good news, shaw, you're getting another liquor store

for those of you down in shaw who are keeping up on development issues in your part of the world, here's an interesting one for you. you've got a liquor store from up in glover park looking to transfer to the corner of 6th and rhode island. here's that property:


now i mentioned that corner a couple days ago here, and i noticed while biking past it today there are two placards up mentioning the proposed liquor license transfer. here are two close ups of one of those signs (this is the one you can see hanging above the fence in the picture above:




you can click here you can see where this license currently resides. i'm not familiar with the building, but it would appear to be a liquor store in a condo building in ward 3. i don't have the time to do the extra gumshoe work that's necessary to find out what the full story is here, but i figure those of you in ANC2C02 (kevin chappele's SMD) can take it from here.

the key date appears to be the hearing that will take place on august 29th.

UPDATE: note that, while this license is a class "A" license in glover park, the application lists this as a class "B" license for the location in shaw. can a license be changed like that without much difficulty?

der homeländ

"At this point, I have seen no specific, credible information suggesting that this incident is connected to a threat to the homeland,"

that's a quote from michael chertoff today. can't we just call this country what we always used to: the united states of america??? "the homeland" sounds WAY TOO MUCH LIKE DER VATERLAND. i'm going over into godwin's law territory here, i know, but it sounds so damn nazi-esque.

salute when you say it.

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.