Walking to mass Saturday I noticed that a building was missing from the corner of 9th and O Street NW. The Scripture Cathedral that shared a parking lot with Immaculate Conception Catholic Church is now gone. It emptied some time ago, but now it is no more. Probably, luxury condos will go there.
I figure Roadside Development will get around to putting a building on the parking lot space whenever the other developer finishes putting a building on the Scripture Cathedral space.
Okay now I’m annoyed about my church being surrounded by security fencing.
Before I was just pissed about the militarization of the civilian commercial and residential space during the conference.
Now the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit is over with and things that were supposed to get back to normal after 12 noon, are not. There is this big heavy metal security fencing in the parking spaces on 8th Street NW, taking up several parking spaces. The security fences are surrounding Immaculate Conception, so that you have to walk half a block to get in. The fences also were still up on 7th Street when I walked by a little after 5PM on Saturday.
Seriously. Next time. Pick the boonies of Virginia or Maryland if you need so much security.
This page contains a single entry by Mari published on April 3, 2016 6:02 PM.
DDOT held a much, much better meeting Saturday than the first meeting in October about the bike lanes to connect Shaw with Penn Quarter and Downtown. It was orderly, no opportunity for hijacking, and residents, such as myself had a real chance to speak.
I did write out what I was going to say but public speaking nerves got the best of me so I only said a portion of what I had to say and quit before my time was up. As a pedestrian and cyclist getting past New York Ave and Mass Ave are the biggest safety hurdles for me. It is a shame that the 7th St bike lane ends at N St, because I need to get to D. I live, work, shop, eat & worship in the bike lane study area. My church at 8 & N, we might not be a historically black church but we’re a historically diverse church. My church lost its parking lot when the convention center took it over and until recently had to rent a shared lot at 8th and O. My church, Immaculate Conception, started 150 years ago at 8th & N without parking, and will still be there 150 years from now with or without parking. Supporting protected bike lanes is the best pro-life option for this Catholic.
The church representatives from UHOP (a large church and landlord) and some other black churches stood in opposition of bike lanes, because it would take away free parking. Several in this and the October meeting mentioned the disappearance of many black churches in Shaw and blamed it on gentrification, claiming that bike lanes would push them out too.
This is a map from the late 1950s of all the churches in the area (you may need to click to see better). The number of churches (steeple, store front, & house) have been decreasing for years so don’t blame gentrification. Since I have been here about 3 churches I can think of near me closed. One on 4th St was in a townhouse run by little old ladies who got too old to climb the stairs. Another church somewhere on 1st is gone, why? Dunno. And most recently, the screamy lady church on the 1500 blk New Jersey Ave is being converted into housing. With the churches on NJ and 4th the reason why they are gone have more to do with aging out than gentrification.
Many churches, urban, suburban, rural, suffer from too many grey hairs and are dying out. If most of your parishioners look like they belong in active living/ assisted living or hospice care, your church is going to die and no amount of parking is going to save you, just delay the inevitable.
I’m not sure what prize is won by sticking around either. The Help (my spouse) attends a church that before the 21st century was a very white church. In the past decade or more it is very diverse, lotta asians, some Africans, South Asians, and Latinos. They moved and grew. They moved to where their base lived, they moved to where they could share the gospel tapping into new populations, so grey hairs are a minority and families and college kids are the majority. They’ve grown so big that they’ve spun off new churches in far flung (metro don’t go there so it is far flung to me) Maryland. The churches in Shaw that are not tapping into the population of residents are staying to die out or waiting til it is time for hospice care. They are too focused on being a black church and not a church for all people. There are Christians among the newcomers but they are going to Capital Hill Baptist Church or Grace DC ( went once and felt so old, so-so old) and these churches trying to hold on to free parking are ignoring the Shaw mission field for the grave.
Since this blog is going to end soon I decided to do something a little different. This is a much longer post than normal, regardless I hope you enjoy it.
Brian Bakke and Monsignor James Watkins have much in common. They both are men of faith, similar in ages, who moved to Shaw 12 years ago. Both have taken to cleaning up their part of Shaw and have observed the changes in the neighborhood while regularly picking up trash from the sidewalks and the streets.
The reasons why they began picking up trash differ.
When Father Watkins came to Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Shaw from St. Matthew’s Cathedral in 2001 he noticed, “a tremendous amount of trash. All over the sidewalks and curbs and properties.” The building for Center City Charter School, adjacent to the church, used to house Immaculate’s Catholic school back then and the children had to walk through the trash to get to school. The trash the children and their parents had to step in and over were used needles and condoms and broken glass. Watkins said, “I just thought, for the safety of the children and their sense of pride in their church and school,” and thus he began removing trash from their path, for their safety. Using parish funds, he had eight trash canisters placed along the 1300 block of 8th St. and on N Street NW, near the church. These aid in his campaign against trash.
