Tag: Blog

Well, that went well

Well today after getting my hair done, I went to the Shiloh Baptist Church Family Life Center’s Forum on Gentrification. It was a good step on the part of the Family Life Center to have something of a dialog, which despite nearly falling into chaos*, where different opinions voiced themselves. Hopefully, some Shiloh groups and community members can come together again to improve communication, find out what we can agree on, and work together on that.
I really did not take any decent notes. Except a notation about something Alex Padro, one of the panel members said about who gentrification really hurt were the people in boarding houses and people in single family townhomes. Shaw has the highest concentration of subsidized housing in Ward 2, with Lincoln Westmoreland, Foster House, Asbury Dwellings and some other places. And, if I remember right, the tenant groups have long covenants that keep the housing affordable to them. So whatever happens in the real estate market, their fine. However, found out that the United House of Prayer, which had/has a fair amount of affordable housing is going market/ luxury rate.
Also it was good to meet/see people I mainly know from the online experience, Ray and the man behind OnSeventh. The great thing about neighborhood blogging is at some point you are going to run into people off-line. Oh, and I stand behind what I said about libel. If there is anything that I have typed that is untrue (outside of an opinion) bring it to my attention, and if it is false, I will retract it or adjust it, basically try to make it right. I am not hiding behind a blog, believe me, you can find me if you put some effort in it, like emailing me, or wandering over to a BACA meeting. At some community gatherings, some people (Scott Roberts) are more than happy to point me out.
After the forum I did talk to some folks who were members and volunteers for Shiloh. There are a few ideas that I hope some who can act on these ideas can work with. One is getting new Baptists in the area to join. Second is doing a better job of advertising different missions that can help people in need in the immediate area take care of immediate needs, like a food pantry and a benevolence fund, and if a person needs to tap into it right this minute, how they would get connected. Third, have a church presence on one of the civic association committees, like Ebeneezer Baptist is with BACA.
*****
I’ve been typing this up between dinner and had a nice long conversation with a fellow with a Shiloh justice ministry spin-off, the Urban Housing Alliance, who was at the forum. Long and short of it, because I really want to get back to dinner, what’s going on with Shiloh and the properties and the official justice ministry to address issues is complicated. This is the part where I don’t want to be bothered with the infighting because I have to side with my family members who are Shiloh members and supportive of current leadership. But the fellow made a good point of some failings with current leadership and some of the problems we are seeing.
Anyway, due to issues related to the infighting & parking, the Urban Housing Alliance will be meeting at a friendly location for them, 4311 R St, Capitol Heights, MD October 20th from 10:30AM to noon. ‘Cause I asked, why out in Maryland? It seems they also meet in DC as well and their goal is to provide services, free of charge, to DC citizens (I gather from the discussion) to cut property taxes, lower rents, and hold on to homes.
Okay, din-din.
***************
UPDATE: Off Seventh has more here and here.

*I say the same thing about my church’s screamy baby service with kids squirming and not providing the expected answers when the priest does the kiddie focused sermon.

