee shop that opened up, the Artmosphere Cafe. And dangit, it’s artsy. There was the prerequisite “local artist” type art on the walls and in the windows, announcements music lessons and other local arts activities, as well as the usual looking for roommates flyer on the bulletin board. Playing to an audience you could count on both hands, was a jazz guitarist. It had a nice laid back vibe, but not lazy ‘laid back’ as I’ve encountered in other places. I had lunch there, and it was quite good. I would go there again, and I did suggest to a friend about stopping by there for a bite the next time we go by.

Jimbo moves close to the TC
Well after two bus rides back to the TC and taking a nap, I ventured over to the new Jimbo digs. Lucky him, he’s not next to the, um, how should I say it?… gathering of fellows that haunt the block. However he is close enough to the TC to hear the mosque’s call to prayer. It will be interesting to see how Jim makes the place look once everything is tidied up.

I was wrong
I’m wrong about a number of things, but anyway. I had announced that there wasn’t going to be a BACA garden walk, aka Flower Power. I was mistaken. According to Jim Berry’s meeting announcement (this Monday, 7 or 7:30pm basement of Mt. Sinai Baptist on 3rd & Q), one of the topics will be Flower Power, so I guess it is on. My bad.

BACA meeting, TC happy hour & etc

The lousy meeting notes from last week’s BACA meeting are up at the super secret site. Okay user name is ‘thismeeting’ pswd: ‘neverhappened’.
Also check out the TruxtonCircle dot Org discussion board as there is a TC happy hour in the works for June. I expect Eckington people to crash it. It’s okay, we like you NoFlo people anyways.
Oh, other random things that I’m not bothering to link to because the links require 3 extra more steps than I care to take right now:
There were meetings about the Florida Market this week. (See Frozen Tropics and Rebuilding Space)
Arrests in the Montgomery schoolyard and rocks get thrown at Fox5 cameraman. (ANC2C)
The BACA website is not working for me. (DCBACA.ORG)
Big Bear Cafe said somewhere (probably on the Eckington listserv) that their aiming for a June opening. They open, when they open.
Soil samples are the new thing going on with the EC-12 firehouse.
As far as my renovation… waiting on inspections and I’m looking for the perfect tile. If you know where I can get a hold of a nice checkerboard black and white pattern for the bathroom, email me.

Crime, meetings, whatever

Well I may have my BACA meeting notes up sometime this week. Maybe.
Quick recap though. 1- I got there late. 2- A Capt. from the 5th District was speaking and handed out a list of adult arrests. The list has all sorts of useful info like full names, address arrested and residence of arrested persons. There was a spirited discussion about the role of the police department kept going by two persons I don’t regularly see at the meetings. And the meeting ended with a question of where are we and what do we call ourselves.
I have to make mention that over at ANC2C & You, there is an excellent video entry of an interview with the property manager of Gibson Plaza on 7th St., regarding the recent shootings. The gangs are not afraid of the police and will do a drive by knowing there are police officers yards away.
The ‘whatever’ in the title goes back to the question of what do we over in the eastern section of Shaw call ourselves. Um, not late for supper. First there is a problem with the various names for place and the odd idea that if a place has one name it cannot be part of another name. Where I am is in the Bates Area, in Truxton Circle, in Shaw, in Old City II, in Washington, in the District of Columbia in the United States of America. Why is that difficult to grasp? How many times do I have to point out that Shaw is a big honking neighborhood and within that big honking hood are other subneighborhoods and smaller niches. And what’s with the mindset that if you associate yourself with the smaller niche you’ve been voted off the Shaw island?

Richardson Place

I’ve been getting the odd email from Karl and others in the Richardson Place area (1700 blks of 4th & New Jersey, Richardson, R & FL) about some “Streetscape Improvements”. Richardson needs the improvement. The short bit of road and the linking alleys look like a big lot. That road isn’t really looking paved. The residents who have spoken up would like brick, or concrete, but not asphalt. Brick is preferred.
Jim Berry, BACA Prez, in a letter to the Richardson Place focus group suggested meeting prior to the next BACA meeting to talk about it. Okay people BACA meeting is at Mt Sinai Baptist, Monday, starts at 7, but for this email Jim (JBerry ayt PDSDC daht ORG) as it was a suggestion and not a firm date.

Fun with ProQuest: Bates Street gets shafted

I started a new search “Bates Street” between 1950 to 1990. I decided to focus on Bates because of some of the rehab projects that were to take place in the first Marion Barry admin on the street.
One 1969 article got my attention and I’m just going to quote it:

…said its first ghetto aid effort was expected to be in the Bates Street Project — part of the Shaw redevelopment plan.
Later a spokesman…. said in Washington that the initial phase of the PIC plan will probably be shifted from Bates Street to a block of 8th and 9th Streets nw., bounded by S and T.
Russo said the RLA now feels it would be better to start in that block, with 25 houses on 8th Street and 20 on 9th Street.

Ronald Russo was the spokesman for the RLA. The RLA was the Redevelopment Land Agency. PIC was the People’s Involvement Corp, a federally funded group. Ghetto and slum are words the Washington Post used [past tense] to describe our neighborhood. They just use ghetto now and then these days.
Addition:
I’ve waded through several “Crime and Justice” articles to get to the next quote and let’s say, I’m depressed.
Anywho, in a Jun 1971 article:

Two years ago, at a convention in Atlantic City, the league pledged $7 million toward the Bates Street project. “This soon became hopelessly involved in government red tape and citizens’ indecision,” league president Thornton W. Owen said recently, “so that any tangible activities in this area in the near future seems highly improbable.”

Bibliography:
All articles from the Washington Post
“S&Ls Pledge $7 Million For Homes; Rehabilitation” by S. Oliver Goodman. June 1, 1969. p. 125
“Firms To Fund Housing; S&Ls to Build Huge Project For City Poor” by William H. Jones June 10, 1971. p. B1

Misc

You know, walls you plan to tear down are great for drawing large stick figures on. Yet, I’m not one for great graffiti. I have one single stick figure reminding me to clean out the fridge and call my grandma. A friend came by and wrote “Happy Easter” on another wall. I would invite others to draw on my walls but I’m afraid someone would go for one the the walls that isn’t getting torn down.

Also I heard about the anti-crime church march thing that happened this past weekend. Obama (invited guest) did not show. Noticed it was not covered at all by the Post, but the Post tends to pick and choose, and thus is not the best for local news.

Passed by the Big Bear Cafe. Not open yet. Inside looks very promising, there are some chairs and tables. Very promising.

Before I pass out and go to bed, my personal and completely flawed BACA meeting notes are up at This meeting, never happened. User: Thismeeting Pwd:Neverhappened and no I will not email this to you. Note that I’m in a slightly grumpy mood. Someone [me] needs a nap.