This would be a better referenced post if I knew where the heck my Census table was, but alas, I don’t have it. But when I find it, I’ll correct the data and cite it and all that good academic stuff.
One day I had a question, a question that fun Census data could answer. Who’s actually from here? There are DC natives, they proudly mention that they are from here. But so many people I meet around Shaw are not. Heck DC has only had two elected mayors born DC, Sharon Pratt-Kelly and Adrian Fenty. Marion Barry was from Mississippi.
Broken down by race, a little over half of DC black population is DC born. It’s something like 55% or 58% depending on how I factor in foreign born Blacks. The majority of non-DC native blacks come from Southern states. I’m from Florida, so I’d be part of that. Of the white population only something-teen percent of y’all are from here. Over 80% of you are not from here. Which s probably why, if most of your contacts, associates and friends are also white you’d probably be under the impression that no one is really from here. White non-natives, tend to be from all over, with a slight majority coming from the northeast. Of other racial groups, a majority are not from here either.
Going by the data it can explain some different dynamics at play as a more transient population moves into areas with a lot of native oldtimers. A population of people, black (that 40%), white, Latino & other from diverse areas having their own culture, ways, and reasons for coming to DC may from time to time conflict with the indigenous culture and ways.
Tag: misc
Sittin around the house
My family was never really big on holidays. Mostly we’d treat it like an extra weekend day, which is what I’m doing today. My big plan is to once again attempt to clean the first floor and make sure no one sets anything off in my front yard.
I love my little bit of 600-800 sq. feet of American dirt so much that I will fiercely protect it with a water hose. Though it looks like it won’t be much of an issue this year. There is the possibility of non-firework friendly weather and the low level of pre-4th firework noise.
Fireworks have now started
They may have started before this weekend but it was this weekend when I started to hear them go off. With a lack of firework stands so far (have you seen any?) and other factors I gather this year won’t be as noisy as the previous ones. The proof will be in the 4th of July pudding. The best way to describe 4th of July night ’round here is ‘crazy’. Smoke and noise and debris everywhere almost on every corner, kind of crazy.
Will there be on the off chance a quieter 4th? I’m not ready to bet on it, but if it is a bit more sedate with fewer neighborhood D.I.Y. shows competing with the big show on the Mall, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Risking a jinx- fireworks
At the risk of jinxing it, have you noticed a decrease in pre-4th of July firework noise? I swear this time a few years back there was the old neighborhood question of “fireworks or gunfire?” Over time I’ve noticed a decrease in firework activity that used to start up around mid June and continue into early August. It’s late June and I’ve only heard one incident of fireworks going off.
The 4th also provides a good gauge of what’s going on with the neighborhood. It will be interesting to see how many drive by fireworkings there are. The drive bys are where people with MD tags jump out from their mini-van, get their big package of fireworks out and light them up on a DC corner, then jump back into the vehicle and head back to Maryland. With gas prices above $4 a gallon, we might see less of that.
Then again the reason I might be hearing fewer firecrackers, is because this year I have insulation and completely closed windows(AC).
Powerless
If you are reading this, you probably have power.
Before I left home all the lights went out. Checked next door and they lost power too. Asked the folks a few houses down, no power. The next block, no power. I debated sticking around the house, but realizing I can’t do squat, I went on to work.
There is no power along 9th Street from the Convention Center to the Spy Museum. The traffic lights were out. Looking west on New York and Mass Aves, it appears the lights were out there too.
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Oh and Happy Friday 13th.
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If the Pepco Outtage Map is anything to go by, my milk and meat should be fine.
PSA- Roommate Scam
I’ve gotten a couple of emails lately regarding something that at a closer look appears to be some sort of scam targeted at bloggers. I’m not sure but after the 3rd or 4th email exchange I’m sure I’ll have a better clue. When something in the emails tipped me off, I started looking to see if this was a scam I hadn’t heard of I found sites regarding scam emails I’ve gotten before.
I’ve had roommates all my adult life. The longest I’ve ever been without a roommate is 1 year. So this means advertising for roommates in the City Paper, and Craigslist. I’ve gone through enough roommates and had to advertise for enough roommates to get 3 kinds of scam emails. So as a public service, I present:
Scam #1- Fashion Model Abroad
She’s fun, fabulous, out going and will be doing work in the fashionable city of Washington, DC. Sadly dah-lings, she is in the deepest of Africa with her mother and cannot be reached by phone.
Example:Thanks for the mail and i appreciate your efforts towards this .I am interested in renting your room.I will need more info from you regards to the house and also i need to know the deposit that i will be paying before i arrive,i am from ENGLAND,but currently based in west africa now with my mom because she works for a missionary school and she is posted down here,i want to move over to the US,Kindly get back to me ASAP with the deposit i need to pay because i will like to pay for the deposit before my arrival and i will like to know the total amount i will be paying for a whole year but i will like to pay the deposit first of all,I do part time modelling and also i have finished with my masters programme.I do model and i have job offers already in the US,I have my masters degree in accounting.My job will be based on contracts so i do not have to go to work all the time,I will only need to go to work 3 times in a week.
Scam #2- London Lawyer Uncle
He is contacting you on behalf of his niece who will be coming to the States. Never mind that I’m looking for a roommate and not renting an apartment. Please note different emails.
Example: — colly smith [collysmith2007@yahoo.co.uk] wrote:
Hello,
I’m Colly Dave of smith Ventures from United Kingdom.I came across your profile for your place to be rented out.I am interested in renting your place for my neice who will be coming to the US. Please answer my following questions below:
1) I will like to know if your appartment is still available
2) I will like to know the rent fee per month and if you require deposit.
3) I want to know if you accept cashier check for payment so I can make an advance payment before her arrival that will stand as commitment
4) Lastly, I will like to know more about you.
