Spring is loitering on the corner
You know good weather is around the corning when the boyz start hanging around the corner you prayed they had abandoned. Well, it's better than the bad old days when they'd hang on the corner in bad weather, day and night. So they started hanging out Wednesday, and they've brought on new staff. There is one guy I recognize from days past, but the other guys? Ranges from 'not sure' to 'he's new'.
With vigilance, hopefully, it will prove to be an unprofitable corner. Problem is that we are a handful of blocks from heroin central, over by where the Truxton Circle used to be. But so far, during the hour or so I was watching them, and really didn't see any cars stop. I wasn't the only one watching, a few others thought it was nice enough to sit on their stoops, or fiddle in the yard. Mix that in with the odd dog walker, joggers and strollers, I don't see how that's an attractive corner for a drug buy.
Also I want to thank the 5D cops who showed up and made several passes by the corner, and ventured into the alley. Of course by then the boyz had wandered off, but it was good they showed up anyway.
Unrelated Announcement- Blogger issues. Blogger is going to discontinuing a service I use so I'll need to migrate my blogs and I'm not sure what's that going to look like. So blogging may be spotty towards the end of the month.
Labels: blog, crime
Quick Sale
This weekend a house near me got under contract, despite the price. Honestly, I thought $599K was too much, considering a house on the same block with a similar layout, but with a basement and a somewhat functional gas fireplace sold for about $150K less. Others who'd seen the interior of the higher priced home had said it was in move in condition and done very nicely. I saw the inside and admittedly couldn't play the IKEA/Home Depot game, but I swear one of the interior paint colors was the same as my dining room's. Ralph Lauren,
Stony Mountain, NA15.
Well I gather the Real Estate market in the circle of Truxton, is healthy. That or someone really wants to live on our street. Maybe I'll go with the second theory as Sunday was nice out, which meant the cute 5 and under set were out riding their bikes and razors. "Hey look, if you had kids they'd be playing with these kids by now." And the people with dogs chatting with the neighbors doing things in their yards. For a while it was the best advertisement. A living brochure. A clean block (cleaned earlier that day by a neighbor) with happy children, a diverse (age & race) set of friendly looking adults being all frigging neighborly, smiling, laughing. That's worth about $150K right there.
So putting your house on the market anytime soon? Somehow pick the nicest day for an open house and during the open house, convince your neighbors to make your block look like it's fricking Sesame Street. Guaranteed sale.
Labels: houses, real estate
Church gossip
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.
Labels: churches
Feh, PUDs and other complex development deals
I just rejected a SPAM comment for a old post (any post older than 14 days is moderated) about
the Radio One deal. That was back in 2007. It is 2010. So 'cuse me if I'm not as hopeful as some of you about the other projects proposed back in 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004.... You get the idea.
So far, in my mind, which means you're welcomed to disagree (and I'll just ignore you), anything requiring financing more complicated than a credit card form is something you shouldn't hold your breath for. Yes, complex projects do get built. You know that National Harbor thing in PG built over a year or two ago? Yeah, they started that in the 1970s. I know where the paperwork for that is to prove it. So O Street Market may be done sometime in 2020 at this rate.
Yes, yes, I hear things are moving with O St. I will believe it when the machinery arrives, then a bunch of guys in hard hats are there 4-5 days a week for 3 or more months and something like framing. Real framing, not just stuff to keep the walls from falling down, forms. Don't just adjust the fence and move the bricks around and call that progress.
Labels: development
New Neighborhood Blog- Edgewood
Edgewood has a blog-
Life on the Edgewood.
This blog has
an update on the Metropolitian Branch Trail, which sadly won't be whole between Rhode Island Ave and New York Ave metros this Spring.
Labels: blog
Don't hold your breath
Mt. Vernon Square lists all the
stalled/ held up/ and snailed projects in Shaw. And another project that is snail or sloth-in-a-coma type projects, the Howard Theater, had its
marquee fell down.
Labels: development
A little advice to keep your iPhone from getting stolen
People, if you own an iPhone, you have a portable little device that sells for about $200 on
EBay broken. Not jailbroken. Cracked screen broken. So imagine if a thief manages to grab it from you fully functional.
On the green line one afternoon, after work I noticed a young woman standing near the door, one hand on the handle of a suitcase burdened down with other bags and one hand, outstretched playing with her iPhone. Her body language just screamed, "Hey steal my iPhone!" She was conveniently near the door, for a quick getaway. The number of bags she had, made it unlikely that she'd go running after my imagined thief. And since everyone else on the train was in their own little worlds, the likelihood that someone would chase after this imagined thief, small. The distance she held it out from her body made it easy to knock it out from her hands.
