In Shaw (now with more gentrification)

Something 'bout a skate park
The District of Columbia Department of Parks and Recreation invites
Shaw residents, especially young people, as well as the DC skateboarding,
rollerblading, and bicycling community, to participate in the planning
of the Shaw Skate Park at the Shaw Recreation Center, 11th Street and Rhode Island
Avenue, NW.

Input on the design of the park is sought from potential users of all
ages and types.

The meeting will be held on Monday, July 21, 2003, at 7:00 PM at Shaw
Junior

High School, 925 Rhode Island Avenue, NW.

For more information on the Shaw Skate Park or the meeting on July
21st, contact Alexander M. Padro, Commissioner, ANC 2C01.

And this has what to do with living in DC?
The folks at the DC Nightlife Coalition (www.dcnc.org) are at it again, pissing off the Logan Circle folks. I belong to the not so active (compared to other lists) Logan Circle community listserv, and the DCNC have put a few posts that have attacted the ire of some Logan Circle residents on the list. News release titles such as "Anti-Nightlife Fanatics Disconnect With Rest Of City" (DCNC) ain't gonna win you any friends in the neighborhood.
I remember first hearing about DCNC from my Swing dance group. But the thing is there is not a whole lotta love between bars and swing dancers because a) swing dancers are cheap; b) swing dancers don't really drink; c) swing dancers will bitch about the floor and being charged for water; d) if you are a bar you are not going to make squat directly off the dancers, maybe off of the people watching the dancers, but not the dancers. A lot of the people in my swing dance calling for Jack Evans' (Ward 2 Commissioner) head were suburbanites, people who I knew lived in Rockville, Alexandria, in other words not DC. There were two folks of the whole group who lived in the city and one of them made his living off of the nightlife.
I took a look at the DCNC website and saw a call to a January meeting:
Thursday, January 16th 2003
Committee for a Living DC Meeting.
Location: Black Cat, 1811 14th Street NW
Time: 2:00 PM
DCNC officers will be attending this meeting. The agenda will cover the status of a proposed DC statutory amendment to protect music and nightlife, status of the Committee for a Living DC amendments to the liquor license regulations, status of the public hall amendment to the liquor license regulations, plans for reigning in so-called "voluntary" agreements, and publicity efforts to draw media attention to nightlife issues in DC.

Now it is called a living in DC meeting, and I don't see what aspect of LIVING in DC is addressed. From what I have seen their thing is preserving nighlife culture, fair enough, there should be nightlife. However, I gotta live here. I want to be able to sleep and not get woken up in the middle of the night by club goers getting out at 2AM, or traffic. If I had a car I wouldn't appreciate having to compete against some suburanite with MD tags, who doesn't have to pay a commuter tax, for a parking space. The nightlife is great for suburbanites (some of my closest friends are suburbanites) because they can come in, party and then leave. In some ways it is good for the city coffers with sales and revenue. Some businesses are good for residents in that they are places where you can go to unwind, hang with your friends and socialize. But not all businesses. Some businesses are bad neighbors, who blast music during schoolnights when you have to get up the next day to go to work. Yes there are noise regulations, but many a neighbor could tell of times when the police come, noise goes down, later noise goes back up, police may or may not respond, sleep already ruined. And let me say, base, that deep thump, thump, goes through walls and no earplug can lessen it because it is a vibration.
Some clubs and residential areas do not go together. Quick, name some nice neighborhoods you, your parents and your married friends would want to live in? There are neigborhoods that can cater to young people and a young population. What about people who are older and whose going out 1, 2, 3 times a week are behind them? What kind of neighborhoods for them? Why?

Metropolitan Police enforce anti-loitering law this weekend in designated areas of PSAs 312 and 606

Chief of Police Charles H. Ramsey has declared two drug free zones this weekend – one in the Third Police District, the other in the Sixth District – for purposes of enforcing DC’s Anti-Loitering/Drug Free Zone law. The law allows police to disperse groups of two or more individuals congregating for the purpose of illegal drug activity within the designated drug free zone.

The boundaries of the two drug free zones are as follows:

* In PSA 312, the area generally bounded by P Street, NW, on the north; New York Avenue and N Street, NW, on the south; 1st Street, NW, on the west; and North Capitol Street, NW, on the east.
* In PSA 606, the area generally along Anacostia Road and 37th Place, SE, just south of B Street, SE.

Each drug free zone designation is in effect from 12:01 am on Thursday, July 17, until 12 midnight on Monday, July 21. The law permits drug free zone designations for no longer than 120 hours.

Additional information about the Anti-Loitering/Drug Free Zone Act, including details about the two most recent drug free zones declared by Chief Ramsey, can be found on the Metropolitan Police Department website: www.mpdc.dc.gov/info/comm/drugfreezone.shtm.

One of the good things about working with archives is that there is this theory that I can do archival research. These are some of the people in my 'hood in 1890. They are all Black.

