Looking back at the 2008 posts so far there are a few themes that stand out, and some that don’t but I’m bringing them forward anyways.
First are houses, houses for sale, houses that are abandoned and vacant, houses that are just plain ugly. Before the Wall Street apocalypse Shaw was experiencing the rise of foreclosures. We had attracted many investors who discovered the limits of HGTV and easy financing, that limit being psycho high prices that no one in their right mind would buy at and mortgages that no rent would cover. Then there were houses that weren’t even fixed up that were placed on the block and we hoped, and are still hoping, that some one will fix them and get people living in them. Then there are the ugly re-dos, the pop-ups or pop-tops. The still horribly ugly pop-up at 26 P St NE that I blogged about in February is still there, still unoccupied and still ugly. I also took a look at vacant properties around the TC, which also had me looking at tax rates to see if those vacant houses were being taxed higher. Looking at taxes, I discovered dead people pay real estate tax at the senior citizen rate.
History has fallen as a topic over the year, I can’t say that I’ll get better. Earlier in 2008 I blogged about older photos of Shaw found, Bates Street, and the Shaw School Urban Renewal Area. A particular highlight was locating the language of the Redevelopment Act which laid out the borders of the Shaw neighborhood, which includes Logan Circle, U Street, and Truxton Circle. Speaking of the TC, the argument over the name died down (a bit) after the banners appeared on street signs in July.
In the area of commerce we saw several wonderful things opening and changing in Bloomingdale, which is just next door to the TC. Timor opened up with a few shelves and the milk that we all love. Big Bear got even more popular. The Bloomingdale Farmers Market just kept getting better and better, adding more vendors and remaining neighborly. The historic KFC also known as the bulletproof KFC closed. Luciana Cafe opened along North Cap in the TC, but the TC being the TC doesn’t have a lot of businesses opening, so we got excited.
Crime was still doing a cha-cha of two steps forward one big step back. Earlier in the year I didn’t write too much about crime. Also the long standing problems and nuisances of young men hanging out (possibly selling drugs) were slowly getting better. I noticed that the crowds of hanger-outers were getting smaller and less frequent. Gunshots were getting less frequent as well. Fireworks started later, and ended closer to the end of July. However, starting in Fall muggings and street beatings seemed to go up. Then there was the fatal stabbing at 3rd and R and the murder at 11th and Q. Also in the fall/winter period I posted the faces of two wanted men, who thankfully were captured.
Quickly skimming over politics, Mayor Fenty had been spotted at a BACA meeting and at Big Bear. I and other bloggers interviewed Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. Jessica Lanza challenged Doris Brooks, but sadly did not win. But the 2C stalemate ended with the win of Theresa Sule. Michael A$$hat Brown got elected as a wink-wink independent on the city council.
There was a bunch of other things. I got central air. People started giving me booze and I was glad. KIPP looking at JF Cook. Lots more. But this is long enough.
Happy New Year.
Tag: Blog
Taking a Break/ Chi-Town Gentrification Tour
I’m probably not going to be posting much for a while. I’ve been assigned to a 3 month detail that has made my commute 3x longer than normal, so I’m not really interacting with the hood that much. And I have to get to bed earlier because the disruption to my normal schedule is screwing with my sleep so that my body is sending me all sorts of nasty signals that I need more rest. It’s a good project, a good detail, and once I get to where I’m supposed to be I really like the work.
Knowing I need some sort of rest, I’ve been planning a late vacation. Normally I avoid going anywhere in the summer. But summer vacation time is nearly over and I’ve been reading a couple books by Sudhir Venkatesh, who wrote Gang Leader for a Day and American Project. I just cracked open Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor and man, I wanna go to Chicago. I want to get a lay of the land that was the Robert Taylor Homes. I also want a pizza. I hear they make good pizza in Chicago.
Two years ago I did the London Gentrification tour, walking around the gentrified Brixton neighborhood. Yet, I had experienced Brixton several times before in 1993 and could sense a change. I’ve never been to Chicago. So I’ll take suggestions of books I should read and places I should eat at.
Blogging Just Do It
I really enjoyed sitting on the Roosevelt Institution’s Expo panel on blogging. I was concerned because the other panelists were from nationally focused liberal group/organized blogs, and I’m so not. The crowd was good and they had good questions.