Brian began cleaning up his neighborhood streets long before coming to Washington. He and his wife moved to a street in Chicago that was the dividing line between two opposing street gangs. The gang members would throw bricks and bottles at cars to draw out rival members to try to kill them. Brian wanted to stop it, so he went hunting for the projectiles used to start fights: the rocks and the bottles, and found them on tires of parked cars, near trees on the sidewalk, and began picking and throwing them away. He recalled the gang members’ reaction, “I overheard them saying, ‘He’s picking up our stuff!'” It should be noted that Brian is 6’6″, over 200 lbs, a former college football player and he can only recall being challenged by women who question his efforts. With a broom and wearing dark clothing as he does, he is a fairly intimidating looking character.
In 2001 Brian and his wife moved to DC, as renters. Compared to where they used to live in Chicago, Shaw, even with its problems “was nothing.” Arriving, he “asked God about this. How does a white man enter an all black neighborhood, or predominately black neighborhood?” His prayers were answered with a phrase, “Go get a broom, use it,” followed later by, “And be silent until someone speaks to you.” Quietly Brian began picking up trash and throwing it into black contractor bags on the 1600 block of 4th St. NW. Slowly he has expanded his area to include the 400 block of R St up to 5th St and around Florida Ave NW. Despite Shaw being less dangerous than Chicago, he still found weapons, “I’ve collected a number of knives, scary ones,” along with other objects.
Both men make prayer a part of their trash removal efforts. Fr. Watkins prays the rosary while sweeping and Brian prays for the drug dealers, the people in the houses and for himself. “I love to pray the rosary*,” Watkins admits with some enthusiasm. When he picks up and sweeps the sidewalks, which he does at least once a day, he can pray 3 rosaries at 15 minutes each, reflecting and praying for intercessions for the parish and himself. He said he’s not big on praying the rosary while sitting in a quiet space, but rather while he’s doing other things so that his prayers are infused with his work. For Brian, a Protestant, prayer pervades his cleaning activities, as well. “When I’m out sweeping, ” Brian said, “I’m usually talking with God or arguing with God, or shouting at God,” quietly, as to not to scare the pedestrians. “I try to be in prayer the whole time, and I’m not always successful. Actually a lot of time, I’m really struggling with my own dirtiness. My own brokenness. The Bible would call it sin. I’m a mess just like everyone else.” Intertwined in these prayers, conversations and internal struggles is that bit of neighborhood activism that sent Brian out to the streets in Chicago. Here, drug dealing is the problem, so here he sweeps up the dime bags. He takes up the humble position of servant and cleans under the drug dealer’s car and sweeps quietly around the dealer, as it is, “just a cheap excuse to just keep praying and praying and praying until he [the drug dealer] leaves. That’s been wonderful to see that happen. Of course, they keep coming back. So…. ” Then he reflects, “the Bible reminds me that I need to be relentless and paints the beautiful picture of the old woman who flies at the judge ’cause she’s been denied justice.** And that’s [how] God wants us to approach this.”
Being out on the streets, cleaning up as often as they do, they have found it to be a great way to meet and really get to know their neighbors. “I meet people,” Fr. Watkins put it, ” I could stay inside my house all day, or inside the church or I could go off in the car.. But to be on the streets, you bump into the parents dropping of the kids at the school.” He adds, “It gives me a chance to chat with people along the way. I get to know them by name, otherwise I would never know some of the neighbors around us. So it [the street cleaning] serves a lot of other purposes which benefit me personally, and the parish.”
The way of the broom was Brian’s method for first getting to know his then black neighbors. As the demographics in the neighborhood have changed he now sees his role changed from ‘new comer’ to ‘connector’, linking the now new people to the older neighbors or groups or whatever in the neighborhood that would help the newer, and typically younger residents find that desired connection where they live. Brian is typically out on Sunday mornings, so regularly that it has become like office hours. People have said to him, “I know that I could find you out here on Sunday. I just had to walk around until I saw you. So anyway, can I talk to you…” The conversations are not forced and they flow freely. From my own experience and talking with neighbors, there have been some deep thought provoking conversations out there on the sidewalks, the kind of talks that you used to have in college at 2AM. Brian has also been good company for sharing a joke or passing along general information.
