BaancBlog

Just typed "new yorker magazine obama" at ebay.
A couple of $12+shipping, several $35 (w/free shipping).
Fascinating.

Interesting way to spend a minute or two, I suppose.

OK. Apologies for the "deux". It's been badly overused.

Earlier, the editor commented on the banning of "selling singels" matter befoe the City Council. Jeff Harrison, of Modern Liquors, testified. Here it is:

Jeff Harrison/Modern Liquors: Single-Serve Testimony 7/11/08


Good morning Councilmembers. My name is Jeff Harrison, and I operate Modern Liquors, which is located across from the Convention Center at 9th & M NW. I appear before you this morning in opposition to the proposed Single-Serve ban on beer.

It's not that I disagree with you on the rationale behind the proposal, for I do believe such a law would reduce public drunkenness and some of the other problems that accompany these sales; however, I think it's the wrong approach because it unfairly penalizes merchants such as myself who carry a number of high-end craft and import beers and ales, of which many are only available in single bottle format. For example, I sell a 12 oz. beer from the Dogfish Brewery for $10, and a 22oz. beer from the Avery Brewery for $15. (And you don't want to know what some Belgian ales go for.) I can assure you that anyone who is paying that kind of money for a beer will not be drinking it on a street corner.

The law would also penalize the regular citizen who just wants a beer to drink at home. Believe it or not, there are people like this. For example, I have a neighbor who prefers Coors Light in a 24oz. can and another neighbor who prefers Sapporo the same way.

If you eliminate single-serve sales, all it will do is prompt the problem drinkers to pool their money and buy 6-packs, and instead of one empty 22oz. bottle on the curb, you'll have six smaller ones.

I recently discussed the situation with one of my beer reps, and he came up with an interesting compromise. Instead of banning single sales altogether, how about restricting the single serve sales to warm beer only. Unless they're British, it's highly unlikely that the problem drinkers you speak of are will want to throw down a "warm one." I feel this strategy is win-win. Merchants such as myself can continue to sell the high-end beers and ales, while the public drunkenness problem can be minimized.

Thank you.

Yesterday, that Stop Work was taken down. Here's why:

Yesterday, HPO said:

The applicant, after having presented to and convinced HPRB that the carriage house was structurally unsound, obtained a DC building permit to replace the structure. The Stop Work has been lifted because the applicant is found to have been in compliance with the original permit.

The applicant's plans for renovation include a reconstruction of the carriage house to its original height, footprint, and design.

A Hispanic woman was stabbed Tuesday afternoon, July 8. The crime occurred at about three in the afternoon. The woman and a companion went to Modern Liquors for help. She spoke no
English. Anna said the woman's companion seemed more interested in talking to friends on his cell phone than calling 911. Anna called.

The woman was transported to Howard. Jeff said the wound was small, as in letter opener or screwdriver, and not a serious knife. She was not bleeding profusely.

The police have names, and probably more, but aren't saying anything yet. She was apparently from Hyattsville, and the editor has no idea why she was downtown. Or here.

OK. That's single beers. If you lived here, you'd know that.

If liquor stores can't sell singles, that can make a difference in a low-end neighborhood. The editor lived through a couple of decades of "low-end". Velicoff vodka might be a better candidate for banishment to Ward Nine, of course.

Somehow, this reminds the editor of H. L. Mencken's observation that "For every problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." He lives a few doors away from Modern Liquors at Tenth and M. Anna Fleming and Jeff Harrison run it. They sell singles. For about $10.00 a bottle. The customers don't want to buy a full six-pack of that kind of beer. Anna and Jeff haven't sold lower-priced single beers in many moons. The neighborhood has changed.

And he has the feeling that the banning selling singles without some nuance is simple, neat, and wrong. It should perhaps be handled locally, within the ANC's and neighborhoods via the voluntary agreements.