A new day, now get to work

Lot of stuff I wanna cover … It is September and InShaw has entered semi-retirement, or an active retirement. It may be another way of saying I’ll post when I darned well feel like it, and post what moves me to post. So there may be several days when there is nothing, and periods of furious posting.
I’ve also changed the name slightly. So “(now with more gentrification)” has been dropped, in favor of what interests me, history. Gentrification still is in there but isn’t the focus. The mad real estate boom has passed and the gentrification it fueled, has calmed a bit. If that rooming house, crack house, liquor store, vacant building hasn’t been developed yet, it may be a while before it does. Maybe during the next wave of real estate fervor, maybe between now and then, and maybe never. In the meantime, there are other things to look at, like the past.
The past couple of years, the past couple of decades, whenever. I’m going with what a co-worker defined as history, anything that happened in the past. So anything between the Big Bang/Let-there-be-light and last week is up for grabs. But to be more DC focused I’ll start somewhere in the 18th Century.
Today I just want to talk about Sunday’s Washington Post.
Sorta under the title of ‘gentrification’ is Income Soaring in Egghead Capital. Where I see the DC metro area is where the nation’s well off African-American households live. Yet $55,547 is a pitiful amount compared to our Asian ($83,908) and Non-Hispanic White (94,290) colleagues. The data the Post provided kinda proved a belief that I had about the black middle class, they wanna get as far away from “Pookie” as their middle and upper-middle class white colleagues do. The highest median Black incomes $92,492 in Loudoun and $89,096 in Stafford, are far from the District ($34,484 and the highest percentage of population living below the poverty line).
Looking at my own middle class Black family, I and my blind great-aunt are the only ones in the District. The next closest relative tried to escape inner Beltway Prince George’s County because of all that’s going on around, but couldn’t due to a failure to sell the house. If the house did sell, outer-waaay past Upper Marlborough would have been the new address. Then everyone else is in Fairfax Co. and Howard Co. I’ve noticed when the relatives move up in house, they seem to move further out. They express a desire for more space, more amenities (planned communities w/ clubhouse) and less crap.
But back to gentrification…. So if high earning African-Americans are engaging in black flight from the city and inner-ring suburbs, that could mean that they are leaving a residential void. A void filled by poorer Blacks and middle-upper class non-Blacks. Add to that the great big gap in incomes ($91,631-white; $67,137-Asian; $43,484-Hispanic and $34,484-Black), housing prices, and you got a problem. And I wonder, even if District employers provide the higher paying job opportunities, what is there to say that African-Americans who fill those positions will be from the District or will stay in the District? Okay, now I’m rambling, next…
Back from Behind Bars has a graph, that shows Truxton Circle as one of the communities where 5.1 or more (per 1,000 residents) ex-cons return to after being released from the criminal justice system. The other parts of Shaw (except what looks like upper U Street) have a rate of 5 or less per 1,000. The articles goes in on how those released have trouble finding housing and employment, and staying away from the things that led to prison.
And something that has more of a history bent an opinion piece about Dunbar High School in its hey-day. It’s more about integration and colorism than the school itself, but the print version has a nice photograph of the school in 1931. The original school is no longer and it has been replaced by that prison-like building that dominates the TC skyline.

InShaw: A historic blog

I’ve decided that September I will slowly start doing more history related posts as I semi-retire this. I’ve been inspired to go into a historical direction because of the work I’ve been doing at that place where they pay me to show up and do stuff. However, the problem is though I’m dying, dying I tell ya, to talk about all the gems I find while, doing the stuff they pay me to do. Since I’ve shown an interest in local/regional DC history I’ve been given (and I’m so thankful) projects that deal with the District of Columbia. However, I can’t write specifically about those cool things I find on the blog, something about ethics and abusing my position. I can yak about it to friends, but not publish it on the web, or that’s how I interpreted what my boss said. Any government lawyers read this blog? Wanna offer any advice?
In general, and I think I’m safe speaking generally, it seems to take projects that transform neighborhoods in this city decades from start to finish, not years, decades. Also I’m amazed anything gets done, ask me in person what I mean. I am amazed when I spot something that I swore was a 21st century fixture in the city, being advocated for/ or protested against, back in the 1980s. Oops, maybe I was too specific there.
Yes, and 1980 is history. I used to say that if I was alive during that time period it isn’t history. I had to stop saying that once I hit 30. And in general 1980s DC is a whole ‘nother city. Walk around downtown, and there are buildings that are just part of the landscape that weren’t there in the 70s. The mayor was Barry.
Our neighborhood history, and that is everything that happened, oh yesterday on back, is interesting because we live here. It explains to an extent of why certain things are the way they are. Knowing what happened can enrich our lives here as residents and give a sense of our place in space and time. The other history stuff, the packaging to tourists crap, I have no care for. Nor do I care for simplified sanitized history, life is messy. And even worse, a sort of invented history, where you take a long period, say a 75 year span, pick and choose parts a la cart, slap them together in a vague narrative that puts an image in others minds that was never reality.
Okay, I’m ranting, I gotta stop.

Prepping for semi-retirement

I figure it’s time to make this noise again, I’m going to place this blog into semi-retirement and focus on something else. I haven’t yet picked a date, I’m thinking September or December 2007.
The other thing is, semi-retirement, I’m not sure what that looks like. I’m not going to give up writing about what happens in my immediate area, the TC, but probably not as often, not as regularly. And since I do like blogging, I’m not going to quit InShaw.
The thing is I want to write more about history and neighborhood history. Plain old history is a professional and personal interest. The “Fun with Proquest” posts, digging into the Truxton Circle name, some other work I’ve been doing, and the need to get back to the neighborhood census project are pulling me in a different direction. There are other things that a change would address too, but I don’t want to get into them right now.