She wasn't the only young woman holding her precious iPhone a foot from her body, making it easy to grab. I saw another walking down 7th Street in Penn Quarter. She might as well have been holding it out another 6 inches further saying, "Here, here, take my phone."
So my advice is when you're out in public. Public being outside of your office, your dorm, house, your own private vehicle, hold your iPhone out no more than 6 inches from your body. Also it doesn't matter what neighborhood you're in because
even Georgetown is experiencing iPhone theft.
Labels: crime
ex-Shiloh Property under some renovation
PoP reports
here, with a hopeful picture that work is being done on this former Shiloh Baptist property. If I have the address right (1600 8th St NW?) the property was sold 12/30/2009, so if the new owner is starting now, three months later, the future is lookin' good.
Labels: development, real estate
Big Bear Beer II
Sometime after all the youth/school related stuff at the BACA meeting, about an hour into it, we finally got to Big Bear and their general ideas of pursuing an ABC liquor license. There were two persons from Bog Bear, one being Matt Sellers, the other guy a blond barista... now if it is a guy do you call them baristas? Not baristos?
Anyway. Big Bear is aiming for a
CR license. For those of you unfamiliar with the wonderful world of ABC licenses, a class C Restaurant license is one for places where at least 45% of revenues come from food sales. It is different from the class of licenses for bars or corner markets. The was one objection mentioned, coming from a Baptist minister, presenting his concerns about people getting drunk and hanging out in the park. This was countered by the Episcopalian church secretary reminding him of Jesus' first miracle at the wedding at Cana, turning water into wine.
There were questions about Big Bear expanding and the space they have. The bear is kind of landlocked and the space above is leased to tenants, so in the near future, nope. Maybe, years down the road. Another question was the issue of vagrants/ neighbor characters. Characters do drop by to get a glass of water and to use the bathroom and for the most part they don't cause a problem.
The idea is Big Bear has a vibe as a cafe, hang out and they have no intention of becoming a bar, they just want to expand their food service options. I asked the barista (m) if the idea is to offer something like Teaism, and he answered in the affirmative. As far as I can tell despite having a small park area and a restaurant/bar across the street, the Penn Quarter Teaism fails to produce drunkards rolling out of its doors.
Labels: BACA, Bloomingdale/Eckington, food/dining
Big Bear Beer?
I noticed this in the announcement for today's BACA meeting:
(b) Ms. Elizabeth Lyttleton, an Eckington resident who provides occasional consulting services to Big Bear Café, asked for time on our agenda to apprise our group of the status of the cafe’s current efforts to acquire a license from the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. I am advised that Ms. Lyttleton developed a scheduling conflict that won’t allow her to attend Monday’s meeting in person; however, she plans to identify someone else to make her expected presentation and to answer any questions that it might generate.
TODAY! 7PM Mt. Sinai Baptist Church, in the basement cafeteria.
Labels: BACA, food/dining
Taxes
Let's get personal at first, then we'll get real.
In my general tradition I have finished my personal federal and DC taxes in the last week of February. I sort of did my federal taxes during the blizzard of 2010, but as always, there are forms and papers that trickle in the mail reminding me of donations and income I've completely forgotten about. But once you've done your federal taxes you can
file your DC individual taxes on-line, for free. To do so you will need your federal Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) you entered on your 2008 DC tax return (form D-40EZ, line 3 or form D-40, line 3). If you didn't file last year in DC then you can't use the on-line feature. A quick review of my taxes (I used H&R Block's software) shows that I could have donated more to charity, and put more in my retirement plan.
My biggest tax break came from real estate. I paid somewhere around 11K or 13K in mortgage interest, which knocked about 2K off in personal taxes. Maybe I can use that savings to make up for the noticeable jump in real estate taxes levied by the District.
If you haven't got your assessment, be prepared. You know that 10% cap? Yeah, forget about it. There's now a minimum tax floor, 40% of the assessed value of the home. Not even the senior citizens' are safe. I noticed they're getting hit with the same floor, so not so great news for granny. But on the plus side, it does make some problem houses have an incentive to sell.
My own feelings about it are mixed. I liked having a lower tax rate because I bought before the RE boom but at the same time the low tax was like a pair of golden shackles. The tax was a great incentive not to even think of moving. But as certain things in my life change, and I can anticipate that my housing needs may change, making the tax difference from one house to another a minor factor, frees me up to ponder living elsewhere, even if that elsewhere is down the block or off in PG.
Labels: real estate, taxes