At any rate Jack Evans has sent out an email:

Dear ANC Commissioners and Community Leaders,

Councilmember Jim Graham, Chairperson of the Committee on Public Works and the Environment which has oversight over ABRA, is holding a hearing on Bill 17-799, the “Ward 2 Targeted Single Sales Moratorium Act of 2008” this Friday, July 11 at 10:00am in Room 123 (hearing notice is attached). I encourage you to join me at the hearing and sign up to testify about this proposed bill, especially if your ANC has passed a resolution indicating you would like to be included in this legislation. To sign up to testify, contact Mr. Marcus Goodwin in Councilmember Graham’s office (202)724-8195.

Jack

Last evening was nice and cool. So the editor went out to the back step for a bit. It's eiught steps up from the ground, and faces a bricked in backyard with dirt around the edges for flowers and things. There's a large cherry tree overhanging most of the back yard.

As he walks out, a blue jay is in the tree, jumping from limb to limb. Occasionally hitting the deck to grab a piece of cat food. (We feed a couple of fixed feral cats in the evening.) The thing is, the blue jay doesn't leave. They are not shy, but this is unusual.

When the editor sits down, he can see a robin about 30 feet away, working on a large, still wiggling, earthworm. The robin has it out on a brick, and seems to have figrued out that he can't just grab the thing in his beak and take off for home. So he spends several minutes trying to kill and divide the worm. Finally slices off a third, eats that, grabs the rest in his beak and takes off.

The thing is, the blue jay is watching the thing from about ten feet away. The robin doesn't care. When the robin takes off, the jay check to see if any worm is left. There isn't. He follows the robin.

The editor would have thought that the jay would just run the robin off. But he didn't try. So maybe robins are a bit more robust than he thought.

The editor had a chance to visit Fifth Street Hardware Sunday evening. The editor is a hardware store junkie. One word: Wow.

Most of the local hardware stores don't have enough space to have the breadth of what the editor would like. The Home Depot in Baileys Crossroads is good, now that they are paying attention. The Lowes at New Carrollton, or especially Alexandria, are very complete. The local Home Depot at Brentwood is diseased.

Fifth Street (which comes after Fourth Street, which comes after the Flop ) has more in some sections than the BC HD. It seems quite contractor supply oriented: Serious breadth of screwdrivers, good nail, bolt, and screw selection, painting equipment, even serious face masks for dust and paint fumes. Things you simply don't see in smaller stores. Also serious cleaning supplies, contractor trash bags, and even some common molding. All out front, not in a back room. Even a couple of older guys who sound like they know what they are talking about.

I shouldn't say this, but while the Ace paints may be perfectly fine, the Benjamin Moore store (Monarch) is half a block away. Fifth Street has most of the paint brushes they sell, though, at what seem like competitive prices. (Benjamin Moore doesn't compete on price.)

We've kept Central Lock. We now have a serious reason not to drive out to the Orange Borg in Baileys Crossroads. This is reason for rejoicing.

Read more...

A lot of ground covered.

The big event of the meeting was a surprise, though. Hanny Chan, of Old Dominion, stopped by to announce that he had purchased the open lot (1212 Ninth Street) across from his restaurant. Marthlu Bledsoe had a Welcome Cat for the occasion, when and if it ever happened. Even if it was a Japanese Welcome Cat.

Roadside Development/O Street Market

The Roadside Development Corporation's attempt to rebuild the O Street Market and upgrade the Jungle Giant continues apace. One of the (expected) wickets is approval of the "TIF" (CityMarket at O Street Tax Increment Financing Act of 2008). Testimony at the Finance Committee (Jack Evans) is needed from the various interested parties on July 2. Ed Horvath and Nora Olgyay volunteered. Support was voted unanimously by the members (15) present at the meeting.

Other Letters

A letter of support to the Mayor's office is requested for the Tenth Street Park (between L and M). A resolution in favor also passed, 15-0). The Tenth Street Park (name not yet final) is seen be everyone as a good thing for the full community.

A letter of support for the Marriott Convention Center Hotel was also requested at the 19 June briefing by Norman Jenkins, SVP, North American Lodging Development. Not to the details, but that it should be built. Approval of such a letter was also 15-0.

Breakwells

Discussion of the Breakwells break-in.

Parking Signs

Mark Bjorge, EOM (Executive Office of the Mayor, was asked about having the parking signs on the north side of M and N to at least that of L, where the no parking restriction goes to 8:30pm, not just 6:30pm. At the February meeting, Jack Evans said he thought the restriction was actually 24 hours, except Sundays. Mark was also asked that if the law was in fact 24 hours, could that be reflected in the signs.

