UPDATED (30 June) old tena market, 2nd and rhode island

there has been a burst of construction activity at what used to be the tena market at 2nd and rhode island, nw. new concrete curbing is being poured around the 'front yard' (which appears to be the same as the old curbing, so i'm wondering why they jackhammered it away in the first place. they've bricked in the door on the northwest corner of the building and appear to be gutting the interior. unfortunately, as i don't speak spanish, i wasn't able to ask the gentlemen doing the work if they know what's going in there. does anyone have any hints? drop them in the comments.

UPDATE: here are two pictures of the ongoing construction work. you can see that they've bricked in that door i mentioned, as well as the small transom-type windows that were above the main windows. the roof looks like it's sagging though, and i've got to think they might want to put some work into that to shore things up.

morning complaints, part 223

there were three things this morning (i swear, i don't usually complain THIS much, but the sludgy weather that i had to swim through to bike to work this morning doesn't put you in the best mood, you know?) that got my goat:

• cops that don't follow traffic rules. there was a special operations division police cruiser that went through the red light at the corner of 6th and rhode island this morning and almost hit me. couldn't see the officer clearly because of the extremely dark tinting on the window, but i could make out the cellphone held up to his ear. don't get me wrong, i love having a strong police presence in the neighborhood. until you can demonstrate that we don't need the protection (it's going to be a while, i'm sure), they need to be there, but it would be nice if they followed the same rules we have to
• overgrowth. on that same corner, there is a little parking lot that holds an abandoned semi-trailer and looks like it used to be a car rental place from the signage. they have so much brush growing out front that it's starting to block your ability to see around the corner, and it's eating up the sidewalk. there are a lot of others like this around the neighborhood, and it would be nice if the owners would do a better job maintaining their property. i'm not holding my breath.
• the south exit from logan circle (13th street). drivers ALWAYS ignore the traffic signals there, and it's just a matter of time until one of the maryland commuters and taxi cabs there hit a pedestrian in their hurry to get downtown in the morning. the best part is how they get exasperated when you point out to them that they're driving through a red light and that you have the right of way. sorry to slow you down, richard petty, but driving to work in the morning is not the talladega 500.

new real estate technology used here in the neighborhood

ok, so it's not REALLY in bloomingdale, but eckington [yes, jay, you steal our coffee shop, i steal your homes for sale...but i kid because i care :)], but there was a story on NPR last week about realtors using extremely short distance radio transmitters to broadcast information about a house that's for sale, like how you can get traffic information from short range radio stations on the freeways in some cities. my roommate's parents caught this one, so the shout goes out to them for alerting us to this story.

warehouse in bloomingdale?

if you're familiar with the warehouse theater, bar, performance space, and art gallery, you know that they are talking about the need to close down because of the huge increase in their property taxes. well now, today, dcist and the city paper have both announced that the warehouse will be closing down at least the cafe and music parts of the operation for now, with the theater and gallery staying at least partially open for a while into the near future.

what makes this relevant is that both say the owners are looking at bloomingdale as one of the possible neighborhoods to relocate into. i don't think the space at 1st and seaton could hold everything that they would want (not big enough), but what do you think about other potential spots in the neighborhood. what about the ec-12 space? could they team up with the group trying to bring that plan about?

arrest out front

i don't know what happened, but i just witnessed a car that was pulled over in front of my house and a guy was taken away in cuffs. seemed like everyone was pretty calm and things went routinely, except ending up in the back of a cruiser probably isn't anyone's idea of a routine day.

copier/printer in the white house (updated)

ok, i'm at work....just a quick note here. there is a guy here fixing our color printer (it breaks frequently). he is talking on one of those damned walkie-talkie cellphone things, and talking loudly. i can't concentrate. anyway, he's talking to someone who's working on a busted printer at the white house. apparently it's a phaser 7760. so now you know what karl rove uses to duplicate memos regarding the removal of u.s. attorneys or the slow destruction of civil liberties...

UPDATE: holy lord, this guy doesn't shut up. he's going to work at the new executive office building next, and he just read off his name, social, and birthdate out loud for everyone in the office to hear. does anyone want to steal an identity, i've got all the information written down right here...

action at the corner of 1st and seaton!

so, i just got home, and my landlord is downstairs clearing out the first floor of the building. apparently there are people coming to look at the space in the coming days. i'm not going to spill the beans too much on what i heard, but it sounds good. let's just use the words 'financial institution' and 'restaurant'. i'll update soon when i really can. (sorry to leave you hanging like this.)

oh no! one less yum's!

what are we going to do if all the yum's in the city burn down? one of them did yesterday. check out the topmost 'working incident' on the dc fire department page. this one is in trinidad, and i know there are two on 14th st nw (one at p and one at wallach place) and there's one on kennedy street in brightwood park. does anyone know if/where there are others?

in all seriousness, i hope the owners were insured and are able to rebuild their business quickly.

liquor license map

check out this awesome mapping application that was put together by ANC commissioner Frank Winstead of ANC 3F-04.

alcohol licenses by ANC

pretty neat. you can check out what kind of licenses all of the alcohol-serving establishments in your neighborhood have, and see voluntary agreements as well, if there are any.

making money for metro

check out this dcist story. sommer writes about the possibility that metro will open up a lot more of their surface area (think everything but windows) to advertising. in a perfect world, i would like to see no ads on metro, it takes away from the design, but i know that's just not possible. any way that metro can make money without raising fares (and if that can keep them from cutting back service) is a good thing to me.

that's why i get so damn FRUSTRATED sometimes when i'm riding the bus. i'm sure that metro's ad sales hierarchy goes something like this:

ads in stations > ads in trains > ads on outside of bus > ads on inside of bus

if that is the case, then the inside of the bus is probably lowest priority, and most difficult to sell, because they probably get less bang for the buck. it would explain why i see more public service announcements in the buses than ads, especially on the routes i ride (g8, g2, 80, p6), since our routes aren't on the rich side of town.

but whoever is in charge of metrobus ads needs to be fired. i mean, the g8 tonight was full of p.s.a.'s touting the dc smoking ban. that's wonderful, but the ads happily shout "coming in january"! i mean, can't the ad salespeople at least sell the space for some newer p.s.a.'s, ones that are a little more current? i see this all the time, and it just frustrates me when metro doesn't do everything in it's capability to fill it's own coffers. why am i surprised, though?