I will be very glad to have all this questions answered.
NOTE;REPLY TO collysmith2006@gmail.comHope to hear from you soon
Best Regards
Colly
Scam #3- Unknown money bags
Straight and to the point. They got a money order, they want to send it to you for the rent and deposit. (I tend to delete those quickly and not respond so I have no examples)
Probably Not A Scam But A Waste Of Thought- Lil’ Miss Scaredy Pants
She’s a student and wants her BFF from 3rd grade, her aunt or 2nd cousin to scope out the place for her, before she comes and applies. I’ve had these types contact me and it never pans out, so I see these responses as a waste of my time. I’m happy for Auntie M or Becky or whomever to contact me directly, but they never do, or logistics never work out.
I’ve seen this scene before
Last week heading out from work, pondering taking a cab home to test out the supposed lower prices, I saw a couple walking along Pennsylvania Avenue. What grabbed my attention was the pleading man. The woman was a long haired blond in her late thirties, maybe mid forties wearing a tight fitting black jeans and tee. The man was in his late forties, sorta moppish hair cut, wearing the most nondescript clothes ever.
Man: Let me drive you home
Woman: [silence and keeps walking ahead]
Man: Please [followed by more whiny pleading]
Then there is a certain point when he looks like he’s going to get down on his knees, as she’s keeping her stride on….
Man: She means nothing to me!
Well that explains a lot. Dude, you’re in trouble.
Risk and Benefits
I was looking at mutual funds for an education fund I’m supposed to set up for the niece before the year is out when I answered a question on someone else’s site about crime in Shaw. So this explains the state of mind I was in when answering.
Life is filled with risk. And not just one kind of risk, all sorts of horrid things could happen to your health, heart, and soul. Add to it, it doesn’t get evenly spread. You could move to Shaw, live here for 7 years and experience nothing but good. Just as well you could move here, buy a money pit, have your car stolen, get hassled by various people on the street, and move out after 2 years, bitter and angry.
Your experience here could depend on a slew of factors ranging from your personality, your immediate environment, that big wild card, fate, and how all those things mix together on any given day. Say you did buy that money pit, and by chance you mention it to some neighbors/friends/ co-workers who experienced the same problem and could advise you before you threw too much money at it. Or maybe there are a thousand little things that go wrong that need fixing, whether you’re the kind of person who could install drywall in your sleep or if you can barely change a light bulb may color how you see the place(the availability of loved ones who like coming over to help with that sort of thing count too).
Only you, know ‘you’ well enough and what’s going on in your life to determine if you can tolerate the various risks of buying a fixer upper or moving into a group house on this or that street in Shaw.
With that said, there are benefits to living here, and this too depends on you and what’s going on in your life. I like being able to walk home on a mild day after work. It helps that the job is tiny bit over a mile from the house. If you work in Dulles, this is not a option for you. It helps that there are several other easy transportation options to work and there are several places to walk t, which makes it possible to live without a car. I don’t know if the car-dependent people get much out of this. I’ve been in the house for 7 years, fixed it up and have little intention of moving anywhere anytime soon. But should the University of Florida call me out of the blue wanting me to work at one of the non-med libraries….. see ya. I believe, and know for myself that homeowners who have been in their houses for a decent length of time, say around and over 10 years, should see a decent return on their investment. The reinvestment of commercial ventures (restaurants, coffee shops, stores), improved metro (a straight Green line was not always there), improvements to decaying residential properties, and a more attractive Downtown (remember when it was dead after 6 and on weekends?) have made Shaw a more attractive place to be. There is still room for improvement.
More good neighbors than bad. More good experiences than bad. Interesting stories to tell. Yeah, so far it’s been like a slow growing stock that pays decent dividends.
People watching
This is mainly a response to those who say, all people in DC dress a certain way, plus something I noticed about the Gallery Place 3-6pm crowd.
Maybe it is where you live and work and who you actually notice versus the people you sort of ignore thing. If I went by what people just around where I work, a good number wear whatever the uniform supply company put out (security, maintenance, and Downtown BID personnel), followed by what can be called business causal which is a huge range, followed by people in suits, and then casual (shorts/jeans and tee-shirts, or what I wear on Fridays to work).
Now let me speak of the Gallery Place crowd. Despite also being called Chinatown, there is a noticeable lack of majority of persons of Asian decent mulling around. Sometimes what’s going on at the Verizon Center determines what crowds are seen along 7th and H. If I see a lot of suburban harried looking parents with children I guess the Wiggles or whatever big ticket children’s entertainment phenom is in town. Crowds of people in over-sized Caps jerseys, hockey game. But there is another set of people who I must of not noticed before, young African American men and women dressing in a highly conscious urban style.
Not really paying attention, I just probably lumped these folks in with the rowdy after school crowd of kids who look like the kids from my neighborhood. But then, after waiting so many times for the bus I noticed groups of late-teens, twenty-somethings with the big sunglasses and a detailed attention to coordinating their whole look. I noticed the newness and crispness of some of the clothes, ie a total lack of wrinkles. I tend to prefer a more conservative and preppy look. Yet, as I’m noticing this subset of the crowd it was like a little light going off, where, “oh, I see what you’re doing. That goes, with that, which accentuates that other thing.”
Anyone else notice them too?
Make your dog parks where you may
Coming home yesterday from the R Street exit of the Shaw/Howard station, noticed a man with his mid-sized black dog finishing up a romp around the enclosed space that was the Waltha Daniel’s Library. It appears that the gate was open on the 8th Street side and I guess the pair made use of the temporary green space. As far as a more formal option goes, ANC 2C02 Kevin Chapple has a posting about a petition for a dog park in Shaw.
I don’t own a dog, but I see a need for dog parks. And to the argument that parks should be for people. Well they are for people, people with dogs.