Besides seeing demographic changes, they’ve seen changes in what gets dumped on the sidewalk and in the streets. Watkins notes that 2005 was the year the needles disappeared. When Brian started, there were more used diapers. He finds fewer hair extensions, which he considers a creepy kind of litter in the way it clings to the sidewalk like a starfish, and then hops on to his broom as if it had a life of its own. As the neighborhood changed, not just in who moved in and who moved out, but in how people used the spaces in the neighborhood, the men have made progress in the war on trash. With the construction of the City Market at O project, some groups no longer hang out or ‘party’ as frequently as they did before on 8th St., leaving empty Patron bottles or other evidence of the night’s activities, that become the morning’s trash.
Though changes in the neighborhood reduced most trash, it introduced another kind of refuse, poop. Canine fecal matter arrived about 6 years ago. Brian mentioned how the presence of dog walkers helps reduce crime, but yes, there are a lot more droppings. Fr. Watkins responded to the problem by placing reminders along 8th for dog walkers to pick up after their pets. He’s gotten positive feedback from owners as the signs communicate a tasteful and positive message.
At some level the men would like others to take ownership of their own patch of sidewalk or block. Watkins wishes people would take responsibility for their property, take care about the way it is presented and develop a sense of community pride. “DC would be a different place if people took on a greater ownership of the spaces where they live, work and play,” says Brian. He later added, “There is an appalling lack of public ownership. Some theologians and philosophers call it the ‘public good,’ or the ‘greater good’.”
There is no guarantee that if you began cleaning up your street or block tomorrow that you will meet and really get to know your neighbors. Nor is it recommended that you go out and directly confront drug dealers with a broom and dustpan. But if everyone were to lay claim to their yard and the sidewalks in front, eliminating the signs of chaos, DC would definitely be a different place, a better place.
*A rosary is a form of devotion in which five, or fifteen, decades (set of ten) of Hail Marys are repeated, each decade preceded by an Our Father and followed by a Glory Be. Typically practiced by Roman Catholics.
**Luke 18:1-8. See the parable of the persistent widow.
First, Shaw Main Streets and Emmaus Services for the Aging is putting on a ‘Shaw Gospel Music Explosion.’ Yup, explosion. Call Homeland Security. Anyway, if you want to witness this musical bang it is being held at Shiloh Baptist Church on 9th Street, August 7th, at 2pm and tickets are $10. The money raised will go to help seniors services and outreach programs. Contact Emmaus Services for more info at 2/ 745 1200.
Second, know of a non-profit looking for new digs? Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church has a vacancy next door to it’s offices and is seeking a renter in the townhouse. The occupant must be a non-profit for tax purposes. It is located a block from the Washington Convention Center, is close to the Mt. Vernon Sq. metro and not too far from the Shaw metro. Contact their office for more information.
Lastly, it is nice to see the 7th Day Adventists doing a kind of outreach that doesn’t involve door to door literature drops. No seriously, the Fourth Street Friendship SDA Church does a pretty good Sunday feeding program that doesn’t have a negative impact on the surrounding community. Sometimes the music has crept out but participants don’t loiter long and there isn’t much of a trash problem. Anyway, they are sponsoring a few programs that seem directed more at the middling classes. One that caught my eye was a workshop on Vegetarian Cooking. This workshop is to be held Monday June 21st facilitated by Mark Anthony. According to the blurb I found on the flier, “Mark makes regular appearances on T.V. including regular appearances on the 3ABN Network. He will present the topics of Plant Based Health & Nutrition, Vegetarian and Vegan Cooking. As a bonus, Mark will prepare a healthy and delicious meal for all!” The workshop is free but they are asking for a free-will offering, so treat it as a pay-what-you-can event. If one is interested call A.S.A.P. (that’s what the flier says) 2/ 797-9255 to reserve or R.S.V.P.
This page contains a single entry by Mari published on June 6, 2010 7:50 PM.
That’s the date mentioned on the MVSNA listserv. For you new people this is what usually happens. The church has a parade. A big parade. A long parade that crosses Rhode Island, snarling traffic. I think last year they went up to Florida Avenue. Also last year, they worked with the city. As opposed to previous years where deacons and other church people blocked streets and directed traffic.
It is interesting and it brings in a lot of United House of Prayer folks.
I don’t really keep up with these things, so this may be last year’s news to some. But it doesn’t look like Metropolitan is going to be moving from Armstrong/CAPS school anytime soon. That church they are supposedly building in PG County to move to in order to accommodate their car-centric congregation, well that’s on hold. ‘Cause they broke. Or ‘bankrupt’, using the language of my source. I can’t find anything confirming the bankrupt charge.
On Saturday I got a flier advertising the Mt. Sinai Baptist Church Nurses’ Ministry’s Church and Community Health Fair. What I really wanted to do Saturday was ask questions of what I’m assuming is some clothing ministry that was out on the corner of 3rd and Q that day. But I was running errands and trying to catch buses so that didn’t happen.