Members and Dues

Members were reminded that Association elections are coming in September. As only paid up members may vote, members were reminded by Betsy Garside, sitting in for Treasurer Jim Loucks, to pay up. elections.

Destination Neighborhood

It seems that Saturday nights are again popular in Blagden Alley. PSA307 has been made aware of the returned popularity.

A couple of months ago it was Saturday evenings of Bondage, S+M, Wife Swapping, and something which attracted a bunch of transvestites. No DCRA permits for liquor, or anything. LT Smith and crew did tickets in the low thousands (that's dollars, not tickets).

This another of the reasons that they invented PG County. There's plenty of parking, not in fire lanes, out there. The organizers should take advantage of that.

CCH Advisory Committee

The Convention Center Hotel is setting up one of those advisory committees, a la the one for the Convention Center. They meet every few months, and basically track as outside observers, but observers with a neighborhood, or other, interest.

These are actually quite useful. While they wouldn't be able to make big changes, they can avoid all sorts of problems, both for the project managers and the neighborhood.

Stephen Warren and Nora Olgyay volunteered for seats, if and when they become available.

"Problem" house discussion.

Stephen Warren and Betsy Garside brought up the problem of 1258 Tenth Street, and the suspicious activity there. Then followed discussion of 916 N and 906 O.

So we have three long-standing problem houses in the neighborhood. It seems that in all cases, the house is owned by an older person and problems are with younger relatives. The crimes are just this side of "go to jail", in general. (Although LT Smith and his crew managed it for a resident of 916 N a month or two ago, with good results so far.)

There was discussion with Mark Bjorg of whether or not there were good enough procedures for handling an owner, perhaps no longer competent because of age, in a humane manner and making sure they keep the accumulated value of the residence, rather than lose it to too many code violations and other ways of stopping the crimes coming out of the place. [OK. That's too long a sentence.]

Dave Salter noted that there was a "spite house" in the back of 906 O. Wikipedia has it as
"also relates to an old Southern United States custom of consigning an ostracized family member to a very small, second house on the family land "where he was expected to live in solitude as punishment for having embarrassed his family. See also here.

Illegal Parking

There was discussion of the illegal/impromtu parking lot at Tenth Street behind 943 M. Under the Mulberry tree. And, no, Lynda Wright doesn't own it. At any rate, a new post or two have appeared. These make parking more than a Yugo difficult. So, for the moment, problem solved.

Eleventh Street

Mark Bjorge said the start of renovation has been delayed until about September. It has a project manager, and should actually happen.

Gas. Natural Gas.

The subject of brick sidewalks was presented. It became a discussion of Washington Gas. And the gas line replacement they are doing and the tearing up of the brick alleys in Naylor Court and the sidewalks on the 900 block of P Street and when was it going to get replaced. Work crew foremen are apparently instructed to say: "When the project is complete." Since the entire area's gas line replacements (except for Ray Milefsky's block) seem to be one big project, this means a very, very long time. Enough time for a hostile takeover of Washington Gas by some European brewery, in fact.

There were questions about what kind of bricks would be used to replace those removed. Mark Bjorge commented that in Georgetown, where folks are a mite persnickety about the bricks matching, Washington Gas saves the bricks and then brings them back. Bricks change color over decades, of course, and make a tough match for newly fired bricks. People at the meeting were not convinced that we were getting our disturbed bricks treated as soigneusement as Georgetown's.

Ed Horvath commented that the newer, high end, gas appliacences don't really depend on high pressure. They just suck that gas right outta the line. However, low gas pressure and old leaky lines does lead to water getting into the lines, and thus into the appliacences, shortening their usefulness.

This neighborhood was apparently one of the first to get gas. So our gas lines are really, really old.

The gas line replacement project was described by Bjorge as "sprawling". He didn't "tightly scheduled" or "clearly planned", which does not eliminate those possibilities, of course.