Robert Childs laborer 1618 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Henry H Cox shoemkr 1612 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Isaac S Goin student 1616 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
James Henderson laborer 1611 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Hester Jefferson washing 1618 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Augustus Kent driver 1610 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Maria Kent, widow Joseph 1610 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Rev James H Lee 1612 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Nelson Lomax driver 1614 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Hester Pendleton washing 1618 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Amy Slaughter, widow John 1611 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Grant Slaughter carpenter 1611 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
John S Slaughter laborer 1611 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Daniel Stewart huckster 1614 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Julia Taylor, widow John 1610 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
John Thomas laborer 1614 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Fredk C B Washington student 1616 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Jeremiah Watkins waiter 1616 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
John Watkins laborer 1616 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1890
Silas Carter driver 1614 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1891
James Henson laborer 1611 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1891
Foster Jackson laborer 1618 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1891
Esther Jefferson, widow Raleigh 1618 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1891
William Jefferson laborer 1618 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1891
Grant Johnson laborer 1610 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1891
Rev James H Lee 1612 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1891
Nelson Lomax driver 1614 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1891
Abraham Slaughter waiter 1611 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1891
Amy Slaughter nurse 1611 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1891
Grant Slaughter carpenter 1611 4th northwest District of Columbia DC 1891

I love DC. This is one of the few days. I was able to bike to Dupont Cirlce. Can't do that from the burbs! Also once I got to Dupont there was a brass band playing the kind of music that I heard in the Holiness churches. I wanted to dance, but instead I just put a dollar in the pail. This makes up for the pissy cashier who did understand me because of the language barrier.

Confessions of a gentrifier

I don't fit the normal profile of a gentifier.....

First, I'm not rich. On a yearly basis, if not more often my profession's listserv goes on a tizzy about how we're never paid much. according to some government tables I make about 1/2 of the region's adverage income.

Second, I'm black. Of course some may want to take away my black person card because of the crew I hang with and I know I'm never going to win a Blacker than Thou contest. It says black on the birth certificate, so that's what I'm sticking with.

Third, well there is no 3rd. But I like things to have a begining, a middle and an end.

I do fit some of the gentifying stereotypes in otherways:
I'm new, moving in in 2000
I have a graduate degree
I'm young (sort of)
I've improved my yard and house
I attend community meetings and support changes
I have no kids
I am a homeowner

I moved to Shaw because a) it is on the Green Line which will take me to Archives II, where I thought I would wind up working. b) not far from the Yellow line, which would take me to Braddock Road, where I did wind up working, c) near grocery store, laundry and everything else a car-less person needs, and lastly and most importantly d) I could afford it.

I'm a single woman, there is only so much house I can afford. I don't like huge condo buildings, actually I hate condo buildings. Also I needed to be near the metro, as mentioned previously, I don't have a car. Not a condo, near the metro, equals expensive. But my Realtor found something in my small measly price range.

All you new people just want to come in and change things!

That's what I hear everyso often from several of the old timers. Old timers have been in the neighborhood since the Indians were fishing in the Potomac. They'll lash out against people who have lived in the neighborhood 15 years, which apparently makes you a newbie still. The old timers are typically old retired women, who insult you in that being nice but insulting way.

I didn't move in with a plan. I was aware of changes and potential and I am supportive of it. Change is going to happen. People who have been here 15 years and want change do see an opening and are acting on it using some of the engery (and naivite) of the new people. So yes, I guess in some ways I do want to change things.

** Cut down on liquor stores Good Lord, how many of these stores do you need. Right where I am there are about 3 stores in a 2 block radius where I can grab a 40, or some Mad Dog 20/20. I'm not against beer and wine. I drink wine but you won't find me in the neighborhood liquor store, unless they start carrying a variety of foreign and domestic red wines, none of that Boones Farm crap but real wine.

**Do something about abandoned buildings Do old timers like abandoned buildings? It brings joy to my heart so see a house that previously was boarded up getting fixed up to be sold. Now people with the money to fix up houses also are up on the current economic realities and know that they can make some money and they do. They'll fix up a house and sell it for an outragous price. Usually out of the price range of most lower and middle income folks. Heck even Manna fixed then sold houses that were out of my price range. So fixing up the abandoned buildings come at a price.

** Cut down on crime Can't we all agree on this? Apparently not. Some newbie neighbors attended a meeting where she was attacked for wanted greater police presence on her street. The attendees told her if she wanted police presence she should have moved to Georgetown!

**Spend money in the community I would like to spend more of my hard earned dollars in the immediate area of where I live but I have 2 questions:
1. Are you selling what I want to be buying?
2. Will I be treated with respect?
One old timer chastised the group for not supporting Black businesses and the businesses that have been here since forever. Well I would support those businesses if they sold something I wanted to buy. See the comment about the liquor stores. They aren't selling what I want, and I am not going to buy what I don't want. I want fresh fruit. I want variety. Secondly, I don't want to be treated like a criminal before I even walk into the store. I know the neighborhood was not and in some spots is not safe enough to remove the plexiglass between the cashier and the customer. But I find the whole experience insulting in some ways, so given a choice, I choose not to but myself through that.