Something that was touched upon in the Q&A, regarding breaking into blogging. I was in disagreement with the other bloggers, and maybe that disagreement may be rooted in our different purposes for blogging and audiences. What I heard in their answers was a need for organizations/ organized blogs like CampusProgress.org and FireDogLake.com to bring up young bloggers, and supporting minority, gay/lesbian, and feminist voices because blogging takes time and money. Annually, this blog costs me between $75 to $135 a year, and that’s only because I host it on my own site (not blogspot, which is free) and I have my own domain. So I don’t see the barrier to breaking into blogging as a big deal, so I quote Nike and say “Just Do It”.
Blogging is easy/Writing is hard
Getting a Blogger or LiveJournal or other freebie blog account, grabbing time on your own or a library’s computer to bang out a few thoughts is the easy part. What to bang out is the hard part, and for the time being I have inspiration and a pinch of talent. This wonderful neighborhood with all its ups and downs inspires me to write.
Writing is a talent. I’m not writing this to toot my horn, as I consider myself a mediocre writer, but I’ve seen some pretty bad writing (such as academic/ technical journals) to not take readable writing for granted.
Serve a need/ Scratch a niche
Besides being somewhat readable, I’ve got an audience. ‘Cause an audience would explain why my server rates went up. However my stats tell me half of you are looking for a Thai X-ing menu. [note- Taw needs to send me an updated menu, his prices went up]. So my niche, the unserved need I fill is for people looking for good Thai with a personal touch on Florida Ave. And then there is that other thing about writing about east of 9th St Shaw and other neighborhood observances. There’s still room in the niche and I’m sure there are other DC neighborhoods with little/no coverage from the MSM in need of good storytellers.
…and lastly
On the Internet, no one knows you’re a dumpy black chick
“We need to give voice to [fill in the blank],” tends to raise an eyebrow with me, since I am aware of there being at least a couple of good blogs written by at least 2 of the supposedly voice-less groups mentioned. Maybe I have a different interpretation of “a voice”. So if anyone cares to gently explain it to me, I’d be happy to hear what is meant.
I am an African-American woman and I think I have a voice. It’s just that I’m vocalizing another aspect of my being and that is of bitchy, broke, homeowner in the hood. There are several other bloggers who lend more ink/ pixels to chronicling
life as a black woman in a way, better than I could ever try. Several enough that the conservative black woman in Washington, DC POV is also out there in the blogosphere.
Though I use “I” a lot in my posts, I don’t really talk about myself in a descriptive way. You may also notice I don’t put up pictures of myself (there are several reasons for that, including my discomfort with taking pictures with people in them). So understandably in the early years of InShaw, people thought I was a gay white guy. Nope. That may of had something to do with the demographics of noticeable Shaw newbies /new comers and blogging in the early 2000s.
Nope. I’m just a black chick with a blog, a house, and wacky neighborhood.
New Blog
My next door neighbor B. has a blog. It’s still new so he’s feeling his way around. Jimbo and I have been helping him grasp the concept and purpose of blogging, so when you visit be nice.
The main, and eventual purpose of Bohemian Yankee in the Capital: Salty dog author talks history, sports, queer imagery and urban development is to promote two books that he has coming out, one on GLBT Hollywood and the other on stadium development in the District of Columbia. Of the two I’m more interested in the stadium book, Capital Sporting Grounds as it tells of some of the wheeling and dealing of getting the RFK built, and the location of various other sporting venues in the city.
April 1st
April showers means… less watering for me.
It did cross my mind to do an April Fools post. Something along the lines of ‘French Bistro to come to corner of R & New Jersey’, but I thought that, that, would be too cruel. However, Frozen Tropics has gone on a April Fool’s roll, my favorite of which is “Local Historians Just Make Sh t Up“. Followed by “Girlfriend No Longer Has Excuse To Not Visit H St Boyfriend” with a lovely observation of a segment of the west of 16th St anglo-female community.
“I saw Napa used sun-drieds,” said Ginny referring to the sun-dried tomatoes sprinkled liberally throughout NAPA’s menu. “And that was the deal-sealer for me. No white woman with a college degree can pass them up. I am going to come over at 7 p.m. maybe 7:30 this Saturday. Tell him to make sure no black guys are hanging on the corner this time.”