Fire Hydrants

In the middle of the brick replacement discussion, fire hydrants were mentioned. Mark Bjorge commented that the "stick out above ground" profile they now have is actually a cost saving measure: When someone hits them, they break off above ground (or at least not too deep down) and so cost much less to repair.

Adjourned

The meeting adjourned before the 9:00 deadline.

The editor has tracked, but not compulsively, the Roadside Development Project. Sure sounds like a good thing, and the presentation to the Zoning Commission (second try) was one of the best he's ever seen. What they were presenting looked good, besides.

The editor and wife also shopped the O Street Market for several years. There was a meat stall, run by the Hohensee's out of Pennsylvania. Also a great Korean food stall, run by Mr. Hang. Very good noodles and just right fried chicken. Mr. Hang also put one daughter through Reed and another somewhere similar. Last heard, and many years ago, he opened a restaurant in Northern Virginia.

Two acounts of the project are here and here. Pictures, too.

Mayor Fenty has scheduled a press conference for this Friday at
12:15 pm (note this is the new time) at the O Street Market to announce
the TIF legislation that will be subject of the public roundtable on
Tuesday. Councilmembers Evans and Brown will be attending as well.

The Roadside folks have asked for $35m in TIF assistance to cover the cost of the
infrastructure, the preservation and restoration of the historic
building, restoration of the 8th Street right-of-way, development of the
below grade truck court for all loading and servicing of the project,
and construction of 563 parking spaces.

Read more...

A few days ago, the editor had an entry (here) which included:

I talked with Ed and Richard at the corner of Tenth and M Saturday morning. We were watching the cleanup of an accident in which a nice black Mercedes was totalled by a DC cab. T-Boned, actually. Don't know if anyone in the Mercedes was hurt, and it may have been parked.

I have since learned that the Mercedes had been parked, eastbound, just at the southeast corner of Tenth and M. It was just pulling out, probably without looking. The cab hit it. It was 5:00am. After the accident, a (presumed) prostitute got out, talked on her cell phone, and was picked up by someone and was out of there in no time. (Note the "her" in the last sentence. A few years ago, that was a sign of progress in the neighborhood.)

Read more...

Theresa Dubois, of the Convention Center, sent out the following streed closure notice (she loves to close the streets) last Friday after the power came back on:

---------------------------------------------------------

Washington Convention Center Authority (WCCA)
Traffic Advisory

The Walter E. Washington Convention Center will host the Army's 233rd Birthday Ball on Friday, June 13th until Sunday, June 15th. In association with this event, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) has issued a public space permit to the show producer for temporary closure of L Street between 7th and 9th Streets NW to accommodate the unloading, placement, display, and removal of a Non Line of Sight Cannon or NLOS-C prototype.

L Street will be temporarily closed to vehicular traffic from Saturday, June 14th at 3:00 p.m. until Sunday, June 15th at 2:00 p.m. During the closure, pedestrians will continue to have access to L Street and there will be no disruption to north- southbound vehicular traffic on 7th and 9th Streets.

As always, we appreciate your patience and understanding.

-----------------------------------------------------

What she forgot is the pretty picture, which is here. 3D needs one.

The editor is not really current on many things. He sometimes thinks of Victor Herbert as fairly modern, say compared to Engelbert Humperdinck.

Anyway, there is this thing about cell phones and cancer and whatever. (In the 1950's, horror comics were going to destroy the nation.) Aparently, there is this thing about using your cell phone to pop popcorn. As an example, see here at Youtube. Of course, if those two guys really believed the cell phones were that powerful, they wouldn't be standing crotch high next to that table...

Here is one of many rebuttals/explanations of how to do it. If you don't have several years of back copies of Popular Mechanics in your den, you probably should not do it at home.

Since this is DC and we have frequent mechanized street sweeping, and this is
on the west side of the convention center, the street has signs which say
that there is no parking from 12:30 to 2:20pm on Tuesday on the north side.
(Wednesdays are southside.)

So at 12:23, I get into my northside parked car and go search for a legal spot in the neighborhood.

900 block of N Street? Nothing. However, at 12:24 the open side of the street is being swept by the big orange machine. Early. Back on the 900 black of M. No legal parking, but the street sweeper from N at 12:26.