Memorial Weekend Grab Bag

Lots of stuff all under one posting.
Shiloh- Well I spent some quality time picking up tile with my aunt, a long time member of Shiloh, and she briefly brought up the thing with the vacant properties. There was a meeting, at first she heard it was 3 houses, now it’s 4, and May 30th isn’t enough time. We’ll see.

Speaking of vacant properties, Si K over in Mt. Vernon went all out and surveyed the vacant properties in the MVSQ region and found 100 properties, and 61 of them are taxed at the wrong rate. Read the report, with pictures here. This is the type of thing the city ‘should’ be doing.

Speaking of reports, in NE at the Florida Avenue Market Frozen Tropics has the Florida Avenue Market Study (PDF) that was presented, at one of the several information meetings about its general development, not the New Towns fiasco. Check of FT and Rebuilding Space’s blog about the Florida Avenue Market.

As a housekeeping measure, I’m disabling comments for 2003-2004 posts.

Speaking of house. Renovation is going along nicely. I need to put up some more pictures at the Flickr site because the walls have been mudded and there is a ceiling. What I’ve been told, is that the trim and the stair railing will be next and that’s going to take a while.

Hope you have a good weekend. I’m hanging out in the hood, while it seems everyone else left the city. If you are some of the few who haven’t left the TC or MVSQ or central Shaw, drop me a line.

Quick blog before church

I don’t write about everything that goes on in the hood. I still need to get out the shin-dig over at the still unopened for business Big Bear (yes, in Bloomingdale). And there was some sort of shoot out in the TC this weekend. The big items I haven’t written about, mainly because other Shaw bloggers have, were:
Shaw being the 2nd bloggist neighborhood
The Warehouse Theater in danger of closing because of property taxes
The Shaw EcoVillage bike shop Chain Reaction closing (dang it where am I going to get my bike fixed now!?)

Okay I gotta go.

I might be pale….


but dammit I’m Black.
Okay, I get it, there is a ‘to do’ about my blog on a listserv I’m not subscribed to. People are entitled to their opinions as I am mine, but let’s get one thing straight, I’m not white. I’m a pale black woman. There are some white people darker than me (which reminds me I need to spend time out in the sun) but still, really. The photo is a picture of my dad. I didn’t get my skin tone from him, I got it from mom.
Everyso often I guess it is good to review with an ‘about’. So quick review of who I am and why I write the blog….
I am a SBF 30-something from Florida and a University of Florida grad (go gators!). I transplanted myself to the DC metro area for work and the family I have in the area keeps me here. I tend to describe myself professionally as a librarian, though I don’t do strict ‘library’ work. I have a small distrust of the government, though I work for the government. The little townhouse in Shaw, is my first home, and I’ve owned it for about 6 years.
In Shaw is one of many blogs I started back in 2003. Like the other blogs, it was meant to keep friends updated. In Shaw, specifically was to supplement a conversation I was having with various friends who were also on the buying a house fixin’ it up vibe. So I blogged. Looking back at my archives I’m trying to figure out where are my kitchen renovation posts, they might be on Livejournal, but keeping friends updated about what I was doing was a big reason. Also around about that time I was a regular on some discussion boards, pushing the idea of giving city living a chance. the blog was another way to talk about the neighborhood. Then some people emailed me, asking about the neighborhood. Being the librarianish kinda gal that I am, I was happy to try to provide people with information.
Why do I blog now? I have no idea. Habit, maybe. Thoughts/opinions get expressed and hashed out, instead of staying bottled up inside. Friends do keep up with me on this and my other semi-ignored blogs. Or they could just call me (pick up the phone dang it!) It also presents an excuse to do a little light research, when I’m in the mood to do so.
I have pondered the end of In Shaw as it exists now, I haven’t figured out the how and when. For one, I’d like to pursue other projects and posting regularly takes some time. Secondly, it’s soaking in that I showed up in the middle of the ongoing, never ending process of neighborhood change/ gentrification/ urban renewal and really my observations probably aren’t adding anything new. I’ll think about it some more.