Friday grab bag
Brian of OffSeventh retires from blogging. He had a good run. I understand it, as you may know my co-blogger Truxtonian no longer posts. Back when I did bother to bug T. and ask him to post something, he said he didn’t want to post angry. Understandable. There are things that make me want to quit too. However, I’m clinging to the idea of ‘it’s my blog, I’ll post whatever the hell I feel like.’ Which means not posting a lot of things, because I don’t wanna, and I don’t feel like it. And posting somewhat neighborhood related stuff that I care about right now, like houses, gardening, new businesses opening up. Next week it might be alley cats, some history related item, and “dude, where’s my trash bin?” InShaw exists for my entertainment, when I cease to be entertained, so will the blog.
Yesterday, I wandered over to the courthouse after work to try to figure out how to legally get my name changed. I’ve been noticing that ever since 9-11 it’s been harder to get people/ agencies/ companies to go along with the first initial, middle name, last name style I’ve been using since high school. There is a new ID I have to get as a federal drone that won’t/ can’t let me go by my middle name. So, I have to legally change my name, to my name. Sadly, I found the DC Court website, not as helpful as I would have liked. I was able to find one of the name change forms, but no fee schedule ($60 for what I want), or what ID I needed (birth certificate, passport, etc), or the other forms needed.
So I walked over to find the main entrance blocked off and the Chief of Police standing in front of a bunch of local reporters. Someone was nice enough to point out the downstairs entrance that I didn’t know about. Apparently someone fell from the 3rd floor. The chatter in the elevators was that it was suicide.
I got my forms and my info and now I got to find my birth certificate, a newspaper with legal notice fees that aren’t high, and $60 bucks.
Lastly, Mrs. Gibbs house, at 1626 3rd St NW is back on the market. Rumor had it that Mt. Sinai, which owns a few properties along the 1600 block of 3rd was talking with the family. Guess that fell through, if it was true. So 1626 & 1628 are on the market for a combined price of $635K if someone wanted both. Another thing I noticed was 1620 4th St. dropped its price again, and is $250,000, down from its original price of $390K. The taxable land value is $223K, so I guess the structure is almost worthless.
Radiator bits and etc
Radiator bits
There’s a discussion on one of the listservs regarding radiators regarding a part. The radiator supply valve I gather… anyway, the beautiful internets can come to the rescue. I was looking for radiator keys and an air vent thing and got them from a hardware store on-line. Also when the plumbers hooked my radiators back up, they seemed to have had an ample supply of radiator bits, completely replacing the caked with 10 layers of paint parts. So though the radiator system is not widely used in the US, they aren’t rare, so there is information out there about parts and maintenance.
ETC
Also, things have been getting busy and as I’m waiting for certain things to fall into place to allow me to start yacking about bits of Shaw & DC history I haven’t been and probably won’t be posting much. Also I’m thinking of switching over to Moveable Type, which may or may not mean shutting down the Blogger version.
The census project chugs slowly along as I do the tedious task of data clean up.
Some Bloggy Housecleaning
I got a lovely note from my hosting service that I have gone above my allowance. The amount equals something I can find in my pockets doing laundry, so no big deal. Yet, this means I should do ‘something’ about the amount of stuff I’ve typed up over the years. Deleting old posts and saving them on a disk is an option. Seek and destroy large jpeg files is another. Or let my natural laziness come through and do nothing, until the extra costs go beyond what I may find in the laundry.
Also, did anyone go to the BACA meeting? I was a tad under the weather, so I missed out.
Sign your name
Okay people, I’ve been getting a rash of Anonymous comments and they are ticking me off. Sometimes what the anons have to say is worthwhile, which is why it is unfortunate I have to delete them. Dang it people, claim what you write. I don’t need your full name. I’ll take initials, screen names, fake names, your 2nd cousin’s twice removed nickname, but give me something.
My comment rules are simple. No cussing and ID your posts. How friggin hard is that? Heck, I’ll take one initial, something.
-Mari(e)
Webmistress of In Shaw
Hostess of the Blog
Queen of my house
BACA and Blogger issues
First, Blogger is taking it’s sweet time posting my post and your comments. I’m guessing this will appear sometime tomorrow morning.
Second, there was a BACA meeting tonight and I may or not post my notes. If I fail to post the notes there are a few things I need to pass along.
202 373-3711 is the police non-emergency number. On my cell 311 does nothing.
Also ever wind up fighting with the 311/911 operator? Well you can ask to speak to a supervisor if the call is going that way…. and when you do and get hung up on, call 202 373-3700 for the call center supervisor.