I choose to go to Giant on P Street. They have what I want, they don't insult me (the cashier may ingore me, but not insult me), and I get to spend my dollars in Shaw. I also support Chain Reaction. The service is good, the prices okay, and most importantly they're close. I don't eat at any of the take out joints, this goes back to the not selling what I want. I would like a nice sit down place, and I have yet to try the Italian restaurant on New York Ave, but that is still far. The best I can do is the Wendy's on Florida, which also is far, but they have the Wendy's Jr. Cheeseburger. If a store or restaurant that was nice and clean and respectful opened up I may visit it and maybe even patronize it.

They're are some things that I and my fellow newbies do that are threatening to the old timers and anti-gentrifiers, and I'll try owning up to them.
***You're trying to move people out of their homes. Yes and no. Are these the loud drug dealers down the street? They why hell yes, I want them gone. The old timers may remember when Soinso was a cute little kid, but now he's 20 and is hanging with a dope selling crew. They may feel sorry for them. Newbies show up and they just see the dope selling crew, not the cute kids they were. Sadly, some of these dealers work out of their grandmothers/momma's/girlfriend's house and when a community of law abiding citizens set they're mind to it it becomes "get rid of them all and let G-d, sort them out."
Even in situations where it isn't drugs but quality of life issues like noise and trash people look at it as a problem to be fixed and the easiest solution is to get rid of the problem instead of changing the behavior. Section 8. That tends to be synomous with problem house. They're are some good Section 8 people, but if a house has 12 people running in and out of it at all hours; people putting all their business out there on the street; children running around like they don't have any home training; being loud; being bad; being ugly, people just call it a Section 8 house. So yes, those people are targeted.
However there are people who are pushed out because of higher taxes and rents. They are not targeted, they are just victims of the changing economic times. Of course, according to Lance Freeman,at Columbia University, and Frank Braconi, at the Citizens Housing and Planning Council people aren't pushed out (see New York Times 3/26/2002 The Big City; The Gentry, Misjudged As Neighbors by JOHN TIERNEY ). They were bound to leave anyway regardless of what was going on in that particular neighborhood.

Jim Berry fighting against more Section 8 housing
Jim Berry fighting against more Section 8 housing
From: "JBerry"
To: "'Jeannette.Johnson
Subject: North Capitol Townhomes Limited Partnership Affordable Housing Pr oduction Project
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2003 20:12:31 -0400

Ms. Johnson,

Thank you for establishing contact with me concerning the above-referenced subject. There is a glitch in ANC 5C's telephone service with Verizon that we are in the process of correcting. That is, the telephone mail box for ANC 5C is shared between 12 commissioners and due to a progressive increase in the volume of calls that we have been receiving from members of the
general public over the last six months, we plan to significantly expand its capacity in the immediate future. Nevertheless, for your information and future reference, I can be reached daily, between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. at (202) *******and at (202) ******** during the evening hours.

As you may know, I volunteer my time and talents to my neighbors via my service to Advisory Neighborhood Commission 5C and, because we don't have an office manager at the time, there is a predictable delay in my receipt of calls transmitted to our office number.

I appreciate your advising me of Ms. Matthias' availability next week, but my written request of the DHCD was to meet with its Director, Mr. Stanley Jackson. Hence, I am at a loss to understand why a meeting with Ms. Matthias is being offered as a preliminary step towards the attainment of this goal.

It appears that the DHCD intends to move with dispatch to facilitate the release of Community Block Grant Funds in order that an out of town developer can implement the proposed North Capitol Townhomes Project and, frankly, I fear that it may succeed with this unfortunate and
unacceptable plan while I am engaged in and, possibly, being distracted by offers and arrangements to meet with surrogates of Mr. Jackson's.

As I have previously indicated, DHCD's existing plans to continue a subsidized housing program for the next 30 years in my neighborhood, that has not yielded a single homeowner as a result of its implementation over the past 21, strikes me as an abomination that I/we who are also
heavily invested in this community, must resist by all possible means. Indeed, I have shared this position with Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton's representative, with Ward Five Council Member Vincent B. Orange and other members of the D.C. City Council, and I plan to elaborate on this position in a meeting with officials from the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development that I plan to have in the immediate future.

It is my hope that reason will ultimately prevail in this unfortunate situation and that the DHCD will abandon its current plan, in favor of one that promotes and facilitates homeownership (especially, for those participants in the Bates Street Limited Townhomes Project of
longstanding). Indeed, if the DHCD and the local government is serious about and
committed to the goal of helping those who live in subsidized housing to evolve
into homeowners, now is the ideal time to implement such a program which, I believe, would represent a "win-win" situation for all of the stakeholders involved.

Sincerely,

James D. Berry, Jr.
Chairperson, ANC 5C