If you haven’t seen them or ever walked by that corner when they are out, every so often (it seems monthly or quarterly) on a Saturday there will be free clothing offered. The couple of times I’ve passed there have been people fingering through the racks of clothes. When I walked by this weekend there were “gently used” (got that phrase from EBay) women’s and children’s shoes. There were children’s clothing as well as adult clothing. And then there is the big chalkboard saying “Free Clothes” just so it is clear of what’ going on and offered.
The flier I got is for free health screenings and some shots & tests that are to occur on the 26th from 10AM to 3PM. The screenings are for prostate cancer, glucose (for diabetes, body fats or lipids), and blood pressure. The tests are for HIV, urine, and hearing. The shots are for the flu and tetanus. This is to occur in their lower auditorium. I’m guessing that’s the same area where we have the BACA meetings.
For more information I gather one would contact Mt. Sinai and their office # is 2/ 667-1833.
Okay, I don’t want to get into an argument about religious or 1st amendment expression, I just want to warn some of y’all about an annual traffic nightmare/ fun parade. Depending on who you are, where you live, what you’re doing and if you actually need to get anywhere will determine how you feel about it. I live on the other side of New Jersey Ave and I take the subway, so I don’t care.
Anyway here’s some of the announcement:
The United House of Prayer for All People will be celebrating its, Annual Memorial Day Peace Parade, on Saturday May 23, 2009. This year the parade has a theme, which has been coined “Return”, adapted by our leader, Bishop C. M. Bailey.
Historically, the parade route travels passing through Vermont Avenue, however, this year, the parade route will travel down 13th Street, NW, from U. Street, NW. The actual parade route is:
6th Street – Florida Avenue – 13th Street – Logan Circle – P Street – 7th Street – back to United House of Prayer for All People, 601 M Street, NW
Because the parade route has been slightly changed, we want to provide notification to the Community and thus, sought to have this communicated to Advisory Neighborhood Commission, ANC, 2-F, so as to not inconvenience the community.
The parade, lotsa black people, groups of young men with brass instruments, and maybe drums, will be snaking through the middle of Shaw starting around 11AM and possibly finishing up around 3PM. Avoid Rhode Island Avenue, and any other cross streets through central Shaw, if you’re in a car. Now if you’re on a bike, just try not to hit anyone, you can probably ride through the gaps.
Every time I encounter the parade, there never seems to be anyone from the city (MPD, DDOT, etc) directing traffic on Rhode Island. Since the church is alerting the community with announcements, I wonder if that will change.
Shaw has a lot of churches. Many range from the ones housed in rowhouses to storefronts and churches that look like churches. Some churches, as they act in their own interest (nothing wrong with that) have been deaf to the concerns of the residents who they share the neighborhood with, and others have been a bit better at listening. Mt. Sinai has been one of those better churches.
Back when portions of the TC was in the 3rd Police District, Mt. Sinai allowed for PSA (police service area) meetings. This is in addition to the Bates Area Civic Association meetings that are usually held on the 1st Monday of every month, unless it falls near a holiday or there is inclement weather. Provided that you can make arrangements, the church has so far been very willing to provide free meeting space to community groups.
Though the church owns a number of homes along 3rd Street, and unlike some churches I can think of, Mt. Sinai has maintained these properties#, paid their taxes*, and keeps them in use for various ministries and functions. Except for the two properties bookending the 1600 block of 3rd St, the others don’t particularly stick out. One of the reasons I prefer the bus stop at 3rd and Q is that their place on that corner is somewhat populated, not as cut off and isolated as 3rd and R. Yes, the education center at 3rd and R does stick out. But after a while you get used to it.
They also, as do other Shaw churches, engage in community or local charity. Be it with their benevolence fund or the offer of free clothing. I can’t remember if they have a small food bank or not. They might not need to as the Fourth Street 7th Day Adventists, on the other side of the block has a soup kitchen on Sundays.
As they have grown from a storefront** to a full sized church with auxillary buildings, they have not turned themselves into a fortress. They have not fought neighborhood efforts to better itself, nor has it forgotten those left behind. Mt. Sinai, seems to know where it is in the community.
# 1630 3rd is listed as a vacant property and is taxed as such. From pictures of the house, it doesn’t strike me as looking vacant.
*Yes, despite being owned by the church, taxes are paid on almost all the 3rd Street properties, save but one.
** A 1950s NW area church survey classified Mt. Sinai on the 1600 blk of 3rd as a ‘storefront’ chruch.
