check this out! world missions for christ, a church at the corner of 1st and randolph nw in bloomingdale, was featured in a segment on the daily show last night about which church the obama family should choose for worship. the clip is featured below.
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there were a couple comments on previous posts about the mcmillan sand filtration project asking if the meeting that was supposed to happen on january 24th had happened.February 7, 2009
10:00am to 12:00pm
Trinity University Social Hall
125 Michigan Avenue NE
i noticed this the other morning when surfing the washington post's website. when you enter a URL that can't be found on their site, you get the message at the bottom of the image above, which is akin to a 404 messsage. a hearty well done to the folks at this is reality!
it was first noted by scott roberts on both the bloomingdale and eckington listservs on saturday:
Your moderator notes that there is a curb cut request on the agenda of this Tuesday's, 1/27/2009, ANC 5C meeting. Prior ANC 5C commissions handed out requested curb cuts like cotton candy. Will the 2009 ANC 5C commission do the same?
Address: 1817 1ST ST NW
SSL: 3106 0089
Neighborhood: ECKINGTON
Homestead Status: ** Not receiving the Homestead Deduction
Owner Name: THOMAS D CROWLEY
Mailing Address: 1817 1ST ST NW; WASHINGTON DC20001-1069
Sale Price: $310,000
Sale Date: 11/13/2008
that's what david smith, the person behind the fifth and oh blog had to say on the shaw neighborhood listserv with respect to a complaint that had been filed against anc2c02 commissioner kevin chapple.
it turns out that, in the last year, a complaint was filed against mr. chapple over the publication of his neighborhood newsletter "anc2c02 & you". the newsletter was published under the aucpices of a for-profit organization called "anc-2c02 LLC". money to produce and print the newsletter came from advertising dollars that local businesses and politicos gave to have themselves publicized in a forum that was meant help disseminate news for everyone in the neighborhood. from an admittedly brief reading of the findings that were published yesterday on the shaw listserv, it looks like commissioner chapple even put up his own money to help publish the newsletter.
the newsletter was a breath of fresh air for the shaw community, so used to being kept in the dark about the goings-on of their elected officials. the shaw ANC had, for years, refused to adopt many of the trappings of a modern, open, inclusive government that other ANCs around the city had, such as office space that would allow public interaction, a website to allow dissemination of information (like agendas), and wide publication of phone numbers that would allow constituents to get in touch with their elected representatives. commissioner chapple was showing the rest of the ANC what was possible if information was set free.
unfortunately, to co-opt a common phrase, "freedom isn't free". the cost of getting this information out to the public, while not enormous, was apparently substantial enough that it wasn't something that could be completely handled with out-of-pocket funds. having a newsletter or website for the entire ANC is something that probably could have been funded by the ANC itself, but the previous regime would never have allowed that to happen. thus, commissioner chapple did what was necessary to get a framework of what could be with regards to communication up and running. unfortunately, he ran afoul of current law and some of his political enemies in the neighborhood.
the complaint against his newsletter, initially filed by a constituent, was joined by the gentleman whom commissioner chapple defeated in two consecutive elections, leroy thorpe, less than a week after he had lost to mr. chapple in that second election. a comment on the shaw listserv noted that this appeared to be "sour grapes" on the part of mr. thorpe. one can't help but agree, noting the opportunistic timing of the addition of his name to the complaint.
in the end, the city's office of campaign finance found that a $2,000 fine should be levied against mr. chapple, but given the circumstances, the office ruled that
such fine shall be suspended because although respondent created the offending ANC 2C02 LLC to generate a profit in any legal manner, the overriding sole purpose of this venture was to promote the civic, cultural, and social interests of residents of the District of Columbia and especially the residents within the Shaw community; and, the intent was to use any proceeds, and none were realized, above paying expenses for the publication of the ANC 2C02 community magazine for projects to benefit the Shaw community
in september 2007, i documented the beginning of a pop-up at 100 seaton place nw. in the course of a week or so, the turret at the top of this house was removed, and the walls were extended to add enough space to the top of the house to create another floor. once the turret was replaced and shingled, i expected to see brick work on the walls that would complete the job.
instead, 16 months have passed, and the tyvek wrap continues to blow off the building, exposing the wood underneath to the elements. enormous amounts of water from the rains of the last year must have managed to seep down into the walls of this old rowhouse. i'm sure there must be structural damage, and i worry that the tenants inside might be without a place to stay if the house is continued to be neglected in this way. seems to be yet another unfortunate example of disinvestment in our neighborhood. does anyone know if the city can require building owners to complete projects like this in occupied buildings?
following are a few pictures of the tagging that has happened recently in downtown bloomingdale, along 1st, seaton, and rhode island. these pictures were taken on saturday morning, so i wasn't able to get photos of tagging on the roll-down screens that cover bloomingdale liquors windows as well. whomever "che", "nuk", and "kgb" (oh no, the russians are coming!) are, they seem to think that the spaces on privately owned homes and stores are their personal canvases.
the shame is that the places that have been tagged are, for the most part, vacant and crumbling. it appears that some owners don't seem to be in any kind of rush to clean up these eyesores that keep our community from reaching its full potential. while there have been fantastic signs of growth in bloomingdale (yoga district and the future baraki, to name two), there are still pockets of disinvestment in our "downtown" waiting to be cared for.
i noticed the standard no parking signs were put up on every pole on 1st street nw between seaton place and rhode island avenue today. from the picture to the right, you can see that parking will not be permitted during daylight hours for the next week. the reason? WASA is going to be tearing up first street for pipe replacement. i thought it had been announced that they would be terminating that program before they had finished replacing all the lead pipes in the city. though, this sign does say "sewer lateral replacement", so we could be talking about a different program here.