Since now that the street sweepers have cameras to catch those cars which don't move, are these cars caught early to be ticketed? Do these cameras have (accurate) time stamps for the photos?

Just a question.

Of course, the editor is also the kind of person who believes that if one is ticketed to not moving the car at the proper time but no cleaning occurs, not only should the fine be returned but it should also be double the money back. But that probably won't happen.

From Dave Salter:

When I went on the walking tour of the two alleys [Mike Herlong, an historian, April 26 and 27], I asked the guide at the end if he could suggest any reference material. He mentioned the Borchert book (Alley Life in Washington), the Greene book (Secret City) and the book that I have attached for you by Weller (Neglected Neighbors). This book is available online for free through the Google book sharing service for books that are no longer copyright protected. In Weller's book he uses Blagden alley as his model and refers to it as Average Alley - a fictitious moniker. There is even a Mrs. Salter (no relation I'm sure) of ill repute!

Hope you enjoy this, even though it's rather dry and droll reading at times and filled with public health verbiage.

Dave

The actual reference to the book is here and the pdf is here. Just click on the "Download PDF - 6.3M" at the top right. (If you are on dial-up, don't do it.)

The most popular book on local alleys is, of course, Alley Life in Washington: Family, Community, Religion, and Folklife in the City, 1850-1970 By James Borchert. For a taste of it, go here and hit the Preview tab.

I haven't yet seen the Greene book that Salter mentions, but the reference is here. Note that while you can't download it you can read a lot of it via the preview tab. (I had to switch to the
Firefox from the Opera browser for that page to work well. Probably a missed plugin.)

All three, and others, are also about parts of the Progressive Era, with the obligatory Wikipedia reference here. Our alleys were part of something big!

Living downtown is different from living in the country. There is a great deal more electronic interference from an unknown number of sources. Out on the farm, you might notice the tractor starting as static on you AM radio. Downtown, it could be apartment's air conditioner starting, someone using a circular saw to fix up some loft, an electrically noisy truck passing by, and whatever else.

When the President stops by the Convention Center, only the most powerful, clear channel AM radio stations are listenable. Funny.

What brings this up is that we record Poker After Dark from 2:00am to 3:00am every Tuesday through Saturday mornings. On a VCR. With rabbit ears. Normally, it's clear as normal evening television. Last Tuesday and Wednesday mornings there was a consistent on/off interference of some electrical kind. Not a power tool, probably, as the frequency was higher. Sort of tailed off toward the end of the week. Never there before.

Makes one guess at the nefarious things going on in the neighborhood. Perhaps aliens on top of the Convention Center. Given some of the other rumors floating around, that's quite reasonable.

The north side of M Street is a dangerous place.

Amber's cat occasionally goes out into the front yard. Does cat things. Watches birds. Chases leaves. Talks with Lefty. Generally stays in the yard, compared to several other cats in the neighborhood.

It's a friendly cat. Sunday afternoon some guy was walking his puppy along the sidewalk. The kind of puppy that is already bigger than a small dog. Amanda's cat goes out to the yard's fence to greet the new dog to the neighborhood. Dog yelps and leaps up into owner's arms. Owner consoles dog. Leaves.

Wife is laughing so hard has to hide face and get indoors to tell story.

On the south side of the 900 block of M Street (for those of you not in DC, that's "NW", meaning northwest. "NW" is the default quadrant. Any other quadrant needs to be specified.), where one of the final shots of Being There was taken, there used to be an empty lot. OK, and an occasional dead body.

Then the condos came. This was progress. And with the condos came a herd of small dogs, parceled out one or two at a time to condo owners. The dogs need walking. This is good, since it gets people out onto the streets. Dogs have other needs too.

The purpose of mulch, grass, and other vegetation in the tree boxes and unfenced (there aren't many) lots seems to be to satisfy those other requirements. Grass in the tree boxes was mentioned for nostalgic purposes.

At any rate, little signs have appeared. Such as "Keep Dogs Off" and one of those too cute equivalents for non-speakers of English.

They are being purloined. One missing from the garden by Breakwell's and one or two from in front of The Quincy Park. Reminds me of the movie I never saw because the book was so bad I couldn't read it.