Sick and moving

I think got whatever headachey, muscle ache, toss yer cookies virus that’s floating around. It was bad last week, and then I thought I was well, but then I went out with some friends and quickly discovered, no, I wasn’t well. This weekend, same thing, I thought I was over it, and was proven wrong.
Part of me wonders if I really am sick or just anxious about the whole renovation, move out the house project. I’ve been packing and the house looks naked. Wall hangings have been taken down, most furniture has been given away, promised away, stored away, thrown away, or set in the big honking “Goodwill” pile. Having to figure out which of my worldly possessions goes into which category, has been challenging. Half of what is in the Goodwill and give away categories, I’d keep if I wasn’t desperate to cut down on the amount I need to put in storage.
Then there is the issue of where am I going to live. I do have options outside of the borders of Shaw and I am really thankful for those who have opened their homes to me. However, they are not “in Shaw”, nor close to the TC, so to answer Dr. Soh N. So’s question of am I going to blog while I’m gone, the answer is I don’t know. Probably not as much, which means I’ll be putting pressure on Truxtonian to blog. If a suitable short term rental pops up in my hood, then I’ll look into it.

My comment policy: Anonymous Comments

So as not to go off topic in another post I’m going to create a post regarding my comment policy.

No anonymous comments.

I may let some fly but most I delete. Sometimes I acknowledge the comment I deleted, sometimes I don’t, and delete it forever so it doesn’t even register.

I have various reasons for my policy, but let me point out four:

1. My blog. As in I own it. Please do not confuse this with public space as it isn’t. I’ve created a space, which in all honesty was for the sheer entertainment of 5 people. And if I’m playing hostess, I’d like to know who my guests are.

2. Tone. I’ve noticed that sites that allow anon comments, no questions, can get fairly nasty. Not that InShaw has been free of such nastiness, it is just that I can put a cap on it or steer it in another direction. Also I truly believe that people will think before they post if they have to sign a name to it, thus moderating their tone.

3. Clarity. There was a post long time ago where there were at least two different anon posters. This was confusing to me and annoying.

4. Quirk. I just don’t like anonymous posts. They get on my nerves. I find them somewhat annoying on other people’s blogs, but other people can do what they want.

Yes, I recognize that by saying yes to my policy I’m saying no to some other things. One poster commenting on the comment policy mentioned privacy. Well, the thing is your IP address is tracked here by one of those buttons I put on the blog. I put it there to see how local my audience is, beyond those 5 people. If you want to be undercover, get AOL, Comcast, Quest, or Verizon and read the blog from home because a dozen regulars come from those IPs, so you can hide in the crowd. Or subscribe to the feed via some RSS aggregator like Bloglines, which I use to keep track of over 50 blogs & podcasts. Second, I don’t demand real names. I probably never will. I will demand that you pick an identity. Call yourself Bob, Jane Doh!, HRH Queen of Caffeine, the Raj of 9th St, whatever. However names like Phallic Cheney, or cruder, no. Anyway, my real name isn’t spelled Mari, and technically, legally, according to the woman in Personnel who wasn’t being particularly helpful, the name that EVERYONE calls me… apparently not my real name. Well, according to her.

Since I’m on the topic of Internet IDs, cultivate your real name in the places it should be. Also be aware of those other people who share your name. There is a woman running around with the simplified version of my name selling real estate in Seattle. When you throw in the initial, then it is pretty much 90% me, 85% in the right places, such as the history/ library/info sciences forums, things I’ve created for work, on lists of participants for conferences, etc. Your mamma might of given you a stupid middle name but thank her, because my friend Dr. So N Soh, PhD (obviously not his real name) who dabbles in SubjX as an amateur, keeps getting mixed up with Dr. So Han Soh, PhD who does SubjX as his profession. And there is a Dr. So Soh, MD, but he lives in Atlanta and there is little chance of confusion.

Blogjam

FYI- Jimbo has put together an event for Oct 24 8pm at DC9. It features several DC gay bloggers and 1 straight DC gal blogger (Wonkette), doing selected readings from their blogs. It should be entertaining.
It is an ‘In Shaw’ worthy event, as it is a) in Shaw, b)on 9th Street & c)’cause I said so.