Photo by PoPville flickr user LGography
You can talk about whatever is on your mind – quality of life issues, a beautiful tree you spotted, scuttlebutt, or any random questions/thoughts you may have. I’ll open this thread every Monday and Friday. So anything good happen to you this weekend?
Danny Harris is a DC-based photographer, and collector of stories. In September, he launched People’s District, a blog that tells a people’s history of DC by sharing the stories and images of its residents. Every day, People’s District presents a different Washingtonian sharing his or her insights on everything from Go Go music to homelessness to fashion to politics. You can read his previous columns here.
“I’m 76-years-old. I was born in this neighborhood and lived here all of my life. I’ve seen a lot of changes on H Street, some for the better and some for the worse. But, I have lived with them. I just go with the flow because I know I can’t do nothing about it.
“In my days, I’ve seen a lot of good changes, but a lot of wrong changes too, especially now. I’ve seen people forced out of their homes so others can move in. Since they rebuilt H Street, we basically lost our rights and now we have to fight for them. And why? We grew up here. Basically, everybody here is struggling, except the owners of those establishments on H Street.
“These clubs, restaurants, and places for carry out, they don’t help the neighborhood at all. They should have opened restaurants where anyone can enter, a place that fits the old and the new. But, it’s not like that, we can’t afford these places. You know what I’m saying?
“And, the police are coming around all of the time now that these places are here and harassing us. We ain’t doing nothing but hanging out, been doing that for 30-40 years with no problems. We around every day, some of us work and some of us don’t, but we don’t bother nobody.
“At night time, the streets are flooded with nothing but white people. I guess we get our time during the day and they get their time at night, except that we get harassed during the day by the police, too. At night, I go in the house and let them enjoy the street. If I am out here at night as a black man, I am like an endangered species. It don’t bother me, but that is the change that I see.”
Read more about the development of H Street NE here.
I know we’ve touched on this issue before and neighborhood identification can be contentious. But the Washington Post had a great article in the “Where We Live” section titled, The District’s Overlooked ‘Bull’s-Eye’. The article starts:
“District residents and community groups are working to get one Northwest neighborhood some recognition — because few people even know it exists.”
It lists the boundaries as:
“Park Road NW to the north, Florida Avenue NW to the south, Warder and Sixth streets NW to the east, and Sherman Avenue NW to the west. (The civic association extends the western boundary to 14th Street.)”
Now, I have friends and acquaintances who live within these boundaries and identify themselves as Columbia Heights residents and quite frankly I’ve gotten into some conversations with folks who are outright offended if you suggest they live in Pleasant Plains rather than Columbia Heights. I know there are tax boundaries, and city designated boundaries, and the like but I’m not interested in those designations. Rather I’m curious what neighborhood folks within those boundaries feel most connected to. I know for real estate purposes it may be tempting to insist that one lives in a more recognizable neighborhood name.
So how do you guys identify this neighborhood? Distinct and independent of Columbia Heights or rather a sub section of Columbia Heights?
While the above photo was taken last March, it got pretty damn cold this weekend. So a reader sent in a great question that I enjoy wrestling with:
“Have you fired up your heat yet? I’m still holding out.”
I am sad to report that I did indeed fire up the heat this weekend. Though I only put the thermostat to 60 degrees… Are there any other holdouts or has everyone also fired up their heat after this weekend? For the hold outs – how cold does it have to get before you turn on the heat? And while we’re on the subject – what temperature do you put the thermostat to while you are home?
This is the former 14U coffee shop located at 1939 14th St., NW. I was lucky enough to run into one of the owners this weekend who said that they were going to open this Friday for sure. It’s possible they may have a soft opening on Wed. or Thurs. but they promised me they’d be open by Friday. They were also nice enough to let me take some sneak peek photos of the inside. Get ready for a taste test on Friday.
More photos after the jump (more…)
This is the spot at 2005 14th Street, NW (just north of U Street) we learned back in July was going to become a combined bakery and wine bar from the same owners as Marvin (located next door). It’s wild to see the top part filled. You can see what it looked like in July, here
Man, this is a cool roof deck. Check out how it was built on steel beams and how the sides are glass. It must feel like you’re floating up there. (Found this on in Adams Morgan.)
But since I was walking around all day in the rain, I did stumble across a few shots that I thought looked super cool in the rain.
This is a beautiful old wood door. Notice that there is no lock on it, must lead to an amazing vestibule.
At first I just liked like the look of this rowhouse on Euclid Street in Columbia Heights but after looking at it closely there is some extraordinary brickwork. I really like these little touches, check out the cylindrical bricks:
